Jesus and his Temptations

As we journey through the Christian calendar—through Advent to the Christmas Incarnation, through Lent to the Good Friday Crucifixion and the Easter Resurrection—we need to take the humanity of Jesus seriously. For if we fail to do so, if we allow the deity of Christ to eclipse the real humanity of Jesus, the whole gospel story collapses into kitsch and becomes a sentimental caricature lacking in substance, and this will never do. A good test for how seriously we take the real humanity of Jesus is how we view the wilderness temptation. Was it a kind of parody or was it a real temptation? Was Jesus just an actor in play where the outcome was always certain? Or was Jesus truly enticed by the dark side? What I have discovered is that there are hidden aspects of the gospel story that will burst to life if we are willing to look deeply at Jesus and His Temptations.