Why Jesus Put Up With the Devil

Jesus Tempted in the Wilderness

by Tissot

Now we are about half way through the period of lent. Last Sunday we looked at the Gospel of Mark's very brief, terse account of Jesus' 40 days in the desert.  This time we'll look at Matthew's account, where he tells of the epic battle between the Son of God and the Father of lies.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus put up with the Devil in the wilderness at all? Being God he could, after all, have simply blown him away. That's what we humans would expect. I've asked the theologian known as Gregory the Great to give his viewpoint on this question.

____________________

Then the Spirit led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the Devil. After spending forty days and nights without food, Jesus was hungry. Then the Devil came to him and said, “If you are God's Son, order these stones to turn into bread.”

 But Jesus answered, “The scripture says, ‘Human beings cannot live on bread alone, but need every word that God speaks.’”

Then the Devil took Jesus to Jerusalem, the Holy City, set him on the highest point of the Temple, and said to him, “If you are God's Son, throw yourself down, for the scripture says,

‘God will give orders to his angels about you;
they will hold you up with their hands,
so that not even your feet
will be hurt on the stones.’” 

Jesus answered, “But the scripture also says, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Then the Devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in all their greatness. “All this I will give you,” the Devil said, “if you kneel down and worship me.”

Then Jesus answered, “Go away, Satan! The scripture says, ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve only him!’”

(Matthew 4.1 - 10, GNB)

But there is something else we have to consider in this temptation of the Lord, dearly beloved. When the Lord was tempted by the devil, he answered him with the commands of sacred Scripture. 

By the Word that he was, he could have easily plunged his tempter into the abyss.
But he did not reveal the power of his might, but he only brought forth the precepts of Scripture. This was to give us an example of his patience, so that as often as we suffer something from vicious persons we should be aroused to teach rather than to exact revenge.  

Consider how great God’s patience is, how great our impatience. When we are provoked by some injury or threatened harm, or moved to rage, we seek revenge as far as possible. When we are unable to obtain it, we make our threats. 

But the Lord endured the devil’s opposition, and he answered him with nothing except words of meekness. He put up with one he could have punished, so that this might all the more redound to his praise. He overcame his enemy not by destroying him but by suffering him for a while.

Gregory the Great (c. AD 540–604)
Forty Gospel Homilies 16.2–3.

The Greatest Trial?

Temptation in the Wilderness

Briton_Rivière

What I like to do here on Sundays is present a small portion of the Bible and then let some especially wise members of the Christian Movement talk to us about it. 

Since it is Lent and Jesus-followers around the world are reliving the 40 days he fasted in the desert, why not turn our minds to Mark's brief, enigmatic description of that event. Matthew and Luke describe Jesus' titanic struggle with the Devil during that time (John doesn't mention it all). 

But this is all Mark says...


At once the Spirit made him go into the desert, where he stayed forty days, being tempted by Satan. Wild animals were there also, but angels came and helped him.

Gospel of Mark 1.12 - 13, GNB

__________________________

When you think about it, maybe hunger wasn't his most agonizing trial there in the wilderness. Maybe there was something worse...

You see how the Spirit led him, not into a city or public arena, but into a wilderness. In this desolate place, the Spirit extended the devil an occasion to test him, not only by hunger, but also by loneliness, for it is there most especially that the devil assails us, when he sees us left alone and by ourselves. In this same way did he also confront Eve in the beginning, having caught her alone and apart from her husband.

John Chrysostom (AD 349 – 407)
The Gospel of St. Matthew, Homily 13.1

"...Radically Unlimited Liberality..."

Karl Barth

Sixth Sunday of Lent

"Dear friends, we should love each other, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has become God’s child. And so everyone who loves knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love to us: He sent his only Son into the world to give us life through him. True love is God’s love for us, not our love for God." 

First Letter of John chapter 4 verses 7 - 10

Lent is about humbling one's self and taking on the nature of Christ. Each Sunday during this time I am letting wise Christians speak on these subjects. This week we have the thoughts of the great Protestant theologian Karl Barth on Christian love.

_________________

What we have here -- in Christian love -- is a movement in which a man turns away from himself. In the continuation love turns wholly to another, to one who is wholly different from the loving subject. Christian love turns to the other purely for the sake of the other. It does not desire it for itself. In Christian love the loving subject gives to the other, the object of love, that which it has, which is its own, which belongs to it. It does so with a radically unlimited liberality.

Karl Barth
Church Dogmatics, Vol. 4 Part 2, p. 733

"...Faith comes not through pondering..."

Fifth Sunday of Lent

"Come near to God and he will come near to you. You are sinners, so clean sin out of your lives. You are trying to follow God and the world at the same time. Make your thinking pure." 

Letter of James chapter 4 verse 8, ERV


Lent is about humbling one's self and taking on the nature of Christ. Each Sunday during this time I will let wise Christians speak on these subjects. In this post the Orthodox writer Tito Colliander describes how to begin the Christian journey.

