Jesus and the devil, out there in the wilderness for forty days. According to Luke, there were tensions and temptations the whole time. Near the end it gets even more intense, with three very particular temptations – all having to do with power, which, as we saw, Jesus resists. And then – it is over. As Matthew and Mark tell the story, angels and wild beasts come to comfort the wasted and exhausted Jesus. Luke’s version of the story is that Jesus is just. left. alone. – which may be a great relief after wrestling with the devil for forty days.

At the beginning of lent we read this story and in a small way relive it, at least in the forty day aspect. It wasn’t until I watched the short video on Ash Wednesday that I realized that I have always done sort of a mash-up of the forty days. I have understood forty days as biblical shorthand for a long time or a long trial. All the days blend together as a difficult time for Jesus and thus for those who follow him.

The video opened my eyes to what forty days looks like. It shows forty pictures, forty different days. On day 1 Jesus walks away from town – toward territory where he is the lone human. At first it seems like Jesus appreciates the time away but as the days go by he looks haggard, drained, desperate. This is not a pleasant forty day retreat but a confrontation with all he believes in, a challenge to his very soul.

Forty days. It’s a long time to not eat. During lent in 2003, when Daryl Byler was the director of the MCC Washington office, he fasted for 40 days. He read the daily scriptures and each day he wrote a reflective letter to then Pres. Bush, asking him to consider alternatives to war with Iraq (https://cindydarylbyler.wordpress.com/tag/fasting/). This year a number of Wheaton College students are “pledging to fast for the 40 days of Lent to call the Wheaton community and evangelical Christian institutions nationwide to ‘confess and repent of the sins of racism, sexism and Islamophobia”

(http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-wheaton-college-protest-met-20160210-story.html).

Forty days of aware living, of becoming so conscious of the needs of the flesh that you become even more aware of the soul. What is that wilderness, that desert, issue, or question that inexplicably draws us in and holds us? Why would we even want to approach the thing that tempts us like no other hunger? Who can last 40 days there?

Maybe forty days is shorthand for an invitation to go to that place where we would rather not go. Like hour an hour of silence each day? or unbridled gratitude (that at first seems silly)? I admit, I don’t like to do this; most pastors I know don’t like lent. It is hard, what we are being asked to do, to go to the metaphorical desert for six weeks. And then to nudge a whole congregation along?

Thankfully, the tradition asks us to choose only one thing to let go of, one thing that is a temptation and say no to it. Mike Slaughter, a pastor and blogger suggests that one fast from being a jerk for forty days (http://mikeslaughter.com/blog/40-day-fast-from-being-a-jerk). Father James Martin, a Jesuit priest, suggests a similar idea but with a positive slant – “Be kind.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90g8fVNkPPU)

We might follow Father Martin’s lead and choose one thing to say yes to. Forty days is long enough to make it a habit. Forty days of walking humbly or making art or reaching out to strangers or learning a new skill. Could that count as a lenten discipline? Does it have to feel like deprivation from temptation?

The theme for lent this year is Living Ink: Word made flesh. Each time I reach for an explanation of the theme, I immediately imagine all of us getting tattoos – or at least having a henna party. Then I stop, step back, and slowly unravel the layers of meaning.

• The bible is a living text being written upon us. We are part of the living story that is still being told, right now, written now.
• Jesus was the word made flesh and now the word has come to our flesh, is in our flesh.
• How do we invite that word to become alive in us?
• How do we share the ink and continue to write the story in our own words, in our own lives?

The word may be alive and living but that doesn’t mean it is easy to tell the story, much less figure out what it might mean. Just this morning we heard these two scriptures that seem at odds with each other. How do we make sense of them, make them come alive, together?

Jesus must know this Deuteronomy text well; it is part of the very long rendition of the many laws (not just the ten commandments) given to Moses by God. Here, near the end of the law giving, the people are instructed to remember the painful saga of slavery and give thanks to the God who brought them out of Egypt. They are instructed to share the sacrificial feast with their family, and with the foreigners among them.

This is not an exclusive feast for only the people they know and love. This celebration of what God has done, bringing them out of bondage and into a new land of freedom, this celebration is to be shared with everyone. It is an abundant, joyful feast for all those who gather, those under the covenant, as well as those who do not know YHWH as their God.

Paired with this recitation of the law is the story of Jesus in the wilderness. It’s not forty years in the wilderness like his ancestors. It’s just forty days, which is long enough when you are without food or company.

The law in Deuteronomy may be one of the texts that Jesus contemplates in the early days of his sojourn in the wilderness. Perhaps he remembers the promises that the people held on to for 40 years, imagining with them the land of milk and honey. Is that what keeps him going – past day 5?

Certainly the word is alive in him, written in him. Near the end of his wilderness time, when the devil comes to him, Jesus’ response to each temptation is to quote the holy text, each time from Deuteronomy.

It is written, ‘We do not live on bread alone. Deut. 8:3

It is written, ‘You will worship the Most High God; God alone will you adore.  Deut. 6:13

After Jesus quotes the text twice, the devil catches on and tries to help Jesus out with scriptural justification – from Psalm 91: 11-12.

It is written, ‘God will command the angels concerning you, to protect you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’

But Jesus will not be deterred from the law by a psalm. Starving, dehydrated and totally spent, he returns to what is written on him, written in him. It is the only thing he has left – the law that he learned as a child, that he studied to become a rabbi/teacher.  It is said, ‘Do not put God to the test.’ Deut. 6:16

This is the word become flesh, the word written on flesh, feeding, creating, empowering the flesh.

Our theme scripture for lent this year is John 1:1-5. “The word became flesh and stayed for a little while among us.” (1:14)  We are all invited to learn John 1 or another scripture of your choosing. It is not magic, memorizing scripture or poetry or a story or even inking it on your skin – under your skin. But it can nourish and empower. It can be a comfort when there is nothing else left.

In this season of lent, we are invited to look for ways that the story is coming alive, in our lives, in our households, in the world. How is the word becoming flesh right here, right now, in our midst? and in those times and places we least expect it?

Let us practice becoming the living ink, at least for these forty days. And let us live with gratitude for all the good things that our God has given to us, in these forty days, and in every season.