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.
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| 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.’”
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| 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.”
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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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