The First Three Temptations of Christ

Click here to read the story we’re about to talk about.

Before Jesus begins his ministry, the Spirit leads him into the wilderness where we’re told Jesus will be tested. Even though he is, quite literally, God in the flesh, the Spirit still sees fit to test Jesus’ bona fides.

Jesus fasts for 40 days and nights in preparation. So we know he is not at his best. And, yet, he manages to pass the test.

Story over…right? I mean the moral is, if Jesus, who is starving to death, can withstand temptation, can’t you withstand it as well?

Or...is it? It’s not clear. In fact, to my reading, this story isn’t particularly about morals at all. Nor is it necessarily about temptation. It’s about Jesus’ ability to recognize his mission and to be able to stay on task even though there are obstacles (hunger and temptations of various sorts).

Now, we could (if we’re not careful), moralize that. Something like: it’s important to stay singularly focused on your call. But that’s obvious and we already know that focus is (generally speaking) quite a good thing and we don’t even need to say such things at this point!

So…what else could we say? I don’t want to settle.

Well, for me, this is one of the most relatable stories of Jesus. He is tired and hungry. He resists, yes, but it’s not difficult to imagine resistance being difficult, under the circumstances. It’s not a “fake” test, they are not “fake” temptations. Likely, Jesus had to fight his exhaustion and hunger in order to find his responses. We see, at the end, angels needed to care for him. He couldn’t care for himself. God in the flesh could not care for himself. That is…striking.

A few other thoughts to add to the mix. It is a common experience in life to be presented with alternatives to how we want to live. This is what the devil is offering in this story, an alternative path. Another way to “be.” We tend to call this temptation. It’s tempting because it would feel good- but maybe not be in our best long-term interests. It is just the same for Jesus- he could do something in his own short-term interests, but if he does that he does not fulfill his mission (that mission being, to live a human life as God would live it, and then to unleash God’s spirit into the world through overcoming death).

This is rich territory to explore for a recovery community. The difference between living in our short-term best interests as opposed to our long-term best interests is stark. It can be the difference between life and death. It can be the difference in restored relationships vs. fractured ones. We could go on. You can even fill in the blanks for yourself (i.e., when are short-term best interests, or temptations, a problem for you? Or, how do you stay true to best long-term interests). Here’s a few extra lines.

Let me give you one last thought, and expand on it a bit. Jesus is, quite literally, God in the flesh. God can resist things we cannot. This is no surprise. However- it seems to be difficult for him to do it. At the very least, it takes a lot out of him. As we said early, angels needed to care for him once it’s all been said and done. That might be a surprise.

At the end of the Gospel, Peter denies Christ 3 times. This is a form of temptation. We tell this story as if it's a failure on Peter’s part. (Couldn’t he be a bit more Christ-like, and overcome temptation?) The reality is, Peter is needed. If he does not deny Christ, he is killed with Christ. The glorious story of a martyr, but a tragedy for the early church. And, even if he weren’t needed, overcoming temptation is hard. Even for Christ himself.

What then shall we say?

We could say, as they would in Sunday school, resist temptation like Jesus does and all will be well. But then we miss something important- Jesus resists temptation and fulfills his mission- but all does not go well for him. Peter does not resist temptation and this allows him to fulfill his mission.

So, temptation is a bit complicated. Of course we’d all agree that some self-discipline is good for us and will help us live out whatever we believe our mission to be. But let’s also not worship at the altar of self-discipline, as our culture has taught us to do. The disciples were a great many things but models of self-discipline were not it.

No, we need not master self-discipline. We need instead to remember our place in the universe. God is the creator and we are the created. As creatures we will always be faced with temptation. Sometimes we will resist, sometimes we will not. In either case, it’s our mission to rely on God to carry us through, regardless of whether we succeed or fail.

Is God Fragile?

Click here to read Psalm 38 in preparation for this post…

Over the decades I have had an uneasy relationship with the book of Psalms. Sometimes it feels to me like the writers are in danger of being completely smitted for their presumption. Consider the lament from King David found in Psalm 38.

"Take a deep breath, God; calm down - don't be so hasty with your punishing rod. Your sharp-pointed arrows of rebuke draw blood; my backside smarts from your caning. I've lost twenty pounds in two months because of your accusation. My bones are brittle as dry sticks because of my sin."  Psalm 38:1-3 The Message

Calm down God? David's take-away over his egregious sin is to tell God to take a deep breath and CALM DOWN? I don't get it. Who dares to tell God to calm down?

