We learn in the Gospel reading that Jesus is tempted in three key human temptations...food, fortune, and fame...and rejects them all to give his trust to God the Father.
Two points that I found interesting in this reading of the temptation...
First...Jesus was filled with the Spirit after his baptism and led into the dessert for 40 days...to be tempted by the devil. God the Father (all-knowing) knew Jesus would be tempted by the devil and did not prevent this from happening. God knows when we will be tempted also but does not prevent this from happening. However, God will not let us be tempted beyond our resources...He will be there to help us during this time.
Second...after the temptations of the devil...finished with every temptation...he (Satan) departed from him (Jesus) for a time. This shows that Satan was not finished with Jesus...he would be back to try again. To the last moment of Jesus life, Satan was there to tempt Jesus from his mission. Satan does this in our lives as well...seeking out moments of weakness or stress to come in and tempt us. I was once told that one of the greatest times to pray for someone is at their deathbed because Satan is there to the very end (giving his full effort) trying to win our soul. However, God is there to until the end to give us strength.
So, NO...I will not give the power to some imaginary rodent....my power will come from God. We learn from Paul as he speaks of a difficult time in his life when he asks God to remove his hardships and God speaks to him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” At this Paul states, "I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ;e for when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)
A nice message for these days of Lent when we should seek to strengthen our trust in God as we prepare for Jesus death and Resurrection.
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