Lead Us not Into Temptation
This passage is one almost all of us will have heard before, and with good reason; it’s seen as one of the most important in the entire New Testament. It’s here we see what could be considered the biggest choice of Jesus’ life before his death: his refusal to exploit his God-given, reality-bending powers.
When I heard this story when I was younger, it always struck me as one of those “Jesus did a Jesus thing” stories, where he was simply being Jesus: someone with aforementioned almighty power, the perfect human able to do no wrong. After all, anyone who was starving in the desert, for longer than really should be humanly possible, being given the opportunity to make food out of just the stones around them would take it, right? Not only would that be something anyone would absolutely be compelled to do, but it would also just be the smart choice. But, Jesus being Jesus, doesn’t take the obvious route, and I was content with that for a good while.
However, as I've come to realize, this story isn’t as much of a “Jesus-y” story as I first thought, or at least not how I first thought of it. If you look at just the part where Jesus is tempted rather than the part where he refuses the tempter, you get a clearer focus on something else important. Jesus isn’t incapable of temptation. In his human form, he could still be tempted by basic wants and desires: wanting to be full when hungry, wanting to cheat death, and have power. This is, in all likeliness, something a lot of you reading will have known. But upon reflection, I think the implications of this are massively important, even more than just playing a part in Jesus’ story. If Jesus can’t be expected to live a temptation-free life, why should we?
This isn’t to say we should give into our temptations, or not try and avoid them; of course not. The part of the story where Jesus refuses is still there; temptation is still a threat to our relationship with God. What it does mean, however, is that we don’t have to walk through life whipping our heads away whenever we catch a glimpse of something in the window that would warrant money that should probably be used elsewhere, or plug our noses when our neighbour’s cooking a delicious smelling breakfast, or any other (and probably more serious) enticements we might come across in our day-to-day lives. After all, why pray “lead us not into temptation” if we’re supposed to always be actively on the lookout for anything that might appeal to us?
Temptation is something to be wary of; it’s everywhere, it’s powerful, and it’s never on our side (or else it wouldn’t be temptation). But if we trust that God will help steer us clear from the ill-intentioned attractions of the world, and remember the true source of our joy, I am confident we can face it without fear.
Lord, lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil. When everything seems to want to pull us away from Your love, be there to guide us along the right paths for your name’s sake. When we’re caught by the grip of the things that would rather push you out of our lives, help us to remember your presence. In Jesus, your son’s name, we pray, Amen.
Levi Miller