Fr Mark Schultz

Dear Friend,

It might seem a bit odd to find ourselves back in the wilderness with Jesus in our Office Gospel today. Didn’t one of the temptation narratives begin Lent? And aren’t we well into Eastertide? Why go back again? Well, the rather unsatisfying technical answer is: the Office Lectionary in Year 2 returns to Matthew in the week of Easter III and this is just where we happen to wind up today. But I feel there’s something providential in our Gospel reading today, something we need to hear about now!

One of the features of this reading are its allusions to the Exodus out of Egypt and the desert wanderings of the children of Israel. At the end of the previous chapter, Jesus has just been baptized (the crossing of the Red Sea) and now he’s spent 40 days and nights (a reference to the 40 years of Israel’s journeying) in the wilderness; and the devil comes to him and says, “If you’re really God’s Son, turn these stones into bread” (a reference to the manna with which God fed the Israelites in Egypt). Eventually Jesus is going to quote Deuteronomy three times in response to the devil’s three temptations (Deuteronomy being a restatement of the law, a recapitulation of the whole story of the Exodus and a reaffirmation of God’s will for God’s people). Why all of these allusions? Because what the Gospel means for us to understand is that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s will for God’s people; that where we and our ancestors in the faith have failed to be faithful, Jesus will not fail…and the faithfulness of Jesus will restore and renew us all, can be our own faithfulness. The history of God’s people is recapitulated in Jesus, the history of humanity is recapitulated in Jesus…and healed, changed. A new human story becomes available to us in the person of Jesus Christ!

I heard a really lovely interpretation of all this that I find very compelling, and it goes something like this. The substance of the devil’s three temptations is to get Jesus to stop trusting in the Father and the Father’s love. “You’re the Son of God? You don’t look like it: prove it! God protects you? Maybe, maybe not: prove it! You’re inaugurating a new kingdom? All the kingdoms that were, are, or ever will be are mine! You’ll not be getting any of them from God…you’ll be getting them from me!” Even before Jesus’ public ministry has officially begun, the devil wants to scupper it all, wants to make sure our history remains unchanged, that humanity remains incapable of faithfulness. But Jesus remains faithful. And here’s where things get really lovely…

…in all the events of the Gospel of Matthew, there are other people around to witness it all, other people to whom the story could be passed along, from whom the story could be written down. But here…the only one who would’ve passed the story along would’ve been Jesus himself. The idea is that Jesus told this story to his disciples, to us, because Jesus knew there would be times when we would question God’s goodness, God’s love for us. And Jesus wanted us to know: he’s been there where we are. And in those times when we doubt that we are God’s children, when we doubt that God cares for us, when we yearn so much for the kingdom-coming that we doubt it will ever arrive unless we take matters into our own hands and seize whatever kingdom-like thing happens to be offered us by whatever swindler is offering it…Jesus wants us to know, in those desperate and trying and difficult times, his own faithfulness can be ours. He has overcome death, sin, the world, the devil, and every temptation. Jesus himself can be our faithfulness. Jesus himself can be our strength.

I’m put in mind, Beloved Friend, of the last three verses of Habbakuk. Do you know them? They’re among the most powerful in the prophetic books! I often return to them in times of trouble or hardship, not because they promise things will get better by and by, but because they re-orient my understanding of where I’m to find the strength to meet the day. Here they are:

“Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places.” Habakkuk 3:17-19 (KJV)

Friend, what good news that the Lord God is our strength, that Jesus himself is our faithfulness, our wholeness, our renewal, our restoration; our Way, our Truth, and our Life!

Under the Mercy,
Fr Mark+