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Lenten Reflections 2021: Do You Have the Resources to Win?

Lenten Reflections 2021: Do You Have the Resources to Win?

Published by V John on March 15, 2021

@johnvinod | March 16, 2021

Jesus Christ thwarted all attempts of the devil in the wilderness with a robust twofold strategy: 1. Quoting the Scriptures, and 2. Prayers. Jesus said: “It is written” and repeated it in all three of his responses to Satan’s tests in Matthew 4: 1-11

⁴But he answered, “It is written,
“‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
    but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
⁵Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple ⁶and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,’
and
“‘On their hands they will bear you up,
    lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
⁷Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” ⁸Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. ⁹And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”
¹⁰Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,
“‘You shall worship the Lord your God
    and him only shall you serve.’”

From the life of Jesus, we learn that to be tempted is not a sin. Jesus was tempted and yet he remained without sin. If Jesus had committed any sin, he could not be our savior. Thus, to live and become like Jesus, we should also adopt his strategy to overcome our temptations.

First, the retort of Jesus, “it is written,” spontaneously sprang up from a deep spirituality developed spending time in the scriptures for the past thirty years of his life. Even when Satan himself employed the same phrase in Matthew 4: 5 by quoting him the Scriptures, Jesus immediately seemed to have said, well, what you are quoting to me must be explained in light of another passage, for it is written….” (Matthew 4: 7). Thus, Jesus set an example for us to read ALL Scripture and be so immersed in the whole counsel of the Word that we will be quick to recognize when someone misquotes it or uses it out of context for their selfish purposes.

Often what fills our minds and thoughts shapes us, our speech, and our response when we are tempted. What occupies your mind these days? What spontaneously comes out when we have an opportunity to respond to the temptations and tests this world constantly presents us? The response, “it is written,” must become a continual application in our lives as we face our wilderness.

Second, before and during the temptation in the wilderness, Jesus had spent most of his time in prayer. He was constantly in communion with his father, even though at times it appeared that God was not present with him. Therefore, soon after he had called his disciples, Jesus instructed them to pray, “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13). So, we are not isolated in our daily battles with the temptations. Through Jesus’ example, we have two remarkable resources—the Word and the prayers. During this Lenten season, let us develop a habit of using these for bolstering our defenses and for winning battles in our own wilderness.

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Lenten Reflections 2021: Being Watchful After Every Victory

Lenten Reflections 2021: Being Watchful After Every Victory

Published by V John on March 14, 2021

@johnvinod | March 15, 2021

After Jesus’ victory over his temptations in the wilderness, the devil left him. We should never assume that it was the end of temptations in Jesus’ life. Let us not imagine that Jesus went out of the wilderness, launched his ministry, and that was it, and he never had to face such crisis again. Jesus indeed came out of the desert a victor, but that does not mean Satan gave up. Rather, Jesus continued enduring temptations at different times and in various areas of his life and ministry, all through the next couple of years until his death on the cross. There is a tiny but significant statement in Matthew 4: 11 and Luke 4: 13. Various translations help bring out the meaning of these verses:

Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and began ministering to him (Matthew 4:11 ESV).

Only Luke mentions an additional detail:

Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time (Luke 4: 13 NKJV).
And when the devil had completed every temptation, he departed from him for a season (Luke 4:13 ESV).

“Every” does not mean there were no other temptations that Jesus ever faced later on. It means every kind of temptation. As we saw in the last week’s reflections, the devil tried different types of tests and tricks to trap Jesus. His temptations addressed all crucial areas of his life as a human being, but Jesus foiled all of them. Jesus’ tests were comprehensive in nature appealing to the basic human passions and weaknesses. The devil, at that time, ran out of all the darts in his bucket. So, when he knew that he was not having his way with him, he left Jesus.

But then in Luke 4:13, he quickly adds, that Satan only left “for a season” or “until an opportune time.” It means he came back at a convenient time to try to lead Jesus into temptation. On many occasions, Jesus faced the temptation of taking the easy way or to take a short cut to success and popularity. These were the instances when the devil had returned to do his job. For example, in the Garden of Gethsemane, the devil went at it hammer and tongs. What should encourage us today is that there is no atypical temptation or a mysterious stunt of the devil from which we cannot learn to defend ourselves through Jesus’ example. Jesus had faced all of the same darts and more to teach his followers to prepare for all conditions. Therefore, Jesus fully knows what you may be facing today or tomorrow. “Every temptation” of Jesus made him the “one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15); therefore, making us also capable of victory over every manner of temptation. Praise God that Jesus made a way for us all and gave us the Holy Spirit so that we do not have to fight temptations only in our own strength. Therefore, following Jesus, as Andrew Bonar rightly said, “let us be as watchful after the victory as before the battle!” Amen.

