The Angelic Health Care Plan.

And he led him to Jerusalem, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou art the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, to guard thee: and, On their hands they shall bear thee up, Lest haply thou dash thy foot against a stone. And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not make trial of the Lord thy God. (Luke 4:9-12)

During Jesus’ last temptation in the desert, Jesus is offered an Angelic Health Care Plan in which he would be protected from all worldly harm by an army of angels. This same temptation will reoccur during Jesus’ ministry right before his Crucifixion and yet Jesus turns down the offer yet again, but why?

If Jesus would have taken up the offer for a safe passage then he would have missed out on the most important teaching that the desert had to offer; the teaching that at times in this world bad things happen to good people and at times horrific things happen to perfect people like Jesus. The entire desert orated this message as loud as it would be yet we always miss it. Why was Jesus brought out to the desert to be tempted, he did nothing wrong. Why did he thirst and has hunger pains, he seemed to be a hard worker. Why did Jesus die an early death, he wasn’t reckless with his life. This world isn’t safe, not for good people, and especially not for the perfect person. Protection by the angels was unnecessary because the Gospel, the message of Jesus Christ, the reason for life is much greater than being too cautious to jump off a temple, or being radical and reckless with our life to the point we wind up on a cross. Protection by the angels is unnecessary because the Gospel, the message of Jesus Christ, the reason for life is much greater than life itself.

Jesus turned down the jump and the angelic protection. Jesus turned down being cautious and reckless. Jesus turned down death and yet embraced death when it approached him to display, to enact in, to be a part of the Gospel, to be a part of the Love unstoppable and incorruptible.

In the name of the Great Physician who heals the soul and the body,

My Political Jesus

And he led him up, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, To thee will I give all this authority, and the glory of them: for it hath been delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship before me, it shall all be thine. And Jesus answered and said unto him, It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. (Luke 4:5-8)

Is your Jesus political?

Does your Jesus care more about which political party is in office than the legislation that passes?

Is your Jesus a Republican?

Democrat?

Or maybe he’s an Independent?

Libertarian?

Green Party?

Is your Jesus going to cure the world from social injustices, terrorism, poverty, and all the other awful things in this world . . . solely through political agendas?

I turned on the news this morning, just like I do every morning, and all the news networks display is this political party pushing this agenda and then this other political party pushing back. What scares me is not that our country may be going in the wrong direction, or staying in the wrong errors of past injustices. What concerns me is how passionate people are getting over political topic, and forgetting about each other.

Did you see the other day where one man in political office called everyone in the opposing party A-holes? Or how about the story where two people started arguing at a health care demonstration and then one man bit off the other man's finger? How about the countless stories of town hall meetings getting out of hand and the public disrespecting the officials and vice versa? Is this Jesus’ kingdom on Earth coming to power?

This weekend I went to a Tea Party and I was able to see people voice their concerns about the direction our country is going in. I think this is a positive thing for both political parties to do, however this is not a solution. I wholeheartedly believe this, because my political Jesus turned down public office. He knew and knows what political agendas are capable of, and realizes how insufficient they truly are to change the world in a remarkable way. My very political Jesus must have also realized how easy it is to lose the focus of one another, of the human element when we push political agendas.

The Christian message is simple, and always has been, and always will be. The message is so simple that many people are able to deliver this message without ever reading the Bible, or saying the right prayers, or going to the right church. The Gospel is one that delivers and receives Love. God is God loving God loving God loving humanity (The Trinity). True humanity is humans loving God and other humans. Politics can’t make us love, but our Love can make our politics.

In the Love of the Love loving Love loving you, (a.k.a Jesus),

Jesus' Excessive Gift

And the devil said unto him, If thou art the Son of God, command this stone that it become bread. And Jesus answered unto him, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone. (Luke 4:3-4)

Jesus was hungry in the wilderness when the adversary of the devil came and tempted him with food. What was really being offered to Jesus, was it just food? On the surface this looks like a simple temptation to cure the hunger pains. How easy it would have been for the One and Only Son of God to turn the oval loaf shaped rocks into actual loaves of bread that would fulfill and satisfy any man, whether starving or not. However the devils temptation grew further than self-fulfillment. Jesus could have used his authority as the Son of God and fed the entire world. Jesus could have saved all the starving children in the world. Seriously, think about it. If Jesus would have turned stone into bread then no one in the inner cities would ever go hungry. No longer would the man on the corner or on the side of the highway ever ask you for change and/or food. No longer would the women and children in homeless shelters and orphanages get only enough to survive but never enough to be fulfilled, The commercials on TV begging us to offer pennies a day to save malnourished children in 3^rd world countries would just cease. All of this would have happened if Jesus just said, “ok, I’ll feed myself and the world.” The Son of God turned all of this down and He said, “I am ok with being hungry and I am ok with others being hungry.” But why?