It turns out that lots of Biblical characters had the kind of relationship with God where they could whine, complain, demand, accuse, beg and berate God. And God listens; responds; refuses at times to answer their pleas in favor of a BETTER response. Take Job for instance, Job has a ton of questions for God and demands a meeting. God eventually shows up and does not feel the need to defend himself. But what he does choose to do is restore Job while rebuking Job's friends who offer a stunning amount of bad advice.

Is David blaming God for his discipline? No, more likely he's just being a human - desperate to know when it will stop. His contrition becomes more clear starting in verse four..."I'm swamped by my bad behavior, collapsed under gunnysacks of guilt. The cuts in my flesh stink and grow maggots because I've lived so badly. And now I'm flat on my face feeling sorry for myself morning to night. All my insides are on fire, my body is a wreck. I'm on my last legs; I've had it - my life is a vomit of groans. Lord, my longings are sitting in plain sight, my groans an old story to you. My heart's about to break; I'm a burned-out case. Cataracts blind me to God and good; old friends avoid me like the plague. My cousins never visit, my neighbors stab me in the back. My competitors blacken my name, devoutly they pray for my ruin. But I'm deaf and mute to it all, ears shut, mouth shut. I don't hear a word they say, don't speak a word in response." Psalm 38:4-14

David is filled with guilt and self-pity. He cries out to God even as he realizes that he is blind to God and goodness at this point in his life. But David does a second thing, an important thing. He remembers what to do next: 

"What I do, God, is wait for you, wait for my Lord, my God - you will answer! I wait and pray so they won't laugh me off, won't smugly strut off when I stumble. I'm on the edge of losing it - the pain in my gut keeps burning. I'm ready to tell my story of failure, I'm no longer smug in my sin. My enemies are alive and in action, a lynch mob after my neck. I give out good and get back evil from God-haters who can't stand a God-lover. Don't dump me, God; my God, don't stand me up. Hurry and help me; I want some wide-open space in my life!" Psalm 38:15-23

Read carefully and see how quickly David forgets about his sin and goes back to his illusion of self, "I give out good and get back evil from God-haters who can't stand a God-lover." This is a little hard to take from a guy who is a burned out case, swamped by his own bad behavior and currently collapsing under gunnysacks of guilt. I'm just saying - can't we all relate? It is hard to hold onto an accurate view of ourselves.

David aside, what brings me back to the Psalms every morning in my reading is NOT the messy way we humans tell our stories as we weep and wail and lament, but more to the point, it is the way God keeps showing up. God is not fragile; he is not easily offended; he is not constantly correcting us for all the ways we miss the mark. Who God is - is compassionate, caring, just, merciful, faithful and all the other wonderful characteristics the scriptures teach us to look for in him. David is looking, waiting, praying, hoping but I also think David, for all his faults and they are many, is believing that God will show up, help him recover his life.

Psalm 38 is kind of a hot mess when we read it through the lens of David; but it is also an indication that maybe, as the scriptures say, that messy King David is also "a man after God's own heart." I ask you: if David can be such a mess and still yearn for God - why not the rest of us?

My mother, a neat fanatic, famously yelled at my brother Gary as he stumbled home after a bad motorcycle accident. He was bloodied and bruised, a filthy mess, barely able to hold onto his bike as he rolled the wrecked bike home. Upon seeing him my mom said, "Gary, for heaven's sake, you are too dirty to take to the emergency room. Go wash yourself off with the hose. You cannot go in the house with all that blood pouring out of your arm." I thought he would bleed out before making it back to the car, much less the ER. He survived. Looking back through the lens of history, I think my brother Gary was the kind of guy who would trust God enough to write a prayer of lament. He certainly pre-qualified as fully human. In a world that imagines a God who is like us - image-conscious and shame-filled - maybe we could remember David. And Gary. But especially remember who God is; he does not require us to clean up before he can heal.

God and Satan Give Job a Performance Review

Continuing on in our series on Sunday school stories- we’re going to talk about Job.

Job is described as blameless and upright (the same description Genesis gives of Abraham…you may or may not recall). He has a large family, wealth, livestock (of course wealth and livestock were basically the same thing in those days).

