Let Jesus be Jesus

Head of Christ by Rembrandt (Dutch, 1650s)

Lent is upon us.

Six weeks of Lent yields 42 days, plus the four days just gone, equals 46. Take off the six Sundays of Lent and we are back to 40 days. Order restored.

In the first two weeks of Lent – each year – we are presented with the temptations of Jesus (week one) and the transfiguration of Jesus (week two).

The Church is placing before us the mystery of Jesus, who is truly human and truly divine. Jesus is tempted. He is human. Jesus is transfigured, manifesting his divinity.

Don’t bother trying to get your head around it. It is not a puzzle to be solved but a mystery to be believed and lived.

Let Jesus be Jesus.

Simply accept him as he is – a person who is thoroughly human and thoroughly divine.

There has never been anyone like him, nor will there be ever again.

He is completely and utterly unique.

Let Jesus be Jesus.

Accept him in his humanity. He is one of us – body, soul and spirit.

Like all human beings, he experiences testing and temptation:

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit through the wilderness, being tempted there by the devil for forty days (Luke 4).

But unlike us, because he is one with his Eternal Father, Jesus is without sin:

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15).

From the sympathy of God arises confidence – a beautiful word meaning ‘with trust’:

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16).

Let Jesus be Jesus.

There is every good reason for doing so.

Amen.