_____________

It is for us to begin. If we take one step towards the Lord, he takes ten towards us -- he who saw the prodigal son while he was at a distance, and had compassion and ran and embraced him... Faith comes not through pondering but through action. Not words and speculation but experience teaches us what God is. To let in fresh air we have to open a window; to get tanned we must go out into the sunshine. Achieving faith is no different; we never reach a goal by just sitting in comfort and waiting, say the holy Fathers. Let the prodigal son be our example. He arose and came.

Tito Colliander, 

The Way of the Ascetics, p. 74

"...We are not our own"

Fourth Sunday of Lent

Then Jesus said to his followers, “If any of you want to be my follower, you must stop thinking about yourself and what you want. You must be willing to carry the cross that is given to you for following me

(Gospel of Matthew chapter 16 verse 24)


Lent is about humbling one's self and taking on the nature of Christ. Each Sunday during this time I will let wise Christians speak on these subjects. Today our guest blogger will be John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, who spells out in his pragmatic way what Jesus' challenge to "stop thinking about yourself" really means.

 _____________________________

This [scripture] implies:

1. A thorough conviction that we are not our own, that we are not the proprietors of ourselves or anything we enjoy, that we have no right to dispose of our goods, bodies, souls, or any of the actions or passions of them.

2. A solemn resolution to act suitably to this conviction: Not to live to ourselves, not to pursue our own desires, not to please ourselves, nor to suffer our own will to be any principle of action to us.

 John Wesley
Forms of Prayer for Every Day of the Week (Preface)

"...Less Rather Than More"

Third Sunday of Lent

"Then Jesus noticed that some of the guests were choosing the best places to sit. So he told this story: 'When someone invites you to a wedding, don't sit in the most important seat. They may have invited someone more important than you. And if you are sitting in the most important seat, they will come to you and say, 'Give this man your seat!' Then you will have to move down to the last place and be embarrassed. 

"'So when someone invites you, go sit in the seat that is not important. Then they will come to you and say, 'Friend, move up here to this better place!' What an honor this will be for you in front of all the other guests. Everyone who makes themselves important will be made humble. But everyone who makes themselves humble will be made important.'" 

(Gospel of Luke chapter 14 verse 7-11, ERV)

Lent is about humbling one's self and taking on the nature of Christ. Each Sunday during this time I will let wise Christians speak on these subjects. Out guest blogger today is the well-known author Thomas a Kempis whose book The Imitation of Christ lags only behind the Bible itself in total sales..

__________________

MY CHILD, I will teach you now the way of peace and true liberty. Seek, child, to do the will of others rather than your own. Always choose to have less rather than more. Look always for the last place and seek to be beneath all others. Always wish and pray that the will of God be fully carried out in you. Behold, such will enter into the realm of peace and rest.

Thomas a Kempis (c.1380 – July 25, 1471)

The Imitation of Christ Book 3, Chapter 23

Do Christians Really "Fast" During Lent?

Jesus is tempted to make bread while fasting

The other day on Facebook I got a question from a friend about my article on the 40 days of Lent. It is a good question, especially if you have the religious background both of us do, wherein we once attempted to celebrate the holy days God gave ancient Israel. Long story; maybe I'll tell it one day. But in the Old Testament you'll notice, fasting could sometimes be quite rigorous. So why do members of the Christian Movement call the somewhat gentler thing we do during Lent "fasting?"

Well, at one time the Lenten fast was much more rigorous too! But I didn't get into that. Here is the question and a modified version of my response.

______________________

Q: How do you define fasting? My understanding of it is that it's literally going without any food or water for a period of 24 hours.

I remember many years ago a minister... mentioning in a sermon (on the Day of Atonement) that he never knew of anyone who tried to fast this way for 40 days that didn't end up doing permanent damage to his/her body, and thus strictly warned against attempting it in this day and age, due to the degeneration of the human body.

But your article makes it sound as if it's a relatively common thing for folks to do.

What am I missing here?


A: As you point out there would be a lot of dead and sickly worshipers each year if it was a full on fast. This Scientific American article says it's just barely possible to to go without food for 40 days or a little longer, but if you also don't drink anything you'll be dead in 2 weeks.  It seems to me that Christ, Moses -- who did it twice! -- and Elijah must have had supernatural assistance to make it that long.

We're dealing with the Christian fast of Lent of course, which is not necessarily patterned on an ancient Israelite fast. But it's not without biblical precedent, since it does resemble Daniel's 'no pleasant bread' fast in the Book of Daniel 10.3 (In the old King James Version Daniel says, "I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled." ('Pleasant bread' means 'rich food.')

So for instance I'm eating no meat for the 40 days. Others abstain from other things.  In the Old Testament there are fasts that include not putting oil in your hair or even refusing to bathe (although Jesus said not to do that.)

At any rate, yes this type of a fast is fairly common.

