Unfinished Faith: Relearning God.

Week 8: Sacrifice or sincerity? The heart of Lent.

The bit where I introduce:  

  Lent is the 40-day period leading up to Easter, (excluding Sundays) that starts on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter. Usually accompanies 40 days of fasting as Christians honour the 40 days and nights following Jesus’ baptism when He went into the wilderness without water and food and was tempted by Satan. The focus is on repentance (feeling regret for past or present wrongdoings and committing to change for the better) Think of it like a cleansing ritual for your soul, and who doesn’t need a good cleanse now and then?

You will probably find Christians of different denominations do it, but do you? Have you ever? Is it something I should consider?

The bit where I refer to the bible: and ask a few rhetorical questions:

Matthew 4-1:11 is the account of Jesus time in the desert where he was tempted (have a read) Often when we go through hard times, we forget that Jesus understands this because he did go through physical, mental and emotionally tough situations. Or is that just me? Not just that alone, but He was God in human form, and he could have just smite Satan and thrown him into an abyss, but he didn’t.

40 days…it’s a long time and prob not an accidental increment of time, if you think about it there’s a few 40’s I found out.  The flood’s 40 days of rain (Genesis 7:12), Moses’ 40 days without food on Mount Sinai (Exodus 34:28), Elijah’s 40 days without food as he journeyed to Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:8), Israel’s 40 years of wilderness wandering (Deuteronomy 8:2), and not least our topic Jesus’ 40 days of wilderness temptation. Pattern much? God is a master choreographer, even though he’s above time and space he uses concepts we know as our chronological time to illustrate a point.  Beautifully poetic. So Lent presents to us our own 40-day pilgrimage to change from the inside out.

The key to understanding this story in Matthew’s book is to focus on Jesus’ three responses, each of Matthew’s story is based on Jesus’ three responses to temptation, each quoting (I researched) in Deuteronomy, where Moses presents God’s law at Mount Sinai.

The first temptation (turn stones to bread) is not just about hunger, but about self-sufficiency: will Jesus rely on his own power or on God’s provision? I mean you can’t comprehend that, can you? When I’m hungry, or emotional I eat my feelings.  In the words of Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars Jesus has (unlimited power) which He could have used.  By quoting Deuteronomy 8, Jesus affirms that God not human strength is the true source of sustenance. He refuses to shortcut the Spirit’s formative work. I can admit, maybe you can too, we all want a bit of a shortcut from doing the hard yards am i right? Especially when it’s going to cost us.

The second temptation (prove you’re God’s Son) and third temptation (worship for worldly glory) test security and allegiance.  We know these temptations aren’t new and currently in the present state of the world quite attractive to so many. Remember way back in Genesis 3, Satan’s first attempts in the form of a snake undermines trust in God by portraying God as restrictive, and deceptive and He’s still at it today.

 Jesus again quotes Deuteronomy (6:13, 6:16), showing that the law trains people to trust, worship, and serve God alone not test God or bow to false power.  Why do we think we can or want to test God still? People in power, countries, ourselves at times? For the gain of false power?  Jesus as we know and has proven is the true source of nourishment, love, and real power, not the anxious, counterfeit power offered by the tempter or the world for that matter. But us stupid dumb humans don’t seem to get that truth!

So back to us and Lent. I see it as an already built in practice that we can use to give our insides, our heart an overhaul. Heck, we do the intermittent fasting, commit to going to a gym or exercise, we try and lose weight for a special occasion (guilty) and that’s just our outsides which will change, get old and fail us.

 So, isn’t it more important and lasting to make some important intentional changes on the inside? Isn’t that the stuff we tell our kids? Lent gives us that in a framework that’s easily followed. Satan wants to confuse us and have us doubting all the time what God did for us on the cross, His unconditional love and that we can at all times trust in Him for everything in this life.

The bit where you get to think about stuff: Questions for the week.

 What experiences in our own lives might be asking us to trust His provision?

 In what ways do comfort, security, or success subtly tempt us to believe, “My own power has gotten me this,” and how might that belief affect our relationship with God?

Have you had a time where you have mistrusted God? Did it distort your understanding of what real security looks like in the scope of your faith?