Who Is really in charge?
Chaplain Horace Cutter
ESV Matthew 4:1 Then
Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2
And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And
the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command
these stones to become loaves of bread."
If you read the full account from
Matthew’s Gospel of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, you can see many
different lessons. The fact that the
Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted. The love and devotion of Jesus to face the
tempter and defeat him. Jesus’ method of
defeating Satan with the written Word of God.
The fact that a person is affected in their spiritual body by what
happens in their physical body. All of
these themes and more can be the focus of attention but I would like to point
out some thoughts that I pondered while considering this passage.
First, Jesus is approached by the
tempter who desires to get him to use his innate abilities as the Son of God to
gain what we can assume his body wanted most, food. Many times,
we approach life with a sense of our own abilities. If I can do it for myself, why pray to God
about it? This first counter-move by
Jesus was to let Satan know that we do not function in life because we can, but
we have been given opportunities, grace and guidance by God himself. So, the first challenge is to scrutinize my
abilities considering what God would have me to do. Is that your initial question to a certain
challenge in life, even when you can…. Should you? Does God want you to? Are you in control of you or do you ask God
first?
Second, Jesus is approached by the
tempter who desires to get him to manipulate the relationship between the Father
and the Son. "If you are the Son of
God, throw yourself down, for it is written, "' He will command his angels
concerning you,' and "'On their hands they will bear you up, lest you
strike your foot against a stone.'" (Verse 6) He knows that the relationship between that
Father and the Son is the most loving relationship that can be and uses the
written Word of God as a reference. When
I think of it deeply, my desire to abuse the relationship with God is just as
much a sin as my desire to depend upon other resources. The relationship that I have with God is not
for me to try God’s grace by manipulating Him to use his divine power to
support my irresponsible actions. The
relationship that I have with God is initiated by God for me to fulfill the divine
purpose that he has for me. Trying to
control God doing something stupid. Am I
trying to control God?
The third attempt of the devil is what
inspired the direction of my thoughts.
The tempter comes to Jesus with a ridiculous offer. "All these I will give you, if you will
fall down and worship me." (Verse 9) Just think about it. Jesus who is God, the Second person of the
Holy Trinity listening to the devil who was kicked out of heaven eons ago,
saying, “I am in control of all these kingdoms you know. I will give you command over all of these
kingdoms. I will make you the ruler of these lands”. My daughter educated me to the picture of
Pikacu, from the video games, with a startled look on his face. The picture is something that you send to
someone when the say something that you just cannot believe they were dumb
enough to say it. You may insert the
saying, “Are you kidding me?” the Devil at one point in eternity past
worshiped the Son along with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Now He offers the
kingdoms of the world to this Almighty God….
Of course, Jesus counters Satan’s
offer by proclaiming that God is the only one to be worshiped and served by
any man alive. This is clearly a sin
that was the ultimate in control. We all
have the choice to revere, venerate, emulate, respect and worship. As a matter of fact, we will do this
worshiping of something as a human action to life itself. The question is, who or what will you
worship? Will you worship the one that
provides food for you, loves you with an everlasting love and commands your
love for Him to define and support all expressions of love I your life? This whole account of Jesus facing the devil
in the middle of nowhere should tell us that the devil is waiting for you
wherever you go hoping to find a place in life, time and circumstances and even
devotion to challenge your ability to control the circumstances regardless to
the will of God.
So, who is in really in control?
I am repeatedly reminded of the teaching in scripture to control myself,
which takes a life-time to achieve. But I am still looking for the passage that
calls for me to control circumstances around me. Some may say that compelling people to come
the Christ is controlling the circumstances, but this action of discipleship is
done in obedience to God and love for the person with whom I am in
community. Who has the power to make
things happen is not my concern, acknowledging that God is almighty is the
ultimate challenge to life. And we are called to live it.
We are not to control circumstance, groups nor people. We are not in control...
