2nd February Trinity 2016, Embracing Suffering

3rd, 4th 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.

Jean-Marie St. Eve, Wikicommons

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.’”

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.

3rd, 4th February Trinity

Blake

February 14, 2016

Matthew 4:1-11

Christ was the God who had never before lived in an earthly body. Forty days after his entry at the Baptism into the body of Jesus, he feels for the first time the hunger for earthly nourishment. The body shows him the overwhelming nature of the thirst for existence. This is the thirst for existence that Buddha had warned that humanity needed to be overcome in order to avoid suffering.

And it is this thirst for existence that gives the adversary access to Christ Jesus. Yet Christ manages to maintain his equilibrium between heaven and earth. For he came, not to avoid suffering, but to embrace it.

He refuses to magick up bread for himself. Instead, angels nourish him in the sphere of life. He refuses to succumb to pride in his own uniqueness as Son of God. He sees through the delusion that the Prince of this world could give him earthly power and glory.

Instead, he is faithful to His Father and to his own mission. He does not flee the hunger and hardship that being in a body entails. He chooses, and will continue to choose to embrace suffering, the suffering of all humankind, because he loves us. He chooses the hard road.

In so doing, Christ laid the seed of possibility within each of us. We can see through the delusions of the adversary. We can overcome pride and maintain our trust and connection with our heavenly Father, who holds our unique destiny and purpose in his hands. We can embrace our own suffering as a necessary step along our own path. And we can embrace others in their suffering through Christ’s love. 

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