When I did my studies in Chicago I had the privilege to meet a little girl named Crystal. Crystal was around eight years old living with her mom and sister in a homeless shelter. Crystal was always happy and a joy to be around. I was at the shelter one night with a group from campus and I sat down to share a meal with Crystal. We prayed first, she thanked God for our food and the time together. During the meal we started talking about prayer. I asked her what she prayed for when she talked to God. I didn’t expect the response I got, for it literally changed my life. She said that she thanked Him for the roof over her head, the clothes on her back and the food that she had. I was astounded that this little girl who in my eyes had nothing was so thankful for everything.

See, God takes care of Crystal, sure she has a roof over her head, clothes on her back, and food in her stomach, but she has something that is even more valuable than all three of those combined. She has faith, hope, and love and that was all she needed.

The late Archbishop Fulton Sheen presents an intriguing perspective on this scripture in his book Life of Christ. Archbishop Sheen claims that the Devil was offering Jesus the ability to be a social reformer and bring about social justice. Anyone who has ever worked in an impoverished neighborhood, or impoverished school, or soup line, or homeless shelter, or went on a mission trip has begged God to change the world this way. It seems only natural doesn’t it? Yet Christ turned down the chance for an immediate social change. Why?

Jesus knew that when turning stones into bread becomes the norm there is no need for faith. When you already have all your needs meet there is reason to hope for a better day. When all you are worried about is the material then you just flat out forget about people and God. You just flat out forget about relationships a.k.a. love.

Christ knew the simple fact that “Man shall not live by bread alone” (Luke 4:4). If Jesus only fed us then he would have been short changing us. Jesus knew if he gave us bread and only bread we would all be starving. The starvation would not be in our bellies, it would be in our souls. Before we feed the hungry we have some lessons to learn, some things to truly know. Before we save the world we have to understand salvation. Before we love the unlovable we have to learn how to love ourselves, our neighbors, and our God. Christ didn’t turn down a plethora of food because it was too much, he turned down the devils offer because we wanted more, he wanted a life that meant more than just material security. Jesus wanted to live an extreme and radical life of having faith in the impossible, a radical life of hoping for the future, a radical life of LOVE.

Don’t just feed the poor. Feed the poor in faith that God will take care of them and is taking care of them through you and others. Don’t just feed the poor. Feed the poor in hope that the world will one day change not in some magical instantaneous social justice scheme, but the world will change in and through pure love. Don’t just feed the poor. Don’t feed the poor out of pity, this is dehumanizing. Feed them because they are just like you and me. Feed them because you love them. Feed them because you truly love your neighbor.

In the Faith, Hope, and Love of Christ Almighty,

Temptation: The Agony of Distraction

. . . during forty days, being tempted of the devil. And he did eat nothing in those days: and when they were completed, he hungered. (Luke 4:2)

While Jesus spent forty days in the unforgiving wilderness a devil[1] came and visited him with one goal in mind, distraction. In the situation that Jesus faced in this passage, we find the same key element of the devil’s plans that can be seen in the lives of the saints of old and of the living saints today who live out the Christian faith. This key element is none other than DISTRACTION. During Jesus’ temptations you will see the devil trying his hardest to make Jesus lose his focus on the end goal. He has tried the same strategy in other’s lives and is still trying to distract us today from the end goal, from being the men and women whom we have been created to be, distraction from the ultimate message of Divine Love.

There once lived a man named Anthony who lived in the desert and was physically attacked by demons. Anthony unabashedly loved Christ through both his thoughts and actions. Then one night the demons made Anthony’s dwelling to “be shaken by an earthquake, and the demons as if breaking the four walls of the dwelling seemed to enter through them, coming in the likeness of beasts and creeping things. And the place was on a sudden filled with the forms of lions, bears, leopards, bulls, serpents, asps, scorpions, and wolves, and each of them was moving according to his nature. The lion was roaring, wishing to attack, the bull seeming to toss with its horns, the serpent writhing but unable to approach, and the wolf as it rushed on was restrained; altogether the noises of the apparitions, with their angry ragings, were dreadful. But Antony, stricken and goaded by them, felt bodily pains severer still. He lay watching, however, with unshaken soul, groaning from bodily anguish; but his mind was clear, and as in mockery he said, 'If there had been any power in you, it would have sufficed had one of you come, but since the Lord hath made you weak you attempt to terrify me by numbers: and a proof of your weakness is that you take the shapes of brute beasts.' And again with boldness he said, 'If you are able, and have received power against me, delay not to attack; but if you are unable, why trouble me in vain? For faith in our Lord is a seal and a wall of safety to us.' So after many attempts they gnashed their teeth upon him, because they were mocking themselves rather than him.”[2]

