Read Matthew 4-6
Today, we hear how
Jesus after being baptized ~ named and claimed as God’s beloved is immediately
tested. Wait, what? God blesses Jesus and immediately Jesus
encounters evil. This is not the script
we usually have with faith. We tend to
view faith as an insurance policy or a life hack to make things easier. But the Gospels are more complex and
perplexing than that. The gospels say
God will come to earth and the Herods of the earth will issue decrees that hurt
and harm, cause people to flee in fear. After baptism there is wilderness. The gospels say God will offer blessings not
for the easy life but for the trials and tribulations.
I invite you today
to sit in this truth.
Perhaps now
reading chapter 4, Jesus’ own temptation and trial and experience of God in the
storm, helps shed light on the Beatitudes in chapter 5. How can Jesus say “Blessed are the poor in
Spirit”? Because Jesus just felt that
in the wilderness…his own hunger and pain and encounter with evil…and yet Jesus
sensed God’s persist presence too. God’s
persist presence that didn’t magically make everything better with a poof. Rather God there in the wilderness.
Where is there “wilderness”
your story? Where do you long for the
blessedness ~ which might mean strength or courage or just putting one foot in
front of the other today. May you feel
the presence of Emmanuel within you and around you this day and every day this
week. Amen.
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