Stones Into Bread

Check out my latest post, to be found on the St Barnabas College Blog, here. It's a way of understanding why it is said that the temptations of Jesus are an affirmation of his calling to the cross, and a denial of an alternative path to success and practicality .... and a warning about finding our justification in justice and social change.

Some Study Notes and Questions on the Temptations of Jesus

Some notes and questions on Luke 4:1-13 that I will be using in the Lenten study this week.

1. The temptations of Jesus in the desert are not a chance meeting between Jesus and the devil, and they are not at the instigation of the devil. Jesus is led by the Spirit into the desert.
Q: Why are the temptations instigated by the Spirit? Why is it necessary for Jesus to be tempted?

2. Forty days recalls the forty years of the desert wanderings of the people of Israel after their liberation from slavery in Egypt. Unlike the people of Israel, Jesus renounces the temptation to idolatry and lack of trust in the faithfulness of God.  

Q: How has your trust in and faithfulness to God gone in the desert times or places of your life? 

 3. Jesus refutes the promptings of the devil by citing Scripture. The devil gets the hang of this and uses Scripture to justify the third and final temptation.
Q: How do you feel about the devil’s ability to use scripture? How do we stop the misuse of scripture? What does this tell us about how to use scripture?

Temptation of Jesus by Michael Hudak

 4. “... until an opportune time.” (4:13) The opportune time will be the Passion of Jesus. (See Lk 22:3) The Passion will be the final proving ground of the Son; in the cross the true sonship of Jesus will be revealed.

Q: Opportune in what way?

5. Commentators like to call the temptations of Jesus programmatic. By this they mean that the temptations reveal something about the whole ministry of Jesus, his death and resurrection.
Q: If you were to write a similar account of the three programmatic temptations of your life, what would they be? (One will do if you can’t think of three.)

Quote for Reflection

Crucifixion by Richard Wallace

The Roman captain asks Lavinia, a young Christian, why she is willing to die as a martyr.

THE CAPTAIN: Are you then going to die for nothing?

LAVINIA: Yes, that is the wonderful thing. It is since all the stories and dreams have gone that I have now no doubt at all that I must die for something greater than dreams or stories.

THE CAPTAIN: But for what?

LAVINIA: I don’t know. If it were for anything small enough to know, it would be too small to die for. I think I’m going to die for God. Nothing else is real enough to die for.

George Bernard Shaw, Androcles and the Lion (Act II)

Quoted in Paul Harris, (ed.), The Fire of Silence and Stillness,  p. 168.

Temptations of Jesus Luke 4:1-13

Jesus Tempted, by Chris Cook

"If you are the Son of God..." Luke has just emphasised for the reader the sonship of Jesus. (Lk 3:22; 3:23-38) Not so much trying to sow doubt in the mind of Jesus. More like, "Because you are the Son of God, think of the possibilities ... "  So what's wrong with making some bread out of stones? A bit showy, granted, but nothing like jumping off a tall building (the last temptation). If resisting this first temptation is to be programmatic, as commentators like to call the temptations, then I would like to suggest that the temptation itself must be more serious than unnecessary (private) showmanship, and more serious than Jesus listening to his belly too much. There is something else going on here.  When our needs aren't met as usual, all sorts of fears and aggravations appear within us. Jesus' reply shows that he resists the temptation by recommitting to God's care for him, more than only his usual needs (like food). God's care will be disclosed to Jesus by being fed(/led) by more than these usual desires. Without overcoming the temptations, it is difficult to imagine Jesus being able to say on the cross: "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." (Lk 23:46) 

Twenty years ago I prayed the Prayer of Abandonment by Charles de Foucauld every day for a year. 

Father,
I abandon myself into your hands; do with me what you will.
Whatever you may do, I thank you:
I am ready for all, I accept all.
Let only your will be done in me, and in all your creatures.
I wish no more than this, O Lord.

Into your hands I commend my soul;
I offer it to you
with all the love of my heart,
for I love you, Lord,
and so need to give myself,
to surrender myself into your hands,
without reserve,
and with boundless confidence,
for you are my Father. 

I had to stop eventually because I couldn't commit to it; I didn't want to trust God like that, I really wanted my life to be fulfilled by 'bread', health, family, children, wealth, career. Oh dear.

