Confident Faith
1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’" 11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him. (Matthew 4:1-4,11)
After Jesus was baptized, and the Holy Spirit gave assurance of God's presence and God's claiming, that same Spirit led Jesus to the wilderness - regarded as both a place of testing and a place of God's guidance. For forty days Jesus was tempted to trade the path that would glorify God for the path that would glorify himself. First he was temped to use the power God had given him to meet his own needs - he chose, instead, to trust God. Then Jesus was tempted to "make" God prove the love and care God had for him - Jesus chose to rest in that love instead. Lastly, Jesus was tempted to turn away from God, and the difficult journey that lay ahead, and choose the temporary, perceived glory that the world had to offer - Jesus chose the eternal, yet unseen,
glory that God would give.
Later, the book of Matthew records how Jesus taught this humble mindset of faith and trust by focusing on the areas of prayer, giving, and fasting. Even while doing what's right, we have the tendency toward self-glorification. Nothing is wrong with being seen giving, fasting, or praying - the problem arises when being seen becomes the goal. The concern is with state of our heart and the quality of our character. Jesus' teaching shows that he understood that we are tempted in the same ways Jesus submitted to being tempted - moment by moment we are choosing between the desires of self and the call of God, between trusting God and leaning to our own understanding, between the temporary and the eternal.
Today, we are seeing this dynamic play out in real life in the war Russia has waged on Ukraine. Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has determined that his own power, and what he can gain, is of utmost importance, while the people of Ukraine - most of whom are not soldiers - have determined, despite the odds, that they will fight for democracy for the generations to come. Freedom is always fragile and never free.
As we begin this Lenten journey with Jesus to the cross, we are reminded that Jesus' fight for our freedom from sin and death took him to the cross before it took him to the throne. May we hold with faithful confidence to God's Word as we strive to choose well and wisely, even as we praise God for the grace that - because of Christ -
catches us when we fall.
17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
(Matthew 6:17-21)
Standing in solidarity with Ukraine and all of those suffering under the weight of our collective sins.
