Luk 4:1 Now Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wild.
Luk 4:2 For forty wilderness days and nights he was tested by the Devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when the time was up he was hungry.
Luk 4:3 The Devil, playing on his hunger, gave the first test: "Since you're God's Son, command this stone to turn into a loaf of bread."
Luk 4:4 Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: "It takes more than bread to really live."
Luk 4:5 For the second test he led him up and spread out all the kingdoms of the earth on display at once.
Luk 4:6 Then the Devil said, "They're yours in all their splendor to serve your pleasure. I'm in charge of them all and can turn them over to whomever I wish.
Luk 4:7 Worship me and they're yours, the whole works."
Luk 4:8 Jesus refused, again backing his refusal with Deuteronomy: "Worship the Lord your God and only the Lord your God. Serve him with absolute single-heartedness."
Luk 4:9 For the third test the Devil took him to Jerusalem and put him on top of the Temple. He said, "If you are God's Son, jump.
Luk 4:10 It's written, isn't it, that 'he has placed you in the care of angels to protect you;
Luk 4:11 they will catch you; you won't so much as stub your toe on a stone'?"
Luk 4:12 "Yes," said Jesus, "and it's also written, 'Don't you dare tempt the Lord your God.'"
Luk 4:13 That completed the testing. The Devil retreated temporarily, lying in wait for another opportunity.
Sunday's Gospel is known as the Temptation of Christ
In Luke this follows immediately upon the Baptism of Christ and God's declaration that He is His Beloved Son, in whom He is well pleased. What follows in Luke is a rendering of Christ's earthly lineage through Joseph to King David, Abraham, and God. It is the earthly creature who is tempted in the desert and the nature of these temptations, Christ's vulnerabilities, the strengths he draws on in dealing with them, the responses he makes, and his triumphs over them are instructive for us even today.
First off, let it be said that although elsewhere we read that Mary's was a virgin birth, incarnate of the Holy Spirit; Luke the physician is definitive in acknowledging Joseph as the father.
So what is the nature of these temptations. Whether or not we perceive evil as an animate personal force temptations to sin are all around us and given our fallen nature, our weakness, we are bound to fall prey to them in our daily life. However the greatest temptations play to our strengths, not our weaknesses and we need to be vigilant that in our pride we not fall victim to them.
We have already learned that Jesus is capable of performing signs and wonders, we call them the miracles; his preaching attracted great crowds and could have gotten him a great following, but his kingdom was not of this world; and knowing that he was God's chosen one, he might have showed off to prove his invulnerability and he could also have avoided the cross. So he is tempted to turn stones into bread, become a great earthly ruler, prove to the world that God was at his beck and call; all things apparently within his power. In resisting these appeals to his own vanity Jesus declares that the comforts of this world are not his principal goal in life, fame and fortune are secondary to heavenly riches, and the adulation of the crowds takes a back seat to faithfulness to God and his purposes.
The answer it would seem to resisting temptation is not in being strong so that we yield not but in placing our priorities with God so that we not be tempted to yield in the first place. For where our hearts are there will our treasure be also. Even pride in resisting temptation can be a sin.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
John 2:1-11
Joh 2:1 Three days later there was a wedding in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there.
Joh 2:2 Jesus and his disciples were guests also.
Joh 2:3 When they started running low on wine at the wedding banquet, Jesus' mother told him, "They're just about out of wine."
Joh 2:4 Jesus said, "Is that any of our business, Mother--yours or mine? This isn't my time. Don't push me."
Joh 2:5 She went ahead anyway, telling the servants, "Whatever he tells you, do it."
Joh 2:6 Six stoneware water pots were there, used by the Jews for ritual washings. Each held twenty to thirty gallons.
Joh 2:7 Jesus ordered the servants, "Fill the pots with water." And they filled them to the brim.
Joh 2:8 "Now fill your pitchers and take them to the host," Jesus said, and they did.
Joh 2:9 When the host tasted the water that had become wine (he didn't know what had just happened but the servants, of course, knew), he called out to the bridegroom,
Joh 2:10 "Everybody I know begins with their finest wines and after the guests have had their fill brings in the cheap stuff. But you've saved the best till now!"
