“In our shoes”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Thursday, May 5, 2022
Matthew 4:1-11 (Forward, p. 7) CEV p. 984
Facing temptation has never been one of the happier times of my life. Not only have they been consistent and harrowing, but I have often felt alone in them and singularly prone to experiencing them. I often wondered whether I was the only one to be attacked by them so often or with so much difficulty. Then, one day in the midst of the BCP Prayer of Consecration, it hit me: Jesus, during His earthly life, had been subject to every single temptation that I would ever experience. The realization literally left me speechless: I am sure that my congregation really wondered just what was going on with me because of the long pause in my speech!
The author of the Letter to the Hebrews (Hebrews 4:15) tells us that Jesus was in all ways tempted as we are, yet without sin, which is a truth that I find wonderfully comforting and reassuring. And, if the kenotic theory of Philippians 2:7 holds true, namely that Jesus put aside all of His divine privileges when He became human and emptied Himself of all the supernatural qualities that He would normally been able to rely upon or call up, then this is even more helpful and reassuring. That means that Jesus met all His temptations armed with no more resources than do you or I. That means that Jesus was truly tempted. That means that He truly did have a choice and could have, had He wanted, chosen wrongly and fallen into sin. No wonder He is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, able to have compassion on our infirmities, for He Himself has been there, truly has been in our shoes.
It means one other thing as well. It means that it is okay, even natural to be tempted. It is to be expected. And it means that being tempted is not equivalent to sinning. It is merely part of the human condition, part of the choices that inflict us day by day and moment by moment. Whether we sin or not doesn’t come from the temptations themselves, but from what choices or decisions we make when faced with them. And, as Jesus was able to overcome His temptations, make the correct choices and not fall prey to them—armed with no more resources than we have—so too can we. He has been in our shoes, and so as He depended upon the Father for strength and direction at such times, and so too can we. Amen.
Forward notes: “But [Jesus] answered, ‘It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (verse 4).
“My wife and I offered bread made from our very first wheat crop for Holy Communion. We ground kernels of wheat in a blender for five minutes as we tried to make flour. It did not measure up to our expectations. With the first bite, we worried that we would be responsible for cracking everyone’s teeth. Flour is hard to make. Wheat is difficult to grow. It is amazing that civilization was built on bread—what a remarkable accomplishment.
“According to the opening verses of the Gospel of John, ‘in the beginning was the Word…and in him was life.’ The world as we know it is transitory. It is just like bread, satisfying us for a while, and then we hunger again. Just before the Israelites enter a new life in the promised land, God reminds them—and us—that we do ‘not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
MOVING FORWARD: “Try making bread this week. Pause at each step of the recipe and say a prayer of thanksgiving.”
A concluding note: Our author’s meditation reminds us that even though Jesus was Himself ‘the Word’, as described by John, He relied fully and totally upon the word which comes from the mouth of God. It is that same word that we need to rely upon as well