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Lenten Reflections 2021: Do You Want Your Best Life Now?

Lenten Reflections 2021: Do You Want Your Best Life Now?

Published by V John on March 13, 2021

@johnvinod | March 13, 2021

The third temptation of Jesus recorded in the three gospels is quite subtly deceptive. Let us see it according to Matthew:

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. And he said to him, “I will give you all these things if you will fall down and worship me.”
Then Jesus told him, “Go away, Satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him” (Matthew 4: 8-10 CSB).

It appears that the entire world with its diversity, rich cultures, wealth, and splendor were flashed before Jesus’ eyes in a panoramic view or vision. All the absolute best that you can imagine from all cultures, peoples, philosophies, throughout the history, …all of this and more was offered to Jesus with this suggestion: “I will give you all these things if you will fall down and worship me.”

You would think that Satan offered it to Jesus for self-aggrandizement. No, he had already done that and miserably failed twice. Therefore, he attempts his final yet very subtle suggestion: Jesus, you know you have a ministry ahead of you. You want to be the Savior of the world. Great! But no one knows you yet. You have no followers and no disciples. Even your own family does not believe who you claim to be. You have so many needs for your forthcoming ministry as your mission encompasses the universe, but you have no resources. The vicious resentment, suffering, and persecution await you in the days to come. If you really want to accomplish all of this and usher in your Kingdom, here is your key: Just worship me, and you will have everything you have come to accomplish on earth. Just make this little compromise and you will be set for “Your Best Life Now”!

The offer is very appealing as it provides an easy short cut to the incredible name, fame, wealth, and absolute power. Also, it is effortless: fall and worship me and receive everything possible as a reward for whatever you want to be and wish to accomplish in your life. A little compromise is incredibly rewarding. And it will ultimately provide the means to accomplish the mission of Jesus.

Nevertheless, Jesus immediately found it so repulsive that he rebuked Satan and ordered him to “Go away!” He was able to see through its subtlety that Satan is asking him to do ministry and missions as per the world’s expectations of a Savior. A Messiah who works for the name, fame, and is accepted by everyone without challenging their traditions, cultures, religions, and assumptions.

Not only that day, but Jesus faced such temptations throughout his ministry. He was desired as the king that the Jewish people wished he would be. And every time Jesus walked away from them. Instead, he continued to expose their hypocrisy and denounce their moral bankruptcy. He continued to invite people to his Kingdom on his own terms. He literally ran away from popularity. He refused to be crowned without the cross. He went on to build his Kingdom of truth and righteousness with his suffering, toils, and even death on the cross. He resigned all power and superiority of all sorts and went on to win people’s hearts rather than their land, cities, or cultures! And that is how Jesus Christ wrests the Kingdom from Satan’s hand, although it was already his, but Satan had falsely presumed as his own.

Today, we have similar temptations as Jesus did. Many of us want, on the pretext of doing his ministry and missions, what Satan offers us…popularity and having all resources for our missions and no pain or suffering. If we face these challenges and temptations today that have the potential of driving us away from Jesus’ Kingdom and its values, may we press the pause button now. The missions/ministry can wait! But we must withdraw, evaluate our motives, and recommit to follow the example of Jesus. Amen.

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Lenten Reflections 2021: When Jesus Asked the Questions You’re Asking!

Lenten Reflections 2021: When Jesus Asked the Questions You’re Asking!

Published by V John on March 11, 2021

@johnvinod | March 11, 2021

Please begin by reading Matthew 4: 1-11. The temptation of Jesus Christ is quite a complex subject. It can be looked at from different perspectives. Today, I want us to look at it from the perspective of what the temptations might have meant to Jesus in the wilderness; even though they did not end there. Instead, they continued throughout his ministry and ended only on the cross.

However, in the wilderness, Jesus was intensely tested in who he believed that he was and the ministry he would do with this understanding. Let us recall that the tempter’s first words to Jesus were, “If you are the Son of God…” ; and he used them twice (Matthew 4: 3 & 6). Satan did what he was best at, i.e., sowing seeds of doubt. I believe Jesus indeed “share[d] in flesh and blood” and “he himself likewise partook of the same things” as we humans do when “he had to be made like his brothers in every respect” and “he himself has suffered when tempted” (Hebrews 2: 14-18 ESV). Therefore, in the wilderness, Jesus was tempted to doubt his own identity.

