First Sunday of Lent ~ Carl Thomas Gladstone - Just a Tempter

One of the themes for the first Sunday of Lent is the temptation of Jesus. The gospel lesson looks at the end of Jesus' forty day fast in the wilderness following his baptism. This was a time of preparation for Jesus to begin the ministry that God had called him to. It is also one of the primary stories that the Church has used to create the forty days of Lent. As his forty day fast comes to an end, Jesus finds himself in the presence of the tempter. The tempter tempts him to feed himself, to test God, and to take power for himself. Jesus is able to resist these temptations. We enter the forty days of Lent seeking to resist our own temptations. As I was thinking of a song to use for this day, I picked Carl Gladstone's "Just a Tempter" because he does such a good job of helping us to see the temptation of Christ in a contemporary setting. What are the temptations we have to deal with everday? I can't fully comprehend what it means to fast for forty days; I don't know what it would mean to be that hungry. But I have been tempted in other ways. By retelling the story in the way he does, Carl helps to make the story of Jesus' temptation real for me.