The Scriptures mention different degrees and  types of fasts. In case you are really, really interested in what the Bible says about fasting (or just have a research paper on it), here is a comprehensive list of every fast it mentions.


(I borrowed this with much gratitude from the wondrous Bible.org site. It was originally compiled by the Bible Scholar Kent D. Berghuis.)

Scriptural References to Fasting

What follows is a comprehensive list of references to fasting in Scripture, with a brief summary of the contents of each passage (synoptic passages have been treated together). Notation is made of the extent of the fast (whether the fast is strictly individual or of a corporate nature), for the purpose of highlighting the corporate nature of biblical fasting in contrast to the frequent misconception that fasting was intended to be a strictly private, individualistic matter. Some text critical notes related to questionable NT passages are made here, but a fuller discussion may be found above in the discussion in the second chapter.

Reference	Extent	Summary
Exod 24:18, 34:28; Deut 9:9, 18, 10:10	individual	Moses twice spends forty days on Mount Sinai without eating or drinking, and in mourning over Israel’s sin.
Judg 20:26	corporate	Israel fasts until evening to inquire of YHWH after loss to Benjamin.
1 Sam 1:7-8	individual	Hannah weeps and refuses to eat when her husband’s other wife provokes her, and she prays for a son.
1 Sam 7:6	corporate	Israel fasts for a day to repent, Samuel prays, YHWH delivers them from the Philistines.
1 Sam 14:24-46	corporate	Saul places the army under oath not to eat until evening on the day of battle with the Philistines.
1 Sam 20:34	individual	Jonathan refuses to eat because of his grief over his father’s mistreatment of David.
1 Sam 28:20	individual	Saul eats nothing all day and night when he consults with the witch of En-dor.
1 Sam 31:13; 1 Chr 10:12	corporate	Men of Jabesh fast seven days after recovering the bodies of Saul and Jonathan from the Philistines.
2 Sam 1:12	corporate	David’s men fast until evening upon hearing the news of the death of Saul and Jonathan.
2 Sam 3:35	individual(?)	David refuses to eat food until evening when he heard of the death of Abner.
2 Sam 12:16-23	individual	David fasts and weeps seven days during the terminal illness of his son by Bathsheba.
1 Kgs 13:1-22	individual	An unnamed prophet is instructed by God not to eat or drink while on a mission to prophesy against Jeroboam’s idolatry.
1 Kgs 19:8	individual	Elijah goes forty days on the strength of the food provided to him by an angel.
1 Kgs 21:4	individual	Ahab eats no food because he is sullen after Naboth refused to sell his vineyard.
1 Kgs 21:9-12	corporate	Jezebel calls a false day of fasting to accuse Naboth of cursing God.

1 Kgs 21:27-29	individual	Ahab fasts and puts on sackcloth in repentance after Elijah rebuked him, and God recognized Ahab’s humility.
2 Chr 20:3	corporate	Jehoshaphat proclaims a fast throughout Judah to seek YHWH for fear of the armies of Ammon and Moab.
Ezra 8:21-23	corporate	Ezra calls a fast to seek God’s protection for those leaving Babylon for Israel.
Ezra 10:6	individual	Ezra eats and drinks nothing because of his mourning over the unfaithfulness of the exiles.
Neh 1:4	individual	Nehemiah mourns and fasts for days over the news of the state of Jerusalem, confessing national sin.
Neh 9:1	corporate	The people of Israel assemble with fasting to confess their sin after Ezra reads from the law.
Esth 4:3	corporate	The Jews weep and fast when they hear of the king’s decree for their destruction.
Esth 4:16	corporate	Esther, her maidens, and the Jews of Susa fast from food and drink for three days before she goes to the king.
Esth 9:31	corporate	Purim is established for the Jews with instructions for fasting and lamentations.
Job 3:24	individual	Job groans at the sight of food, and experiences great affliction and pain.
Job 33:19-20	individual	Elihu suggests that man (specifically, Job) is afflicted by God and unable to eat because God is chastening him.
Ps 35:13	individual	David defends his honor by saying that he fasted and prayed when his enemies were sick.
Ps 42:3	individual	The psalmist (Sons of Korah) says that tears are his food day and night.
Ps 69:10	individual	David’s fasting, weeping and prayer was an object of scorn by his enemies.
Ps 102:4	individual	The afflicted psalmist forgets to eat bread because of his great grief.

