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I Reading:
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
II Reading: Rom. 10:8b-13
Gospel: Lk 4:1-13
It is often the easy way out
that we all look for to get round our lives. We want the
immediate, the shortest route to success. That is what
the devil offers Jesus and that is precisely what our
Lord wards off.
These are the days of campus
recruitment. Talented fresh candidates are lapped up
relatively easily by world class companies for
prestigious jobs. It was different with Jesus. Fresh
from His baptism, Jesus was not thrust into the
spotlight for all the world to see. He does not
immediately go to ‛hit’ the centre stage. This he could
have. With the voice of God and the words of the
increasingly popular John the Baptist giving Him public
affirmation he could have made an impact on the badly
bruised Jewish society. Instead, Jesus goes into the
wilderness! He is “caste” by the Spirit into the
wilderness.
Once a famous theologian and
seminary founder, Lewis Sperry Chafer, when asked what
he would do if he had only one year to live, said, “I
would spend nine months preparing to live the final
three to the full.” What Jesus, who was human as well
as God, really needed was preparation, not immediate,
expedient action to impress.
Forty days of Lent is
patterned after the experience of Jesus in the
wilderness. The tempter, at the end of the forty days,
seems to pose before Jesus the question, “What kind of
Messiah are you going to be?” The three questions are
fundamental to human condition. We need food, clothing,
shelter, emotional comfort, power, prestige and safety.
So, the devil is in effect saying to the newly anointed
Messiah: “Use your divine power to get food quickly, to
accumulate power and prestige and to protect yourself to
keep yourself safe and comfortable from the dangers of
the world.” Jesus is tempted to simply take care of
himself. Jesus does not deny the human need for food,
for affirmation and for safety. Instead, he demonstrates
that his Messiah ship is primarily based on God and his
plan:
First, we really need to
hear and respond to the words of God (4:4)
Secondly, our true identity
is in our worship and service of God (4:8)
Finally, we need to believe
that God would act in his own time to save the world.
The sin of presumption is a way of testing God, which
must be resisted. (4:12)
Jesus answers firmly what the kind of Messiah He is to
be. He is One who calls us to see the gap between what
we think we need and what we really need.
The
gospel today is asking us a similar question, especially
during this season of Lent:
What kind of Christians are we going to be?
Do we want to take the easy way to power and glory? Do
we fall easily into the temptation to presumption and
sin? Are we ready to enter into the wilderness of our
lives with Jesus and learn to obey? Fasting prayer and
almsgiving has been the traditional ways of entering
into the wilderness of Christian discipline. This we do
with the aim of purifying ourselves in order to enter
into a meaningful communion with himself. |
