Pride of Place

This morning I was reading Matthew, which I haven’t read in quite a while.  So I actually took my time and went through it more thoroughly than I sometimes do for stories I’ve read before.  I was chapter four, when Jesus is in the desert being tempted by Satan after He’s just been baptized, that really caught my attention.

8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

 10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’[a]”

 11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

He’s already been tempted with food to eat after fasting for weeks, and with showing off His immense favor with God: that He could jump off a cliff and never even damage a foot.  Then in verse 8, Satan tempts Him with what looks like ultimate earthly glory.  When I’ve read this passage before, I never really thought that this was a very tough temptation, especially in relation to the other two.  Satiating a physical hunger doesn’t even seem like a bad thing except that it was against God’s will at the time.  And showing Satan that God is more powerful regardless of his rebellion, that is definitely something that would tempt me!  But Jesus was sustained by His great connection to God and knew both that God would provide everything He needed to survive, and the kind of actions/thoughts that would bring Him joy... rubbing the devil’s face in it probably isn’t one of those things, I’d wager.  

Jesus had come from heaven where He knew true glory so the glories of earthly accomplishment hardly seemed like much of a temptation to my mind.  But if it hadn’t tempted Him, Satan wouldn’t have tried it.  He was “one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.” Heb. 4:15.  It occurred to me that Jesus humbled Himself to come down to earth where He was a “nobody”.  So maybe what was tempting Him was not the possession of earthly kingdoms, but the pride of being held up as an important person again rather than being passed by as the son of a carpenter whose birth was a little scandalous.  

If this past year and a half has taught me anything, it is that I struggle with pride.  If I’m honest with myself, I would have to admit that I didn’t think terribly highly of pre-school teachers before I became one, so I really can’t blame anyone else for holding the same impressions.  But it is so hard to hear people’s reactions to what I do, and see the associated implications of my drive or intellect form on their faces.  The funny part is, a lot of it is probably imagined and the rest made to loom before my eyes by Satan.  It is certainly not of God.  

Unlike me, Jesus didn’t entertain the devil’s notions. He was tempted, and I find some reassurance in the fact that it did tempt Him, but He tells Satan to get away.  The power He relies on to enforce this is the conviction of truth in vs. 10:  “Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.”  Worship God, not your pride.  Serve God, not your short-sighted or selfish desires.  If God has called someone to a work or a path, then there is enough to be righteously proud of in it and much good beyond the obvious to be found in it.  

C.S. Lewis once wrote, “It seems that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." Instead of desiring and seeking all the immeasurable good God has for me in a particular place/time/situation, in my pride, I seek something that I think I can control or arrange and thus something that is bound to leave me wanting.  I pray that God would strengthen my desires and make me see the mud pies I would make in relation to His holiday at the sea, and that He would break me (gently!) of my pride and give me instead a stronger foundation on which to stand!

Protecting the Wellspring of the Heart:

This has been one of those lovely weekends without many distinct plans and preceding a week of lessons planned far enough in advance as to require very little pre-Monday attention.  The combination of which, gave me the chance to go to both Congregation Beth Messiah (the Messianic Jewish synagogue I’ve been attending since August) and Ecclesia (the non-denominational church I began attending soon after moving to Houston last year) in the same weekend.  Often times, when I get the chance to make both of these services I find very different topics preached, but this week was different.  They seemed to dovetail perfectly and connect to some things I’ve been reading and thinking about a lot recently, namely the struggle that goes on between the good I recognize and want to do, and the less than perfect execution of that good that seems only possible in heaven.

I think the first time I really got excited about heaven was when I went through Revelation with my small group last year:  a place so filled with God’s presence that we will have no need of a sun as we get to work alongside God in perfect relationship and unity just as Jesus is one with the Father?  yes please!  A place where every broken thing will be made whole and strong; a place where creativity flows naturally and no motive need ever be questioned-- goodness, there are days where I look around and just long for it!  Every once in a while, a glimpse of beauty or pure goodness comes and I “drink it in” thirstily as Anne would say.  They are sips of promise and of hope that there is something better than that to which we have grown accustomed here.  They are beautiful and energizing and so refreshing!  They seem to go straight to the wellspring of my soul and clean/purify it.  

Just this Saturday, at CBM, I had such an experience.  They always call the children to the front before they release them to Shabbat-school and the men of the congregation encircle them, hands on each other’s shoulders, prayer shawls spread wide, and the rabbi leads a prayer for them.  The men range significantly in age and position within the synagogue.  Some have children or grandchildren present, some do not, but they gather to bless the children, to be warriors for them, combatting any evil thing that might try to harm them, forming a bastion of spiritual protection around them by standing firm around them!  Beautiful enough as this picture is, add to it the sight of the oldest man in the community, stooped and frail, unable to walk by himself, being supported by another man as he walks through the crowd of children, stopping at each one as he blesses them individually with a touch and a word.  I tear every time I see it!  And this week was no exception.  Something had ruffled me earlier in the morning and I had been trying to let it go, and then I saw this beautiful glimpse of heavenly purity and the things that had been gnawing on me somewhere in the vicinity of my stomach just ceased.  I still remembered what had happened, but the truth I had been speaking to myself, but not really accepting, just sank in and I was peaceful.  It was effortless.  

Proverbs 4 tells us to guard our hearts as the wellsprings of our lives.  Just as a city anticipating attack would guard their water source from an enemy that would corrupt it with debris that would poison everything downstream, we must guard our hearts from the the debris that would poison everything flowing from us.  When I let anger or pride or selfishness into my heart, nothing pure and good flows from me.  Sometimes I can hide it, pretend that it isn’t affecting things, but the classroom is my litmus test.  Give me three minutes with my students and I know if my wellspring has been corrupted!  That being said, guarding against attack is exhausting and frustrating and very often serves merely to show what a rotten soldier I would make, which would be disheartening if I knew I had to do it on my own.  But I don’t, thank God!  

I’ve been reading through Samuel the last few weeks and hit the story of David and Goliath on Friday.  I was so encouraged to have that in mind when Rabbi Ron started talking about mounting guard over our hearts.  David is well known for the incredible defeat of an enemy whose sword probably weighed more than David’s whole body.  He was not strong.  He was a boy too young to be allowed in the army.  When he was dressed in the king’s armor, he could barely move, so he went to battle without it.  The only thing David had going for him was the fact that God was with him.  And that was the only thing he needed.  It’s the only thing we need too.  

Pastor Leroy, a big black man with a deep gravely voice and an ability to draw “amen!”s from even the whitest of parishioners, spoke this morning about heaven, about having a heavenly mindset.  As he said, never ask a black man if he can preach on heaven... the answer is ALWAYS yes.  ; )  He talked about the effects of having a heavenly mindset, how important it is for earth that people have heavenly mindsets because living in a heavenly mindset allows you to suffer, to serve, and to worship well.  In effect, it changes your reactions to the crap the world throws at you, the temptations that plague you through the flesh, and the insidious lies that are the devil’s bread and butter.  

Constantly guarding the wellspring of your heart against the world, the flesh, and the devil is, as I said before, exhausting if not completely impossible in our current state, but it occurred to me this morning that if we, instead of focusing on mounting guard, put our efforts toward gaining/refocusing on a heavenly perspective, we stand a better chance of success.  If we are constantly filling our hearts with truth and purity and goodness, then even if the enemy’s poison occasionally hits its target, it will be counteracted immediately by the antidote that is already present in the water.  

So I leave off with a caution, an encouragement, and a challenge:

“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.  And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. ” (1Pet. 5: 8-10)

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8)