Lead Us Not Into Temptation (Matthew 4:1, 26:41-45)

According to the World Health Organization, more than 90% of human beings live in places where we breathe contaminated air. That dirty air gets into our bodies and the consequences are terrible. Respiratory problems are the second most common cause of death worldwide. We can’t see it, but air pollution is out there—and then it gets in here—and it’s killing us.  Which reminds me a lot of the insidious nature of evil in the world. Similarly, we absorb fear and anxiety, we inhale notions about race and gender and ethnicity into our spirits—and then exhale them back out into the world—whether we want to or not.  Describing Jesus as he faces his death, NT Wright says, “In that moment of horror and deep darkness, Jesus fears, with good reason, that the whirlpool of evil which is about to engulf him will suck down his close followers as well.” So Jesus, in that moment, inhales all of the darkness onto himself so that the world would go free.  Jesus was not delivered from evil, he was led to it, he was served up to it so that it could do its worst—to him, so that it would not destroy us. Even though we experience it, it has been defeated. Even though we breathe it in, it will not destroy us.