Joh 2:11 This act in Cana of Galilee was the first sign Jesus gave, the first glimpse of his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
Billed as Christ's first miracle, the turning of water into wine. Throughout his short ministry healings and other events accounted as miracles because they defied obvious explanation crop up and are reported upon by his Disciples even though he often adjures the recipients of his beneficence to thank God in the Temple, or show themselves to the Priest but otherwise not publicize the event. Great significance seems to be attached to Christ's ability to perform signs and wonders but Our Lord did not feel the need to prove himself by so-doing, rather he responded in love to a perceived need. Even in his final hours Pontius Pilate asks to see him perform miracles and indeed it is told that he reattached the ear of a centurion struck off by one of his disciples during the arrest.
Christ and his disciples are invited to a wedding feast at Cana and his Mother is there as well. One assumes the Bridegroom was a close relative but there is no record of his name. Given his age Christ must have come in for some not so gentle ribbing as the wine flowed. As a Jewish Rabbi he would have been expected to take a wife though we have no record of his ever having been married.
When the wine runs out it is his Mother Mary who intercedes with Christ on the Host's behalf. Significant to me is the fact that she has every confidence in His ablility to rectify the situation and although He as much as tells her to mind her own business she forces the issue by going to her host's servants and telling them to do his bidding. Also significant is the fact that Mary has sufficient standing in this household and Christ's reputation is such that these servants do their bidding rather than tell them to quit bothering them. (I hesitate to use the phrase, 'go to hell'.)
The ability of the Messiah to perform signs and wonders is a hallmark of the prophetic tradition. Whether or not Christ felt it necessary to fulfil this tradition his Disciples apparently attached great significance to these events and recorded them for posterity.
Joh 2:2 Jesus and his disciples were guests also.
Joh 2:3 When they started running low on wine at the wedding banquet, Jesus' mother told him, "They're just about out of wine."
Joh 2:4 Jesus said, "Is that any of our business, Mother--yours or mine? This isn't my time. Don't push me."
Joh 2:5 She went ahead anyway, telling the servants, "Whatever he tells you, do it."
Joh 2:6 Six stoneware water pots were there, used by the Jews for ritual washings. Each held twenty to thirty gallons.
Joh 2:7 Jesus ordered the servants, "Fill the pots with water." And they filled them to the brim.
Joh 2:8 "Now fill your pitchers and take them to the host," Jesus said, and they did.
Joh 2:9 When the host tasted the water that had become wine (he didn't know what had just happened but the servants, of course, knew), he called out to the bridegroom,
Joh 2:10 "Everybody I know begins with their finest wines and after the guests have had their fill brings in the cheap stuff. But you've saved the best till now!"
Joh 2:11 This act in Cana of Galilee was the first sign Jesus gave, the first glimpse of his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
Billed as Christ's first miracle, the turning of water into wine. Throughout his short ministry healings and other events accounted as miracles because they defied obvious explanation crop up and are reported upon by his Disciples even though he often adjures the recipients of his beneficence to thank God in the Temple, or show themselves to the Priest but otherwise not publicize the event. Great significance seems to be attached to Christ's ability to perform signs and wonders but Our Lord did not feel the need to prove himself by so-doing, rather he responded in love to a perceived need. Even in his final hours Pontius Pilate asks to see him perform miracles and indeed it is told that he reattached the ear of a centurion struck off by one of his disciples during the arrest.
Christ and his disciples are invited to a wedding feast at Cana and his Mother is there as well. One assumes the Bridegroom was a close relative but there is no record of his name. Given his age Christ must have come in for some not so gentle ribbing as the wine flowed. As a Jewish Rabbi he would have been expected to take a wife though we have no record of his ever having been married.
When the wine runs out it is his Mother Mary who intercedes with Christ on the Host's behalf. Significant to me is the fact that she has every confidence in His ablility to rectify the situation and although He as much as tells her to mind her own business she forces the issue by going to her host's servants and telling them to do his bidding. Also significant is the fact that Mary has sufficient standing in this household and Christ's reputation is such that these servants do their bidding rather than tell them to quit bothering them. (I hesitate to use the phrase, 'go to hell'.)
The ability of the Messiah to perform signs and wonders is a hallmark of the prophetic tradition. Whether or not Christ felt it necessary to fulfil this tradition his Disciples apparently attached great significance to these events and recorded them for posterity.
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