Yesterday, our pastor Cal Boroughs preached on Luke 4:1-13, about Jesus being tempted in the wilderness. I've heard many sermons on that passage before, but this one spoke to me in a way others haven't. He talked about the first temptation, when Jesus was hungry and Satan said, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread." Jesus needed bread, and He had the ability to turn a stone into bread. But He answered Satan, "Man does not live on bread alone," a quote of Deuteronomy 8:3, which adds, "but on every word which comes from the mouth of the Lord." This temptation was about trusting God. Quoting Helmut Thielecke, Cal said that Jesus put His trust in God even though He saw no bread. In other words, He waited for God to supply His need in God's time.
This spoke so directly to me as I thought of certain things that I have been praying to God about for a long time. They are good things to pray for; I have no doubt about that. They are not even for me! And it seems clear that God would want them to come to be, yet He has not answered those prayers (from my perspective! We mortals don't take "not now" as an answer any more than a 2 year old does!) I realized as I heard Cal explain this passage that it truly is about a lot more than food! It is about me learning to say, "Yes, God, you are good"--even when He doesn't give me what I think I need more than anything in the world! I want to learn to trust in God's goodness at all times, even when He says, "Not now . . . not now . . . still not now . . ."
As Cal was preaching about bread and stones, I was looking at the communion table set up before us. There on a silver tray was a loaf of bread, ready to be broken as Christ's body was broken for us. And suddenly I thought of a rock I've been moving around the horses' corral. I originally liked it because I thought it looked like a huge dinosaur's egg, so I moved it here and there out of my way, unwilling to toss it into the woods. And suddenly it popped into my mind how much it also looks like that loaf of bread. So last night I rescued the rock from the edge of the corral, brought it in, and washed it good in the sink. Then today I set it on a silver bread tray. And there it is going to sit, out in plain sight on the table--a reminder that "man shall not live by bread alone" and that Jesus trusted in God even when He saw no bread.
Wow, is that the rock? Sounds like a good sermon!! Wish we'd been there!
ReplyDeleteYes, that's the rock. Pretty neat that the Lord had it sitting out there by the barn for the past year just waiting for Cal to preach that sermon! Yes, it was an excellent sermon; sorry you missed it.
ReplyDeleteI thought that was bread on the tray!! It looks very realistic. Sounds like an excellent sermon. I've never thought of that temptation really being about trusting God.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't either! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for adding me to get e-mails :-) I loved reading this- thx for sharing! -Monique
ReplyDelete