Ps 107:17-18	individual	People in distress are pictured as near death, unable to eat, but YHWH saves them.
Ps 109:24	individual	David says his knees are weak from fasting, and his flesh has grown lean during his affliction from his enemies.
Isa 58:3-6	corporate	Israel’s fasts are not heard by God because of their oppression and hypocrisy; He desires righteousness first.
Jer 14:12	corporate	Israel’s fasts are not heard by God because of their oppression and hypocrisy.
Jer 36:6-9	corporate	The people of Judah assemble in Jerusalem for a fast, and Baruch reads Jeremiah’s prophecy to them.
Ezek 24:18	individual	Ezekiel is instructed in special mourning rites, that include fasting, for the death of his wife.
Dan 6:18	individual	Darius fasts from food, entertainment, and sleep through the night while worrying for Daniel in the lion’s den.
Dan 9:3	individual	Daniel fasts, confessing Israel’s sin, upon reading Jeremiah’s prophecy of the seventy weeks.
Dan 10:2-3	individual	Daniel mourns for three weeks, abstaining from tasty food, meat, wine, and ointment.
Joel 1:14	corporate	Joel calls for a nation-wide fast because of famine that is destroying the land.
Joel 2:12-15	corporate	YHWH calls the people to return to Him with fasting, rending their hearts, not garments; Joel again calls for a fast.
Jonah 3:5	corporate	All of Nineveh fasts, repenting at the preaching of Jonah of the destruction of the city.
Zech 7:5	corporate	YHWH rebukes the priests for their ritual fasts that were done more for themselves than for Him.
Zech 8:19	corporate	YHWH will transform the ritual fasts into feasts of joy when God’s people have repented of sin and He grants them favor.

Matt 4:2; Luke 4:2	individual	Jesus fasts forty days in the wilderness, being tempted by the devil.
Matt 6:16-18	individual	Jesus teaches that fasting should be done privately for God, not for the purpose of being seen to be fasting, like the hypocrites.
Matt 9:14-15; Mark 2:18-20; Luke 5:33-35	corporate	Jesus tells John’s disciples that his do not fast because the bridegroom is present, but when He is taken away they will.
Matt 15:32; Mark 8:3	corporate	Jesus did not wish to send the crowd away fasting,855 since they had been with Him three days and have nothing (more?) to eat.
Matt 17:21;856 Mark 9:29857	individual?	Jesus says that this kind of demon goes out only by means of prayer and fasting.858
Luke 2:37	individual	Anna serves in the temple night and day with fastings and prayers.
Luke 18:12	individual	The Pharisee in Jesus’ parable shows his self-righteousness by boasting that he fasts twice a week and tithes.
Acts 9:9	individual	Saul fasted from food and water three days after the Damascus Road experience.

Acts 10:30859	individual	Cornelius was fasting and praying when an angel instructed him to go to Peter.
Acts 13:2-3	corporate	Prophets and teachers in Antioch were ministering to the Lord and fasting before and after the Holy Spirit set apart Saul and Barnabas.
Acts 14:23	corporate	Paul and Barnabas appoint elders in the churches, having prayed with fasting.
Acts 23:12	corporate	Certain Jews bind themselves by oath not to eat or drink until they kill Paul.
Acts 27:9	corporate	Paul’s voyage to Rome takes place after “the fast” was over, a reference to the Day of Atonement.
Acts 27:33	corporate	Paul encourages the ship’s crew to eat, since they had gone 14 days fasting.860
1 Cor 7:5861	couples	Paul tells couples not to deprive one another sexually, except for brief periods devoted to prayer and fasting.
2 Cor 6:5; 2 Cor 11:27	individual	Paul lists “fastings”862 among the hardships he suffered as a mark of his apostleship.

Summary of Biblical Purposes for Fasting

I. As a Sign of Sorrow
A. For tragic events (Judg 20:26; 1 Sam 31:13/1 Chr 10:12; 2 Sam 1:12, 3:35; Esth 4:3; Jer 14:1-12; Joel 1:14, 2:12-15).
B. For personal sorrow (1 Sam 1:7-8, 20:34; Job 3:24; Pss 42:3, 102:4, 107:17-18).
II. As a Sign of Repentance and Seeking Forgiveness
A. National or corporate sins (Exod 34:28/Deut 9:9, 18, 10:10; 1 Sam 7:6; Ezra 9:1- 10:17; Neh 1:4-7, 9:1; Dan 9:3-14; Jonah 3:5-9; Zech 8:16-19).
B. Personal sins (2 Sam 12:16-23; 1 Kgs 21:27-29; Ps 69:10; Acts 9:9?).
C. As an opportunity for public exposure of sin (1 Kgs 21:9-12; Isa 58:1-5; Jer 36:6-9).
III. As an Aid in Prayer to God
A. For others (2 Sam 12:16-23; Neh 1:8-10; Ps 35:13; Dan 6:18, 9:15-19).
B. For self (1 Sam 1:7-11; Neh 1:11; Ps 109:21-24; Dan 9:3, 10:1-3).
C. For success in battle (Judg 20:26; 1 Sam 7:6; 2 Chr 20:3) and in other endeavors (Ezra 8:21-23; Esth 4:16).
D. For relief from famine (Jer 14:1-12; Joel 1:14, 2:12-15).
E. As a means of personal or group devotion (Matt 6:16-18; Luke 2:37; Acts 10:30, 13:2-3; 1 Cor 7:5).
IV. As a Part of Experiencing God’s Presence
A. Supernatural sustaining by God (Exod 34:28/Deut 9:9, 18, 10:10; 1 Kgs 19:8).
B. Reliance on God in times of temptation or spiritual warfare (Matt 4:2/Luke 4:2; Matt 17:21/Mark 9:29).
C. Reflecting the reality of the absence of Christ’s immediate presence with his followers (Matt 9:14-15/Mark 2:18-20/Luke 5:33-35).
D. Going without food to remain longer under Jesus’ teaching (Matt 15:32/Mark 8:3).
V. As an Act of Ceremonial Public Worship (Neh 9:1; Esth 9:31; Isa 58:3; Jer 36:6-9; Zech 7:3-5, 8:19; Acts 27:9).
VI. As Related to Ministry
A. Preparation for significant ministry (Matt 4:2/Luke 4:2; Acts 9:9, 13:2-3, 14:23).
B. Specific command of God while prophesying (1 Kgs 13:1-22).
C. Suffering for the sake of the gospel (2 Cor 6:5/11:27).
VII. Negative Associations or Corrections of Fasting
A. Fasting while engaging in hypocritical actions or attitudes (1 Sam 28:20; 1 Kgs 21:9-12; Isa 58; Jer 14:10-12; Jer 36:6-26; Zech 7:3-14; Matt 6:16-18; Luke 18:12).
B. Fasting as a solemn binding for a foolish or sinful oath (1 Sam 14; Acts 23:12-21).
C. Breaking a fast when God has commanded it (1 Kgs 13:8-24).
D. A sulking refusal to eat (1 Kgs 21:4).
E. Wrongly attributing the inability to eat as God’s chastening (Job 33:19-20).