Like St. Anthony, today we also have our own distractions in our own dwellings. These distractions which take us away from that Divine Love can be something as common as the sins that we know we commit. We all have those sins that we know we commit and know are wrong, and yet we always choose to overlook them and/or ignore then. Why do we not tell the demons and devils that bring these sins into our lives the same thing St. Anthony said to them, “If you are able, and have received power against me, delay not to attack; but if you are unable, why trouble me in vain?” However there is another form of distraction in many of our lives, especially mine, which keeps our minds off of the Love of Christ just a effectively as our more noticeable sins. Today our world is filled with the constant distraction of TV, radios, cell-phones, text messaging, e-mailing, facebooking, tweeting, and even I-phoning. Sure, many times these things seem harmless. Many times they have no ill effects, but there seems to be a growing void[3] in our lives that we keep trying to fill up with distractions.

Remember that the Spirit led Jesus into the desert to help focus him and rid him of the political scene, the crowds, the fame, and the distractions. The Spirit leads us into the desert to help focus us as well to rid us of our own temptation, the temptation that is simply our own agony of distractions. Stay focused in your spiritual walk. The spiritual hunger pains will come, the distractions of life will come, and the demons and devils will come in all forms of temptations and distractions, but stay focused. If and when you lose focus, take time to refocus for the journey in the desert is there for us to become rejuvenated psychologically and revitalized physically and resurrected spiritually.

In the Grace of Christ Almighty,

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[1] Devil in Luke 4:2 is the Greek work διαβολου (Diabolou) which means the devil, Satan, a false accuser, slanderer, and/or liar.

[2] Life of St. Antony. Par. 9

[3] This void could simply be explained as a lack of the Love of Christ, a lack of the Divine Love. Some have described this void as a God shaped hole in our souls that can only be filled with God. But all too often, myself included, we throw all kinds of trash from sex, violence, drugs, alcohol, to bad movies and TV shows, excessive music, comfort food and everything else into this God shaped hole in our souls. It’s simply as if God created us imperfect so that through communion with him and one another we could reach a higher perfection then every dreamed otherwise.

The walk into the Desert

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness (Luke 4:1).

After Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, he proceeded out into the uncompassionate wilderness[1] being led by the Spirit. Jesus was not being forced into the desert by the demons, nor led astray by the world into the desert, nor was it the deceptions of the Devil that made the Lord leave his comfortable home to enter an alien land. Jesus was led out in to this harsh, dry, unforgiving environment by none other than the Holy Spirit. Why would the Spirit led Jesus into the wasteland? Could it be the things Jesus learned and experienced in these forty days molded and formed the rest of Jesus’ ministry?[2] Was God testing Jesus? Was God testing himself? Was God demonstrating to the Devil the strength and perseverance of the miraculous ability of Jesus, the God-Man incarnate who would save the world? Was God, was Jesus trying to live in solidarity with man-kind?

For many of us we have went through times of our lives where we were pushed to our limits, tried, and refined by the harshness of the world around us. Yes, refined. Do you remember a time when you were in the desert, a time that has already passed and that has made you a better person, a time when you were so low that you could taste the dirt? You know the time when you felt like you hit rock bottom, and there was only one way to go, UP? The time when your faith walk no longer looked like a walk, but a crawl, and in fact the word “crawl” was an over exaggeration. Do you remember this? Looking back, many situations that the dirt of our lives still tastes like raw earth, however other events this taste of dirt stops being the surplus of dry dirty earth and starts to become the preamble of honey.

In the Grace of Christ Almighty,

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[1] The word for wilderness is the Greek word ἔρημος (eremos). According to Strongs’ Concordance ἔρημος (eremos) means lonesome, waste, desert, desolate, solitary, and/or wilderness.

[2] Could it have been that Jesus had to let Satan know who he was? Could it have been that Jesus needed to allow God to see who is? Could it have been that Jesus had to prove to himself who he was going to be?