This is one of my favourite cartoon about lent - those forty days between Shrove Tuesday and Easter when you are "supposed" to give up something to mirror the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness.
But there is another idea that you take up something productive instead and my plan this year is to write something everyday.
Ha - that should be easy as I proclaim "I am a WRITER" but you would be surprised at just how many days pass when I don't write a single thing, not even a to do list.
Last week when planning for Frogs (Friends of God - our kids club after school on Friday's for primary aged children) we decided to tell them the story of Jesus in the desert and explain Lent in a child friendly way.
Great idea but it is one of those stories that rarely appears in a child friendly Bible. So I've written my own version...
It includes many things that weren't actually around in Jesus' time, which deliberately led to some discussion, especially as some of the things I've added could be ideas of things to be given up - sweets, chocolate, screen time. They also caused much hilarity, and it's always important to have some fun.
The Temptation of Jesus
After Jesus
was baptised by John he went into the desert. To a place far away from anyone,
there were no people to talk to, no friends to laugh with, no shops to buy
food, no phone signal or Wi-Fi.
He did miss
his food – he fasted for forty days and nights – that means he didn’t eat
ANYTHING. There wasn’t even a forgotten bar of chocolate of lonely jelly bean
in the bottom of his rucksack to munch on. He got very hungry.
So what did
he do all day? Maybe he drew pictures in the sand, build sandcastles, invented
the sandwich!
He probably
spent much of his time talking to his dad, God. Maybe he asked him why he’s
been grounded and had all his privileges taken away.
But whatever
he did or thought about he must have been VERY HUNGRY – forty days and nights
is a long time.
One day the
devil turned up in the desert looking for Jesus, maybe he looked like the
serpent in the story about Adam and Eve. Perhaps he arrived in an ice cream van
– an ice cream would be so delicious on yet another hot and sunny day.
Or he could
have just been a nagging voice in Jesus’ head tempting him.
“If you
really are God’s son you can turn these dry rocks into bread, add a topping and
make a pizza!”
Perhaps for
just a second Jesus considered it, a slice of pepperoni pizza covered in lovely
melted cheese – yummy!
But he said
out loud, nice and clearly “NO!”
“People
cannot live by bread alone – it is more important to live by God’s words and do
the things he says.”
The devil
didn’t like this answer, and found a way to use God’s words to his own
advantage.
He whisked
Jesus away to Jerusalem, and they balanced on the highest tower of the temple.
“Throw
yourself down from here, God says in his word that he will send his
angels to protect you. Maybe they will conjure up an enormous marshmallow for
you to land on or whizz by in a spaceship and beam you up on board. You will
not even scrape your big toe on a rock.”
Once again
Jesus said “NO!” to this tempting offer, although the spaceship sounded fun.
“God says
we are not to put him to the test.”
By now the
devil was getting desperate for Jesus to give up this holy desert life so he
brought him to a mountain top where he could see all the kingdoms of the world
laid out like a giant computer screen, shiny and glittering.
“Imagine
the power of ruling all of this empire, I can give it to you with a click of my
fingers, IF, you only bow down and worship me!”
“NO, NO, NO
NO!” Jesus was getting fed up of the devil’s games. “Don’t you know the word of
God says you must only worship him, not power and glory for yourself. Not
chocolate or pizzas or spaceships or computer games. And certainly NOT worship
you. Get out of here, stop tempting me to do what’s wrong.”
And so the
devil slunk away on his belly in the dust, or maybe popped like a speech bubble
into nothingness.
Jesus was
still hungry and tired but he had won.
At the end of the story I told the kids I was planning to write something every day and said they could challenge me to include some strange things in next week's story. If you thought the devil driving into the desert in an ice cream van was weird, things might get even stranger in the next few weeks!
