1st Sunday in Lent

Imagine that you were a car – now ask yourself what type of fuel you run on? What is the fuel that you put inside yourself, what keeps you going throughout the day. Now I’m not talking about whether you eat nshima, bread or spaghetti. I’m talking about what is the fuel that motivates you to get out of bed everyday: what is it that brings you joy? What do you look forward to? What motivates you? Lent is all about a time of introspection and asking ourselves these questions. You can run a car on the wrong type of fuel and it will work for a while. In Zimbabwe we have a home-made liquor called kachasu, it’s illegal to brew, but this doesn’t stop people from brewing it. Here in South Africa it is called “ugavini” in Zulu. Because it has such a high alcohol content, you can put kachasu into a car and it would run for a while, but in the end it would destroy the engine. It’s the same with us as human beings, we have been made to run on God’s love alone, but too often we choose another type of fuel and ultimately the wrong fuel destroys us.

In today’s gospel we see the devil tempting Jesus to run on three counterfeit types of fuel: pleasure, power and glory. They give us joy and the motivation to get out of bed in the morning, but ultimately they will destroy our engines. The three pillars of Lent: fasting, almsgiving and prayer are the ideal remedies to each of these respective counterfeit fuels. The reason we go into the desert is to be able to tell on which fuel we are running. The biggest challenge of the spiritual life is how to be faithful in times of dryness. It is easy to be faithful to God, to praise and thank God when we are on cloud nine. But when things are not going well, when we are down and out, this is where it very quickly becomes apparent what fuel we are running on and how dependent we have become on this fuel. This is why we go to the desert during Lent – why we give up things during Lent – in order to clear out all the distractions so that we can clearly see what type of fuel we are putting into our cars and how our engines are doing.

The first temptation represents the temptation to make our fuel physical pleasure. The devil tempts Jesus to use his powers to turn stones into bread. Jesus resists this temptation by quoting Scripture to the devil: “One should not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” It is ultimately only God’s love, God’s Word whispered to us in quiet intimations of tenderness that can be our real fuel. The Word of God helps us not to get fixated on the gift, but to let our enjoyment of the gifts of creation lead us to the Giver. Our true fuel is to recognize the Giver and to live by God’s Word and let our hearts be nourished by this Heavenly Bread. This is the point of fasting, it is a giving up of some physical pleasure to see how dependent we have become on physical pleasure as a fuel and to reposition us into a space of complete dependence on God and God’s Word.

The fuels that Satan offers to Jesus are arranged in order of increasing sophistication. At the very bottom is the worst type of counterfeit fuel – physical pleasure. It is the most crude approximation of our real true fuel and this is why it is so destructive. Look at people with chemical addictions – food, alcohol and drugs – their engines quickly get destroyed by this type of fuel. This is why when we see addicts, we can see that the lights have gone out, their eyes are hollow blank stares. They have lost their hope (because they are not living on true fuel) and all they can live for is their next fix. I don’t think that too many people are really tempted to make physical pleasure their only fuel – I think that many people realize that physical pleasure is a counterfeit fuel.

However, when we come to the second temptation, we encounter an increasingly refined counterfeit fuel that tempts many more people, because it better approximates our real fuel. Our real fuel is to share the life of God and God invites us to participate in God’s life through worshipping and serving God. Our engines were made to run on serving God and worship God as the Creator and King. We share in God’s Kingship, and through God we come to possess the whole of creation – “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all these other things will be added onto you.” But the devil twists this fuel and wants to cut God out of the equation in the second temptation. The Devil shows Jesus all the wealth of the nations of the world and offers them to Jesus if he will worship him. Satan knows that we long to possess things, we derive joy from controlling the things and people that are in our lives.

We find our security in this power and control. This is a form of fuel. The reason a lot of people get up in the morning is to make money. It is not the actual money that they are addicted to, but rather the power of control that comes with money. For others, the amount of money they have is the metric by which they measure their self-worth and advertise this self-worth to others. The antidote to this is almsgiving. Through giving to the poor, we are called to renounce some of the power that comes with the use of money, and realize that all power and wealth actually belong to God. By giving away money to the poor we are renouncing use of that money ourselves and also acknowledging that the true owner of that money would want us to use it for the benefit of our brothers and sisters. It is this kind of giving that should become our true fuel – the true worship of God as St. James tells us, which is coming to the aid of widows and orphans.

In the third temptation, Jesus is taken up to the top of the Temple and the devil dares him to jump off the top and let God’s angels come to his rescue. Essentially, the devil is tempting Jesus to revel in the glory of being the Messiah and to become a popular Messiah – giving into the expectations of people about who and what the Messiah should do. If everyone were to see him rescued by Angels – there would be no doubt in anyone’s mind that he was the Messiah. He would be an instant hit, popular with everyone and basking in his own glory.

The reason that this fuel is so compelling is because it comes so close to the real thing – it is a very good counterfeit – because God does want to share God’s glory with us. God wants to reveal our identity as God’s true sons and daughters. It was Jesus’ fundamental identity to be the Messiah, so surely there was no harm in asking God to reveal it? But Jesus’ answer is clear – “do not put the Lord your God to the test.” In other words, Jesus was content to allow God in God’s own time to confirm his identity as the Messiah. The way that God does this ultimately was through the resurrection. By raising his Son from the dead, the Father glorified Jesus and confirmed his fundamental identity as the Beloved Son. But this was done according to God’s own schedule and in God’s own way. Jesus was content to leave the question of his own glory and his own identity in God’s hands. Are we prepared to do the same? No, too often we want the counterfeit fuel – we want our glory and we want it now. We want to be popular and we want to be liked by people. So instead of being obedient sons and daughters like Jesus, we pander to people’s expectations of us. We become people-pleasers and bask in their praise and adulation. This the reason we get up in the morning – to please other and to fulfil their expectations of us. We then live off their praise and affirmation. The remedy to this temptation is the third pillar of Lent: prayer – which enables us to reorient ourselves towards the service and glory of God’s name. The real test of Lent is to see if we can be patient enough in prayer to wait on God and to allow God in God’s own time to reveal to others and to ourselves our truest identity, our truest fuel which is to praise and worship God as God’s beloved sons and daughters.

Questions for reflection:

1. What type of fuel am I running on?
2. Can I see the damage that running on counterfeit fuel does to my engine?
3. How might God be calling me to use the three pillars of Lent to wean myself of counterfeit fuels and find my true fuel?