Temptation

 

Iso-mandala No. 101 (September 2020)

Reflections for the First Sunday in Lent, the 22^nd of February 2026, in the pew notes at St Peter’s Church, Eastern Hill, Melbourne.  Written by Philip Harvey.

 How to talk about temptation? How to deal with it. Who to talk to, when in Scripture, from the start, temptation as a fact is assumed.

 A lifetime of encountering the decalogue teaches that the commandments are not simply warnings and directions. They describe society and its temptations, picture a human world that is not only peculiar to some ancient time and place, but is ours also. Forbidding in appearance as well as in their messages, they challenge our human desires and motives, causing us to think, reflect, and act. The commandments are talking points for the subject of temptation; they also inform the law.

 They are delivered in the wilderness. Wilderness is a place of desolation and need. There, things will be clarified over time, down to the basics. Wilderness is dangerous, but also purifying. This is where we might have a showdown with our demons. We might find it a challenge, but resolutions are reached free of distraction.

 The story of Jesus in the wilderness (Matthew 4: 1-11), familiar over a lifetime, delivers another way of talking about temptation. We are presented directly with the challenge of saying yes or no. Temptation, what to do? Either way, something will happen. Christ’s example is to summon reasons that counter temporary powers and illusory promises, even down to the whole world and everything in it.

 In terms of the story, here is a person who will not be tempted; Jesus is preparing to go into his ministry as one who speaks forthrightly, forgivingly and with godly authority. While for us, here is a model of possibility. We attend to his many consequent words and actions as lessons in how to live and understand God’s law. We are shown how our mistakes are made and how restoration is achievable. We learn to develop good habits, preferably to bad habits minor and even major. We choose ways that give life, whatever our circumstances. 

 Even the conclusion, where Jesus is ministered to by angels, indicates that challenges and setbacks are real, but that we will not be left lonely. After deserved rest, we can enter a new day.

Recipe

A Recipe Book of Perverbs

 

Too many cooks make light work, recipes

of a thousand miles start with one step.

 

In for a penny in for a pint

is a bread-and-butter issue.

 

To bring home the bacon eat the frog

chew the cud, and stay cool as a cucumber.

 

Know your onions, spill the beans,

eat your greens and say cheese.

 

If you eat like a horse

your supper will be humble pie.

 

Rhubarb rhubarb is food for thought

take with a pinch of salt.

 

The proof of the pudding

is selling like hot cakes.

 

Found a plum job, pulled out a plum

plum crazy, until plum tuckered out.

 

Everything stops for tea

while the watched kettle never boils.

 

A spoonful of sugar helps the caffeine go down

better latte than never.

 

Life is a bowl of cherries

in a nutshell, a cup of kindness yet.

Senses

 

The Perverbial Five Senses

 

The eyes have a thousand nights

and each day is a sight to see.

 

Eat, drink, and – it’s on the tip of your tongue -

put your merry where your mouth is.

 

A nose by any other name

sniffs out trouble and smells the roses.

 

Ears lend me your friends:

cheers of words and the spheres of music.

 

Skin deep is the beauty

of nerves headstrong hanging by a thread.