This Sunday, the first Sunday in Lent, invites us to reflect on the experiences of Jesus in the wilderness after his baptism. In Luke 4:1-13 Jesus works through three specific temptations relating to his future work with people. He could turn stones into bread and buy attention. He could impress the crowds through a stunt, jumping off the temple. Or he could do a deal for power by compromising his integrity. One of the challenges in exploring this text with a group is the tendency we have of visualising Jesus in a conversation with a flesh and blood ‘devil’. CBS, in their 2000 mini-series, Jesus, has Jeremy Sisto playing Jesus, confronted by both female and male forms of tester.

Manuela Ruggeri appears as a woman in red, sometimes even as a trinity, suggesting that she’s cooperating with the Holy Spirit. Jeroen Krabbé plays a tester dressed as a man of the 21st century, a master of visual effects. An internal struggle of conscience, like that faced by all of us, is hard to present in a film. But here director Roger Young has at least tried to present a range of experiences that help us connect with the tortured imagination of a tired, hungry, thirsty and dirty Jesus.

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