Tag: Lenten

Lenten Reflections: Retreating into the wilderness with Jesus, Day 15.

Published by V John on March 9, 2012

Day 15, Friday, March 9, 2012

In the third temptation of Jesus, we see devil’s heart’s desire displayed unmistakably—he wants to be God. Essentially, this is what made him what he is today. Please read Isaiah 14:12-15 and Revelation 12:9, as they describe Satan’s nature and origin. Lucifer, as he’s called in Isaiah 14:12 in several older translations, used to be in the presence of God. But he could not stomach that only God was worshiped in heaven. He was proud as illustrated in Isaiah 14: 12-15 where his “I will” statements appear five times in just two sentences. “I will” often stems from a heart full of boasting. Therefore, due to his pride the devil rebelled against God, and was thrown out of His presence to become the source of all evil.

In the first two temptations when Satan failed to trick Jesus into obedience to what he wanted Him to do, Satan showed his true colors, and wished that Jesus would bow down to him. He desperately wanted to be acknowledged and worshiped as God. For this purpose, Satan showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the earth. The Roman Empire at Jesus’ time was the greatest in history. Its geographical reach and cultural splendor remained unparalleled for a long time until it fell and what we see today is only its ruins. Jesus must have been surely impressed by the glory and splendor of the kingdoms and nations of the world and what humanity has achieved through its God-given creativity. However, Jesus also knew the depravity of human beings and the temporal nature of all that our hands have produced. His eyes were fixed on the eternal Kingdom of God which he had come to proclaim both to the kings and to the commoner. He, therefore, didn’t want to do anything with the kingdoms of this earth. He knew, as he later stated, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). That’s why Jesus responded: “Go away Satan! The Scriptures say: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve only him’” (Matthew 4:10). And the devil left him. In the similar temptations of our lives today where so many things are vying for our attention, adoration and adulation, let us focus our eyes on the eternal Kingdom of God. And Satan will not be able to lead us astray. Amen.

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Lenten Reflection 2012: Retreating into the wilderness with Jesus, Day 14.

Published by V John on March 8, 2012

Day 14, Thursday, March 8, 2012

Matthew 4 states, “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matthew 4:1 RSV, also see Mark 1:13, Luke 4:1-2). Exploring the temptations of Jesus Christ in the wilderness is very rewarding. The three most trusted tools with which Jesus confronted the temptations were fasting, prayer, and the Word of God. The Lenten season helps us grow in all three of these disciplines. But the nature of Jesus’ temptations also teaches us strategies to resist the temptations in our wilderness experience.

In the first two temptations (see Matthew 4: 3, 5-6; Luke 4:3, 6-7), the devil provoked Jesus to prove to him and to the world that He indeed was the “Son of God.” In the first temptation, the challenge was: “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread,” and in the second one: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down…” If Jesus was the Son of God then He didn’t need bread to survive and if He threw Himself down, He will not be physically injured. The gospels remind us Jesus’ full humanity by stating that He indeed was very hungry. But the devil asked Him to prove His divinity. Jesus didn’t fall for this trick but instead reminded the devil of His humanity. Just before Jesus was led into the wilderness, He had heard the affirming words of His Father about His divinity. He has been growing in intimacy with His Father during His solitary time of prayer and fasting. Thus, Jesus was sure of His divine identity when the devil tempted Him to doubt it. He tried to bring thoughts of distrust at one of the most vulnerable times in Jesus’ life. When the devil tried to bring doubts about the voice of God, Jesus simply replied by the certainty of the Word of God: “It is written.” It meant that whatever you may say, devil, I am sure of the finality of the Word of God and of the assurance of my Father.

As followers of Christ, we too, are many times led into similar situations where the devil creeps in with doubts at our vulnerable moments. He tries to raise doubts about the authenticity of God’s Word and His promises. He may tempt us to prove something to him and/or to the world around us. In such situations, we too need to respond with “It is written.” However, we can do so only when we have read, learned, and tested the Word of God to be true in our own lives. Remember, the devil also knows the Word of God, and he knows it better than most Christians! We cannot fool him, but we certainly can defeat him by saying and doing things that show our trust in God, His Word, and in His promises made for us. Amen.

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Lenten Reflection 2012: Retreating into the wilderness with Jesus, Day 14.

Published by V John on March 8, 2012

Day 14, Thursday, March 8, 2012

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Lenten Reflection 2012: Retreating into the wilderness with Jesus, Day 13.

Published by V John on March 7, 2012

Day 13, Wednesday, March 7, 2012

We saw yesterday that Christ’s followers’ fasting is different from other fasting. It’s different in one more way: Lenten fasting requires not just giving up of food and stuff, but offering ourselves completely to the Lord. Repentance is a prerequisite when we fast from food. However, what is even more important during fasting is that we learn to offer ourselves, our sins, imperfections, shortcomings and all to God the Father. It is for the purpose of Him accepting us as we are and then working on us as a Master Craftsman according to His perfect will and use us for His glory. So, God desires that we present to Him our whole beings. However broken our lives may be, God can and will still work on it, as the Psalmist David wrote out of his experience: “My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise” (Psalm 51:17).

