The start of Lent

 

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!