Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. (Matthew 4:1)

Pedro is new to the streets. We hardly know anything about him. In fact, no one knows much about him except that he comes from a Brazilian state in the Northeast furthest away from São Paulo. No one knows how he ended up in this city. At first, we thought he was only seven years old. He is the smallest boy among our children here. However, he always insisted that he is 10. It seems to be the truth. No one can deny that he makes up for his small stature with his larger-than-life personality. He found acceptance among the children and teens almost immediately. He is quite a charmer. However, today, he did something wrong. The older teens were trying to explain to him how things work in the streets. He wasn’t listening. Besides, he was not the least bit remorseful for his actions. Nevertheless he regretted being caught for his actions. He had caused a scene in the Cathedral. No one knows exactly what happened. The church’s security guard was clearly upset. He complained to the other teens about it. They like and respect him. He has always been kind to them. I asked one of the older teens what happened. She just shook her head and said, “Pedro thinks is above the Law and he can do what he wants. He has to learn that not everything is permissible here.” She is right.

Pedro like most of our children and teens ran away from an environment where they felt oppressed and restricted. In the streets, all these previous restrictions and abuses are suspended. In fact, everything changes in this place. All the rules and norms of society are not applicable here.If a casual passerby were to sit and observe this place for a moment, he would conclude that this place where we minister to the children is an urban wilderness. Children can do adult things without any restriction or prohibition. Pedro thinks this is great. He is taking full advantage of the situation. He is free but soon he will learn that he is not free to do what he wants. There are new sets of rules for his new reality. He has to learn them soon if he wants to survive in this wilderness.

Jesus chose to go the wilderness for different reasons. He went to confront the devil there. Recently, we had a discussion over this particular text with our friends over coffee. They wanted to know if this encounter was literally or figurative. I told them that the story is not about the reality of the devil, but about confronting all the things that he represents. The devil is a depiction of our human desire to usurp godhood from God Himself. We want to do this by domesticating Him; by using the gifts He bestowed upon us for our own special advancement and by manipulating Him to become our servant. All of us have this desire. Sometimes we ignore it. Sometimes we justify it with pious arguments. Sometimes we think that this is our right to have this desire. Whatever it is, we need to confront it in order to understand the gospel. Jesus went to the wilderness to do this.

Jesus was taken away from his family, friends and everything that was familiar to him. He was stripped of everything that made him who he was. Then He fasted for forty days. His physical strength was almost depleted. He was alone in a frightful place. Emotionally he must have felt vulnerable and abandoned. The only person present with him was the devil trying to convince Him that He deserved better than this.

The word, “temptation”, has been banalized especially in our present times. Maybe it was always like that. The word conjures up images of being seduced to do something naughty or prohibited.However, in this gospel story, the devil tempted Jesus with reasonable things. There was nothing wrong or evil about he said. Perhaps, bowing down to worship him could be conceived as evil. However, even in this case, it could be argued as a proposal to get things done in a quick and efficient way. In this present state we find ourselves, many people including religious ones are convinced that two wrongs can make a right. Therefore, for these people, the temptation to bow down and worship the devil could be brushed as a mere necessary evil.

To turn stone into bread or in other words to use our spirituality for our own personal benefit; to make a spectacle of a miracle so that more people can see the power of God manifested in Jesus and drawing complete attention to oneself, and finally, to make an unholy alliance with an evil ruler so that we can supposedly do some good. Many are already doing all these things today in and outside the church. On the other hand, Jesus systemically refused all of these “good” offers because…..He knew that God was doing something new. These ideas or temptations of the devil come from the old way of thinking. They are fruits of the old Adam who wanted to be like God and acquire God’s power for his own personal benefit. If Jesus had entertained any of these seductive solutions, then He would be just continuing the same old pattern that leads to the path of self-destruction. In the wilderness, Jesus had to decide what kind of person He was going to be so that the gospel could truly be the good news.

I like little Pedro. He is really a good and kind boy. I believe that he will eventually choose to do the right thing. However, he needs help to make the right choices. I am convinced that he is not going to be lectured into doing the right things. No one I know has become a good person through constant nagging. Pedro is looking for new reasons to be good. He wants to discover a new set of ethics that would help him understand how to live in this cruel world that has left him technically an orphan. Before he leaves this urban wilderness, he needs to develop some tools to help him confront this world that has rejected him.

Young Pedro also has helped me understand something about myself. We are too in this urban wilderness. We have been brought here by the Holy Spirit. I believe now that all our children and teens are also here because they have been led here by the same Spirit. This is not to say that the Holy Spirit caused all their misfortunes so that they could be in the streets. I am saying that despite all the evil and tragedy that they have experienced, the Holy Spirit continues to lead and guide them. We are all brought together to this place. Some things from the past don’t have any value in the wilderness. I used to be proud to be an Anglo-Catholic priest. I know how to chant the Morning and Evening Prayers from our prayer book. I know a lot of religious jargon. All these are meaningless in this wilderness. Even if I was a pastor of a mega church, it would be irrelevant here. The wilderness does this. It strips us of all masquerades and leaves us with nothing but our frail humanity. This is when we discern the lies of the devil. Jesus was not tempted by the devil. The devil was exposed in the wilderness. None of his arguments were mildly seductive to our Lord. He knew that despite His frail state, there was something more powerful and deeper in our humanity that will sustain us. The devil can be at our side with his lies but the Truth dwells in our most intimate being. The reasonable arguments of the devil cannot shake this truth from our souls. Jesus held onto this in His soul and went back into the world to overcome it. Therefore, we sit with the children and wait with them. For now, we hear the pointless chatter of the devil. Some of our children are seduced by it. However, most of them can see through it. Now, they are waiting for the Holy Spirit to teach them to listen to the voice comes from within. The voice that speaks the Truth that will cast out all fears and threats that the world throws at us and our children.