Jesus is driven to the wilderness by the Holy Spirit where he spends time connecting with God, resting in his identity proclaimed at his baptism just before as Beloved Son of God.
While he’s there he experiences the forces that oppose God already at work in the midst of a broken creation and he is faced with them in the presence of the tempter who offers him celebrity, spectacle, and a quick fix as he questions Jesus’ identity and seeks to undercut his faith and trust in God and God’s ability to provide for Jesus.
Jesus’ response to temptation teaches us how we might respond to temptation. Even more than that, Jesus’ life, ministry, death, resurrection give us the free gift of grace that enables and empowers us to turn to God, to trust in God, to have faith in God’s ability to provide for us, and gives us our identity as beloved children of God – an identity we don’t secure for ourselves, but receive and embrace as it is freely given by grace through Christ’s faithfulness.
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