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Week 1: The Wilderness
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A GREETING
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
(Psalm 51:10)
A READING
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’ But he answered, ‘It is written, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”’ Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you”, and “On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.”’ Jesus said to him, ‘Again it is written, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”’ Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour; and he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! for it is written, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only God.”’ Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
(Matthew 4:1-11)
MUSIC
A MEDITATIVE VERSE
Sustain in me a willing spirit.
(Psalm 51:12b)
A VERSE RETOLD
For God will command God's angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.
(Psalm 91:11-12)
A PRAYER
Jesus, you have known us from the beginning of time, you have known us in the depths of our dreams and in the darkness of our shame, you know us as your beloved. Help us to own that core identity more and more in this season of repentance and mercy. Give us the rock-solid assurance of your unwavering faith in us as we seek the same in you. Amen.
- found on jesuitresource.org
VERSE FOR THE DAY
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love.
(Psalm 51:1)
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| "Christ in the Wilderness - The Scorpion" by Stanley Spencer (1939) |
Every year on Ash Wednesday, we begin our journey of Jesus in the wilderness with his encounter with the Tempter. Although in many Christian traditions this figure is associated with evil, in the Jewish faith he is more of an adversary, someone who calls out the most separated aspect of ourselves from God, to test us. As the story unfolds, we see that no part of Jesus is separated from God because Jesus is God. Throughout the Matthew text, both Jesus and the Tempter refer to previous scripture through the use of the phrase, “it is written”. The fact that both figures quote scripture is an illustration of how easy it is for us to simply quote biblical passages to our convenience, to lend authority to our own actions. The story of Jesus being tempted is not just a story about Jesus, but an invitation for all of us to consider the ways in which we are tempted to move away from our deepest connection with God. All of us stray or leave faith altogether, or find ourselves imaging God differently over the years, and all of this is understood to be a part of the journey of faith. What the tempter is asking Jesus and us however, is to put ourselves equal to or above God. In recent months, we have seen what happens when people have used their own principles as an invitation to do exactly what they want, regardless of how it affects the well-being of others. On the other hand, we have also seen during the pandemic, how much we all are capable of putting others before ourselves, of thinking of the greater good in the long-term health and well-being of our communities. In the story, the Tempter has the same knowledge of sacred texts as Jesus does and is making clever use of them. His quotation is from Psalm 91, invoking the protective capacity of holy ones or angels. These holy ones are at the command of God, and therefore if Jesus is God then Jesus can instruct them to help him. Ultimately, the Matthew writer subverts this idea of the Tempter’s by putting Jesus in a position of receiving care from angels at the end of his ordeal, instead of having power over them. The angels minister to him. His humanity is the reason he is in the wilderness, not his divinity. We see from the Tempter’s engagement of text that simply being literate in those texts is not enough. When we retell any story, we are called as disciples of Jesus to think carefully about how we are interacting with sacred word. In the coming days, we will explore how sacred text has been quoted by Jesus and others in the biblical story and we will also look at how we sometimes use sacred text to include and exclude others. With Jesus always alongside us, we will prayerfully try to draw closer to Jesus and to our desire to lovingly serve God's word. How can we challenge ourselves during this time to see how we use the bible to our own advantage? How can we be challenged to hear scripture speaking to us through the stories of others?
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LC† Retelling the Stories is a project of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. Join us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram and on Twitter. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help to support extended offerings throughout the year.
Thank you and peace be with you!
