Dear People Whom God Loves,
We now turn to the third temptation of Jesus. The devil takes him to the top of the temple and tells Jesus that he should throw himself down. The devil quotes scripture. “God will send his angels to protect you so that you will not be hurt.”
Why would this be a temptation for Jesus? Perhaps such a striking and miraculous entrance would make him famous. People would believe that the word that he spoke and the lessons he taught were from God. I don’t think that Jesus would have found it attractive to jump off the top of the temple. Jesus must have had something much deeper and more profound for him to have to struggle.
Again we see that Jesus’ struggle would bring him empathy and compassion in our human urges to have our place in the sun, our wanting to be admired, to protect a good reputation. These urges are not bad, but our clinging to them can be behind our choices which damage ourselves and others.
This empathy, compassion, and mercy that Jesus learned from his own human struggles made him attractive to us people who sin. And in this gracious acceptance, we are able to be forgiven, healed, and on the road to the reign of God. Entering the reign of God is a long, difficult, and confusing process. It is the gift of divinization that the eastern fathers spoke of. It is the gift of becoming more and more God-like. It is then by our lives and not by our talk that we become a bridge to the reign of God. That is the mission that Jesus gave to his disciples and to the church. The church is all of us who are baptized. The question I must ask myself is: Am I more a bridge or an obstacle? I invite you to ask the same question.
Smile, God Loves You,
Father Clay
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