Category: Year B

Matthew 4:1-11 – Facing Temptation

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

 

The devil took Jesus up on a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms on earth and their power.  The devil said to him, “I will give all this to you, if you will bow down and worship me.”
 
Jesus answered, “Go away Satan! The Scriptures say:
 
‘Worship the Lord your God
and serve only him.’”
 
            It is at our most vulnerable time that the devil swoops in and offers his demonic delights for us to consider.  We call it “temptation.” Indeed, it can be quite tempting to entertain ways of getting what we need and want through means other than God.
            In the desert, the place of preparation for ministry, Jesus fasted and prayed for 40 days.  If ever there was a time when Jesus would be vulnerable to alternative religion, it would be now.  Then, the devil tempted him with three whoppers he thought would get to Jesus for sure.  Having tempted Jesus with food and a way to fame, and failed, Satan gave his final temptation.
            To us this temptation to bow down and worship Satan is a no-brainer.  Of course, no one would do such a thing as this, especially Jesus.  He didn’t.  But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t tempting.  It was.  Jesus knew very well what was ahead of him.  He had just spent 40 days in an intense orientation for three years of hard ministry with an end being tortuous death.
            Satan was picturing for Jesus a different path.  Jesus could have it all without the three years, without the hard slugging to communicate that the kingdom of God has come.  Most of all, Jesus could circumvent the cross and establish his rule over all the earth.  The temptation, yes, was very tempting.  Become King Jesus now with no suffering.
            This has always been one our great temptations as well: Take the easy path.  Get what you want, what you deserve, now, with no hardship.
            The values of God’s kingdom include trust, patience, and perseverance.  Temptation insists we don’t need them to be successful.  Satan is the original slickster, marketing his quick and easy wares for people to buy into the notion that life can lived without pain and hardship, and with wild success right now.  The scary thing about it is that Satan can deliver… but it will cost us.  Slavery to sin is the price we pay for hitching our hopes to quick and easy.
            Lent is a time for the slow, patient, deliberate development of the soul in attachment with the Lord Jesus.  It’s hard engaging in spiritual disciplines.  It’s difficult fasting and praying.  Growing in Christ is slow and takes a great deal of learned perseverance.  Far too many of us are tempted to circumvent the hard work of discipleship and simply have a spiritual professional distill everything we need into one hour on Sunday morning.  Or, we create our own religious practice and beliefs, picking and choosing what fits our lifestyle, as if it’s about convenience instead of worship.
            Christ was able to face down temptation because the desert strengthened him.  Yes, he was vulnerable.  But he was not weak.  If we want to handle temptation, it will take Lent to help us.  It will take the desert to spiritually form us and prepare us for godly ministry that puts the devil in his place.
Lord Jesus, you are the king of all creation.  Just as you chose the hard path of God’s kingdom, so help me to persevere with faith and patience.  May my life reflect your words and ways, in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

1 Peter 3:8-18 – Suffering Before Glory

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

 

“Don’t pay back evil for evil or insult for insult. Instead, give blessing in return. You were called to do this so that you might inherit a blessing.” (CEB)
 
            We don’t like to suffer.  I don’t like to suffer.  After all, it hurts.  I’m not really into pain.  I’m not a high tolerance pain kind of guy.  I have no problem taking a pain pill at the first sign of discomfort.  Yet, I know there will be time I’m going to have pain – physical, emotional, and spiritual – and there is no way around it.  To live in this broken world is to experience suffering.  To suffer as a Christian, however, is different because we are following the way of our Lord Jesus Christ.
            There must be suffering before glory.  Just as Christ suffered, we ought to expect that we will suffer as his followers.  As Christians walk with Jesus during the season of Lent, they journey through the desert full of temptation and hard circumstances.  At the end of the journey will be the glory of Easter, a celebration of the resurrection.  Christian theology and practice hangs it’s hope on these redemptive events of Christ’s cross and resurrection, suffering and glory.
            We are not above our Master.  We, too, will suffer.  The real question is whether we will suffer because of our own foolishness and selfishness, or because of our devotion to Christ in being kind, humble, and gracious.  When insults come our way, we don’t respond with insults.  Verbal cruelty is not the way of Christ.  Anger, slander, gossip, lies, manipulative words, and belligerent bullying have absolutely no place in the kingdom of God for any reason.  God takes a zero-tolerance policy toward hate speech.
            Christians are to us their tongues exclusively for blessing, not cursing; for love, not hate; for truth, not lies; for building-up, not tearing-down; for proclaiming good news, not bad news laced with insults.  If we suffer for being Christians proclaiming good news, we shall receive blessing from God.  But if we suffer for giving-in to retaliation and our base desires for revenge, then we will suffer the consequences of our own stupidity.
            God has called us to bless the world, not condemn it.  Christians are to be on the front-lines, leading the charge of spreading respect, civility, kindness, and the gospel.  Jesus said that it’s no problem to show love and respect to people we like.  It’s a whole other ballgame to do the same for those who treat us with disrespect and hate.  Yet, God watches over all who obey him, and he listens to their prayers.  God will handle the hate-filled person, not you or me.  Our task is to have a deep concern for humanity, both the ones we like and the ones we don’t.
            Take some time today or in the next few days to slowly and carefully read the book of 1 Peter in one sitting.  It’s a short book.  Pay attention to how the adversity of living in this fallen world gives Christians the opportunity, hope, and encouragement to live well.  May it be so, to the glory of God.
Loving Lord Jesus, you suffered and died on my behalf.  It is a small thing for me to follow you and walk in the way of suffering.  I know and have the confident expectation that blessing awaits.  Keep me true to following you through all the adversity I must face in this fallen broken world.  Even so, come Lord Jesus.  Amen.

