that God will provide for us. We hoard and collect everything we can for fear that God won’t provide for us later.
On another line of thought, our discussion brought up the idea that the stones might be a metaphor for the tablets of stone of the Ten Commandments. We think if we ‘consume’ and incorporate the commandments more perfectly that our own effort can lead us to life. Jesus said following the commandments will help us to eternal life, but he is the true Bread from heaven that nourishes and feeds our souls. The word that nourishes us, according to Luther, is the word that God is good. Hunger and want for bodily needs tempt us not to believe in God’s goodness or provision.
In the second temptation, Satan holds before Jesus the illusion that there is more that he needs, but in fact, it’s something Jesus already had. Jesus didn’t have to invent a new way of getting down from the pinnacle of the Temple. Luther’s answer is so practical, it’s humorous. Why not just take the stairway that is already in place? We have been given the ways to walk in God’s will – the commandments – and we don’t have to come up with new and better ways that depend on our effort. Sometimes we think we have to make impossible leaps of faith in order to please God. Not so. We are not to tempt God by asking God to do exceptional things when we do stupid things without divine direction to do so. In spiritual matters, God has given us Jesus Christ to be the way that nourishes our souls.
Luther also points out that Satan only quotes part of the passage, and doesn’t finish it (Ps. 91:13-16). It sounds like what goes on today when people use pieces of Scripture that fortify their own agenda and fail to speak the lines that follow. Like not quoting Proverbs 6:16-19 when talking about abominations before God; or leaving the characteristics of verse 10 in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 when talking about who will not inherit the kingdom of God. Look up the Greek meaning of those words.
The third temptation Jesus faced was that of temporal honor and power. He could have had it, no doubt. For us, our prosperity makes us think we are special, chosen by God, and better than those who are poor. It’s like the Jewish thought in the Old Testament that God blesses you if you are good, and curses you if you are not good. People in the Bible thought those who were sick or lame or had bad things happen to them were being punished by God. It’s the mentality that says, “God was punishing America in the 9-11 attack for the decline in our morality.” Or that aids is God’s punishment for homosexuality. Our prosperity of health, friends, possessions, position and power, lead us to believe we are better than others - God loves us more and we must have done something to deserve it.
For Luther, poverty and prosperity are the first and third ways our faith can be tempted in outward ways: pain & pleasure, fortune & misfortune; while the second is the greatest temptation that attacks the doctrine of faith in the soul, a spiritual matter. Trust is what we need, not extra effort.
Peace - PWM
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Matthew 4:1-11 Three Kinds of Temptations
One of the themes of Matthew’s gospel is to show Jesus as the new Moses. One of the parallels shown in this story is to see that as Moses fasted for forty days and forty nights before receiving the Ten Commandments and giving them to the people (Exodus 34:27), Jesus fasted for forty days and forty nights in the wilderness before he brought a new law to the people – the law of love. We have not received any command to fast as a spiritual discipline. We are led by the Spirit to try to bring our bodies under greater discipline through fasting. And to be led into the wilderness is to be led into a place where we feel alone and forsaken. This is when we weakest.
The first temptation Satan brings to us deals with cares for the body, our physical needs. How can we believe God is good if God isn’t giving us food to eat, or clothes, or shelter? Poverty is one way that Satan tries to convince us that God doesn’t care for us. Satan says to Jesus, “Here, look at what I have to offer you – nice clothes, cars, toys, etc.” Jesus sees that what the world has to offer is like stones. What the world offers is not able to satisfy our deepest hunger and thirst for God. Luther points out that avarice is a fruit of the unbelief 
that God will provide for us. We hoard and collect everything we can for fear that God won’t provide for us later.
On another line of thought, our discussion brought up the idea that the stones might be a metaphor for the tablets of stone of the Ten Commandments. We think if we ‘consume’ and incorporate the commandments more perfectly that our own effort can lead us to life. Jesus said following the commandments will help us to eternal life, but he is the true Bread from heaven that nourishes and feeds our souls. The word that nourishes us, according to Luther, is the word that God is good. Hunger and want for bodily needs tempt us not to believe in God’s goodness or provision.
