Jesus was about to face a difficult ordeal, a showdown with Satan, a dogfight with the devil, a tussle with the tempter, a brawl with beelzebub. For this, he would need to be prepared.
This confrontation would be the ultimate test of Jesus’ physical, mental, and emotional strength.
If you were about to undergo such a strenuous struggle, how would you prepare?
If you knew you had one year to prepare, what would you do?
If you knew you had 40 days, what would you do? How would you get ready?
Would you try to improve your physical strength? Would you start training, going for walks, hikes, runs? Would you start lifting weights, building muscle so you could be strong enough to survive?
Would you eat healthy, to help get in shape? Then, the day before, would you, maybe, eat as if you were about to run a marathon? A bunch of carbs, a little protein, and maybe a piece of fruit? …all to get your body in the best possible shape, to face the challenge that was coming?
How would you prepare mentally and emotionally?
Jesus, before he met up with the devil, fasted. Not what I would have chosen! Jesus fasted for forty days. No carbs, no protein. Nothing. By the time the devil came around, Jesus was famished!
This fasting is reminiscent of the fast Moses undertook when he met with God on Mount Sinai. In Exodus 34:18, it says that Moses “was there with the Lord for forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water.”
I don’t know how literally we should take the 40-day length of the fast, or that the fast included not drinking water as well as foregoing food.
A person can’t live more than a few days without water, especially in a desert wilderness. The number 40 is clearly symbolic, as it not only refers to Moses’ fast, but also the 40 days of rain Noah endured, and the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness that the Hebrews experienced on their journey to the promised land.
And at the end of each of these 40-day periods (or, 40-year periods), there was a sort of rebirth, a reawakening, a re-creation. At the end, there was new life.
But that’s getting ahead of ourselves. Easter is coming; Easter, the end of our 40-day journey through Lent, is coming.
But today, on the first Sunday of Lent, that journey is just beginning.
How should we prepare for the journey that is to come?
Many look to Jesus’ fast as a model to follow. Few follow it literally, but many do give up at least some types of food during Lent. During her Wednesday online prayer, our General Minister Terri Hord Owens mentioned that a friend of hers was giving up Diet Coke for Lent. Our General Minister said she could never do that!
Some people give up chocolate, or at least, talk about giving up chocolate. Some give up meat for Lent, or at least on Fridays during Lent, as a reminder of the fast Jesus undertook, and as a reminder of the even greater sacrifice Jesus made for us.
But there is another reason to fast during Lent. Jesus fasted to the point of being famished, which to him seemed like the right way to prepare for his encounter with the devil. But why is that a good way to prepare for an encounter with the devil?
It’s because when Jesus fasted, he was demonstrating control over his body’s urges and desires. The urges and desires of our bodies (like hunger) are not bad, unless they end up controlling us, taking control of our lives.
The devil came to Jesus with three temptations, but Jesus didn’t really need the devil to bring those temptations to him; those temptations were already with him. Those temptations were already within him.
The desire to eat, and satisfy his hunger; the desire to test God’s promise to protect him; and the desire to have the power to bend the nations to his will.
Jesus fasted as a way of strengthening his control over these desires. Jesus fasted as a way to take control of his life. Jesus fasted because he didn’t want these desires to control him.
And at the surface level, fasting can surely do that for us. How often do our cravings take control, and dictate what we eat and what we drink? Too often, our eating habits show that we are not in control of our own lives.
The apostle Paul wrote: “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” I think Paul wrote that as he was chowing down on his third donut of the day.
I still have one niece who sells Girl Scout cookies, and so of course we bought a bunch of boxes, and I told myself I wouldn’t eat that many. Yet, there they were, right there in the cupboard, the package already opened… It’s so hard to just walk right by without eating one. Or five.
And you think: “Am I really weaker than cookie? Is my self-control really overpowered by a Thin Mint? God help me if I ever meet the devil in the wilderness…”
There are many reasons to give something up for Lent; and there are many reasons to take on something new during Lent. Taking control is only one of those reasons; but I do think it is a significant reason.
