Dear People Whom God Loves,
We come now to a second temptation of Jesus. The devil offers him all the kingdoms of the world with all the wealth and power that would bring. I don’t know whether wealth and power were that attractive to Jesus. Perhaps not. But this could be a more subtle attraction. With all that wealth and power, Jesus could spread his message to all of humanity. Think of all the good that he could do.
Jesus had to struggle with that too. If there wasn’t a strong draw to this wealth and power, it wouldn’t have been a temptation. When we choose to do good and there is no attraction to do otherwise, there is no temptation. This can be a trap for us. When choosing to good is easy for us, we are drawn to think of ourselves as morally superior to those others. That becomes our temptation, and we are often little aware of how we are drawn to this other kind of sin. In our righteousness, we don’t see our false pride. (I must confess that this is a temptation for me).
Jesus rejected this temptation. I think he must have seen that the reign of God is the humble compassion and mercy that Abba is. This comes clear to me in the story that Jesus told of the Pharisee and the tax collector who came to the temple to pray. The Pharisee thanks God that he was not like the rest of men or like this tax collector and recites all the good things that he did. The tax collector, with bowed head, only said, “God, be merciful to me a sinner.” Jesus said that the tax collector went home justified but not the Pharisee.
Again, we see that Jesus struggled with these very human temptations. In being able to empathize with these human conditions, Jesus became a bridge for entering into the reign of God.
More next time.
Smile, God Loves You,
Father Clay
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