The book of Job begins with God and “the satan” (or "the adversary") have a conversation about Job's unwavering faith. Now, I want to point out here that the satan is talking to God because he is part of some kind of heavenly council. He’s not talking to God from hell or some such thing. Instead it’s more like he’s part of God’s board of directors and, evidently, his role is to challenge God. This tells us that God runs a rather healthy organization- God has built-in some accountability for himself and allows himself to be challenged and questioned. The satan challenges God by arguing that Job's faith is only strong because he has been blessed with prosperity. In other words- the satan wants to find out if Job is actually good, or if he’s just in a good mood because his life is easy.

God agrees to let the satan test Job's faith by taking away all his blessings, except his life. In a series of devastating events, Job loses his children, wealth, and health, as he is afflicted with painful sores. In all this, Job never curses God. However, he first responds by praising God and gets increasingly despondent as the story goes on and, eventually, Job gets quite angry at God and does a good bit of yelling and questioning. But he never curses God.

Three of Job's friends – Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar – come to visit and console him. They engage in a series of dialogues, suggesting that Job must have done something wrong to deserve such suffering. Job defends his innocence, asserting that he has not committed any sins worthy of his immense suffering.

As the dialogues continue, a young man named Elihu enters the conversation and rebukes both Job and his friends. He emphasizes that God's ways are beyond human understanding, and that suffering is not always a direct result of sin.

Think of Job’s friends like modern day Facebook commenters. They are the classic “but what about’ers.” They act like they know what’s going on because, let’s face it, they aren’t the ones going through the problem. If they were around today, they’d send him memes of cats hanging from trees by one paw with the caption, “Hang in there.”

Don’t we see this from our own friends today? We have people telling us that it’s not as bad as it seems, that we just need to put more good vibes into the universe, that things seem bad now but really something better will come down the pike. Spoiler alert: none of these are the message of Job. Additional spoiler alert: God does not approve these messages.

Finally, God speaks to Job out of a whirlwind, presenting a series of rhetorical questions that highlight the vast difference between divine and human wisdom. Job humbly acknowledges his limited understanding of God's ways and repents for questioning God's justice.

Okay so I’m going to give a series of takeaways in a minute but let’s just hit the pause button. God does get frustrated with Job, but it’s not for the reasons you might assume. Job’s faith never wavers- he just expresses utter confusion at how God operates in this story and kind of hints at the fact that God might be bad at his job (job not Job). What God does in this section is to offer Job some perspective. God essentially says, “My job isn’t easy. Do you think you could do it? If so, you’re wrong.”

This alone offers us a unique insight into what kind of God we worship. We think of God as being able to do whatever He wants simply by snapping his fingers. But, apparently, being God is hard work…so a little appreciation for the size and scope of God’s to-do list might be in order!

Additionally- God says quite explicitly in Job 42 that Job’s friends did not speak correctly about God and that Job did speak correctly about God. So let’s break this down.

It is not correct to:

• Assume suffering is the product of sin

• Blame someone for their own suffering

• Suggest that good things exclusively happen to good people and bad things exclusively happen to bad people

• Suggest that bad things happen as an appetizer to some later “good” entree

  It is correct to:

• Question God generally

• Question God’s fairness specifically

• Demand answers of God

• Demand to see and hear God

• Express frustration with God

• Express discontent

So- be very careful what you say to people who are hurting. If you don’t know what else to say: 1. Silence is often good enough. 2. “I’m here for you,” is also a good option.

Rant over. Let’s keep going.

In the end, God restores Job's fortunes, blessing him with twice the wealth he had before, as well as new children. The story concludes with Job living a long and prosperous life, serving as an example of unwavering faith and the complexities of human suffering. Before this, though, we get the bit about God condemning Job’s friends and God tasks Job with praying for them so that they may be restored.

There is so much to say about this story. I could, and have, write thousands of words on it (I wrote 25 pages on 6 verses while in seminary…if that tells you anything). Instead of having this post go on and on and on…I’m going to give you bullet point takeaways. And, I’m going to invite you to email me if you want to discuss any of them further.

Thoughts and Takeaways from the book of Job in no particular order:

• Don’t get distracted thinking about the fairness of the bargain between God and the satan. God is not in the habit of making these kinds of bargains. It is merely the setup for the story, not the story itself. The story itself is about the relationship between God, sin, and suffering.

• There is not a direct relationship between sin and suffering. Of course, doing “bad” things can have consequences…but it’s important to realize bad things can also just happen.

• Faith and religion are not so simple as: do good and you get good things. You might be a faithful person and experience great loss. There is no way to ensure a low-suffering life through spiritual performance.

