Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7 / Romans 5:12-19 / Matthew 4:1-11
Over the festive period of the last few days, we may have done the annual visitation of our elders and relatives.
Of course, we will be able to collect “ang pows” from them, but that will also come at a price.
Because we will have to bear with those usual questions, or interrogation, like:
Which school are you in?
When are you getting married?
How many children do you have?
Other than bearing with that, the next best thing to do will be to stay at home and watch movies on TV.
There are Chinese New Year movies, blockbuster movies and those cute animated movies like “Kung Fu Panda” and “Finding Nemo”.
Animated movies are not just computer-generated graphics and drawings and images.
Animated movies have human voices behind the characters.
And those voices often belong to movie stars and celebrities.
It is only when we read the movie credits at the end that we will know the face of the voice behind the character.
Otherwise, it can be difficult to guess the face behind the voice.
Similarly with songs. We may not know the face of the singer until we see the picture of the singer.
And quite often, our imagination of the face behind the voice is quite different from the reality.
The gospel begins with this line: Then Jesus was led by the Spirit out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Jesus came to save us from our sins, and to free us from the snares of the devil.
He wants to face the devil and whatever the devil is going to use as temptations.
The devil did not disguise himself or hide behind any of his operatives.
It was a face-to-face confrontation.
It was unlike the 1st reading, when the devil disguised himself as a snake to tempt Eve.
Eve, as well as Adam, may not have seen through the devil’s disguise.
They saw the snake and they heard the voice, but they may not have seen the face of the devil, or realised that it was him.
And they fell into the temptation. They wanted to believe that they can be like God.
So, the core of the temptation is about pride.
The pride of men is to think that they are God, or want to be like God.
In the confrontation with the devil and his temptations, Jesus turned to Scripture, and with humility, He overcame the devil.
The devil could not tempt Jesus, but he knows he can tempt Adam and Eve, and he knows he can also tempt us.
The devil also knows what our main weakness is, and that is our pride.
And so, the devil will tempt us through using the voices of other people.
Instead of asking us to turn stones into bread, we might hear people comment about why our children didn't go to an elite school, and we feel our pride hurt.
Or we may hear snide remarks about our state of life and our profession and feel belittled.
So, it is the game of pride.
Or we may hear voices questioning our faith and luring us into an argument, then we lose our self-control and fall into the trap.
Again, it is the game of pride.
But Ephesians chapter 6:10-13 tells us this:
“Grow strong in the Lord, with the strength of His power.
Put God's armour on so as to be able to resist the devil's tactics."
For it is not against human enemies that we have to struggle, but against the Sovereignties and the Powers who originate the darkness in this world, the spiritual army of evil in the heavens.
That is why you must rely on God's armour, or you will not be able to put up any resistance when the worst happens, or have enough resources to hold your ground.”
At the core of the temptations of the devil is the question of pride.
For the devil it is a game of pride and he makes use of other humans to lure us to play by his rules, which means that we will lose.
But when we put on God’s armour of humility, we will be able to see that the devil makes use of people who are often our human adversaries or enemies, and we will be able to discern their voices.
For this season of Lent, let us embark on almsgiving, fasting and prayer so that we will learn humility, and be protected by God.
May the Lenten disciplines of almsgiving, fasting and prayer also lead us to forgive those who have hurt us and done us wrong.
Let us follow Jesus in His prayer on the Cross: Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.