LENT 1 C   2019

On Ash Wednesday we have the sign of the ashes and we begin to fast, but even here at the beginning of the Lenten Season, the reading from Deuteronomy promises the fulfillment of God’s promise, therefore reminding us of the Good News of the Salvation that is ours through Christ.

Our First reading tells us about the Israelites coming into the Promised Land and although this is their history, for us, this is actually a parable of our Salvation story.

The reading begins with instructions about bringing to God the first fruits of the land and, did you notice, there is also a script which they recite.

I find this to be fascinating.  It is a declaration of who they are and what God has done for them.  Each week we also declare our Christian experience, reminding us of who we are in Christ.  Looking at this ancient story, however, I think of Australia day and how some conflict about the day could be resolved if we too followed this format, as it is a declaration of the truth and an acknowledgment of history – The land was not originally the Israelites and they were slaves in Egypt, but God brought them out of that place and gave them the promised land.

This recited script was a kind of creed about who they were in relationship to God, their land and their life.

It was forty years that the Israelites were wondering in the desert and it would be forty days that Jesus would fast in the desert. 

The Spirit led Jesus out into the desert.  Recently someone pointed out to me that this word “Led” is actually a poor translation and in some other accounts we read that the Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert and in other translations the Spirit compelled Jesus.

But let’s put the story into context; Jesus had come to the Jordan to be baptised by John and the Holy Spirit had descended on him in bodily form like a dove.  With this, a voice spoke to him saying, “You are my son, with whom I love. With you I am well pleased.” 

Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit.   It seems like this would be a high point in a person’s life, to be affirmed by God and filled with the Holy Spirit, yet the result is that the Holy Spirit compels Jesus to go into the desert and fast for 40 days. 

40 days seems to me like an extreme fast.  I get headaches and feel sick within 24 hours, but I have a friend who regularly fasts and is quite emphatic about the health benefits (though not for 40days). If you do a google search you will find that people who are fit and used to fasting, can actually fast up to 40 days so long as they are well hydrated, but beyond 40 days you enter starvation – apparently.

One person shared his account where he initially fasted for health benefits, but after achieving this he found other mental and emotional benefits also.  It is not recommended that anyone fast as extremely as Jesus, but the idea of a fast in our season of Lent is meant to also tap into those mental and emotional benefits.  Our fast is meant to focus us to communion with God where our prayer life is enhanced and our commitment to God is re-ignited.

It is important to note that it was the Holy Spirit that directed Jesus into the desert to fast. 

Jesus is the visible expression of God – he is part of the God head, yet when he was walking this earth he was fully man.  This is really important to keep in mind, other wise we fall into the trap of minimising the enormity of Jesus’ actions.

Jesus was completely human, but we often erroneously believe that the extraordinary things he did was because he was God.  The truth is that when Jesus was on earth he did things as a human who relied on God – exactly the same way that we can.  Jesus gave up the power that was his own, and then all that he did while on earth, was through prayer, reliance on and unity with the father and the Holy Spirit.

While Jesus was like us in all these ways, the difference is that Jesus had a destiny that no other human could possibly achieve.  While he was in his frail and human state he needed to be completely in unity with the father – so in the desert he fasted, and then in the desert he was tempted.

This was an important part of our redemption.  When we are tempted we often fail.  If Jesus was going to be the perfect Lamb of God to be sacrificed for the redemption of our sins, he had to be tempted as we are but not fall.

Twice the temptation began with the words, “if you are the son of God”.  This was an attack on Jesus’ identity.  I find this point the one that needs addressing, as Christians can sometimes be the voice of Satan when they cast doubt on who you are, and who I am in the Kingdom of God.

Let me explain; Many years ago on a Scripture Union camp where I was a leader, the leaders questioned the Christianity of a teenage, loud mouth boy.  He’d been supposedly converted at the last vacation camp, but he didn’t “behave” like a Christian.   I was surprised at their doubt, as his Christianity seemed obvious to me.  That boy was simply authentic…. He was honest about everything and that meant that he was no hypocrite that looked all proper on the outside…. His inside and outside were the same and he was a Christian…. He just didn’t speak, “Christian – ese”.. 

More recently, I was devastated to find out that a friend who had moved towns very dramatically took her own life.  A comment was made, “If Jesus was in her life it would have been different”. 

I don’t know if she was Christian or not, but there have been others who I know were certainly Christian and yet have died from suicide.  Is it fair to say, “If they were truly God’s they would not have done this”?  It most certainly is not fair or true.  Our actions are influenced by who we belong to, but there are many other influences and to say this kind of thing, is like saying, Talitha is not really my daughter because she eats gluten!  It’s neither logical nor true.

A big mistake we can make, is to think that just because we are Christian we won’t fall.  Only Christ passed that test.  He is the only one who could be tempted in all these ways and not fall, and for this reason he is our saviour.  You are not your own saviour and if you try to be you will only be disappointed.

So the devil says to Jesus…“If you are the son of God”…. It was a little jibe that sought to reveal doubt, but was met with absolute conviction.  For us, the jibe is, “If you are a real Christian”…  or “If you really belonged to God’s family”….  I have had it said to me, “You can’t be a real Christian – you are divorced”.  Well the fact is you are a real Christian and you do belong to God’s family .  And this is not because you are perfect, but because Jesus is, and you are loved by God so much that Jesus was sent to redeem you. 

Many years ago a young lady asked me if she was really a Christian and how she could know (because someone had looked at her life and told her that she wasn’t a real Christian…. In fact, some will make this judgment based on your denomination).  I took this lady to our reading from Romans -

And there it is in black and white. “if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.”

None of us are perfect, so why do expect it in others and feel the need to know the Christian status of another? 

Have you noticed how we come up to the altar at church and bow to acknowledge its sacred connection to God?   How much more do we have a sacred connection to God?  It was for you and me that he died – not the altar.  I often wonder if we’d be less inclined to judge others if we acknowledged Jesus in each other in this same way and as we greeted each other we bowed to each other acknowledging that Jesus is in you and Jesus is in me? 

When the Holy Spirit gets a hold of us we may, like Jesus, feel we’ve been driven out into the desert to be tested.  The Challenge that I used to set my kids at Lent was not about giving up chocolate, but in doing something nice for someone each day.  Taking the challenge just a touch further, and because we know that a fast is meant to be a sacrifice, this taking up doing some nice or good deed should also have an element of sacrifice – so perhaps this means doing something nice for that family member who most irritates us – and without expecting anything in return.  This is where I believe the heart of God is driving us…..  In fact God tells us all this very plainly in the book of Isaiah 58:4-7  - Through the voice of Isaiah he said to the people,

““Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers.  Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists.  You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.  Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves?  Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?  Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?

 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?  Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? “”

I pray that in the fast of Lent 2019 we can remember and confess our story like the Israelites, and in that confessing know our salvation.  Through our time of Lent, I pray that we can spend time in prayer and like Jesus, confidently face temptations, seeing them for the poor things they are compared to belonging to our God who loves and saves us.  But more than anything, I pray that we grow to know who we are in God’s heart.  Whether it is bread, power or kingdoms of the earth, none of these can possibly compare to richness of love we have in God through Christ.