Reading: Luke 4:1-13
Why would you have the Temptations as the reading for the first Sunday inLent? It`s simple! Because the passage presents alternatives to the Way of the Cross. The temptations deal with the identity and vocation of Jesus - the Way of the Cross over and against the temptations of economic power, political power and religious power, temptations that were hugely relevant to Jesus and are hugely relevant to us today.

Economic power There is a lovely passage in Philippians about `the enemies of the cross` whose `God is their belly`. And what a temptation this must have been for Jesus as he saw and experienced the poverty and hunger of his day - the temptation to exercise economic power - to be a bread rather than a dead messiah. As Bill Clinton famously said, `It`s the economy stupid!`

The second temptation was/is about political power. The devil showed him all the kingdoms of the world. Do you remember in the film Jesus of Montreal with the lawyer and Jesus overlooking the city and the lawyer saying, `Let me be your CEO and the city is yours`? - indeed the whole world is yours for the asking. All we need is a powerful army with you as the Commander in Chief and under the name of Christian Democracy we will spread Christian freedom throughout the world.

The third temptation is about religious power - Constantinian Christendom, the established Church, Church and State working together for the betterment of humankind. The setting for the temptation is instructive - standing on one of the high towers of the Temple, the Temple being one of the most powerful institutions of the day. The penalty for blasphemy was to be thrown off one of these high towers into the Kidron Valley below. The tempter here says, `You don`t have to die. Turn and jump into the Temple, become a religious reformer, exercise religious power.`

`You don`t have to die. You can create a new world order through economic, political and religious power.` And Jesus says, `Thanks but no thanks. I am called to the way of the cross.`

Any wonder then at Caesarea Philippi, when Peter remonstrated about Jesus going to Jerusalem, Jesus said, `Get you behind me Satan. You think as men think and not as God thinks.`

`To think as God thinks` is the ultimate challenge of the Christian faith, to penetrate illusion and touch reality. Illusions abound today - the illusion that both rich and poor deserve their fate; the illusion that young people sent to war are heroes rather than victims; the illusion that a wealthy and powerful mega Church constitutes spiritual growth - illusions so functional that they are mistaken for reality. `Get you behind me Satan. You think as men think and not as God thinks. If anyone would be my disciple, let them take up their cross and follow me.`

To keep Lent is to confront the principalities and powers to which we are so susceptible. To keep Lent is to discover and remember who in God`s name we are, to pray, in the midst of power and privilege, to pray for an awareness of our true identity as people of the Way, the Way of the Cross.