Lent: Desires of the Flesh

Forty days of Lent is patterned after the forty days of prayer and fasting in the wilderness, which ended with the temptations of Satan. Although the whole season of Lent is meant to prepare us to commemorate Jesus’ sacrificial death and victorious resurrection, because of its relation to the temptations, Lent can also be observed as a time of reflection about our Christian journey and the temptations we face as we live in our own wildernesses.

The three temptations of Jesus represent humanity’s greatest temptations. We face these temptations on a daily basis. Jesus shows us that unless we are victorious over these temptations, we cannot effectively begin our ministries of sacrificial service. The wilderness is a place of tampering, so that we are prepared to carry our own crosses. The temptation narrative is recorded in Matthew 4:1-11 (ESV), which was interpreted later on in 1 John 2:16

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written,

“‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
    but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and

“‘On their hands they will bear you up,
    lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,

“‘You shall worship the Lord your God
    and him only shall you serve.’”

Jesus faced three temptations, and they can be categorized in the light of 1 John 2:16 as the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life. This post will only deal with the desires of the flesh, and is related to the first temptation of Jesus in Matthew 4:2-4: “After fasting forty days and forty nights, Jesus 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 shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

It is Neutral!

The story says that Jesus stayed in the wilderness and fasted for forty days and forty nights. Naturally, he was very hungry. In the Philippines we often joke that when we are hungry, everything—including our seatmates—looks like yummy fried chicken. Beware of people staring at you with great intensity especially around 12 noon and six in the evening!

It is fascinating that food was chosen by Satan in the temptation of Jesus, of all the possible temptations he can devise. If John interprets the first temptation as related to the desires of flesh, why was temptation using food used as the prime example? If we are dealing with the desires of the flesh, there are other worse pleasures such as sexual desires. Paul enumerates some of the more common desires of flesh in Galatians 5:19-21, “the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,  idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.” These are the big desires that plague humanity and it would have been helpful if Jesus’ temptations show us how Jesus overcame these big desires. Unfortunately, the temptation story has chosen to talk about food! God chose to talk about food.

So the question is: Why food? Temptations in relation to food sound so simple. In actuality, however, in the Bible, important turn of events have been influenced by people’s decisions and attitudes about food.

First, Adam and Eve disobeyed God because of food. Their simple act of eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil changed the entire course of human history. It was because of eating that they were banished from the Garden. It was because of eating that death entered into the world. It was because of eating that humanity right now is suffering. In fact, because the first sin is about eating, the punishment of sin is also related to eating: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you… cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen 3:17-19).

Secondly, iIf we look at the story of the Israelites, their first sin against God after being delivered from Egypt was related to food: “And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, ‘Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger’” (Exo 16:2-3). The Israelites became very impatient and doubted God’s abounding love because of lack of food and water in the wilderness. They questioned God’s intentions, God’s power, God’s provision, God’s integrity, and God’s concern form them—all because of food!

We cannot underestimate how something so apparently neutral can actually affect us, our decisions and actions. Sometimes we are mentally and emotionally prepared to deal with the big temptations related to sexual immorality, stealing, murder, anger, and others, but we are left vulnerable in the small and seemingly insignificant temptations in life. This is where Satan gets us: temptations in the seemingly ordinary facts of life like eating, sleeping, taking care of the body, work, etc.

It is Natural!

The first temptation of Jesus also points to the fact that Satan appeals to humans’ natural appetites and desires. To have human appetites and desires is not wrong. Sexual desire is not inherently wrong. To be hungry is not wrong. In fact, the desire to eat is good. These human desires and appetites are actually God-given for our survival’s sake. They are natural desires because they are a part of what makes us humans.

The problem is that everything good and holy can be corrupted by evil and can be used to tempt us. Something so natural and holy such as hunger can become a tool for us to sin. We can no longer count the number of murder, thievery, violence, dishonesty, corruption, drug trafficking, prostitution, and other social evils just because people want to feed themselves and their loved ones. Something so natural and beautiful such as sexual desire can become a tool for us to abuse ourselves and others. We also can no longer count the number of sexual harassments, rape, murder, violence, and other offenses just because people want to satisfy their desires for intimacy. Our natural human appetites are God-given. But once we satisfy these desires outside the parameters given to us by God, we sin. Jim Vander Spek once said, “Our desires are not the problem—it’s what we do with them.”

James illuminates our minds about the process of temptation arising from our own desires: “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.  Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:14-15, ESV). To be lured and to be enticed by desire can be best illustrated in fishing. I grew up beside a dam, so I had experienced fishing. There are different kinds of fish, and each fish requires a different fishing method. There are fish that will bite your bait only if the bait is moving; the fish will swim after the quickly moving bait. There are fish that can only be caught when the bait is not moving at all. These are the cautious fish. The role of the fisherman, with his pole, is to entice a fish by a hook with a lure. We think that fish are stupid for not seeing the trap we lay. But actually, our temptations are similar to theirs. The tempter appeals to our need and appetites. Once a fish is lured and takes the bite, the fish can only regret later for approaching a forbidden thing.

Jesus taught us to pray: “Lead us not into temptations” (Matt 6:13). Keep us away from things that appeal to our natural desires and needs. Margaret Thatcher once said, “There are several good protections against temptation, but the surest is cowardice.”

It is Needed!

In Jesus’ first temptation, we can also see that temptations do not only come in seemingly neutral and natural channels, but also actually through our most basic needs. The devil attacks our moments of need. Our basic needs can become avenues of temptations to rely on ourselves, to neglect or forget God’s laws, and violate other people. 

We can easily recognize temptations related to wants. We can easily discern that the desires to have a bigger television, a better cell phone, a larger car, or a more expensive watch are temptations. These temptations are easy to overcome, because we know deep in our hearts that they are just wants.

But what if the temptations are grounded in genuine human needs? We need to eat. We need to rest and relax. We need money. We need time. We need to save money. We need to sleep. We need to study. We need to pass our exams. We need to be with our family. We need to finish something at the office. We need to report on Sunday for work. We need employment to survive. We need to prioritize our family. We need to stay home. We need to take care of our sick family members. We need to give time to our visiting relatives and friends from abroad. These are all needs, and because they need to be done, the temptations related to them are much stronger and harder to overcome. We are even tempted based on the things that we deserve.

Conclusions

We cannot take temptations for granted. We can be so lax and not notice temptations because they appeal to seemingly neutral things in life, they are grounded in normal human appetites, and they are presented in relation to our genuine needs. We succumb to them until we are sensitized. This is like the story of a woman was bathing in the beach. She was enjoying the comfort of relaxing on an inflated cushion that kept her afloat. When she realized that she had been swept about a half mile out from the beach, she began to scream, but no one heard her. A coast guard craft found her five miles from the place where she first entered the water. She did not see her danger until she was beyond her own strength and ability.

Let us pray that we are sensitized by what is seemingly neutral, normal and needed and that we are still able to discern and overcome the temptations that come our way.