Sunday, March 1, 2020

4th February Trinity 2020, See with the Other Eye



February Trinity

6th Sunday before Easter 
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.

Tissot
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.’”

Tissot
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.”

Tissot
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 the angels again as they came to bring him nourishment. 


4th February Trinity
March 1, 2020
Matthew 4:1-11

When a first-time driver sits behind the wheel, they must first gain control over the power of the vehicle—how far to turn the wheel to end up where they want; how hard to press on the gas or the brake. The first lessons are usually out in an empty space.

Blake
This gospel reading takes place right after Jesus’ Baptism when Christ’s Spirit entered him. Christ had entered the strange territory of a human soul and body. He is in the desert. 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 the devil’s suggestion to literally take the matter into his own hands. Christ relies on the Father’s living presence to sustain Him—and indeed, angels come to nourish Him.

Blake
The second and the third of the devil’s temptations involve the soul’s pride in two extremes. First, the devil tries to draw Him into foolishly assuming God’s total protection of His 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.

Blake
Yet new as He is to living in a human body, Christ is no fool. He sees through the errors and consequences in the Enemy’s propositions. He knows that His connection with His Father must remain both appropriate and unbroken 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 resist the devil’s false suggestions, to do what we have come to earth to do. Each human being has the possibility of maintaining 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 His will is done on earth. We can perhaps hear God 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.*


* Rumi, “A Communion of the Spirit” in The Essential Rumi, Coleman Barks, p. 3.

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