What’s Up with Temptation?
Plus: The besetting sins of Catholics, Protestants, Americans
The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him (Mark 1:12-13, ESV)
… and lead us not into temptation … (Matthew 7)
I’m traveling and helping out my sister, so not much time for writing or drawing, but I have been pondering this week’s gospel reading. I’m wondering how it fits with the line from the Lord’s Prayer.
Seems to me a direct contradiction. Perhaps the Lord didn’t “lead him” into temptation, but he certainly “drove him out into the wilderness,” which is the locale of Satan and temptation. Amounts to more or less the same thing, no? Or not?
Your turn to write Peripheral Vision: Comment if you have an idea or two.
This article by Greg Cook on Crisis Magazine is written for a Catholic readership, but it was full of observations that apply to Protestant believers as well.
Americans are not noted for embracing weakness. And survey data shows, alas, American Catholics are much like their fellow citizens in our tastes, beliefs, and practices
This fact means that in 2024, a year of elections, global treaty-making, and (possibly) a papal conclave, ordinary American Catholics will have the power to do…well…actually, almost nothing. Despite our obsession with personality, celebrity, activism, and outrage, we, as individuals, can’t change the course of events outside a very small sphere in our daily lives. That truth flies in the face of the media machine continually stoking our fear and anger.
Grace and peace,
Mark
In the Biblical story, Jesus is the new Adam, who must face temptation as did Adam but now, not in a garden, but in the world which has become a wilderness as a result of the failure of the first Adam. The presence of wild animals are overtones of Genesis chapters 2-3. Jesus succeeded and overcame where Adam failed. This event seems to be a necessity for Jesus to overcome the works of the devil. He proves himself to be the true and faithful son of God.
When we pray not to be led into temptation, we are asking God's protection from the wiles and seductions of the devil.
In short Jesus, temptation was a necessity, and therefore he was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to face it. We are praying for God's protection, to be spared temptations.
Certainly a puzzle! One difference between Jesus and us is that though he was man, he was also God, and James says God cannot be tempted to sin. Jesus was presented with options to sin (tempted) by the Devil, but in his divine character there was not a prospect that he would "succumb." Thus, if I might "gloss" James, "God cannot be successfully tempted to sin."
If you think about it, there are many types of temptations which appeal to some of us but not others and vice versa. I cannot be "successfully" tempted to engage in homosexuality regardless of what my environment might be, whereas there are certainly many other temptations that appeal to me and to which I sometimes fall prey. In Jesus' instance, none of the temptations he faced had any "traction" with him. So, he could be "driven" to face temptation without God "tempting" him ("neither tempts he any man"). Whereas we, on the other hand, can and do fall prey to sin, and hence cry out to God to not put us in the place where we would be tempted.
Nonetheless, not all our prayers are answered with a "Yes," even though they are the right things to pray for. Paul cried out for the thorn to be removed, which wasn't a wrong thing to pray, but God nonetheless said "No," to show "my grace is sufficient for you." So God, though he does not "tempt" us, as James also says (we are drawn away by our own lusts and enticed), nevertheless leads us "to the field of battle" sometimes so we can fight and become better soldiers, though we will sometimes get hit by an arrow that does "pierce our skin" in the process--unlike Jesus.