The Journey to the Cross 2017, First Sunday of Lent

The First Sunday of Lent:  Matthew 4             

What a perfect day to consider the Temptation of Jesus and the beginning of His ministry.  Several things leap off the page and grab my attention.  The first of those is that Jesus was led by the Spirit to go into the wilderness to be tempted.  His following that leading was intentional.

When bad things come into our lives we are most likely to see them as assaults of the devil, but we need to assess them carefully.  The Holy Spirit led Jesus to be tempted.  Sometimes the Holy Spirit is the author of the challenges we face.  We need discernment to know when that is true, but whether the challenge comes from God or is allowed by God, He is with us through it, and the test is whether we will succumb to it or be strong in the Lord and give the problem to Him to solve. 

However the problem arrives at our doorstep, God will redeem it and use it for good if we trust it to Him.  He always does.   We are promised that we will have trials of many kinds – and their purpose is to make us strong.   No body-builder ever got strong by just consistently lifting 3 pound weights.

Once I give Jesus my life – it truly is His to do with as He pleases – and if He wants me to travel through a valley so He can use it as a testimony of faithfulness so someone else can gain courage for their journey, my life is His to live as He chooses.  I am not my own.  I was bought with a price – a huge price. 

So – Jesus was tempted.  He was fully human as well as fully divine, and he had not eaten for 40 days.  That was when Satan came to Him – when Jesus was His weakest.  Jesus was hungry, so the first thing Satan offered him was bread, along with a temptation to prove He was fully God by turning stones to ‘delicious fresh-baked whole wheat rolls’.   It was a temptation appealing to his basic need of sustenance. 

Next Satan popped Him over to the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem and dared him to leap off, misusing God’s Word by quoting scripture to Him. Jesus passed the second test of survival and quoted appropriate Scripture right back to him. 

For the last temptation the devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and offered to give them to Jesus if He would bow down and worship Satan.  Really, he lied to Jesus.  Yes, it is true that Satan was granted to be the prince of the power of the air for a period of time – but it is a short-term lease.  He acted like those kingdoms were his to give – but they weren’t.  And, Jesus did not come to set up an earthly kingdom.  His kingdom is in our hearts. 

Jesus was tempted in all the ways that we are.   What will we do for acquiring basic necessities if there is a compromising temptation lurking in the process?   Are we willing to compromise when we are tempted in areas that challenge our safety and security?  What will we do when tempted with power if the outcome would compromise our integrity? 

I love that after the temptations angels came and ministered to Him.  I  believe God sends special people – and occasionally angels – to minister to us as well….

In the remainder of this chapter Jesus calls his first disciples – Simon Peter and Andrew – and his message to the 2 fishermen was, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 

A few years ago God spoke to me and said, “I want you to contend for what I contend for.”  Several months later, after asking Him many times for clarification about what He contends for, He said, “I contend for mans’ souls.”   And He does.  That’s why God became a man and died for us.

Before the end of the chapter He calls 2 more fishermen as disciples and then Matthew reports that Jesus started His ministry, going throughout Galilee, teaching, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every kind of disease imaginable.  

Humor for today:

On an overnight stay when she was 4 years old, our youngest granddaughter crawled into bed between my husband and I the next morning.  After singing a few songs together, she announced, “Pa is a good looker.”  Pa was genuinely delighted with her affirmation, assuming she was complimenting his suave good looks.  But the bubble was quickly burst when she continued, “He can see and find things really good.”