Sermon: Lent 1 - The Temptation to Despair

Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert. [Matt. 4:1]

Today we meet Christ in the desert. Strange as it may seem there is something about entering the desert that enables personal spiritual growth. Jesus obviously recognised this to be true which is why he went out into the wilderness for those 40 days and nights. Inspired by this example Christians through the centuries, seeking to follow Christ, have voluntary ventured into the desert, not to escape but rather to encounter the living God and to do battle against the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil. The Desert Fathers of the early Christian centuries, in particular, have provided us with a vast legacy of profound spiritual insights which continue to be valuable and meaningful for us in the confusion and complexity of our own day.

The definition of a desert provided in the dictionary is – uninhabited, desolate, uncultivated, barren.

According to this description then, deserts can take many forms – the wastelands of Antarctica, for example, can be thought of as deserts, being alone in the midst of the ocean could be thought of as the desert. Indeed this was the view held by the Celtic saints, such as St. Brendan the Navigator, who took great inspiration from the writings of the Desert Fathers and, in their desire to travel as pilgrims and wanderers, literally set sail into the desert of the ocean trusting in God alone to guide them.

But I have in mind today a different kind of desert again.

On Ash Wednesday I made reference to the Lent book I have set myself to read this year The Cross and the Colliery written by Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham, which is based upon a series of sermons during Holy Week delivered by Tom Wright in the mining town of Easington Colliery, County Durham. The book appealed to my roots from the mining valleys in South Wales.

Imagine being about a mile underground at the coal face. Could this also be a kind of desert, I wonder?

The desert of the pit!

The pit, in fact, is a very potent biblical image. The pit is used graphically in the psalms as a description of personal suffering, depression and despair. These are very real and powerful human emotions. For example, Psalm 28 begins with this plea to God: For if you remain silent, I shall be like those who have gone down to the pit [Ps. 28:1]. Psalm 88 declares: You have put me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths. [Ps. 88:6]

My father used to tell me that “you will never experience anything as dark as being in the pit”. I realised how true these words were when I visited Big Pit in Blaenavon some years ago. We travelled with a group of people in the cage down to pit bottom. Our guide then led us towards the coal face. When we arrived there, after giving us a short talk about what the life and work of a miner entailed, he told us to turn off all our lamps. As soon as the last lamp was extinguished we were plunged into complete and utter darkness which, I have to say was frightening – even though I knew that I was there with a group of people somehow I couldn’t feel their presence because the darkness was so overpowering, like nothing I had ever experienced before. 

According to the Gospel account the temptations of Jesus in the desert were threefold – hunger, power & false worship – these remain very valid temptations in our personal lives and within the ways of the world. We celebrate how Jesus beat down all of these temptations in a spirit of discipline and faith. The way Matthew describes these temptations, however, does seem to make them very blatant and obvious – only a fool wouldn’t be able to spot the trickery the devil was up to. It seems to me that the most dangerous temptations are the ones that are much more dark and subtle in character.

I am sure that we have all heard about the tragic stories in the news reported recently of teenage suicides occurring over the last year or so all within a small area near Bridgend. Trying to understand why these tragedies have come about will be a lengthy and complex process. It is quite likely that reasons may never be found. Whatever the reasons, though, one thing does hold true. For such tragedy as suicide to occur, within that person at that moment there must be an overwhelming sense of despair.

It is despair that is ultimately the most dangerous and subversive temptation. The “temptation to despair” is not one of the temptations Jesus faces in the desert. However, it is one he will face towards the end his life in his agony in the garden on the night he was betrayed and the following day in the desolation of the cross. Psalm 88 is used at the end of the Maundy Thursday Eucharist as the altar is stripped ending so powerfully with the desolate words The darkness is my closest friend. At that moment betrayed and alone surely Jesus faced and experienced this most overwhelming temptation – the temptation to despair.

Tom Wright in his book comments upon the depravation now present within the community of Easington Colliery since the closure of the pit in 1993. Depravation such as drug & alcohol abuse, teenage pregnancy, poverty, unemployment, lack of affordable housing…He asks the question, “How can the church play an appropriate part in helping a town at a time like this?” This is the church which has such a rich tradition of standing at the heart of the old mining community, symbolized by its own unique cross made out of miner’s pickaxes. He observes how difficult it can be to, “move forward when all the symbols are pointing back.”

“There are small flags of hope” (government/community initiatives etc.), he acknowledges, “but only in the sense that these lie beside the much larger and more powerful symbols of depravation and despair.” 

There is a real sense of irony here in that the closure of the pit has engulfed the whole community into the darkness. In his description can it be that Tom Wright is resigned to the fact that there is no apparent hope for this community? 

Thankfully he goes on…

“I am convinced that when we bring our griefs and sorrows within the story of God’s own grief and sorrow, and allow them to be held there, God is able to bring healing to us and new possibilities to our lives. That is, of course, what Good Friday and Easter are all about.” 

The Resurrection is the promise that through the power of God’s love it is possible to move forward even when all of the symbols are pointing back. There are no obvious symbols in the OT which describe the resurrection. Nobody could have possibly worked out from the Old Testament Scriptures and traditions that Jesus Christ would rise from the dead. It could only be recognised beyond the cross and in the light of the resurrection. But the lack of such symbols did not stop God acting in such a surprising and amazing way, when against all of the odds, Jesus indeed rose from the dead! 

Let us return then to the desert of the pit and consider the painting by Nick Evans. As you can see it is an extremely dark painting. Here we are shown Christ the Light of the World present in the darkness of the pit. Yes, it is dark but it is also a hopeful picture. As the posture of the miners reminds us, hope begins with prayer. 

I began by observing that strangely the desert is a deeply spiritual place. Jesus recognised this to be so otherwise why would he have bothered to spend those 40 days and nights there? The reason that the desert happens to be a place of personal spiritual growth is that the desert is a place where prayer is taken very seriously. When faced with the desert, (whatever that may mean for us personally) if we are to overcome the temptation to despair then we need to pray. That is the message to us at the beginning of this Lent – to confront the desert with prayer – if we do so, as the painting shows, the light of Christ will enter into our darkness, take away our fear and bring about transformation through faith, hope and love.