That is why all three Gospels, when narrating Jesus’ temptation in the desert, show it in the context of his baptism. Until his baptism, Jesus had not done anything spectacular. Nevertheless, at his baptism, Jesus was declared the Son of God with whom his Father was well pleased (Matthew 3: 17). When Jesus heard these powerful words in the presence of the prophet John and the other Jews, he knew without a doubt that he was not only the promised Messiah but also the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53. The visible anointing of the Holy Spirit provided a further affirmation of this reality. Jesus was now fully conscious; he was the Son of God and the anointing of the Spirit imbued him with divine powers to do his ministry.

So, when Satan came, although Jesus was indeed physically exhausted; the actual temptation was that Jesus found himself in the crucible of his inner perception of who he was. This is where he identified with us completely as the baptized and the anointed Son of God. He was tempted to question his call, the validity of his baptism, his self consciousness as the Son of God, and his anointing. He was tempted to doubt the words of his Father, which he heard when he emerged from the Jordan river. “The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness” (Mark 1: 12). After forty days and forty nights being alone in the desert, the first words that he hears is the voice of the devil, “If you are the Son of God!” As we believe that Jesus had fully become like us, then, Jesus might have thought: Are the things that I have believed and heard really true?

Friends, Jesus was in the same desert where you may feel lost today! He knows what it means to hear the voice of God speaking to you as you read the scriptures and listen to the uplifting messages and then as you walk out, you hear about the incurable cancer of your loved ones! You receive a phone call informing you that a senior in your family has succumbed to Covid-19! You hear that your spouse just lost their job! You learn that your savings and investments have been washed away during the pandemic. Your friend has met with an accident, and so on and so forth…

It is in such times that the devil will whisper in your ears, are you really a child of God? Are you really forgiven? What you just read and heard in your worship, were that really God speaking to you? Are you really who God says you are?

From my own struggles, I believe that Jesus completely understands your inner battles and your self doubts. And the most exceptional news that you would ever hear is this: Jesus Christ had overcome his temptation! He came out triumphantly and never showed any sign of letting go of his implicit trust in the affirmations of his heavenly Father. When your mind questions the very basis of your faith, your calling, and your experiences, hold on to and never let go of your faith in your Creator. Trust his boundless love and grace for you. Stay anchored in your relationship with your Creator and you shall come out victoriously from whatever you may be going through right now. Amen!

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Lenten Reflections 2021: Our Gifts and Strengths Make Us Susceptible to Temptations!

Lenten Reflections 2021: Our Gifts and Strengths Make Us Susceptible to Temptations!

Published by V John on March 10, 2021

@johnvinod | March 10, 2021

Recently a scandal came to light posthumously, which involved a renowned evangelical leader, respected as a great Christian apologist. Thousands of his fans were shocked that he had succumbed to his sexual and other temptations. He is, however, not the first and will not be the last of Christian “celebrity” leaders who abused their position, power, and gifts for selfish gains. If you have been reading the gospels during this Lenten season, you must have noticed that the first three gospels narrate Jesus Christ’s temptations. But what were these temptations about?

The first temptation according to Matthew is:

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written,
‘One does not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (Matthew 4: 1-3 NRSV).

This is basically devil’s first attempt at provoking Jesus to use his gifts and powers for his own self-gratification. Jesus had not started his ministry yet. He has not called anyone to follow him yet. He has not performed any healing, sign, or miracle yet. But Jesus knew who he essentially was and what it implied. Even Satan knew what powers he possessed as the Son of God. Therefore, he wished that Jesus would utilize his inherent powers and gifts for selfish reasons and parade them for his glory rather than seeking and serving God’s purpose and mission on earth.

