This is the twenty-eighth in a periodic series of reflections on Brian D. McLaren's everything must change. Quotations used by kind permission of the author, with page citations from the edition featured on the Emerging Church Reading List to your right.
“For Jesus, God’s natural ecosystem is not only one of care (see yesterday’s emc post on “Sparrows”), but also of limits. So when Jesus is tempted (Luke 4:1-13), he refuses to turn stones into bread (which would subvert God’s natural system of provision [prosperity]); refuses to take a religious shortcut to authority and kingship (which would subvert God’s natural system of gaining honor through humble service [equity]), and refuses to indulge in spectacle to prove himself (which would subvert God’s natural system of being proven through trials and experiences [security])” (p. 139).
This is the most concise and cogent commentary on Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness that I have ever read, and it is a great coincidence and blessing that this past Sunday our Gospel lesson was this same reading from Luke’s temptation scene.
It occurred to me that the three temptations echo Brian’s three subsystems in the societal machinery, and so I have identified by brackets the corresponding subsystem for each temptation.
The correspondence between provision of food and prosperity is clear. The correspondence between humble service and equity is perhaps less self-evident, but if we all acted as servants one to the other fairness and justice would flow naturally (or divinely). The correspondence between proof by spectacle or testing and security may be even more opaque, but in my experience reliance on spectacle often masks insecurity. On the other hand, the courage to face life’s trials and the willingness to learn from experience bespeak an inner security born of the conviction that “underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27).
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