8/25/2023

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 2. 5-6)

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry. The Tempter came to Him….” (Matthew 4.1-3a)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

So, what did you experience when you read the story of Jesus’ desert sojourn in Matthew as compared to Luke? Did you see them as the same? The outcome most certainly was, as James declared, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” This never meant that Satan, the Devil, fled the earth. It is his appointed domain to prowl like a roaring lion seeking innocents to devour. Does this seem like a cruel penalty on the people of the earth instead? Well, for those who choose unrighteousness, they make themselves prey for the enemy of God and humanity. From the very beginning, we are all called to choose righteousness. Bottomline righteousness is “to trust God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and to love your neighbor as you yourself are loved, period.” Yes, that is the Shema. The Shema is the predecessor of the Ten Commandments. Every rabbi knew the priority of God’s desire was to be in obedience to “simple righteousness.” Look, even God is obedient to “simple righteousness.” As God is love, He has no other option that to operate under the assumption of the law which is for all things to function as “good and very good.” Of course, Satan distorts that function and intention through the lens of self-righteousness. And we, as did Eve and then Adam, will be and have been and are confronted with the illusion that self-righteousness is “good and very good.” For example, the murderer justifies his or her actions by saying “They deserved it.” or “I did what I had to do.” Entitlement is a tool of the enemy of God and humanity. No one is greater than another. Jesus proclaimed it to the point of sharing “No one is greater than the Father.” Jesus is the epitome of “simple righteousness.” And Matthew helps us to see Him and ourselves, as disciples of Christ, in this light through the remembrance of the Desert Sojourn following His baptism in the Jordan.

As I mentioned several days ago, when John saw Jesus enter the water having parted the sea of humanity to do so, he declared, “It is I who should be baptized by You and not the other way around. I am unworthy to even untie your sandals.” Recognize here that the practice of footwashing was brought to the front of everyone’s thinking. This was no ordinary baptismal moment. John had been preaching for at least six months (as he was six months older than Jesus and we know the importance of the age of 30 in the life of a rabbi.) He had been preaching, “Repent, be baptized, everyone of you and prepare the way of the Lord. His Kingdom is drawing near.” His words invoked the very basic purpose and function of every person of God, the Jews. His declaration was the proverbial line drawn in the sand. It was a dividing line and a defining line for all believers as to which side they were truly on: simple righteousness or self-righteousness. In an age when righteousness was a veil which covered over a multitude of sins, the renting of the veil was a fearful and welcome respite. Fearful because of what the Roman Empire and the Temple leadership would do to those who refused to bend their knee to them. Welcome because it was a signal that the time had come when everyone would bend their knee, bow their head and call upon the name of the Lord, “Baruch atah Adonai.” The playing field was anticipated to be made level. Once again there would only be God in Heaven and earth as His footstool. But, more so, it would be the age of the Messiah and His Kingdom where life on earth would mirror that in heaven. However, life on earth was far from heavenly. It was more like hell.

Now Jesus, “to fulfill all righteousness,” was baptized. He was making Himself servant to the framework of simple righteousness: trusting God in all things with all He had. God poured out the blessing of His anointing Spirit and filled Him with His abiding Word. Before this time we have those announcements coming from others: angels at His birth to the shepherds in the field; Simeon and Anna in the temple when Mary was redeemed by the blood of the lamb forty days after Jesus was born; magi from the corners of the world come to adore Him when He was two years old in Bethlehem; the rabbi in Jerusalem at Jesus’ barmitzvah when He was twelve; and John the baptizer when he first laid eyes on Jesus whom he had known when he first stirred in the womb at the approach of the virgin Mary. But, now we hear it directly from God, “This is My Son whom I love and now am well-pleased.” Of course, Jesus had always had the reality of living “in spirit and in truth (or the Word).” Now, with the blessing and anointing of God, Jesus was making straight the path for the coming Kingdom. All He had done before this was preparing Him for this anointing and commissioning. What He was about to do was to prepare Him for the “clearing the road, plowing the field, making straight the strait and narrow path with leads to the house of the Lord forever.” Jesus took on a sojourn into the wilderness as if remembering when the Hebrews freed from Egypt found themselves being honed and purified for forty years. When their sojourn out of slavery and into freedom was complete, they crossed over into the Promised Land of God. So, for forty days, Jesus sojourned in the wilderness. He fasted, prayed, worshipped and prepared for the most challenging moment in His life to that point. It was then, when He was hungering and thirsting in the flesh as He had hungered and thirsted for “simple righteousness,” that Satan, the Accuser, appeared and tempted Him. Satan had been in the world so long that he must have forgotten God does not operate on the same terms and those who are “self-righteous.” He believed Jesus was more man than God and in His own hungering and thirsting would fall prey to needs of the flesh over and against the needs of the spirit. But, Jesus was ready. He had spent thirty-eight days of doing nothing more than obey the command of God: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and have love for your neighbor as you yourself are loved.” Didn’t He hear that affirmation just thirty-eight days prior? Didn’t John hear it as well even when others did not? Didn’t God say, “This is My beloved, My Son, whom I love and with whom now I AM well-pleased.” What else could be said as motivation to complete the task presented. Three opportunities Satan presented hoping Jesus would believe He was something other than what He then knew Himself to be. Three opportunities for Jesus to present to Satan to believe in Him and the Father who sent Him by “spirit and the Word.”

Two perspectives achieving the same end: “resist the devil and he will flee.” Jesus was straight-forward and straight-shooting. He resisted and then lived out the belief He had. He prepared Himself for the moment when temptation to deny Himself would be the greatest and then fulfilled the power of the Word given to Him. These are the testimonies of faith given to us, mighty ones of God. By them we are strengthened, encouraged and empowered to “be God’s people.” We are to prepare ourselves and be prepared. We are to resist and be resistant. We are to abide in “simple righteousness” and cast off “self-righteousness.” There is no other “way, truth and life” which will be key and critical to our future. We need to get that straight in our minds and strait in our hearts.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN LIGHT OF GOD’S WORD:

Father, You have revealed to us best in Jesus the Christ. By Him and Him alone shall we gain the eternal life and our place in eternal rest, living for You always. Show us more and by Your Holy Spirit instruct us in the way we should go, the truth we should reveal and the life we shall live with you forever. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.