"... the only remedy..."

Second Sunday of Lent

"Then Jesus called the crowd and his followers to him. He said, 'Any of you who want to be my follower must stop thinking about yourself and what you want. You must be willing to carry the cross that is given to you for following me.'"

(Gospel of Mark chapter 8 verse 34 ERV)

_______________________

Lent is about humbling one's self, turning from our sin, and taking on the nature of Christ. Each Sunday during this time I'm asking wise followers of Christ speak on these subjects. Last week we heard from King David. Today's guest blogger is François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon, a French Archbishop from 300 years ago who has some excellent advice on achieving our goals during this season.

A sickly self-love, full of pity for itself, cannot be touched without screaming. Touch it with the end of your finger and it thinks itself flayed alive. Then add to this sensitiveness the roughness of other people, full of imperfections unknown to themselves, their disgust at our defects (at least as great as ours toward theirs), and you find all the children of Adam tormenting one another: Half of mankind made unhappy by the other half, and rendering them miserable in their turn. 

The only remedy is to come out of one's self in order to find peace. We must renounce ourselves and lose all self-interest that we may no longer have anything to lose, to fear, or to contrive. Then we shall enjoy the true peace reserved for "men of good will," that is for those who have no longer any will but God's, which becomes theirs. Then men will not be able to harm us, they can no longer attack us through our hopes or our fears. Then we are willing to accept everything, and we refuse nothing.

(Francois Fenelon, Spiritual Letters)

But Why 40 Days?

(This is an update of an article from last year.)

Why did Jesus fast 40 days in the wilderness? Why do we fast that length of time to imitate him? Here's one reason.

Only three people in the entire Bible are recorded as fasting for 40 days: Moses (Book of Exodus, chapter 34 verse 28, ERV), Elijah (First Book of Kings, chapter 19 verse 8, ERV), and Jesus. These three men marked the most important epochs in the history of the people of God. Even Abraham was never called upon to fast 40 days, important as he was.

The Lineage

Jesus fasting in the wilderness

Moses instituted the "Old Covenant" between God and his nation and gave the Law to the children of Israel. This was the pattern of life God wanted them to follow and, we find out later, a pointer to virtually every aspect of Jesus' later work. Moses' fast occurred right at this crucial point in the story.

Elijah was seen as the greatest of the Old Testament prophets. The main job of Israel's prophets, incidentally, was to call the people back to the Law God had given them through Moses. His fast came at Israel's lowest point up to that time, when it appeared (to him) that he was the last believer in Yahweh the God of Israel -- and he was about to be killed too! At Sinai, when his fast was done, God renewed and recommissioned Elijah.

As Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth was the culmination of God's plan and superseded every thing Moses and Elijah had done. He pointed this out as bluntly and plainly as possible: "The law and the prophets were in effect until John came; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone tries to enter it by force," (Gospel of Luke, chapter 16 verse 16).

Moses and the Law

Jesus fasted the same length of time as Moses and Elijah to show he stood in their spiritual lineage, which he was destined to transcend. Not destroy it; there is a continuity in God's ways. But to "fulfill" it, to make it all come true (Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5 verse 17, ERV). From here on out the Kingdom of God was present in the person of its King and all the things Moses and Elijah -- "The Law and the Prophets" -- stood for were subsumed and fulfilled in the Messiah: "He interpreted for them the things written about himself in all the scriptures, starting with Moses and going through all the Prophets," (Gospel of Luke, chapter 24 verse 27, ERV).

