From whence temptation?

TINTORETTO
The Temptation of Christ
1579-81

On this weekend of the First Sunday of Lent as we feast on the Liturgy of the Word that is set before us a meditation comes to mind regarding our nature to fix our stare upon temptation. We have Adam and Eve manipulated by Satan in the garden in juxtaposition with Jesus tempted by Satan in the desert and Saint Paul teaching on these points of fallen grace and redemption; each brought to humankind by an individual, the first through Adam and salvation through Christ.

In the splendid teaching that is found within the first pages of scripture we learn some vital information about our nature as human beings. Our Creator, the Word, made us in his love to have free will and this is good. We were not, however, given the judgment to distinguish good from evil. Like small children we, that is Adam and Eve, did not have the requisite reason to be capable of sin. We were simple and simply bonded to God through His love. To remain in that love relationship we simply needed to follow the simple instruction of God. Satan, the first evil to enter into the garden, was of course not recognized by Adam and Eve and he could therefore use their free will against them to encourage them to break with God. So they, who first turned their gaze inward and away from their Lord, ate of the fruit and invited sin and shame into the world.

This was the world that the Christ child was born into. He entered into time and matter of his creation to act upon it as a human being by confronting and triumphing over the evil that was given a right of entry into the world by the first man. He was baptized in the Jordan and imbued with the Holy Spirit who then brought him into the desert to be drawn against the temptations of Satan. Our Lord, fully human, endured these temptations, not by wile and wit, or by any divine moral compass, but rather though his simple and devoted love of his Father in heaven; the same effortless love shared by Adam and Eve with their Creator in the garden prior to their fall.

Paul teaches, "For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so, through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous." The term obedience, here, should be carefully considered and rightly understood. It is not a submission ceded at the tip of a whip, but rather an assent offered with affection for the Beloved. To truly understand this is to understand our Lord's triumph over temptation and the sin of this world.

Time and again Jesus taught his disciples to become like little children; simple in love, humility and trust. This would seem to be the gate leading back into a time and place when we walked and talked with God in the cool of the evening.