Read Matthew 4:1-11
Today’s devotional text of our Lord’s Temptation in the wilderness is remembered by the church on the 1st Sunday in Lent each year. It is well worth pondering as we journey through the season of Lent toward Easter.
I had the most interesting conversation some weeks back with a relative of a parishioner at the hospital. There arose in the room a pity question. I knew this relative was active at a rather large church so I asked him how his pastor handled that intriguing question.
He looked at me, smiled, and said, “Well Pat I would, but I couldn't get that close to him, he has a bodyguard you know.” I know I must have looked either perplexed or mystified as I am not known as “old poker face”. I smiled, nodded and moved along in the conversation, as the image of a pastor with a bodyguard was outside my experience.
As I meditated on the lesson in my Lenten devotional life I couldn't shake the bodyguard image.
Now I understand that in some congregations a bodyguard might be a needed precaution, yet as I wrestle events in the life of our Lord Christ right after his baptism, during his temptation, I am glad Jesus didn’t bring a bodyguard.
Just after his baptism and his anointing by the Spirit and where the Godhead proclaimed, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased." Matthew 3:17 (NRSV) Jesus goes into the wilderness (read desert waste land) for 40 days.
Ever wonder how he got there?
Can you believe it was the same Spirit that anointed him that led him into 40 days of fasting, isolation, and temptation? That is some grist for thought, and furthermore why and where does the image of a body guard that keeps the world at arm’s length fit in to this devotion?
Well I am thankful Jesus didn’t keep the world full of brokenness that plagues and tempts us at arm’s length when he went into the wilderness for us!
No he was tempted just as we are.
He faced all the fury of all those things that cling so tightly to us because he loves us.
He confronted sin, death, and the devil head on trusting and relying on God as he began his ministry with and for us.
Thank God he didn’t bring a body guard but in fact was our bodyguard giving himself for us!
Pastor Riddle
He faced all the fury of all those things that cling so tightly to us because he loves us.
He confronted sin, death, and the devil head on trusting and relying on God as he began his ministry with and for us.
Thank God he didn’t bring a body guard but in fact was our bodyguard giving himself for us!
Pastor Riddle
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