• God is not a cosmic vending machine that can be manipulated with pious prayers and spiritual disciplines. This is not to say that God wants to withhold good things either- quite the opposite. It is to say that faith is about much more than reward and punishment. It is a true relationship, with up’s and down’s, and not merely the exchange of goods (such as: our prayers in exchange for God’s blessings).

• God wins the bet. Humans can maintain faith in the midst of tragic circumstances. This is a testament to the strength of the human spirit.

• Job is restored not because he repents at the end of the story but because God is drawing his time of suffering to a close because this is what God has chosen to do. Let’s remember- Job “repents” before anything is restored- and Job has no idea what God is going to do next. So Job is not repenting to get anything back- in fact, his repentance reads more like an acceptance of circumstances to me.

• Also, let’s be clear, Job is not repenting of wrongdoing or sin. He’s repenting of his lack of perspective. This is hardly a sin. Job is simply saying to God, “Ah, I see now, yes, the world is much larger than me and I don’t understand everything that happens.”

• PPS- what seems to be important to Job in this exchange with God is that, while he had previously heard about God- he now sees God. That evokes a sense of wonder in Job- and allows him to move on from his complaints. It’s interesting to think that Job finally saw God when he was at his lowest point.

There’s plenty more to say…but that’s probably enough for now.

What stands out to you in the story of Job?

Jonah Hated His Job

Continuing on in our series about all the things you should’ve learned in Sunday school, we’re going to turn our attention to Jonah this week.

It’s hard to know how to talk about the story of Jonah. When people think about Jonah, they think about the whale, as if the point of the book is to somehow prefigure Moby Dick. But the whale is just a piece of the story, kind of a small piece at that.

If we zoom out a bit we see that the heart of Jonah’s story is God's universal compassion. And we could add on a few other things, if we need to, and talk about the transformative power of repentance or the role of humans in the carrying out of God’s plans.

If you don’t remember, the story of Jonah goes something like this. God calls Jonah to go to Nineveh and demand the people turn from their ways back to God. Jonah doesn’t particularly care for the Ninevites so this is a non-starter. Jonah tries to escape God’s call by getting on a boat to travel in another direction- but God stirs up a storm that throws Jonah overboard and lands him in the belly of a whale, wherefrom Jonah prays for rescue, which God does, only to then send Jonah to Nineveh after all. Jonah calls the Ninevites to repentance- and it works. They do repent. And so God embraces the Ninevites. Jonah is pissed about this and retreats to a desert where he spends his days being angry with God while sitting up against a small tree.

Click here to read it in full.

What can we say about this story?

Let’s start with the character of Jonah. Jonah cracks me up. Jonah is one of the few (maybe Jeremiah also fits this category) biblical “prophets” who is called by God, given a mission, accomplishes the mission, and feels horrible about it. Can you imagine being given a task by God, directly, and then succeeding, and then being so angry about your success that you retreat to isolation in the desert? There’s got to be a lesson in there somewhere, though I’m not exactly sure what it is.

Okay, okay, I’ll try. Here goes. God needs humans to carry out his plans. And, when God has a specific plan he wants accomplished, he gets it done even if people aren’t super happy about the role they have to play in that plan. Jonah shows us that such specific plans can be resisted- but ultimately if God wants to get his way, God will get his way- even if he has to be flexible about how the plan gets accomplished.

Let’s talk a little bit more about that flexibility shall we? God sends Jonah to be his hatchet man. Nineveh needs to repent or else. Jonah isn’t going to deliver a flowery message about God- he’s going to make them an offer they can’t refuse. But, God isn’t trapped in his emotions about Nineveh. If he was, he’d be quite inflexible. Think about the feelings of anger and resentment for a second. When you feel these- do they go away easily? If someone “repents,” can you just set those emotions aside? I doubt it. If you’re anything like me, you say to yourself, “Well, repentance is fine, but prove to me that you’re serious.” Not so with God. He breathes a sigh of relief. Violence isn’t God’s number 1 option- it's a relationship. That takes us to our final, and most significant point, which has to do with the depths of God’s compassion.

A central theme in the Book of Jonah is God's concern and compassion for all creation. At the time, Israelites perhaps thought they were God’s only people. They were chosen, and therefore others were not. Jonah’s story shows us this is not the case. Israel was chosen so that God could use them to keep choosing others. God's love extends beyond the Israelites to people from all nations, even those considered enemies. The people of Nineveh, a foreign city, are recipients of God's mercy. Thus- his compassion is universal- offered equally to all people.

