WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. (Matthew 4:1)

Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'" Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him. (Matthew 4:10-11)

I have a confession to make. I hate Lent. I really do. It’s cold, gray, dark, gloomy, and downright depressing. Six weeks of soul-searching, self-deprivation, and repentance leave me depleted and defenseless. And as much as I hate to admit it, that just might be the point.

Jesus spent 40 days fasting in the wilderness - wandering, hungry, thirsty, lonely. When he is finally depleted and defenseless, he is tempted by comfort, by immortality, by power. It doesn’t seem fair. It doesn’t seem to make sense.

Until you get to the crucifixion. Forty days of fasting in the wilderness seems like tough work until we experience the last days of Jesus’ life on earth. Again, Jesus is tempted with comfort, immortality, and power. And again, he rejects them all in favor of God’s world-transforming work.

Apart from the somber barrenness of this season, I must admit that my real aversion to Lent stems from the fact that this season holds me accountable to all the ways I give into temptation every day. The temptation to cling to what I know, what I have, and what I can accomplish. The temptation of prideful perfection.

Every Lent, I realize I couldn't have survived temptation in the wilderness, much less on the cross. I’m debilitated after a few weeks of just thinking about it all. God said to Paul, as he struggled with weakness, that “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Perhaps this is where God wants us. Weak, uncertain, ready to give in. The hope of Easter is the only thing that keeps me going through Lent. Perhaps it is in weakness that we are truly prepared to receive the miracle of the resurrection.

God of grace, turn our weakness into your strength, our insufficiency into your abundance, our mortality into eternal life, as we await with longing the final redemption of your creation. Amen.

Amy Morgan