We see this pictured in a single image during Jesus' transfiguration: Moses, giver of the Law, and Elijah, the master prophet of Israel, stand in glory with their Messiah and speak of his upcoming supreme victory over evil on the cross in Jerusalem. One of them, Moses perhaps, calls it Jesus' "exodus," fulfilling the one Moses had led:

"Two men, Moses and Elijah, were talking with him. They were clothed with heavenly splendor and spoke about Jesus' departure (in Greek, "exodon"), which he would achieve in Jerusalem," (Gospel of Luke, chapter 9 verses 30-31).

What About Us?

But what about us? Why do we ordinary, everyday Christians fast (in a much less agonizing way) for 40 days like Moses, Elijah, and Jesus did? Lots of reasons, but one of the most important is this: Because we are not ordinary and everyday. The Messiah has inducted us into his Movement and we have sworn allegiance to him, which means we are now part of that same spiritual lineage as he (and they) are. He is our head and we are his body (Letter to the Ephesians, chapter 1 verses 22-23, CEB). We are the Kingdom here and now, just as he was.

We don't merely act on Christ's behalf, we act as Christ -- as his personal way to permeate, transform, and eventually conquer the world. We are him to this world. Over the millennia Christ's Movement has found one of the most useful ways to become more like Jesus is to live our way through the events of his life each year, as we discussed in this post from 2011.

By imitating Jesus' 40 day fast we stand in the same line as Jesus, Elijah, and Moses did. We fast 40 days because Jesus fasted 40 days and we are his body. Doing this year by year melds the body ever closer to the head. Or, to reverse the image, keeping lent each year enables the world to see the head more clearly through the body.

Frankly, if we take it seriously, the 40 days fast prods us to stand up and openly state that, "Why yes, as a matter of fact I am part of Christ's body in this world!" With Jesus there was never any doubt what he was up to. We, on the other hand, can fit in a little too well and all unawares sink into a gentle anonymity. But when we come into work with a big smudgy ash cross on your forehead, or have to fumble for an explanation at lunch as to why we're not eating meat right now or must let all our friends know we won't be on Facebook for over a month, that can prompt awkward questions.

But that's ok because, after all, we're just the latest generation of that famous spiritual lineage.

"When Sins are Erased"

(A very Lent-like poem by Israel's King David. Suggested by N T Wright in Lent for Everyone, which I'm using to prepare myself for Easter.)

~          ~          ~

It is a great blessing when people are forgiven
     for the wrongs they have done,
     when their sins are erased.  
It is a great blessing when the Lord says
     they are not guilty,    
     when they don’t try to hide their sins.

Lord, I prayed to you again and again,
     but I did not talk about my sins.
        So I only became weaker and more miserable.
Every day you made life harder for me.
     I became like a dry land in the hot summertime.

Selah  

But then I decided to confess my sins to the Lord. I stopped
  hiding my guilt
    and told you about my sins.
And you forgave them all!

Selah  

That is why your loyal followers pray to you
     while there is still time.
Then when trouble rises like a flood,
     it will not reach them.
You are a hiding place for me.
     You protect me from my troubles. You surround me and protect me,
     so I sing about the way you saved me.

Selah  

The Lord says, “I will teach you and guide you
    in the way you should live.
        I will watch over you and be your guide.
Don’t be like a stupid horse or mule
     that will not come to you unless you put a bit in its mouth
        and pull it with reins.”

Many pains will come to the wicked,
     but the Lord’s faithful love will surround
       those who trust in him.
Good people, rejoice and be very happy in the Lord.
All you who want to do right, rejoice!


(Book of Psalms 32.1-11 ERV )

Bread

Jesus answered [Satan], “The Scriptures say, ‘It is not just bread that keeps people alive. Their lives depend on what God says.’”

(Matthew 4.4 ERV)

"...Ashes to Ashes..."

To someone coming into contact with it for the first time, Ash Wednesday probably seems like one of the odder observances these Christians have. But it's origin is pretty straightforward.

Long before Jesus of Nazareth appeared on the scene it was already customary among middle eastern people, including the Jews, to display mourning, sadness, and repentance using ashes. Among many examples Mordecai, a Persian official, put dust and ashes on his head during a desperate hour (Esther, chapter 4 verse 1 ERV), Daniel in Bablylon did the same (Daniel, chapter 9 verse 3 ), and the ancient patriarch Job famously exclaimed (upon realizing he'd gotten God all wrong), "I am ashamed of myself. I am so sorry. As I sit in the dust and ashes, I promise to change my heart and my life." (Job, chapter 42 verse 6 ERV).