It’s not just limited to food. Sometimes I feel like my phone controls me. We know that social media is designed to make us lose control. Every like, every interaction, every notification, is designed to give us a small boost of dopamine, so that our brains just can’t wait to get the next one, and the next one, and we keep checking our phones even though we just checked our phones.
It’s just so hard to put them down.
It’s the same science behind how casinos get you to keep gambling.
Some friends of mine give up social media during Lent. They give up facebook for Lent, for example. For some people, that is a very hard thing to give up. For younger people, it might be TikTok that is hard to give up. Friday morning, I heard on KNX that, according to Twitter users, the number one thing they are giving up during Lent is… Twitter.
It’s all an attempt to take back control.
If you can control your desire for a Girl Scout cookie or a piece of chocolate or an afternoon on social media during Lent, that can train you to take control over other areas in your life. It can help prepare you and train you to resist other, more demonic desires. It’s a way of strengthening the control you have over your own actions.
Last week, when Zander was in town, he mentioned that he’d like to start taking ice baths. If you don’t know, it’s just what it sounds like: you take a bath in a tub filled with ice.
It sounds crazy to me, but articles I’ve read talk about how ice baths can prevent muscle soreness, help your body cool down after a workout, boost your mental health, improve your sleep, reduce risk of injury, and boost your immunity.
It’s also an exercise in control. Because that ice water is so cold, your body and your mind want so badly for you to get out. It’s a test of how well you can control that instinct. I saw one guy on instagram settle into an ice bath with absolutely no expression on his face, demonstrating his complete control over his body’s reaction to that ice cold water.
I told Zander if he tries that, to let me know how it goes, because that is a test of one’s control that I will NOT be attempting!
But I do know that it is a goal of philosophers and sages to control how they react to what goes on around them. You can’t control what happens to you, they say, but you can control how you react and how you respond to what happens.
But it takes practice. It takes discipline.
If we go to Matthew’s gospel, and flip just a few pages over to chapter six, we come to some instructions Jesus gave about fasting. And then, after he gives instructions on fasting, Jesus says: “Stop collecting treasures for your own benefit on earth, where moth and rust eat them and where thieves break in and steal them. Instead, collect treasures for yourselves in heaven, where moth and rust don’t eat them and where thieves don’t break in and steal them. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
The connection between this and fasting is that if you learn to control your body through fasting, then you can also learn to control your stuff, and what you spend your money on. Because just as some people have no control over what they put into their mouths, others have no control over what they spend their money on.
As the prophet Isaiah wrote: “Why do you spend your money on what does not satisfy?”
True satisfaction comes from wholeness. It comes from justice. It comes from shalom. What you spend your money on can either help build up God’s kingdom of shalom, or it can build up that which is not good for people, that which destroys the earth, that which works against what is just.
Every day, we face the temptation to spend our money and spend our time on things which detract from God’s kingdom. Every day, we face the temptation to act in ways that work against justice, against peace, against having a livable, sustainable world.
We say we want a world of peace; we say we want to help those who are oppressed and colonized; we say we want to do what’s right for the planet… but our actions show that, too often, the temptation to do what we say we do not want to do is just too great.
If we could only find a way to have a little more control…
Now things get more and more complicated, because of the hidden and indirect ways our actions affect others around the world. Most of the time, we don’t even realize what we’re doing. Most of the time, we aren’t even aware of how our spending habits influence the decisions made by rulers and corporate CEOs concerning the justice and equality (or lack thereof) of millions of people around the world…
But that’s no excuse to not exercise control in the things we are aware of, the things we can change.
Be intentional in the things you do. Be deliberate in the choices you make. Learn how you are being manipulated, by food, by convenience, by social media, and all the other forces and powers that have neither your best interest nor the interests of the world at heart.
And pray daily to God, for strength, for awareness, and the ability to identify and resist the temptations you face. No human is self-sufficient; no person can do it all alone. We need each other, and we need God, to help us take control, and live into the identity and the calling that God has given to us.
