Those who have never been to the Judean wilderness can only guess at the circumstances of Jesus’ forty days there. I have only experienced the Outback of Australia. Truly the silence is intense and added to the lack of food Jesus’ senses must have been razor sharp.
Silence has a unique quality in our relationship with God; God, after all, is spirit- said Jesus- i.e. nothing ………..( nothing to see, that is). In silence we are alone with God; there is nothing to distract us or defend us from God. Here …. he has us all to himself. We would be liars, if we were to say that this prospect is more than a little daunting. To be exposed before God.
But in all this we have Jesus, our mediator and so we can be assured of God’s love and forgiveness in our communing.
Worse (!) than coming face to face with God, we come face to face with ourselves; the very person, who, if we are honest, is most opposed to God. It is not surprising that the Devil chose the location of the wilderness to make his major attempt to destroy Jesus. Jesus was now human and vulnerable, and it was to this humanity that the Devil spoke. “It is written ……………” The answer to Jesus’ humanity and ours. Lent shows that God has the last word.
Ian