“Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”

The Holy Spirit led Jesus into temptation.


When I first read this passage, I didn’t realize the weight of that statement. It can be easy sometimes for me to forget that Jesus had a mundane nature to Him, leading Him to experience struggles and temptation, just like we do every single day. This scripture exemplifies how important these experiences truly are.


The events in this gospel take place just after Jesus is baptized and just before Jesus is about to start His life of great ministry. The Holy Spirit is therefore leading Him into this experience of trial and temptation to prepare Him for the great things that He is to do. Jesus is tempted in every way that we are tempted. Especially when Satan says: “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” Jesus is tempted here to take the easy route. This is a challenge that we may face every day when we decide whether we should live out our faith or not. It can be easy to reject our faith when it becomes a challenge. However, Jesus is the perfect model that shows how we can endure the struggles, trust in the Father, and come out of the trials better and stronger. As we enter into the season of Lent, it is important to remember not to be tempted to take the easy way out when it will not help us to grow and be closer to God.


Sometimes we can be famished from our relationship with God if we allow ourselves to be distanced from Him. I find that when I am in these situations of struggle or temptation, I tend to rely only on myself to find my way through the chaos. And in these moments, I forget my identity in the Lord. I feel this void that I later realize was the absence of the One I needed most. I realize that I was famished and hungering for the peace and guidance of God. In those times, I can forget that I am His and He wants to help me with those hard moments. Throughout the gospel, Satan is trying to make Jesus question His identity, saying several times: “If you are the son of God…”. If Jesus were to give in to His human ways, He might have tried to prove to Satan His power. But Jesus does not let the evil one test Him. He rises above that. Jesus does not need to prove His identity. He knows who He is and who His Father is.


Know who you are and know Whose you are.


I pray that mine and your Lent season is filled with reliance on God for all of the hard moments that we will face. Amen. ​




​Megan Noye

I’ve been a fan of the Harry Potter series for years—both the books and the movies. One of my favourite movie scenes is in the Half-Blood Prince, where Dumbledore and Harry seek out Professor Horace Slughorn in a Muggle house in the village of Budleigh Babberton. Slughorn, in an effort to throw the Death Eaters off his trail, has rendered the house a shambles. After reassuring Slughorn there is no danger, Dumbledore suggests they put the house to rights. With a wave of his wand, rubble begins to rise from the floor. Plaster restores itself to the ceiling. Pictures float to their places on the walls. Books line themselves up along the shelves. And a lone crystal gem, squeaking and squirming, is released from beneath the sole of Harry’s sneaker and shoots up to reattach itself to the chandelier with a satisfying ping. Order is restored.

This special effect, used in cinematography for ages, is called reverse motion for the (somewhat obvious) reason that the filmed action is shown in reverse. As someone once put it, this technique serves as “an early demonstration that filmmakers have the power to mend what has been broken, even if it is an on-screen illusion.” 

Restoring what has been broken in this way and on this scale certainly is an illusion in the hands of human filmmakers—but what about in the hands of the Divine? Would God have any use for reverse motion? I believe so. The second reading for this Sunday is proof of it.

In the Letter to the Romans, Paul says: “As one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men.” Adam, through his offences, weakened all humanity and condemned us to separation from God. But all that this cost us has been paid by the generosity and obedient love of Jesus, demonstrated to us through the gift of His suffering and death. 

We have all heard there is no greater love than to give one’s life for a friend. Jesus, who is Love, gave His life to restore the kingdom to us. In his weakness—his greed and pride—Adam broke his promise to God and led us all to death. But Christ, through His far greater strengths of selflessness and humility, has brought us to a new life and a restored covenant with God. Our ruin in Adam is great, but our salvation in Christ is greater.

Jesus has brought us greater blessings than those we lost after the fall of Adam. In a kind of reverse motion in real time, Jesus did more than tidy a messy house. He paid the wages of sin, conquered death, and restored humanity’s relationship with God. Jesus, the greatest of creators, mended all that was broken and reopened for us the gate to the Garden. This is no illusion. This is for real.


​

Donna Davis

I don’t even know where to start. This one cuts so close to the bone. 


For I know my transgressions. 


But there was a point when I didn’t. And I’m not even talking about before I started walking with Him. Not the 15 year-old me who hadn’t heard Him yet, but the 50 year-old me who had long listened. And then I didn’t. I thought I was following, but I was faltering — dancing in a minefield of my own making, and thinking I was on firm footing. My God graciously lifted the curtain of my self-deception and let me see. Just a little. 


I am so thankful. Eternally thankful. Thankful for the lifting, thankful for the little. I know it was not condemnation, but Love that drew Him to let me see my sin. And Love that let me see only what I could barely bear to look at — not all of it at once, but just what He was calling me to bring to Him, to surrender to Him. And once I did, He looked at me with Love, and lifted the curtain a little higher. Another chance to behold the broken, and bring it out into the light — and into the Light. And so it goes, again and again.


Grace. It’s God revelling in the direction we’re pointed in, rather than the place where we currently find ourselves. He takes us into who we are meant to be, one step at a time, and counts us as righteous from the first. All because of Jesus. He will lead us from where we are, to where we need to be, casting a light on the next patch of ground to be traversed. With our hearts set on seeking Him at each step and after each stumble, we are counted as righteous from the very first footfall in His direction. Because we have turned, and are facing Him. And He gave Himself for us.


David gets it. It’s all because of our God. And His grace. 


The lion’s share of the verbs in David’s song belong to the Lion of Judah…


… Have mercy on me
… Wash me
… Blot out my transgressions
… Cleanse me
… Create in me
… Cast me not away 
… Restore to me
… Sustain in me
… Open my lips


God is the subject, we are the object. 


Our only action is to open our eyes when He shines a light on our dark patches and to ask for His hand through it all.


O Father! The gift of what Your grace leaves in our grasp…


… a steadfast heart
… clean hands
… a new and right spirit
… Your presence
… Your Holy Spirit
… the joy of salvation
… a willing spirit
… a mouth declaring Your praise


Thank You for it all, my Beautiful Lord. Especially for Yourself.  
And thank You for each lift of the curtain.
Amen.





Noreen Smith


PS: Here is a link to Create In Me, a choral piece composed by Peter Togni as gift to his wife Patricia. The way the word joy climbs up the chordal structure he made for it, is crazy. In a good way. But the part that pulls my heart is how the chordal climb seems to shift at the end into a harmonic question at the words and uphold me.

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