Unsurprisingly, as we turn the corner into Lent, we encounter again this week the account of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness. It is, of course, the reason for this season—giving us both the 40 days it lasts and the ideas and challenges of preparation (Jesus getting ready for his public ministry), self-denial (Jesus' forty-day fast), introspection (Jesus taking himself off alone), and the quest for the spiritual (Jesus turning out not to be alone, but accompanied by Satan, wild beasts, and angels...).

We know this stuff; it happens every year - yet, as so often before, I've found myself surprised by something that I've never really noticed until now. It was floating around on the edge of my consciousness but really dropped into place when I took the time to acknowledge the context from which Jesus draws his first response to temptation.

It's often acknowledged that Jesus responds with words of Scripture, specifically the book of Deuteronomy, to each of Satan's temptations. I've gratefully acknowledged that fact in the past as a useful teaching moment on the importance of knowing our Scriptures (and perhaps even an insight into what Jesus' bedtime reading had been for the last few weeks).  This year I looked a little more closely.

In particular, his first response is drawn from Deuteronomy 8:3. It's perfectly apposite in isolation to the situation at hand.  At first glance, though, its wider context makes it a slightly odd choice. The section headings in our Bibles are, of course, editorial interjections and not part of the original texts, so I would usually be cautious about building a point from one - but on this occasion, the NRSV's heading does a wonderful job of summing up this section: A Warning Not to Forget God in Prosperity.

Isn't that a little odd: that at the point of starvation, the words that spring to Jesus' lips are a warning not to forget God in prosperity?

It's exactly the same warning we find in our other reading this week: the command to the Israelites to put in place ongoing celebrations to remind them, once they have arrived in the prosperity of the Promised Land, not to forget what they went through to get there, to whom they should be grateful, and on whom they are still dependent. And, again, these words are delivered to the Israelites in the deprivations of the wilderness, before the envisaged prosperity has become a reality.

It may seem contradictory to be reminded not to forget God in prosperity whilst in the midst of poverty and deprivation, but if we're honest, doesn't the absence of riches make them far more obvious to us than their abundance? We're only two days in to Lent, but I'm already far more aware of the Hobnobs in the kitchen than I was last week, before I gave up snacking between meals... 

It is perhaps no coincidence that we, in our cultural moment, are at the same time among the most privileged, most secular, and wealthiest people in history, and yet also are so often deeply discontented. 

Isn't this, though, the very heart of Lent and Lenten discipline? To open our eyes to the excesses of ease that crowd out our recognition of God's provision, love, and care for us? To create in our hearts once more the space to love him and be loved by him? To empty ourselves of distractions and fill ourselves instead with thankfulness? To experience the truth that human beings, after all, cannot live on bread (or Hobnobs) alone.

Imagine a world for a moment in which people relied less on the power and strength of wealth and weaponry and were willing to surrender those false gods, and remember instead the reliance they share with every other human being on the fundamental goodness, love, and generosity of God. Perhaps if we could all remember that we are only special because of that, we would be better placed to remember that everyone is just as special for precisely the same reason - and therefore not to be abused, exploited, hated, and killed...

So I invite you this Lent to deliberately deprive yourself of something not that you might lose weight or become a little fitter (great and to be encouraged as those things are), but in order that every time you notice its absence, you might remind yourself to recognise how much God provides and does for us, and offer him thanks. Perhaps we'll even manage to grow into the habit so much that in forty days' time, we'll still continue to remember God when prosperity returns.