3rd, 4th February Trinity
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| Blake, Stones into Bread |
(Sunday after Ash Wednesday)
Matthew 4:1-11
Then
Jesus was led by the Spirit into the loneliness of the desert to experience the
tempting power of the adversary.
After fasting forty days and nights, He felt for
the first time hunger for earthly nourishment. Then the tempter came to him and
said, “If you are the Son of God, let these stones become bread through the
power of your word.”
Jesus answered, “It is written, ‘The human being
shall not live on bread alone; he lives by the creative power of every word
that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Then the devil took him to the holy city and
had
him stand on the parapet of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said,
“throw yourself down. For it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning
you, and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your
foot against a stone.’”
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| Blake, Throw Yourself Down |
Jesus answered him, “Do not put the Lord your God
to the test.”
Again a third time, the devil took him to a very
elevated place, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their
splendor. “All this I will give to you,” he said, “if you will bow down and
worship me as your Lord. “
Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is
written, ‘You shall worship [pray to] God your Lord who guides you and serve
him only.’”
Then the adversary left him, and he beheld again
the angels as they came to bring him nourishment.
2nd
Sunday February Trinity
Matthew
4:1-11
When a first-time
driver sits behind the wheel, he or she must first gain control of the power of
the vehicle—how far to turn the wheel in order to end up where he wants; how
hard to press on gas or brake. The first lessons are usually out in an empty
space.
In this gospel
reading, Christ had just been baptized. He had just for the first time entered
the strange territory of a human soul and body. Imagine what a great coup it
would have been for the devil to abort Christ’s mission at its very inception.
So we can imagine the devil hauling out his greatest weapons.
The first of the
devil’s weapons is the desperation of the body’s need. In suggesting that
Christ turn stones into bread, the devil might also be whispering that of
course it would be foolish for Christ to let Himself die of starvation here in
the desert. Yet Christ resists literally taking matter into his own hands. He relies on the Father’s
living presence to sustain Him—and indeed He is nourished by angels who come to
feed Him.
The second and the
third of the devil’s temptations involve the soul’s
pride in two extreme forms.
First the devil draws Him over to one side, into foolishly assuming God’s total
protection of body and soul, no matter how extreme the behavior, even if He
were to jump off a high place. Failing that, the devil takes Him to the other
extreme, encouraging Him to drop his allegiance to the Father altogether and to
derive His power from the Prince of this World.
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| Blake, Riches of the World |
Yet, new as He is to
life in a human body, Christ is no fool. He sees through the errors and
consequences in the devil’s propositions. He knows that His connection with His
Father must remain both appropriate and unbroken in order for Him to do what he
has come to earth to do.
Because Christ was
able to overcome temptation from within the human body, He is able to give
every human being the possibility to do likewise—to see through and to resist
the devil’s false suggestions, in order to do what we have come to earth to do.
Each human being has the possibility to maintain a connection to the world from
which we all have come. We can become aware of our real connection with our
Father in the heavens, whose kingdom comes when it is His will that is done on
earth. We can perhaps hear Him speaking in the words of the poet:
Close both eyes and
see with the other eye.
Open your hands if you
want to be held….
Quit acting like a
wolf and feel
the Shepherd’s love,
filling you.[1]
