Setting captives free

 In many ancient civilizations, the interactions of their gods with human beings were often characterized by caprice and inconsistency as well as distance.  By contrast the God revealed to our ancestors was known for intervening faithfully in human history by specific events with an astonishing attentiveness to human need.  What’s more, the quality of these events can be summed up by the words, “delivering, saving, rescuing, freeing.”

The book of Deuteronomy recites the wonders of God’s intervention to free our Hebrew ancestors from slavery.  The experience was not only a wondrous event but marked a decisive revelation of God:  this is who God is, God is one who saves! [Deuteronomy 26:4-10]

Psalm 91 strongly reinforces the unmistakable fact of God’s presence, specifically in the challenging moments of our lives.  God is indeed our fortress, the only one we can always trust.  He has sent His angels to impact us in all our ways.  Quietly spending time reflecting on God’s presence, His love, His redeeming grace is a crucial part of our Lenten experience. [Psalm 91:1-2, 10-15]

Jesus, whose very name means, “God saves,” breaks into human history in a way never foreseen by our ancestors.  He comes to do battle with all that continues to enslave those whom God has created out of love:  the power of sin, the power of Satan and the power of death itself [Matthew 1:21-25].

The temptation of Jesus [Luke 4:1-13] marks not an isolated experience of Jesus’ early public life, but rather a revelation of God who has come daringly close, to deliver in His very person, the people whom He loves: “For God so loved the world, that he sent his only Son” [John 3, 16].

We see in the specific temptations which Jesus undergoes a battle with temptations to which every human heart is vulnerable: “Turn these stones into bread” – the temptation to live only “on bread alone,” to live as though material things are the only source of life.  “I shall give you all this power and glory” – the temptation to amass reputation and wealth as false gods in an attempt to escape human vulnerability.  “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down . . .” – the very subtle temptation for believers:  to presume no responsibility for our actions, since “God will take care of everything.”

Perhaps we rarely reflect upon all that Jesus endured and all that He suffered in His human life.  Sure, we think about the Crucifixion at times, but even that’s often overshadowed by our knowledge that He rose again.  It’s easy to miss the suffering He experienced throughout His life.  And it’s easy to miss the reason He went through all that He did go through in His humanity.

It’s about love for us all.  It’s about God loving us so much that He was willing to endure every form of hardship and human suffering that enters into our lives.  It’s about God being able to look us square in the face and say, “Yes, I do understand what you’re going through…I really do.”  This is love.  It’s a love so deep that God Himself was willing to experience our weaknesses and pain so that He would be able to meet us there, console us in the midst of whatever we’re going through, and gently lift us out of it to the new life He has in store for us.  Again, this is Love!

The Holy Spirit “led” [Matthew 4:1 and Luke 4:1] and even “drove” [Mark 1:12-13] Jesus out into the desert.  This was a way of telling us that this experience was the plan and will of God.  It wasn’t something imposed upon Jesus by some strange happenstance.  It wasn’t bad luck or an unfortunate and meaningless human suffering.  No, it was suffering for a purpose.  Suffering with an intention.  And the intention was, in part, to experience and embrace all that we experience and must embrace.

Temptation in life is real.  It’s the result of our fallen human nature.  It comes from our weakness but also from the evil one.  Temptation can be a heavy burden and cause heavy emotional and psychological pain.  And when the temptation is given in to, it causes an even deeper spiritual pain.  Jesus never gave in to the temptations in the desert, nor did He give in to temptations at any other time in His life.  But He endured them and suffered them. 

This tells us that He can be our strength and inspiration in the midst of whatever we’re tempted with each and every day.  Some days we may feel the loneliness and isolation of one who is driven into the desert of our sins.  We may feel as though the wild beasts of our disordered passions are getting the best of us.  We may feel as though the evil one is having his way with us.  Well, Jesus felt this way, also.  And He freely allowed Himself to experience this in His humanity.  It was the will of the Father and the working of the Holy Spirit that drove Him to this experience. 

For these reasons, it is Jesus Himself who is able to meet each of us in this desert within.  He’s there, waiting for us, looking for us, calling to us.  He’s there in the midst of anything and everything we may be going through.  And it is He, the One who defeated this desert temptation, who will gently guide us out.  He went to the desert to meet us and to bring us back.  And just as the angels ministered to Jesus in this desert, so also does He send those angels to minister to us.

So whether our “desert” is only a slight agitation in life right now, or if it’s a struggle against complete despair, Jesus wants to meet us and bring us out.  He conquered the desert once and for all [Hebrews 10], and He is able to conquer any desert in our life, also.

Our Lenten journey begins, then, with an invitation to bring our hearts and lives before the Lord, especially those places where we’re still held captive.  We trust that Jesus remains the God who saves, who continues to do battle on our behalf so that Easter might find us as captives who have been set free [Luke 4:18].