When we are ready to give up ourselves completely at the feet of our Master, we will acknowledge our powerlessness. We will also give up our illusions that we are the masters of our own destiny and our world. This will help us give up control that we so strongly want to have over not just ourselves but also over others. Surrendering ourselves will bring us to the acknowledgement that we are not really the masters of this universe; rather, it is God, the Creator, who is the Lord of the universe. Such a realization is truly humbling because we resent so much being told that we are powerless and not in control. But when we are brought to this point, we too can say along with the Psalmist: “In you, O Lord, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame” (Psalm 71:1). Another Psalmist promises that, “No one who hopes in you will ever be put to shame” (Psalm 25:3). May God help us during this Lent to bring ourselves at His altar and give up our self, control, and possessiveness and to start believing that Jesus became powerless for our sake. And that it was through the surrender, weakness, and vulnerability of Jesus Christ that God worked out the salvation of humanity! He can fulfill His purposes when we give up ourselves at His feet. Amen.

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Lenten Reflection 2012: Retreating into the wilderness with Jesus, Day 13.

Published by V John on March 7, 2012

Day 13, Wednesday, March 7, 2012

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Lenten Reflection 2012: Retreating into the wilderness with Jesus, Day 11

Published by V John on March 5, 2012

Day 11, Monday, March 5, 2012

During Jesus’ fasting in the wilderness, though the Bible doesn’t clearly state, it’s believed that He fasted from food, but must have drank water during this period. According to the gospel of Matthew, chapter 4:2-3: “After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.’” Jesus could endure His long fast from food because He depended upon the grace and strength of God. God the Father was the source of His inner spiritual as well as physical strength. Indeed, the main purpose of fasting is to teach us complete dependence on God than on our own material power and resources. Just as the main purpose of wilderness experience in the Bible was to bring the people of God to a point where they could look beyond themselves and their own resources, and fixed their eyes upon God—the eternal source of power that will never run out. That’s why, God was distressed with the Israelites when, after settling down in the Promised Land, they built their own unsecured cisterns (gods and shrines) and forgot the eternal Cistern—Yahweh—as the source of their infinite power. It is clear in the words of the Prophet Jeremiah:

“Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord,

for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me,

the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves,

broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:12-13).

If you find yourselves in the wilderness today, try fasting with prayer. Fasting in the wilderness, that is, in the time of your sufferings, troubles, pains, loneliness, abandonment, rejection, misunderstandings, etc., will help you assess your life and your dependence on your leaking resources. What are the cisterns in your life that you trust? Are they dripping? Do you feel the need to draw from the Cistern that is infinite and will never be depleted? If so, let us determine to depend upon God alone and He’ll help us in the rest of our journey and lead us victoriously out of it. I’m reminded of a story I read a while ago. Once, a boy and his father were walking along a road when they came across a large stone. The boy said to his father, “Do you think if I use all my strength, I can move this rock?” His father answered, “If you use all your strength, I am sure you can do it.” The boy began to push the rock. Exerting himself as much as he could, he pushed and pushed. The rock did not move. Discouraged, he said to his father, “You were wrong, I can’t do it.” The father placed his arm around the boy’s shoulder and said, “No, son, you didn’t use all your strength—you didn’t ask me to help.” Amen.

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Lenten Reflection 2012: Retreating into the wilderness with Jesus, Day 10

Published by V John on March 3, 2012

Day 10, Saturday, March 3, 2012

Jesus’ prayer in the wilderness was accompanied by fasting (Matthew 4:1-4). He gave up eating for forty days and forty nights in keeping with the traditional significance of the number forty in the Bible. Several important events in the life of Israelites happened in forty days beginning with the time of Noah (see Genesis 7:12; 8:6) to Moses (see Exodus 24:18), and finally, to the time of Prophet Jonah (see Jonah 3:4). The number 40 appears about 146 times in the Bible. Most often it symbolizes trial, testing, and/or probation of God’s people. Jesus set an example by fasting that we might follow in His steps. Along with prayer, fasting is one of the best spiritual disciplines one can nurture not only during the Lent but also as a regular practice. Like prayer, fasting teaches dependence on God and fortifies us spiritually to face the temptations of the devil. Fasting also makes it easier for us to listen to the voice of the Lord. Many believers, therefore, give up eating certain kinds of foods or meat altogether or partly during Lent. Some give up drinking alcohol or other beverages. In today’s culture where gluttony is not a sin anymore, we often sit down to eat and drink even when we are not hungry. In eating and drinking in this way, we tend to waste a lot of food, which is also not reckoned a sin anymore in spite of Jesus’ example of picking up the leftovers (see Luke 9:17). Let us give up eating and drinking out of just habit. And let us start honoring God and glorifying Him even in our bodies, as Apostle Paul says in I Corinthians 10:31 (RSV): “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

Moreover, what we often fail to recognize is that fasting shouldn’t be limited to just giving up certain foods and drinks. Since the purpose of Lenten fasting is spiritual and it should bring us closer to God, then, we should also be ready to give up a few other major things during the Lent. Some of them could be: our annual vacation, eating out often, superiority complex, our enemies, and inner desire to control stuff and people, slavery to time/goals/planning, unstated wish to be popular, narcissism, and so on. This list could go on and on, and I know it’s easier for many of us to give up food than to give up one of these things listed above. But if our purpose is to glorify God, and if we determined with prayer to surrender such things at God’s feet, He will strengthen us as He did His Son—Jesus Christ. Amen.

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