What an unpopular message then and now. Jonah hated that message and probably chose skin cancer over embracing God’s universal love for all people. We hate that message too- we want God to smite the people who aren’t like us, who don’t think like us, who we feel want to exclude us. Isn’t that interesting? The way we operate today- we want to exclude people who exclude people like me (or people I care about). Exclusion is considered wrong, but if someone else does some excluding, then we’re perfectly uncomfortable excluding the excluders. You see the problem? We’re currently living in a vicious cycle of excluding and excluding excluders and so on and so on. If we’re not careful, we might all end up alone in a desert.

But this shows us exactly how radical God is. This is a God who is willing to offer acceptance and inclusion to all kinds of people- not just the type of people Jonah considered to be worthy of God’s love. And so the book of Jonah leaves us with big questions to answer. For instance, Who is not worthy of God’s love? Who should God exclude?

We’d be hard pressed to answer those questions. And, because of that, we may need to open our own hearts a little bit more than what is comfortable.

The God who cares about your suffering.

If you haven’t checked the blog in a while, we’re doing a series on stuff you should have learned in Sunday school. But…maybe you didn’t go to Sunday school. Or maybe your Sunday school left out some salacious details. Either way, we’re taking a hard look at key stories you might’ve missed or maybe need a refresher on. This week we’re looking at Hannah.

Hannah's story, found in 1 Samuel, is one of faith, perseverance, and the transformative power of prayer. We’re going to take a deep dive (or maybe just a medium dive) into the dynamics of her story, inspired by the insights of biblical scholar Terence Fretheim.

Before going any further- you may want to read her story. It’s not long. Click here to get caught up.

In short, Hannah always wanted to be a mother, and was mistreated because of her infertility. She cries out to God asking for a child, and promises to dedicate the child to the priesthood (meaning she would not herself directly raise the child) should God answer her call. God does- and she gives birth to Samuel, the man who eventually anoints Israel’s first king. Hannah follows through on her promise and dedicates Samuel to God and always him to be, quite literally, raised by (and in) the priesthood.

God responds to human suffering

There are a few things I want us to pay close attention to in this story. Hannah's story reminds us that God is not distant from, or indifferent to, our pain and suffering. As Hannah experiences the torment of infertility and the taunts of her rival, Peninnah, she turns to God in prayer. God recognizes and pays close attention to her heartache and subsequently answers her prayer because of her heartfelt plea.

And so, one of the traits of God that is on full display in this story is his ability to recognize and respond to our suffering and requests for help. Of course, this isn’t some miracle formula we can use anytime we’re in distress. We can’t always know that God is going to resolve our suffering or our heartache in quick order if we pray that right prayer (or if we pray at all). But what we do learn is that our God is the type of God who cares about our suffering and is moved by our prayers, even if he doesn’t respond to them all equally.

And let’s not forget- when he doesn’t respond…we can also pray about that. We can express our anguish at God for not responding to our anguish. There’s no boundary on what we can take to him. He can take it.

The importance of genuine, honest prayer

Hannah's emotional and heartfelt prayer serves as an example of authentic communication with God. The work of Terence Fretheim (should you want to look him up) emphasizes that God values this genuine interaction and is moved by the feelings expressed by those who seek Him.

This takes us back to the point made a few sentences ago- it’s okay, acceptable, even God to be totally genuine before God, even if that means expressing disappointment with Him. This is neither sacreligious nor a heresy, in fact, it’s quite biblical (see also: the Psalms).

God's active role in human life

A somewhat related point. The story of Hannah demonstrates that God actively engages with humans and their circumstances. In answering Hannah's prayer and blessing her with a son, God shows His involvement in the lives of His people.

While God is not always as active as he is here, we can find comfort in knowing that our God is the type of God who desires to play an active role in the lives of his people. He is not a distant God, watching from afar. He likes to get in there and get his hands dirty.

The wider implications of God's actions in this story

Let’s not forget this story is not just about how God interacts with people. God's response to Hannah's prayer is significant historically, as Samuel plays a critical role in the development of Israel's history. So this is not just the story of God helping one particular person in crisis, it’s also the story of how God continues to carry his entire group of people forward, inching closer and closer to the arrival of Jesus, and slowly spreading the truth of God throughout the world.

Now, I’m not sure what stands out to you in all this, but what always strikes a chord with me in each of these stories is the way they answer the question: What kind of God do we worship? In this case- the answer is a God who is attentive and responsive to human suffering. A God who is active and engaged. A God who desires genuine relationship with his creation. And let’s just be clear- that’s pretty unusual for a God!