In Christian calendar ‘Lent’ is a period of forty weekdays beginning on what is called “the Ash Wednesday” till Saturday immediately preceding Easter Sunday. During these days many Christians, voluntarily, spend their time with penance, fasting, abstinence and meditation commemorating the absolute fasting of Jesus Christ forty days and nights in the wilderness when he was also tempted by Satan. We have the narratives of the events of Jesus’ temptations of Jesus in the Gospels. Following are the three temptations as recorded in the Gospel according to Saint Matthew:
“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”  Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the son of God,” he said, throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ “Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to be test.’ Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him. Both the Evangelists Matthew and Luke describes these three different temptations of Jesus in their Gospel records (Matthew 4:11 and Luke 4:1-13). In Mark’s Gospel we find these are summarily mentioned in one verse of Mark 1: 12-13): “At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.” The Holy Spirit led Jesus to the wilderness to be tempted after he was baptized by John the Baptist when God had proclaimed Jesus to be his Son: “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17; parallel passage in Luke 3:22).
Reflecting on his own position vis-à-vis the greed and pride of people Jesus said about himself , “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son man has no place to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). St. Paul commented on Jesus’ love in many wonderful terms and words. In his most famous Epistle to the Roman Church he said, “You see, at just the right time, we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6-8). Jesus came to do the will of God, which is to redeem Man from the slavery of sin. All that his adversaries did to him including his death were sequel to and the culmination of the humiliation and rejection that he willing endured right from his birth. But God glorified him. What we see in Jesus? We see the single greatest example of holy life, true humility, selfless love and compassion for all creation. He is the living Son of God. Yet he emptied himself to manifest God’s love for mankind. He was so humble that he was led to be tempted by Satan. He proved that he being the highest could become the humblest, all because of his sacrificial and merciful love. His is the supreme example of love that values good of others above itself. Christ’s love is that love, which generally and fully, pour out itself whatever the cost, in order that the unlovable beloved might benefit for the good of sinful man so that he might flourish and live a meaningful and abundant life.
The Lent or Lenten period is a time of self-denial. It is a time of spiritual activities for preparation and an opportunity to come closer to God so that we can come closer to people in love and compassion. It gives us the urge for personal reflection for true meditation preparing our minds and hearts for Good Friday and Easter. It is verily a time for our conversion to God.
A great saint by the name Francis de Sales observed, “You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working and just so, you learn to love by loving. All those who think to learn in any other way deceive themselves.” Let us not deceive ourselves!
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The writer is a Christian theology teacher and church leader