 

Ephesians 2:1-10 – Saved for a Reason

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

 

“You are saved by God’s grace because of your faith.  This salvation is God’s gift. It’s not something you possessed.  It’s not something you did that you can be proud of. We are God’s accomplishment, created in Christ Jesus to do good things. God planned for these good things to be the way that we live our lives.” (CEB)
 
            Christians are not saved so that they can just sit in a worldly holding tank until Jesus comes back.  Deliverance is only one dimension of God’s plan.  We are saved for good works to be done in the here-and-now.
            A Christian knows that he is saved from his sin through the forgiving work of Jesus Christ.  It’s an act of sheer grace on God’s part.  A believer is not born again through her effort any more than a baby’s birthed because of her own doing.  It is thoroughly the work of God.  Even the faith needed to believe is a gift graciously provided by God.
            But that’s not the whole story.  God also has some plans and purposes in mind for his people.  Christians were birthed into a new spiritual community with new commitments to do all kinds of good deeds.  It’s as if sin were a weight or an obstacle that has been removed so that living a life full of goodness can now plow ahead and do its work.  To be saved is to be freed for a vigorous moral life.
            The great problems of our world are spiritual problems which require believers in Jesus to take the lead in agitating for change.  Expecting human governments or corporate systems to take the lead in moral transformation is like asking the fox to guard the hen house.

            Christians, churches, and spiritual communities are to labor at the gates of hell for the lives of women caught in sex trafficking; provide uplift and the tools to a better life for those in grinding poverty and hunger; challenge the idolatry of the American gun culture; and, hundreds of other realities of living in a fallen broken world.
            At their core, these are not political, social, or cultural issues – they are spiritual.  Mass murder violates God’s command to not kill.  Hunger and poverty too often result from greedy leaders in power who covet resources for themselves, violating God’s commands to provide for the poor and needy.  Sexual slavery treats persons as chattel property and not as image-bearers of God.
            God has delivered you from sin so that you can take on the immorality of your world.  Perhaps you have a boss who is nothing more than a master of a small world and bullies and manipulates his employees.  Maybe your local municipal authorities simply aren’t seeing or purposely turn a blind eye to moral evil in their town.  It could be that within your own family there are problems of addiction which need to be graciously confronted and dealt with.
            God has placed you in the place you are right now for just this time so that you can do good works, both big and small, taking on an immoral establishment as well as little acts of kindness.  Doing good comes in all sizes, and all of us are to share our lives for the betterment of others.
Saving God, you have only good plans for your world and your people.  Use me today and every day to be an agent of blessing and goodness, working for the benefit of others who need the power of Christ’s resurrection in their lives.  Amen.

Mark 1:9-15 – Thrown into the Desert

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

 

About that time, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and John baptized him in the Jordan River.  While he was coming up out of the water, Jesus saw heaven splitting open and the Spirit, like a dove, coming down on him.  And there was a voice from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I find happiness.”
At once the Spirit forced Jesus out into the wilderness.  He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among the wild animals, and the angels took care of him. (CEB)
 
            We stand at the beginning of the Lenten season, the six-week 40-day period leading to Easter and the celebration of Christ’s resurrection.  But now is a time of preparation.  Just as Jesus identified with his people Israel in their desert sojourn for 40 years, so Jesus wandered the desert for 40 days.  Our Lord’s entire earthly life was devoted to identifying with lost humanity and leading them to the Promised Land of forgiveness, peace, and joy.
            Lent is our 40-day journey in the desert, identifying with Jesus.  Perhaps you think such a season is optional, even unnecessary.  It’s likely that God will put you in the desert whether you recognize the season or not.
            In a wondrous event, Jesus is baptized and comes out of the water with some of the most gracious words you’ll find in Scripture: “You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I find happiness.”  In this story of identification with God it’s not a stretch, but intended, that we see our own identification with Christ.  Jesus so closely links himself with God’s people that when God expresses his love to the Son, he is saying words of grace to us, as well.
            If the story ended there, it would stand as a glorious account.  But a hard transition follows, and the language indicates a swift turn of circumstance.  Immediately after the baptism and the loving words, Jesus is “forced” into the wilderness by the Spirit.  The word quite literally means “to hurl.”  We are given the picture that as soon as Jesus is up out of the water, the Spirit picks him up and hurls him into the desert.
            The desert is a place of solitude where the greatest temptations occur: coming face to face with oneself.  If Jesus needed the desert experience, how much more do we?  How much more do we need to observe and practice Lent and submit to the 40-day experience of the desert?
            God desires to meet with us in the secluded backside of the desert.  He has some things to teach us.  He has a work of preparation to do in our lives.  The way in which we respond to the desert we are aggressively thrown into by the Spirit will set the course of our lives.
O Lord, you have demonstrated and shown love to your Son and to your people.  You have taught us that without love whatever we do is worth nothing.  Send your Holy Spirit to hurl us into the desert time of teaching so that love might be poured into our hearts.  Grant this humble request for the sake of the Son whom you love, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.  Amen.