Lenten Reflection: Luke 4:5-8

February 27, 2013

The Slanderer (Diabolos) knows his target well. He has some understanding of the mission to which Jesus has been called. He knows why Jesus is here.

The key terms are kingdoms, authority and glory. The Slanderer offers Jesus what he seeks; he offers Jesus a similar vision but a different mission. The price? A new allegiance.

Kingdom is at the heart of Jesus’s ministry. Jesus was sent into the world to herald the good news of the kingdom of God which subverts the kingdoms of the world and bring the whole earth under his reign of God.

Authority is an issue in the ministry of Jesus. He has authority to cast our demons, forgive sin, and to heal diseases. His authority subverts the authorities of the world that oppose his mission. It is a contest between the “power (authority) of darkness” and the kingdom of God (Luke 22:53).

Glory is the high stake of this contest. Jesus anticipates the glory of the Son of Man when he comes again which was pictured for him in the glory of the transfiguration. But it is a glory that only comes after first suffering (Luke 24:26).

Kingdom, authority and glory. The Slanderer offers what the ministry of Jesus will achieve. The key, however, is that the Slanderer offers it without suffering. His only condition is worship. If Jesus would only bow down before the Slanderer, then he could have all he desires–everything his accomplished mission would achieve for him–without suffering. Jesus could be king without a cross.

Worship is about allegiance. Switch allegiances, and you can have your heart’s desire without carrying a cross. The Slanderer will give it without cost, without pain, without struggle.

Ambitions can turn our allegiance. The easier path often seems like the better one. Forks in the road demand a choice, and Jesus has the choice to secure his reign through a pledge of allegiance to the Slanderer or fulfill the mission given by God.

Lent reminds us that the mission is more important than the cost.

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Posted by John Mark Hicks

Lenten Reflection: Luke 4:3-4

February 26, 2013

God tests Jesus in the wilderness and Satan tempts him to satisfy his desires by inappropriate means.

One need is hunger. It would seem that satisfying hunger should not be characterized as inappropriate. Food is a created good to be enjoyed.

The Slanderer (Diabolos) suggests that Jesus should create his own food. If he really is the Son of God then he should provide his own bread. He should satisfy his hunger. There is nothing that prevents him from doing this if he really is the Son of God.

Jesus does not respond by saying, “I could make bread from these stones if I wanted to.” Rather, he addresses the Slanderer’s presumption about what the purpose of his wilderness experience is. While the Slanderer wanted to minimize the wilderness experience by reducing it to physical hunger, Jesus reminds him about its real purpose.

The purpose of the wilderness is not a physical endurance test as if acetic practices are about how much a human being can physically endure. Rather, the wilderness is about a hunger for God; it is about depending on God for strength for the soul. Jesus is in the wilderness to clarify his mission and deepen his dependence on the Father.

The wilderness reminds us that we can’t live on bread alone. Our material ambitions–from food to clothing to housing to video games–cannot satisfy the deepest longings of the human soul. When we live at this level we ultimately feel empty and this emptiness will kill our souls. When we live at this level, the mission of God takes a back seat.

In the wilderness we hunger and thirst for God. Fasting reminds us that the fullness of life is not found through pizza and beer, but eating the bread of God. Authentic life feasts on communion with God and embraces, by God’s strength, the mission of God.

Fasting leads to feasting. When we fast from the idolatry of  instant gratification, we learn to feast on God for true life.

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Posted by John Mark Hicks

Lenten Reflection: Luke 4:1-2

February 22, 2013

Only Luke says that Jesus “returned” to the wilderness. Returned? That is something about which I would like to know more.

Perhaps Jesus went into the wilderness to contemplate his future, to reflect on his decision to be baptized, or to decide whether to embrace the mission into which God had called him. The wilderness, perhaps, is where Jesus decided to go into the water and embrace the ministry of the kingdom.

Coming up out of the water, he returns to the wilderness. He goes there to prepare for ministry. But he does not go there as an autonomous act of his will. Rather, he is led there by the Holy Spirit with whom Jesus had been anointed at his baptism.

“Full of the Holy Spirit,” Jesus follows the lead of the Spirit to experience the wilderness.

Jesus re-enacts Israel’s experience. Just as Israel was brought through the water into the wilderness for forty years of testing, so Jesus is led out of the water into the wilderness for forty days of testing. For “forty years in the wilderness” God humbled Israel in order to “test” them that he might “know what was in [their] heart” (Deuteronomy 8:2).

God tested Israel. So, now God, through the prompting of the Holy Spirit, leads Jesus into a period of testing.

