iCrucified

LENT—Day 1: Into the Desert [2011MAR10]

Marking the first full day of Lent, we will begin our Scripture meditations with Matthew 4:1-11. We will be examining and meditating upon other passages as well, but special focus will be given to the Matthew selection through Sunday.

All God’s plans have the mark of the cross on them, and all His plans have death to self in them.” (E. M. Bounds)

I would like to begin today’s reading with a portion of the preceding verses to provide context for what captures my attention this morning; beginning with Matthew 3:16, 17 we read as follows:

¹⁶ As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. ¹⁷ And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Matt.3:16-17)

¹ Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ² After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. ³ The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God…” (Matt. 4:1-3)

Allow me to paraphrase what I read:

As soon as Jesus was baptized a voice from heaven said, “I am well pleased with my Son.” Soon (perhaps immediately) after he was baptized, Jesus was led into the desert by God, so he could be tempted by Satan.

Things I immediately notice are highlighted in my paraphrase, but I’ll clarify them here. (1) A glorious moment occurs with the obedience and submission of Jesus to John’s baptism. (2) The affirmation and witness of God Almighty falls upon Jesus (3) An extreme “high point” (consolation) is followed by an extreme “low” (desolation) (4) God is the author of the desolation (5) testing and temptation are often found during times of desolation.

The path of Jesus’ journey is not Jesus’ alone; it is our path as well. The Bible teaches us that Jesus was shaped and formed as a man in similar ways as we are. The suffering that he underwent over the course of his life was what made his sacrifice for us “perfect” (Hebrews 2:9-10). Jesus made perfect? Wasn’t he perfect already? Yes and yes. Some of the “suffering perfection” that Jesus underwent was in the form of withstanding temptations while in the desert (more on this in the coming days), as well as other suffering that is experienced in the wilderness places of life. These can be loneliness, forsakenness, physical needs, emotional needs, spiritual needs, intellectual needs, to name a few. The Bible teaches us that no temptation or suffering is foreign to Jesus (1 Corinthians 10:13). Jesus, while he was sinless, personally experienced the repercussions and manifestations of sin during his earthly life so that his atoning sacrifice might be perfect for our saving reconciliation. What does all this mean?

What it means is this… our lives (as believers in process) are on a journey of testing and purgation. We also experience glorious consolations of the physical-spiritual-emotional presence of God and sometimes without warning are immediately led into the desert. By God. We might feel completely abandoned. We might feel completely forsaken. We might feel betrayed. We might feel we are being treated unfairly; and on and on and on…  This is part of our process, and it is necessary for our emptying of self.  We are disciplined and mentored by our heavenly Father who knows our needs more than we could ever understand on our own. Trust him. Learn from the lesson of Jesus the Son, our Savior. He too was led into the desert. He too was perfected in suffering. He too felt the consolation and the desolation that are common to us. May we welcome this season of the desert as an exercise to focus on the areas of our self that we continue to hold onto. May God reveal to us the areas we may not even be aware of that are slowing our journey to perfection.

Undistracted prayer is the highest intellection of the intellect. Prayer is the ascent of the intellect to God. If you long for prayer, renounce all to gain all. Pray first for the purification of the passions; second, for deliverance from ignorance and forgetfulness; and third, for deliverance from all temptation, trial, and dereliction. Evagrios the Solitary; Philokalia

I invite you to participate in an exercise of imaginative prayer. I do this as a spiritual exercise to help me become one with the text. I rewrite or rephrase the passage to insert myself into the lesson, imagining myself as the subject and meditating on my response and impressions. In the following words, I will do this with our reading today. I invite you to do the same and ask God the Holy Spirit to direct your meditation revealing the areas He desires to work in your spirit.

¹⁶ Things seemed on the upturn for Jeff, he had recently joined a Christian community and was really experiencing the presence of God in his life. ¹⁷ His times spent in prayer and worship were indescribably glorious, almost as if he could hear God voicing His approval audibly.  Jeff truly sensed that God had affirmed him as an “adopted” son. (Matt.3:16-17  The J.B. Paraphrase Ed.)

¹ One morning after an especially intense time of meditating in prayer over God’s Word, Jeff departed for work. Upon his arrival he learned that he was being permanently laid off from his job. ² During the course of the next forty days, Jeff’s home went into foreclosure and he developed physical illnesses that went untreated because of the loss of his medical insurance. ³ Feeling at the point of breaking, head down on his kitchen table feeling broken and helpless, haunting thoughts came to his mind saying, “So, you think you’re a child of God…?” (Matt. 4:1-3  The J.B. Paraphrase Ed.)

The point of this exercise is to help me examine my heart. What do I do in this situation? What leads me to it? How do I perceive my life with Christ? What do I do and how do I respond when I am ushered into the desert? There are other questions that I might ask as well, but I’ll leave some to your own imagination. I hope you’ll try this exercise and I pray that God will speak to you and teach you through the process.

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