This Sunday’s Gospel tells us that Jesus was tempted by Satan. We are all tempted but temptation never comes in the form we expect, nor when we expect it. When we think of temptation, we tend to think of a person being enticed to do wrong. But we can be tempted by the good too. In fact, all temptations come under the guise of good.
It is not only when the path is hard and littered with obstacles that we fail to reach the goal, but also when it is easy and littered with attractions. In the latter case, we are tempted to dally along the way. We allow ourselves to get side-tracked, so that before we know it, we’ve forgotten our goal and wasted our strength. We all know the story of The Hare and the Tortoise, and how the Hare thought a nap would be good and would not keep him from his goal. But of course, he lost the race.
There is no shortage of examples of this in the Gospels On one occasion, Jesus invited a young man to become his disciple but he refused. It wasn’t evil that caused him to refuse – he had done no evil. It was something which is good in itself – wealth. He could not give up his riches.
When Jesus went to the house of Martha and Mary, Martha missed the opportunity to listen to him. It wasn’t something bad which kept her from listening to Jesus. It was something good, even praiseworthy – the making sure that everything was clean and ready for their guests. But, as we know, because of that Martha lost her focus on Jesus.
There is also a parable that Jesus told; a story about people who refused an invitation to a banquet. In refusing they were not acting from bad motives, but from perfectly good ones. One man wanted to inspect a piece of land he had bought. Another wanted to try out some oxen he had bought. And a third was newly married. However, though their reasons for staying away were perfectly good, the effect was the same as if they had been perfectly vile – they allowed the banquet to pass them by.
All this tells us that we may have as much to fear from the good as from the bad. After all, when we see something that is manifestly evil, we are more likely to be repelled by it than attracted by it. But when we see something that is manifestly good, we are likely to be attracted by it. Hence, it poses more danger.
The devil does not appear as a repulsive character. On the contrary, he appears to have your best interests at heart – as when he offered Jesus bread and all the kingdoms of the world. We need wisdom and strength to resist temptation, especially those that come under the guise of good.
Because Jesus himself has been through temptation, Jesus can empathise with us in our struggles with temptation. And because he was victorious over temptation, he can help us to be victorious also. Hence, we can approach him with confidence, knowing that we will have mercy from him and find grace in our time of need.