Twenty years later some of the usual desires for my life (listed above) are lost. I have to admit I wouldn't protest if they were magically restored to me.  But the truth is I know I want to live by more than bread alone. (I am not so sure about the cross bit with, "Father, into your hands ..." A bit of a way to go yet. At least I hope so!!)

Temptation (Quote)

"The greatest human temptation is to settle for too little." Thomas Merton.

Some Thoughts on Lent

By the Revd Ron Keynes

For many years now, I have tended to wander from the traditional view and expression of the Season of Lent, on the grounds – dare I say it? – that tradition seems to have missed the real point. This Season of preparation for Easter is designed to follow the life and experience of Jesus following His baptism in the River Jordan by John the Baptist. Of course, what followed that baptism closely, was Jesus’ six weeks in the wilderness, a sort of parallel to the experience of Israel during the Exodus. Such isolation can often heighten one’s thoughts and perceptions. (Isn’t that why people go bush for a while?)
Those tales of Jesus’ temptations (which I prefer to describe as testings) never seemed to make a lot of sense to me, even as a young person. Stones into bread, and all that! If you look at it literally, is no great thing even if Jesus was starving. If He did alter those stones, what difference would it make really? And how does such a thing constitute temptation? One has to resort to holy talk to get past that one. However, if you understand the story ‘Jewishly,’ then a whole new world opens up. This calls for the exercise of your imagination – Biblical imagination. Here is an attempt to present a pictorial perception of facing enormous challenges.

You see, what was happening in those significant six weeks, was for Jesus to ponder the huge question: if He were ‘Son of God’ how was He meant to operate; how does such a one gather a following of people who would understand and become lifelong disciples? It was a powerful question of the nature or pattern of leadership He was meant to follow. If we look at those ‘temptations’ one by one, I hope you will understand what I mean. On top of that, Jesus would have had that marvellous series of Servant Songs from Isaiah (ii) to ponder …… as should we all.

Stones into bread. If you equate what was going on there with, say, patterns of leadership – and making progress – in the human world, you will catch sight perhaps even suddenly. Living as He did in the Roman Empire, our Lord would have understood the Roman method of leadership. ‘Bread and circuses’ was that old theme, followed by so many later politicians and despots as well. Divert people from the real issues! Fill their gut and ignore their spirit! And get on with your control of people while they are distracted!!! That was the challenge for Jesus, and it must not have taken long before He saw the devastating nature of the challenge. Follow the Roman way, and actually bribe or even force people into discipleship. Mind you, the greater challenge was when one realizes that to reject that path was only to choose a rather harder, more demanding path towards gaining disciples. People would have to think first, before deciding whether or not to commit! And you would have to be aware of the vast difficulty of getting people to think, let alone getting any further along the path than that. Do you catch sight now?

Jumping from the Temple pinnacle. When I was writing this, the media had been full of stories of the Tour Down Under and its noted overseas competitor. Or of that late movie star who is garnering all manner of posthumous attention. (Lot of good it will do the poor bloke!) Why is it that people almost long to ape their superstars? How unreal can you get????

If Jesus were to pursue this pattern of surprising, stunning, inveigling people by all the stunning things He could do, surely people would follow in drives, wouldn’t they? Just look at the rapt attention people seem to give to movie stars and royals, and sportspeople. What a way to go! But if Jesus took that path to gain a following, a moment’s thought is all it takes to recognize how shallow and self-seeking such a following would be. Jump from the pinnacle, Lord, and we will ask to try something harder. Something more demanding. And if He did, would anyone believe really, anyone repent and change direction? There is only a snowflake’s chance in Hell, is there not?

What few people stop to notice is, that from here on Jesus refused to use miracle as a means to gain people’s following and loyalty. As John has it in his Gospel, there were no miracles; there were only signs, pointers, something to ponder and think about. And we miss the point if we make any more of them.

Fall down and worship Satan. What in the name of fortune does it mean to ‘worship Satan?’ Who the @#$% is Satan anyhow? Come on a journey, but wear your seat belt for a moment. There is a lot of argy-bargy around in some circles when the great deceiver rates a mention. Go back through Scripture and see, when you boil it all down, ‘Satan’ is the Biblical expression for the source of evil and untruth. Satan, pardon me, when you reduce it to reality, is your capacity and mine to behave and live like ‘Adam’ who – as the story had it – dethroned the real God and set himself up as substitute. Or, to put it another way, who tempts you – and be honest. So don’t go looking for something outside of you, except when it comes to others’ capacity for evil.

