The problem with temptation is that it’s usually fun. Or at least it can start out fun, there in the beginning of our contemplation of a wicked deed. The temptations vary by our proclivities: a single glass of wine following a week of hard-won sobriety. Or three cookies, not the one encouraged by the diabetes nutritionist. Or speeding through a yellow caution light too far from the intersection to clear it before it flips to red. Maybe that dinner meeting with a colleague when a 20-minute conference call would have sufficed and meant supper at home with the family. Temptation can be our downfall, but I wonder if too often we’re looking in the wrong direction for our salvation from the devil’s handiwork.

In late winter of my 8^th grade year, I decided to give up man-made sweets for Lent. It was quite the challenge for a young teen with a keen regard for candy and cake – my sweet tooth hasn’t abated much in the decades since. I set my Lenten challenge to skip desserts and any sweet snacks throughout each day for the 40 days of Lent, and Holy Week, too. My family was supportive. My friends were surprised: we weren’t Catholic and the practice of giving up something for Lent was not a familiar one to them. I remember praying about the challenge and what it might mean for me if I failed. Ash Wednesday arrived and my journey of sugar deprivation began.

The weeks unfolded and I kept my promise, odd as it was. I was tempted to grab a Mounds bar from the community candy bowl in drama class, or to pop the top off a Coca-Cola before starting my afternoon homework. Somehow, I held onto my commitment to avoid eating sweets.

Looking back with an aged and experience-informed perspective, my heart aches for the young girl trying to wrestle some control in her life. I was trying to stay afloat in the wake of my family’s upheaval and disintegration. My parents had divorced the summer before. A few months later, my dad lost his job and moved 325 miles away to find work in his field. I surely could not negotiate a settlement or any semblance of our former life from the adults in charge, so I set my sights on a task that was completely within my purview. Easter Sunday arrived and I hadn’t tasted chocolate for more than 40 days. The overwhelming taste sensation the Russell Stover chocolate egg offered up shocked me.

The lessons from that sugar holiday continue to unfold for me in teasing out the meanings of Matthew’s story about Jesus and the tempter. Saying ‘No!’ to whatever temptation leaves us empty of hope is surely challenging. Saying ‘Yes!’ to the Savior who promises to walk with us as we face our temptations is the deeper challenge revealed in today’s passage. Jesus shows us the way. He quotes sacred text to the devil’s taunting, and so might we. “Every word that comes from the mouth of God” is ballast for our staying afloat in whatever wake we’re in, for God indeed commands angels for our protection. Jesus says so. With temptation at hand, up close and deeply personal, God’s Son is there, too. May we walk with Jesus and one another this Lenten season.