Even If i Walk Alone

Instructing and encouraging you to live your life as a disciple of Jesus

Archives for May 9, 2009

Lessons From the Temptation of Christ

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I am endeavoring to chronologically work my way through the Gospels, reimagining each of the familiar stories through the use of imaginative prayer. If you are unfamiliar with imaginative prayer, I highly recommend reading Greg Boyd’s excellent “Seeing Is Believing: Experience Jesus through Imaginative Prayer” and check out his ‘Animate’ sermon series on the topic as well. Today I am considering the temptation of Christ found in Mark 1:12-13, Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13.

The fasting of Jesus in the wilderness for forty days is a testament to what a person can withstand when their entire focus is on God. It is hard for most of us to imagine going without food for a few hours, much less forty days! I think the key here is that Jesus was so enraptured with being in the presence of God that He truly needed nothing else. We are spiritual beings at our core, and the story would seem to point to the fact that proper spiritual nourishment trumps the physical. When Satan tempted Jesus to turn the stone into bread, Jesus replied that “Man does not live by bread alone”. His fast was on God’s schedule, and He wasn’t going to break it even though He easily could. Satan was obviously not trying to help Jesus, but rather sought to have Jesus take nourishment from the things of this world rather than from God; Satan tried to get Jesus to focus on the temporal, physical side of things rather than the spiritual and eternal. The lesson is that we should always be in diligent conversation with our Heavenly Father, while at the same time realizing our communion with God is infinitely more important than our physical comfort and pleasure. In refusing Satan’s attempts to get him to focus on His own physical needs, Jesus demonstrated a total reliance on the Father.

The second thing Satan tried to tempt Jesus with was power and a desire to have great wealth as the ruler of all of the earthly kingdoms – if only He would bow to Satan. Jesus responded by telling Satan to “Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only”. No power or achievement in our life will ever be worth turning away from Christ. It is far better we be poor and powerless, yet serving God, than to have our fill of this world’s “success”. We need to remove any idols we have in our lives that would keep us from worshipping God alone. Idols can come in many forms: tangible possessions, social status or personal desires. Anything that we value more than God, even for the slightest moment, is an idol. In refusing to worship Satan in exchange for earthly power and wealth, Jesus demonstrated total devotion to the Father.

The final test of Jesus occurred when Satan tried to get Him to step off the highest point of the temple, to test whether Jesus really had faith in God to protect Him. Jesus replied, “Do not test the Lord your God”. We see a couple of principles in play here. First, God blessed us all with the ability to think through the various situations in our life. We need to constantly pray for wisdom, and also seek the counsel of trusted men and women. Acting with wisdom, we can trust that God will walk with us. We can’t simply act foolishly, without thought, and expect God to bail us out. Secondly, avoid sinning simply because you have faith that you will be forgiven. I believe this is also testing God. If we truly love Him, we will want to turn away from sin, not see how much we can get away with. By refusing to “prove” His faith to Satan, Jesus demonstrated a confident faith in the Father; He knew God would always walk with Him through the turbulent times to come.

Career Crisis for Christ?

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I’ve been pretty frustrated with my J.O.B. (it seems like such a dirty word that I feel the need for additional emphasis) for quite some time now. I have a great job that pays well, and hey, let’s face it, in this economy it’s wonderful to still be employed. But there is something vaguely immoral about giving the most productive ten hours of my day to a corporation that does absolutely nothing to further the message of Jesus Christ to our world. As Christians, we have one mission in life: to be the love of Christ to all those around us that they might come to know Him.

I have long heard the pat answers of “just serving God wherever you are” and “perhaps God put you in that J.O.B. for a specific purpose, to witness to those around you”. Well, okay, but isn’t that the exact purpose that God has given to the life of every Christian? No matter where we are we are to be demonstrating and reflecting the love of God to all those around us. It is a lifelong, continuous mission, one that is independent of where we live or where we work. It seems to me more likely that these pat answers come from our Western Christianity growing far too comfortable with the Western ideology for far too long. We now see a J.O.B. as our Christian responsibility, as a sign of how God is blessing us. This is an utterly foreign concept of what I read in the Bible. The followers of Christ worked as they needed to support themselves as they went about telling others about Christ and demonstrating His love. There was no concept of a comfortable career, a nice nest egg for retirement, no concentration on how nicely they could furnish their homes or if they were driving the latest eco-conscious chariot!

I do not mean to imply that Christians should shirk all responsibility and that all jobs are evil. I do intend to point out that most of us, self included, spend the vast majority of our time doing things that have little or no Kingdom value. Each of us was created with a unique combination of gifts and passions, but how many of us are fully utilizing those same gifts? How many of us are fully engaged in our passions? We have become a fat and lazy people, consumed with what society tells us we need to do and have. I for one am rethinking the whole deal; what impact might I have on the world for Christ if I was fully engaged in something I was passionate about, fully utilizing the gifts God has imparted to me and giving the most productive hours of each day to such an endeavor? How might my life be different? How might yours? More importantly, think of the Kingdom impact we would have on our neighborhoods and our world.

Father, I know the path you have placed before me. I thank you for the passions and gifts you have placed within me. May I set aside the things of this world and focus solely on Your kingdom and on loving those around me. Strengthen me for the road ahead. Thank You for Your love and for this life You have given me; may I use it all for Thee.