Wednesday 27 August 2008

The next three days will deal with the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness and how it is a way to view the tie between Israel and Jesus as imitating God's way. How Jesus' life was seen as the recapitulation of God's way with Israel is perhaps nowhere better presented than in the temptation narratives.

For in the wilderness Jesus, like Israel, discovers his vocation through being tempted to pervert God's gift to Israel. In the first temptation we see Jesus so identified with Israel that he experiences Israel's perennial desire for certainty of her own choosing. Is he to be like Moses and turn stone to bread? Surely it would be a good thing to turn stone into bread, to be a ready resource to feed the hungry and the poor. But Jesus rejects that means of proving how God reigns with his people knowing that the life offered Israel is more than bread can supply (Luke 4:4).

Isn't that so much within all of our minds and hearts - the certainty of our own choosing. Whatever that may be, it is often the power that turns us away from the call to live within God's Reign. Rather, we take off and attempt to be a part of a reign we have in our mind...a reign that we may be able to control and direct and make a life for ourselves. I just realized how funny "make a life for ourselves" sounds. That is part of the idolatry out in the wilderness...part of the temptation that confronts our Lord and one that is pecking at us each day. We forget that "this is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it." We all have plans for how we will make it. How we will turn stones into bread. How we will somehow be the power that can turn us into somebody. So Jesus moves through the temptation that is so much a part of us and Jesus is not moved by its power to persuade. Rather, he holds to the promise and renounces the power within the day that attempts to turn us into something we are not.

Connection: Watching the political conventions and listening to pundits do their thing reminds me of the importance of being watchful in regard to how we want the world to move. So much "buzz" it is enough to turn a promise into just a self-indulgent day.

Come, Lord God, Come and lead us through the wilderness and feed us with your grace. Too often we turn from you and attempt to be our source of life. It never works. Empower us to trust in you alone. Amen.