Home > Lenten Blog 2022

What did Jesus do for forty days?

March 6, 2022

Deuteronomy 26:1-11 | Romans 10:8b-13 | Luke 4:1-13 | Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16

What did Jesus do during his forty days in the wilderness? He had just been baptized and had been declared God’s son and the Beloved when he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, a place he had never been. For forty days he ate nothing and was tempted by the devil. We can be pretty sure he prayed, and we can be pretty sure he confronted the tempter. We can also be pretty sure he contemplated what he had heard in the voice from heaven and what that meant to him and his future. It was a time for the deepest introspection. 

But what did he do with his physical body? Did he seek shelter? Did he create art or tools from things he found? Did he walk or run or dance or sing? Did he move from place to place? Did he face inclement weather? Did he encounter animals? Did he take anything with him for diversion? How did he spend forty days with no human contact and no food? As the days continued, he would have become weaker and weaker until after forty days his body and mind would have been starved. He would have been completely vulnerable. How did he then have the strength to resist the temptations of food, power and freedom from pain?

It feels like we are in a wilderness: a wilderness of disease, poverty in the midst of abundance, seemingly insurmountable polarization, uncertain climate future, and now war. Our wilderness is a place we’ve never been before. We face a changing disease we have not known. We face an imponderable war. We face a new construct of reality in which alternate truths and facts can be created by photoshop and digital devices, or even by stating alternative facts so often they become credible. Statements are taken out of context, misunderstood, and even completely revised and then are sent instantaneously throughout the world. The loudest voices seem to have canceled the voice from heaven. The devils which tempt us are of our hubristic making. 

Forty days in the wilderness. Forty days of fasting. Forty days of temptation. Forty days of introspection. After the forty days, Jesus left the wilderness and began his ministry. 

Forty days of Lent. An unknown wilderness. Known and unknown fears, scarcities and temptations. What will I do for forty days? What will I do after forty days?

Sally House