During Lent, I'll be using the lectionary readings for each Sunday and selected chapters from my book Sacred Story: Yours, Mine Ours. I'll offer ways the stories of these Bible women relate to the Lent themes. The faith of these women may guide us in ways to live our lives as "repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in." (Isaiah 58:12)
On this first Sunday of Lent, we consider how our woundedness can lead us into temptations. We will look at Leah and Rachel in the Old Testament as images of how wounds can make us act unwisely and how Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness can give us hope and inspiration for living more whole lives.
The prayer
(collect) in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer encapsulates the truth that we
are all tempted and weak and reminds us who is really in control. Almighty
God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come
quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the
weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus
Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
In the Gospel for Sunday, (Luke 4:1-13) we hear of Jesus
temptation in the wilderness after his baptism. The devil suggests changing
stones to bread, offers the kingdoms of the world, and urges Jesus to leap off
the temple to see if God will catch him. Those may not be temptations you or I
will encounter. However, we do often wish we could change situations, be notable, or
get amazing recognition for the things we do.
The story of Rachel and Leah, beginning in Genesis 29 shows us how we can be tempted to manipulate things to further our own agenda or to benefit us. Laban, father of Rachel and Leah, tricks his nephew Jacob into marrying both daughters to have free labor for over 14 years. The sisters themselves enter a competition of numbers of sons that results in much hard feeling between the women and their sons. Jacob manipulates the family by telling his wives that God wants them to return to Canaan as depicted in this painting by Pieter Potter (1638).
As I note in my book, Sacred Story: Yours, Mine, Ours,
“Rachel and Leah are two sisters whose family heritage and individual
self-image impacted how they responded to the challenges in their lives. Rachel
became a defensive woman who doubted that she was loved. Leah struggled to
believe she was lovable and spent her life competing for the elusive love of
her husband. Their identities, like ours, were formed by the diverse parts of
their life history. Every family has secrets and expectations. Sometimes these
are healthy, and sometimes they are destructive. Recognizing the impact of our
family story on our Sacred Story can change how we respond to one another. When
we realize that we are all wounded and broken, we can be more compassionate.”
Recognizing how the wounds of our lives impact our responses
to the temptations we face can help us take a more healthy path. Just imagine
how different the relationship between Leah and Rachel could have been if Leah
had been willing to acknowledge that she felt hurt because she believed Jacob
loved the ‘prettier’ younger sister more. Rachel doubted she was loved, too,
because of the emphasis on the cultural measurement of bearing children. It
might have been different if the sisters were able to share their fears and
doubts.
Like us, though, everyone in the story reacted based on
their woundedness rather than working for the good of the whole. It is so easy
to want to protect what is ‘ours’ that we can slip into temptations that
benefit no one. We can ignore someone’s pain because they might demand
something from us. We can refuse to see each other as children of God because
we disagree. We can, and do, all fall into temptation.
Jesus response to Satan in the wilderness showed a
dependence on God that is lacking from the woundedness of Rachel and Leah and
Jacob’s (and our) lives. Jesus points out ‘one does not live by bread alone.’
He reminds the Tempter that we are to ‘worship the Lord your God and serve only
him’ and that we should not ‘put the Lord your God to the test.’
Jesus points beyond himself to God. Rachel and Leah point
fingers at each other in blame. I find myself responding in fear and anger when
I feel out of control. Jesus offers the way of Life—looking to God and
acknowledging that God is in control. The prayer this Sunday asks, let each
one find you mighty to save. Indeed it is only God who can save us from our
temptations and from our woundedness that gives room for temptations to get under
our skin.
May we find time this week to consider some of the wounds that make us vulnerable to temptations.
