5th February Trinity 2014, Divine Angelic Nature

J. Kirk Richards

3^rd, 4^th February Trinity

(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.’”

Arild Rosenkrantz

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.

5^th February Trinity

March 9, 2014

Matthew 4: 1-11

Storms can cause floods. Rivers jump their banks; trees and boulders are loosened. Sometimes the river’s course is changed forever as a new channel is cut.

We are all on a course toward developing our own divine angelic nature. For long stretches things flow along as usual. But sudden events and changes can divert our course, for good or for ill. Sometimes things open up, and we are propelled forward. Or sometimes we discover that we long ago strayed into some side channel and are no longer on the main route.

Christ began his life on earth with what is our goal: a fully developed divine nature. His path was to become fully human. And just after he arrived, after His Baptism, he experienced the flooding. The adversary tries to overwhelm Him with the novelty and power of the world seen from inside a human body. The adversary’s intent is to alter His course, to steer Him into a backwater existence or to strand him onshore. Christ avoids these dangers by steering His course firmly by the star of His own divine origin and purpose. He remains living within God’s own creative power; He quietly but firmly refuses to follow a false path of worship or of arrogance. And all the while He steers intently toward His own death. For He set as his task to cut a new channel forward out of the backwater, the mire, the death into which humanity had strayed.

Arild Rosenkrantz

Christ’s temptations are the temptations that beset every human being. Christ has made himself into a vessel, a ship by which we can keep to our own course through the deeps and shallows of life. He helps us steer through the floods, avoiding the sandbars and backwaters. He is our guide as we make our way toward our divine goal, through all of our lives. He helps us steer with confidence into and through our deaths.

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