Since we are tempted daily in our lives, you may have noticed that most of us are seldom tempted much in the areas where we are the weakest and quite vulnerable to succumb to the temptations. Instead, we are often tempted in the areas of our strengths and where we think we are in control of our gifts, talents, and powers. William Barclay, in his commentary on Matthew’s Gospel, brilliantly put it:

We must always remember that again and again we are tempted through our gifts. The person who is gifted with charm will be tempted to use that charm “to get away with anything.” The person who is gifted with the power of words will be tempted to use his command of words to produce glib excuses to justify his own conduct. The person with a vivid and sensitive imagination will undergo agonies of temptation that a more stolid person will never experience. The person with great gifts of mind will be tempted to use these gifts for himself and not for others, to become the master and not the servant of men. It is the grim fact of temptation that it is just where we are strongest that we must be forever on the watch.
(https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/dsb/matthew-4.html)

As we read about mighty men and women fall from grace, we are reminded that Jesus Christ was the mightiest of all. And Jesus bared his innermost struggles with his disciples sharing all that he went through and how he overcame it setting an example for his followers.

Today, let us recall all the areas in which God has gifted us. What are our positions of power? Where are we strong? Which are the spheres where we could exert power or influence over others? And as we recall these, let us also be humble to recognize that we are predisposed to easily give into the temptation of using our gifts, abilities, strengths, talents, positions, and powers, for purposes that are base and utterly selfish. They can easily make us susceptible to utilize them for less than godly purposes. As we take an inventory of our own inclinations, let us ask God for the grace to take preventive measures and actively learn from the example of Jesus Christ. Amen.

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Lenten Reflections 2021: When did Jesus and His Early Followers Encounter the Tempter?

Lenten Reflections 2021: When did Jesus and His Early Followers Encounter the Tempter?

Published by V John on March 9, 2021

@johnvinod | March 9, 2021

The Lenten season reminds us that Jesus Christ faced the Tempter in the wilderness. Some wrongly assume that it was only the last day of his forty-day sojourn that the devil came to tempt Jesus. No, he was tempted throughout that period in the desert. And he continued to face temptations even after that forty-day period during his ministry and it culminated only when he cried out on the cross, “It is finished!” Like any one of us, Jesus daily faced hunger and thirst. He must have struggled with various thoughts in his mind and spirit. I think, Jesus may have also been tempted to give up fasting or later his ministry and return to an ordinary life with his family in Nazareth.

The disciples of Jesus Christ who later became the Apostles of the church, along with those who followed Jesus in the early churches, lived in the midst of daily suffering. They all encountered various temptations in everyday life. Unlike the modern Christian sects that preach and teach a false gospel of prosperity, word of faith, name it and claim it, and your best wealthy life now; often the questions on the lips of these early followers were:

“Why is it so difficult to be a follower of Jesus Christ when we have given up so much to be his disciples?”

“Why doesn’t God provide all of our physical needs?”

“Why doesn’t God protect us from plagues, diseases, and famines?

“Why doesn’t God prevent our sufferings and persecution and the execution of some of our fellow believers under the brutal Roman Empire?”

Besides these apparent temptations and sufferings, the early disciples had to deal with their inner battles to remain sexually pure and live a holy life of personal integrity in a society that was fraught with all types of perversion, idolatry, and evil. This is evident from what the Apostle Paul wrote to the early churches:

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do (Galatians 5:17 ESV).
For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me (Romans 7: 15-20 ESV).

So, when the followers of Jesus were faced with these visible and invisible battles, I am pretty sure they turned to the Apostles, their writings, and the Gospels that had recorded the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Through them, they discovered that Jesus had himself faced these temptations and challenges. They also learned that Jesus overcame not only these sufferings and impulses, but also the very death and the grave through his resurrection.

When they felt almost defeated and wished to give up, they recalled the events in Jesus’ life. His life worked as a soothing balm of encouragement to Jesus’ followers. To highlight just one example, they realized that as soon as Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit and publicly declared the Son of God with whom He was well pleased, he “was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matthew 4:1 ESV).

Like these early followers of Jesus, today, let us overcome one of our main temptations, that is, believing a false gospel, a gospel of our making, or a gospel created by our cultures and traditions. Instead of falsely believing that as soon as you “receive Jesus into your heart” all your problems will vanish, and you will be immensely blessed with health, wealth, and prosperity; let us learn from Jesus and the Apostles. And they would educate us that our external or innermost battles are not over when we commit our life to God and decide to live as He calls us to live. Jesus never called anyone to a life of easy discipleship. To follow Jesus is a life of costly discipleship. Our baptism or even anointing by the Holy Spirit do not guarantee freedom from suffering or persecution, and relief from our daily temptations. However, if we continue to heed Jesus’ call, “Follow Me,” we are promised eventual victory in and through him. Therefore, let us press on!

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