“But lead us not into temptation…” – Matthew 6:13
Alright, I’ll admit it – in my religious background the Holy Spirit always seemed like a third wheel. It had to be included for the Trinity to work, but God and Jesus were the stars, the Holy Spirit was more of a tag-a-long. When it was spoken of at all, it was referred as either a “fill-up-our-cups” happy pill or as being like a force shield from Star Trek protecting us from the photon torpedoes of sin and temptation. Wrap the Holy Spirit around us, and sin stays safely at a distance (as if sin is this external thing anyway). Repeatedly as a teenager I heard the line about “leave room for the Holy Spirit” in reference to dating – as in don’t get so physically close while making-out that there isn’t room between you for the HS (which kinda defeats the purpose of making-out, but I guess that was the point). In this truncated definition – the Spirit uplifts and protects when it does anything at all.
But then I read passages like Matthew 4:1 where Jesus is led into the desert by the Spirit. He spends 40 days, struggling, fasting, praying, and facing temptation because that is where the Spirit took him. It was where he was meant to be. Suddenly the line from the Lord’s Prayer about asking not to be led into temptation makes more sense. Far from being just a happy pill or a force shield, the Spirit is actually far more dangerous and subversive.
The desert is a hard place – barren, empty. A place not of joy and assurance, but of desolation and doubt. It is where one goes to wrestle with God – really struggle with the hard questions that honestly have no answers. It is where the temptation to settle for a simplistic faith devoid of the struggle constantly plagues us. Where putting God into a manageable box can seem a preferable choice to being ripped apart by spiritual anguish.
The Spirit can lead us into the desert. The Spirit can lead us into temptation.
And deliver us from evil. For that is the way of the Kingdom.