In Sunday’s Gospel reading (Luke 4:1-13), Jesus has been driven into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. He has spent 40 days fasting and praying in the wilderness listening to God.
It is at this point, in the midst of Jesus’ fasting and prayer, even as he is filled with the Holy Spirit, that he also finds himself famished, probably exhausted, and when temptation and the forces that defy God lend a voice and seek to bend Christ’s ear.
The temptations the devil offers to Jesus are all centered in questioning Jesus’ trust of God, and particularly, Jesus’ trust in the identity God has bestowed upon him. Two out of three times, the devil begins, “If you are the son of God.” Of course Jesus is God’s Son, God’s son who God loves so much, as we have just heard and as Jesus just experienced at his baptism. And Jesus, trusting God, listening to God’s voice instead of this other voice, says a bold and strong, “No!” to anyway other than the way of God. In doing so, Jesus offers a fervent, “Yes!” to God’s call and to the way that leads to the cross. Jesus will continue to affirm and reaffirm this “Yes” to God’s way, staying true to God’s mission despite all temptation, rejection, opposition, and suffering.
My friends, the life of faith and following the way of Jesus is not without temptation, rejection, opposition, and suffering. Sometimes even in the midst of prayer and fasting and all the ways we put our faith into practice, voices will call out to us and call us to question if we really are children of God, if we really are loved, if we really do belong, and try to show us something “better” than God’s way.
It doesn’t make sense that the embodiment and incarnation of generative, unconditional love for the whole cosmos would be met with rejection and suffering, and yet in this broken reality that God so loves, that is exactly what Jesus is met with. And this movement of radical love and compassion toward God and neighbor, and toward God through our neighbor who God so loves and marks with God’s own image, this movement is the one into which you have been reborn and remade into the body of Christ, joining God’s mission of love, forgiveness, and reconciliation.
I’m not always as good as Jesus at saying “No,” to the voices of temptation and all the forces that defy God and saying “Yes,” to God’s way. The good news is that in baptism, my identity (and yours) are mixed up with Christ, united in one new body, we are called beloved children, and Jesus’ “No,” becomes our “No,” while his “Yes,” becomes our “Yes.”
Find an image of a cross near you – it could be a picture on your computer/phone, maybe jewelry, perhaps just two lines meeting on the sidewalk.
Let this be a reminder to you of the way we have said “Yes,” to;
and of God’s “Yes,” to Christ and to us in the resurrection which declares not even rejection, suffering, and death can separate you from God’s love
Come to dinner (5:30pm) and worship (6:15pm) tonight as we discern and discuss what it looks like in our lives to live among God’s faithful people, which is one of our promises in baptism.
God’s grace and love for you name you beloved, remind you that you are enough, and bring you into
Pastor Drew
If you want a song to go along with this one, check out “Trust in You” by Lauren Daigle.