Significance of Ashes
It's a natural connection to make; ashes are what is left when everything has been destroyed. Job and the rest would actually sit on ashpiles to show how abject they'd become (Job, chapter 2 verse 8 ERV). One of the poets in the Book of Psalms (described in the title as "an oppressed person") cried out,"Great sadness (Literally, "ashes') is my only food. My tears fall into my drink," (Book of Psalms, chapter 102 verse 9). Ashes and sorrow, ashes and regret, ashes and repentance just go together.

Jesus picked up on this image, applying it to two recalcitrant cities: "It will be bad for you, Chorazin! It will be bad for you, Bethsaida! I did many miracles in you. If those same miracles had happened in Tyre and Sidon, then the people in those cities would have changed their lives and stopped sinning a long time ago. They would have worn sackcloth and sat in ashes to show that they were sorry for their sins." (Gospel of Luke, chapter 10 verse 13 ERV).

For Jesus, sitting in ashes is an appropriate symbol of sorrow for your sins.

Years later, this was still true for his people. For example, about 150 years after Jesus' time a Christian lawyer named Tertullian wrote an entire book about repenting. Among other things he described a repentant person as, "unwashen, sordidly attired, estranged from gladness, they must spend their time in the roughness of sackcloth, and the horridness of ashes, and the sunkenness of face caused by fasting," (On Repentance, Chapter 11).


Connection to the Season of Lent
Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday, is itself a time of reflection on your life and "repenting" to prepare for the great feast of Easter. Jesus, Moses, and the prophet Elijah each prepared for important phases of their work by fasting for forty days. Followers of Jesus imitate him by fasting for 40 days -- although we don't do it with nearly the intensity (no food!) he did. In the same way we don't sit on a pile of ashes dressed in goat hair, like Job or the person Tertullian was describing. But we do have ashes smeared on our foreheads in the shape of a cross, reminded that we come and ultimately return to dust, and are told to remember the meaning of our baptism.

Incidentally, the first person we know of that definitely mentions having ashes "imposed" on one's forehead at the beginning of Lent was a English monk named Ælfric (Ælfric’s Lives of Saints, pp. 262-266) around AD 1000.  But it was already an old custom by then. In fact, as far back as the AD 700's the day was called "dies cinerum" -- Day of Ashes. 

Since Ælfric’s time a little daub of ashes on the forehead has become the near-universal symbol of what is going on inside Jesus' followers during this time: examining one's life, bringing it into union with his teachings, and rooting out what contradicts them.  And this so as to be ready for the High Feast of the Christian year, the celebration of Christ going through death and coming out the other side!

In The Wilderness

Why did Jesus fast 40 days in the wilderness? Why do we fast that length of time to imitate him? Here's one reason.

Only three people in the entire Bible are recorded as fasting for 40 days: Moses (Book of Exodus, chapter 34 verse 28, Common English Bible), Elijah (First Book of Kings, chapter 19 verse 8, CEB), and Jesus. These three men marked the most important epochs in the history of the people of God. Even Abraham was never called upon to fast 40 days, important as he was...

Touching Good Friday

In 2009 a marvellous exhibit opened at Houston's Natural History Museum on the Jewish background of Christianity, and my wife and I drove over to see it. The objects there made tangible the way people lived then, the rulers they endured, the beliefs they held. Some of the things on display put you in contact with specific individuals, on occasion even individuals you know...

Spiritual Formation, Part III

(Lent is about humbling one's self and taking on the nature of Christ. Each Sunday during this time I will let wise Christians speak on these subjects, the first 3 weeks about self-renunciation and the following 3 weeks on spiritual formation. On this Palm Sunday we have the words once again of John Wesley.)


Palm Sunday (Sixth Sunday of Lent)

What is then the perfection of which man is capable while he dwells in a corruptible body? It is the complying with that kind command, "My son, give me thy heart." It is the "loving the Lord his God with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his mind." This is the sum of Christian perfection: It is all comprised in that one word, Love.

The first branch of it is the love of God: And as he that loves God loves his brother also, it is inseparably connected with the second: "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself:" Thou shalt love every man as thy own soul, as Christ loved us. "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets:" These contain the whole of Christian perfection."

-- John Wesley, On Perfection

Spiritual Formation, Part II

(Lent is about humbling one's self and taking on the nature of Christ. Each Sunday during this time I will let wise Christians speak on these subjects, the first 3 weeks about self-renunciation and the following 3 weeks on spiritual formation. This week we have the thoughts of the great Protestant theologian Karl Barth on Christian love.)

Fifth Sunday of Lent

"What we have here -- in Christian love -- is a movement in which a man turns away from himself. In the continuation love turns wholly to another, to one who is wholly different from the loving subject. Christian love turns to the other purely for the sake of the other. It does not desire it for itself. In Christian love the loving subject gives to the other, the object of love, that which it has, which is its own, which belongs to it. It does so with a radically unlimited liberality."

-- Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, Vol. 4 Part 2, p. 733

Spiritual Formation, Part I

(Lent is about humbling one's self and taking on the nature of Christ. Each Sunday during this time I will let wise Christians speak on these subjects, the first 3 weeks about self-renunciation and the following 3 weeks on spiritual formation. Here the Orthodox writer Tito Colliander describes beginning the Christian journey.)

Fourth Sunday of Lent

"Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you" (James 4.8).

"It is for us to begin. If we take one step towards the Lord, he takes ten towards us -- he who saw the prodigal son while he was at a distance, and had compassion and ran and embraced him."

-- Tito Colliander, The Way of the Ascetics, p. 74

Lent: "Yet Even Now..."

Blow the horn in Zion;
give a shout on my holy mountain!
Let all the people of the land tremble,
for the day of the Lord is coming.
It is near—
 a day of darkness and no light,
a day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness spread out
upon the mountains,
a great and powerful army comes,
unlike any that has ever come
before them,
or will come after them
in centuries ahead.

Yet even now, says the Lord,
return to me with all your hearts,
with fasting, with weeping,
and with sorrow;
tear your hearts
and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is merciful and compassionate,
very patient, full of faithful love,
and ready to forgive.

(Book of Joel 2:1-2, 12-13, CEB)

The prophet Joel paints a pretty bleak picture here. The people of Israel were in dire straits: Their land was covered with locust swarms so enormous and destructive that it seemed the oft-foretold 'Day of the Lord' was here.  Their grain and produce were utterly devastated, leaving trees so bare and fields so denuded that a raging fire couldn't have done more damage. The sun was darkened by huge, billowing clouds of the insects that were found as well in every food bowl and every bed in every person's home. 

This was the worst possible catastrophe for an agricultural people -- perhaps as bad as a tsunami, a nuclear reactor meltdown, a worldwide economic meltdown.

The 'Day of the Lord' is always close at hand.  It's not just an epic eschatological event.  Even if our particular nation happens to be prospering and none of our sons and daughters are fighting overseas, even if for some brief blip in history the entire globe is by some fluke safe and happy, the 'Day of the Lord' can fall upon any one of us in an instant.

Cancer or a cerebral hemorrhage can take our beloved ones away before we can say 'good bye.' Job loss and doctor bills can force us into homelessness or bankruptcy.  Just as a follower of Jesus lives in his Kingdom here and now (Letter to the Colossians, chapter 1 verse 13, CEB) and our life is being judged here and now (First Letter of Peter, chapter 4 verse 17, CEB), so the Day of the Lord can get extremely "near" to each of us, just as it did to Joel's people. Any of us can be engulfed in, "a day of darkness and no light/ a day of clouds and thick darkness."

So, does that mean people assailed by bankruptcy or tsunamis are being punished for their sins -- or the sins of their nation, as some would have it? According to the one who teaches us about such things, Jesus of Nazareth, it's a bit more nuanced than that (see the Gospel of Luke chapter 13 for details).  It's not that those people over there are sinners and should repent, it's that we are all sinners and we should all be repenting -- bankruptcy, Tower of Siloam, and tsunami or not.

Which brings us to Lent. As I've been allowing some famous Christians to hint at for the past 3 Lenten Sundays, to follow the Messiah is to repent. At its most basic, Christianity involves humility and self-renunciation.  Everyone who wants to serve the Messiah needs to carve this inscription into their hearts: "Say no yourself, take up your cross, and follow me," (Gospel of Mark, chapter 8 verse 34, CEB).

But it's not "fasting", "weeping", and "tearing your heart" for their own sakes. Lent also tells us that even when we are in the depths of our darkest sin or our most awful suffering, even when we are in our own Day of the Lord, our God calls out to us with those heart-stopping words: "Yet even now..."

Yet even now, at the end of our rope, at the end of our lives, there is still rescue and forgiveness and eternal life. We are ever called, down to the very last second, to, "Return to the Lord your God/ for he is merciful and compassionate/ very patient, full of faithful love/ and ready to forgive."

~~~

This is stop number 20 on the Lenten Blog Tour, in which 41 bloggers give 41 reflections on Lent using the new Common English Bible. Check in each day from Ash Wednesday to Easter Monday for more.

Self-Reunciation, Part III

(Lent is about humbling one's self and taking on the nature of Christ. Each Sunday during this time I will let wise Christians speak on these subjects, the first 3 weeks about self-renunciation and the following 3 weeks on spiritual formation. John Wesley, founder of Methodism, spells out just what self-renunciation means.)

Third Sunday of Lent

"'If any man will come after me, let him renounce himself and follow me,' (Gospel of Matthew 16.24).

"This implies:

1. A thorough conviction that we are not our own, that we are not the proprietors of ourselves or anything we enjoy, that we have no right to dispose of our goods, bodies, souls, or any of the actions or passions of them.

2. A solemn resolution to act suitably to this conviction: Not to live to ourselves, not to pursue our own desires, not to please ourselves, nor to suffer our own will to be any principle of action to us."

-- John Wesley, Forms of Prayer for Every Day of the Week (Preface)