Walking His Path.

As we opened the reading today, Jesus' words to Peter from our reading Sunday were rolling around in my head. "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation..." Jesus himself, following the Spirit's leading, went into the desert to be tempted by Satan. Because Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert, we can know that His temptation was ordained by God. You may think that's odd...but I think it has some very real implications to our lives today. As we read Job, we all struggled with how God could ask so much of such a good man. Along the same lines, why would God send His own son into the desert to be tempted by Satan? Why would God want us to face temptation, or the enemy of our souls, face to face??! The same reason Generals send troops to the front lines of battle. Sometimes we have to face the enemy square on to achieve victory. What if our mindset changed? What if as we face temptation we walk into it knowing that God sent us there for a victory? Jesus needed this victory under his belt before He began the rest of His earthly ministry. Sometimes, we have struggles and temptations that need to be faced with the Spirit head on before we can move on to do other things God has called us to.

What tools can you take with you into battle? The same thing Jesus did. The Word of God. Satan tried to take Jesus' focus off of his eternal purpose and put it on earthly things. As our pastor preached about on Sunday, he does the same thing today. It's interesting to me to note, that the wilderness was where the Israelites failed their test before God. Jesus came to do what they (and we) could not!

One final interesting point from this section (I promise the whole blog post won't be on this one section!) I found was that it said at the end Satan left Jesus "for a time." While we are never told in scripture of additional specific temptations of Satan to Jesus, the implication in this wording is that Satan did tempt Jesus later. I can't imagine why he wouldn't. In fact, I would imagine that Satan was on Jesus' back pretty often during the rest of his earthly ministry right up until the point of his sacrifice on the cross. Getting Jesus to fail in his mission would have been a priority in his battle strategy. In fact, I think that at some point Satan may have actually thought he won...how wrong he was!!

Moving on...Jesus leaves the wilderness and goes to Galilee, where he is generally well received. As He reaches His hometown of Nazareth, initially everyone is excited about His return. I'm sure word of His popularity had spread. As He read in the synagog, he read the prophecies about himself "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor....to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Interestingly enough, Jesus stopped before the end of the verse He was reading from in Isaiah, which states, "and the day of our God's vengeance." He stopped because that wasn't what He was here for THIS time...that refers to His job when He comes back AGAIN! I'm sure there was some murmuring at his direct proclamation that He was the Messiah...and they completely turned on Him at His implication that God would accept the Gentiles and reject Israel. No wonder...the Messiah was supposed to deliver Israel, right? I found the end of this story intriguing as well. The angry mob basically forces him to a cliff. Once there, He simply "passed right through the crowd and went on His way." How exactly?? A miracle? Maybe. We won't know. All we know is that it wasn't time for Him to die. So He didn't.

Understandably, He moves on. He drives our unclean spirits, heals the sick, and preaches to the large crowds that begin to follow Him. Obviously people were drawn to Him and His teaching. His first disciples were so drawn to Him that they left everything they had, right where it was, and followed Him. That seems so impressive to me, but it really is what Jesus asks of His followers. Would I be willing to leave it all behind? I hope so. Matthew was so impressed he wanted all his other friends to meet Jesus as well. I hope I have that excitement as well!

The Scribes and Pharisee's even seemed impressed with Jesus' early ministry. They were willing to accept Him as a healer, prophet, and even an excellent teacher. The problem came for them when they had to submit to Him as the Son of God. That, they were not willing to do. It makes me wonder what it would have taken for them to accept Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah they had been waiting for?

As they begin questioning Jesus about His disciples adherence to the Jewish law, we see the problem. In response to their questioning about why they don't fast, Jesus states that you don't fast when the bridegroom is there. That is the time for celebration! And then He says,

"No one tears a patch from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. Otherwise, not only will he tear the new, but also the piece from the new garment will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, it will spill, and the skins will be ruined. But new wine should be put into fresh wineskins. And no one, after drinking old wine, wants new, because he says, "The old is better."

Jesus was illustrating that His message was radical (the new) and could not serve as a patch for the existing form of Judaism (the old garment) as the Scribes and Pharisee's were probably hoping. They wanted Jesus to revolutionize and revitalize the existing religion, not start a new one. But Jesus goes on to tell them that the new wine (His message) could not be poured into the old wineskin of Judaism because it could not contain it. His new wine needed to be poured into new wineskins (the church of Jesus.) And at the end, Jesus addresses the reason behind the resistance in so many hearts. Jesus' hearers continued to cling to Judaism because, like old wine, it tasted "better"- was familiar and comfortable.

I pray Jesus keeps my heart just uncomfortable enough that I am willing to pack it all up and follow Him wherever He leads, like the first disciples. "Watch and pray, so that you will not fall into temptation..." The temptation of the comfortable is so strong for me. Jesus was able to keep an eternal perspective during His time here on earth. I pray that I can too. I pray that I can walk His path... and even if it leads to the wilderness, I pray that I can trust God for the victory. He's already won it for us!