This challenge to Jesus, who was tested and tempted the same way you are, was to water down the truth, spin, fiddle, or most of all, turn the truth into a lie and the lie into the truth. What am I talking about? Watch the politicians, or better still, watch yourself. Fiddles, lies, half-truths, mistruths, spin, or even that great Australian word of two syllables. (You know that word I mean!) Look and see the extent to which this terribly human characteristic makes such total mess of relationships, personal, social, national and international. Truth unadorned is the only path to wholeness, to what the Scriptures call salvation. Wholeness. And for Jesus to have chosen that path would have been to have emasculated and destroyed the entire Gospel. I kid you not. So thank heaven you have a Lord Who recognized the real issues and turned His back on them.

One final shock to the system: that challenge for Jesus, which continued right through His ministry, is the same challenge that faces all His priests and bishops (some of whom tend to ignore or avoid the realities) but it does not end there. This same challenge falls on us all, people of God. Like our Lord, we need to be aware of our calling. And that make take a little hard work.

So when I say that I am no traditionalist when it come to Lent, I mean I see no call for breast-beating and going without. I see only the annual reminder to get back to the basics of faithfulness and commitment in the face of whatever contrary pressure.

As someone else often says, you know it makes sense!

The Temptations of Jesus (in Mark)

From earliest times trial and temptation has been seen not as failure, but as opportunities for people to show their obedience to God. To successfully endure the trial or temptation made one acceptable to God. Jesus is the prime example of this. The New Testament is not embarrassed at all that he was tested or tempted. (See Mark 1:2-13; Heb 4:15) In fact, it is absolutely critical to the whole gospel that he was. Jesus was tempted – by the evil one, by his opponents, and by his disciples even (e.g. see Mark 8:31-33) – and was obedient, even to death on the cross. (Phil 2:8) The cross was the climax of this testing, and the most severe form of it. (Mark 14:34-36) And it is because Jesus was faithful, even in the face of this prolonged and severe testing, that we are saved. And because he endured temptation and was obedient, we too can do it. (This is the point of the Book of Hebrews, see Heb 2:10, 14-18; 12:1-11) Life is full of temptations, with the Spirit of Christ we are not defeated but will emerge victorious through and with him.

Which is just my opening statement really, so more on this later.

When You Are Tempted

If you hear the voice of temptation, here are some strategies that will help you resist, if that is what you wish.

1.

The simple strategies:

• Keep away from the temptation, or keep your attention elsewhere.
• Refuse to play with the temptation in your mind; this is an act of will.
  
• If you have given the temptation ground to develop in your mind, pray 'mantra' style, using a sentence of Scripture. Stay with the 'mantra', and pray that God will show you a way through.

2. Treat the temptation as a symptom, but of what? Find out the cause and deal with it, and the temptation will, over time, diminish in intensity. (Use strategies from 1 above while addressing the root cause.)

3. Ask these questions: Who are you? If you follow the voice of this temptation, who do you become? Do you want to be this person? If your answer is 'No', remember this, for it will strengthen your will.

4. Temptations often appear as a way of escaping an unhappy situation. Or perhaps you feel a fake, or perhaps there is an inconsistency between who you are and an aspect of your current life. If so, then act, but following the temptation is rarely the way. There are usually more reasonable and mature ways of dealing with the problem, and these solutions will usually have less negative consequences than will result from following the temptation.

And to finish, a quote for reflection from Ron Rolheiser (about the great benefit in hanging in there):

Almost everything within our culture invites us to avoid tension and to resolve it whenever possible, even at the cost of some more noble instincts. This is true for virtually every aspect of contemporary life, save those areas where we can be fiercely ascetical and sweat blood for purposes of our careers or the health and slimness of our bodies. Waiting in frustration and inconsummation is not our strong point. From minor frustrations, like waiting in a queue at the bank or the bus stop, to more major frustrations with interpersonal tensions and our unresolved sexual needs, we find it difficult to stay inside of unresolved tension. Jacques Maritain once stated that one of the great spiritual tragedies is that so many people of good will would become persons of noble soul if only they would not panic and resolve the painful tensions within their lives too prematurely, but rather stay with them long enough, as one does in a dark night of the soul, until those tensions are transformed and help give birth to what is most noble inside of us – compassion, forgiveness and love. (Ronald Rolheiser)