Following Jesus into the wilderness during the 40 days of Lent, we, too, open ourselves to a period of testing. It is a time for introspection, devotion and humbling.

The 40 days of Lent are an intentional entrance into the wilderness. Here we have a renewed opportunity to reprioritize our needs, remove our presumptions about God, and evaluate our ambitions in the light of the mission of God.

During Lent we follow Jesus into a time of testing.

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Posted by John Mark Hicks

Lenten Reflection: Luke 3:21-22

February 21, 2013

In obedience to the Father, Jesus went down into the water to pray.

Jesus followed sinners into the water as they repented and confessed their sins. Jesus identified with sinners by sharing this water ritual with them. He underwent a ritual designed for sinners!

In response the Father anointed the Messiah with the Holy Spirit, affirmed his son, and declared his delight in his son.

This is our experience as well.

Through baptism we join other sinners in the water, confess our sins and pray for divine forgiveness. In response, the Father anoints us with the Holy Spirit, affirms our adoption, and declares his delight in us.

Our baptisms are moments when we follow Jesus into the water in obedience to the Father.

Our baptisms are moments when the Father says over us, “You are my child in whom I delight.”

Our baptisms are moments when the Father sends the Spirit into our hearts so that we, along with Jesus, might cry, “Abba, Father.”

Our baptisms are moments when we follow Jesus out of the water committed to the ministry of the kingdom.

We follow Jesus, led by the Spirit, from the water into the wilderness. During Lent, we sit with Jesus in the wilderness for forty days.

May our 40 days of Lent enrich our relationship with God.

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Posted by John Mark Hicks

Luke 13:10-17 — Who are we most like in this story?

January 28, 2013

At least two theological themes emerge from this pericope. On the one hand, the kingdom of God breaks into the life of a woman who had been bound by her disability for eighteen years. She is healed and experiences redemption. On the other hand, opposition to the kingdom of God arises in response to her healing on the ground that Jesus violated the Sabbath. This provides an opportunity for Jesus to interpret the significance of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is the backdrop for both of these stories and functions as the unifying theological root question: what is the meaning of the Sabbath?

The Sabbath is not an incidental referent in this story. There is something incongruous with Sabbath and the fact that a disabled, apparently pious, woman was present in the synagogue. Despite her disability she is present in the synagogue on the Sabbath, but the Sabbath reminds us that God rested within the creation on the seventh day. Originally, Sabbath is the communion between God and humanity in the Garden of Eden. But the “curse” of the “Fall” marred that communion as creation itself was filled with brokenness.

Jesus initiates a reversal of that curse. He makes the first move and through him Sabbath—in a theological sense—is renewed for this woman. She experiences the renewal of creation through the redemptive act of healing. Healings are no mere testimonies of power or ability. Neither are they mere proofs of Jesus’ messianic role. They are ultimately the intrusion of eschatological healing—new creation—into the brokenness of the present creation. Jesus reverses the curse and restores Sabbath for her. He breaks the reign of Satan in her life. He looses what binds her. The eschatological kingdom of God is revealed in this moment. She recognized the “God-moment” and “glorified God.”

The ruler of the synagogue recalls creation’s relation to the Sabbath, but his interest is polemical. Rather than thinking theologically about the implications of Sabbath and creation, he reminds the people of the legalities of Sabbath-keeping. He pours the tradition of the elders into the creation account to protect the Sabbath, but he thereby subverts the intent of the account itself as well as the meaning of the Sabbath. Indeed, the tradition—as Jesus notes—valued the health and wholeness of their domestic livestock more than a daughter of Abraham. The ruler turned the Sabbath into a legality rather than rejoicing over the intrusion of the eschatological Sabbath into the present.

The Sabbath is where humanity rests in the healing and loving presence of the Creator. Sabbath supports healing and redemption. It is an abuse of Sabbath to use it to hinder wholeness in human life and exalt the legalities of the ritual over the mercy the day represents. The Sabbath is itself a gracious gift of God to the creation; it is now a divine mercy in a broken creation. The meaning of the Sabbath is grace and thus mercy in relation to creation’s groans. The Sabbath promotes gracious healing and it is a subversion of the Sabbath to use it to hinder mercy.

This story calls us into the ministry of Jesus as we take up the mission of reversing the curse instead of hindering the renewal of the Sabbath in the lives of people. It cautions us that we should not use legalities to subvert the divine intent. The story asks us whom will we follow. Will we follow the ruler of the synagogue or will we follow Jesus?

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Posted by John Mark Hicks

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