As Christians, our temptations are enormous, particularly in a world that claims to have and posit before us ‘the knowledge.’ And yielding to the force of this knowledge, we are constantly tempted, like Jesus, to doubt our position as children of God; we are tempted to be over-confident and reckless in our standing with God; we are tempted to lay down our everyday burden, to “take a rest,” “take a leave;” we are tempted to “go along” – to conform to popular standards in a world that says: “you have no place with us unless….” The norms become sameness, honour, fame and power.
Jesus does not merely restore our lost image, he ultimately portrays and points out to us the way to live. Facing the choice to accomplish his ministry in selfish, power-hungry ways, he rejects this temptation and affirms his true image as one in obedience to the word of God, constantly calling to mind the word of God.
In today’s second reading from the letter to the Romans, St Paul tells us that through Jesus Christ, we have received the grace we had lost. In this he compares the first Adam to Christ, showing that just as sin entered into the whole world through one man, thus causing death, forgiveness, grace and life come to us through the last Adam, Jesus Christ. Further still, Paul reminds us that the grace brought about by Jesus outweighs any sin, any disobedience of the will of God. This grace, this acquittal is a free gift. It is not out of our own actions that we are made righteous, but rather, undeserving as we are, Jesus, through obedience to the Father, grants us the free gift of grace, restoring our lost image, bringing about our salvation.
Let us pray that the triumph of Jesus over temptation, his submission in obedience to God, may serve as an example to us; that we too can overcome our daily temptations in our unending quest to manifest our true image. And let us pray that during this period of Lent, we may come to realise more that image which Jesus further reveals to us today, the image that leads us to our salvation and liberation.
