St. Aidan's Anglican Church, Kansas City - Weekly Talks

Jesus is retracing the roots of our fallen humanity by recapitulating both Adam and Eve’s interaction with the Serpent and Israel’s initial failure in the wilderness. This is part of why God became a human being … to experience life in a dark, broken world; as a real human being, to experience all the trials and temptations common to us, yet without sinning. To enter the desert to begin his life-long mission of overcoming and undoing the original temptation of Adam and Eve. Being tempted is an essential part of Jesus being a human being, a part of his downward journey into fellowship with us, into the depths of our need. His temptations do not end in the desert. The same three questions continue to resurface as fundamental considerations we all face in life. Thus, the sum total of Jesus’ temptations help us see the nature of his mission, a struggle we all share to align ourselves in communion with God, to be in the world but not of it. The way in which he handles his temptations show us the way to be human,