In the second temptation, Satan holds before Jesus the illusion that there is more that he needs, but in fact, it’s something Jesus already had. Jesus didn’t have to invent a new way of getting down from the pinnacle of the Temple. Luther’s answer is so practical, it’s humorous. Why not just take the stairway that is already in place? We have been given the ways to walk in God’s will – the commandments – and we don’t have to come up with new and better ways that depend on our effort. Sometimes we think we have to make impossible leaps of faith in order to please God. Not so. We are not to tempt God by asking God to do exceptional things when we do stupid things without divine direction to do so. In spiritual matters, God has given us Jesus Christ to be the way that nourishes our souls.
Luther also points out that Satan only quotes part of the passage, and doesn’t finish it (Ps. 91:13-16). It sounds like what goes on today when people use pieces of Scripture that fortify their own agenda and fail to speak the lines that follow. Like not quoting Proverbs 6:16-19 when talking about abominations before God; or leaving the characteristics of verse 10 in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 when talking about who will not inherit the kingdom of God. Look up the Greek meaning of those words.
The third temptation Jesus faced was that of temporal honor and power. He could have had it, no doubt. For us, our prosperity makes us think we are special, chosen by God, and better than those who are poor. It’s like the Jewish thought in the Old Testament that God blesses you if you are good, and curses you if you are not good. People in the Bible thought those who were sick or lame or had bad things happen to them were being punished by God. It’s the mentality that says, “God was punishing America in the 9-11 attack for the decline in our morality.” Or that aids is God’s punishment for homosexuality. Our prosperity of health, friends, possessions, position and power, lead us to believe we are better than others - God loves us more and we must have done something to deserve it.
For Luther, poverty and prosperity are the first and third ways our faith can be tempted in outward ways: pain & pleasure, fortune & misfortune; while the second is the greatest temptation that attacks the doctrine of faith in the soul, a spiritual matter. Trust is what we need, not extra effort.
Peace - PWM
that God will provide for us. We hoard and collect everything we can for fear that God won’t provide for us later.
On another line of thought, our discussion brought up the idea that the stones might be a metaphor for the tablets of stone of the Ten Commandments. We think if we ‘consume’ and incorporate the commandments more perfectly that our own effort can lead us to life. Jesus said following the commandments will help us to eternal life, but he is the true Bread from heaven that nourishes and feeds our souls. The word that nourishes us, according to Luther, is the word that God is good. Hunger and want for bodily needs tempt us not to believe in God’s goodness or provision.
In the second temptation, Satan holds before Jesus the illusion that there is more that he needs, but in fact, it’s something Jesus already had. Jesus didn’t have to invent a new way of getting down from the pinnacle of the Temple. Luther’s answer is so practical, it’s humorous. Why not just take the stairway that is already in place? We have been given the ways to walk in God’s will – the commandments – and we don’t have to come up with new and better ways that depend on our effort. Sometimes we think we have to make impossible leaps of faith in order to please God. Not so. We are not to tempt God by asking God to do exceptional things when we do stupid things without divine direction to do so. In spiritual matters, God has given us Jesus Christ to be the way that nourishes our souls.
Luther also points out that Satan only quotes part of the passage, and doesn’t finish it (Ps. 91:13-16). It sounds like what goes on today when people use pieces of Scripture that fortify their own agenda and fail to speak the lines that follow. Like not quoting Proverbs 6:16-19 when talking about abominations before God; or leaving the characteristics of verse 10 in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 when talking about who will not inherit the kingdom of God. Look up the Greek meaning of those words.
The third temptation Jesus faced was that of temporal honor and power. He could have had it, no doubt. For us, our prosperity makes us think we are special, chosen by God, and better than those who are poor. It’s like the Jewish thought in the Old Testament that God blesses you if you are good, and curses you if you are not good. People in the Bible thought those who were sick or lame or had bad things happen to them were being punished by God. It’s the mentality that says, “God was punishing America in the 9-11 attack for the decline in our morality.” Or that aids is God’s punishment for homosexuality. Our prosperity of health, friends, possessions, position and power, lead us to believe we are better than others - God loves us more and we must have done something to deserve it.
For Luther, poverty and prosperity are the first and third ways our faith can be tempted in outward ways: pain & pleasure, fortune & misfortune; while the second is the greatest temptation that attacks the doctrine of faith in the soul, a spiritual matter. Trust is what we need, not extra effort.
Peace - PWM
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