Matthew 4:7 – ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test’.
When I was beginning my career my friends and I were relieved to have work, pleased if we were offered promotion and grateful for a pay rise. I started out at a time of high interest rates, high inflation and when employment opportunities were challenging. As a young man my life plans unravelled in tough circumstances and I had to rethink and start all over again. It was precarious for a while but people were kind and I managed.
Jesus was born in our flesh as God’s Son with a mission to save us from our sin. A manifestation of sin is our sense of entitlement which easily replaces the healthier sense of blessing that is evident in people coping in difficult and degrading circumstances and yet still having time to rejoice in God’s blessings.
Satan took Jesus to a high and dangerous place, and tempted him to throw himself off in order to abuse an assurance of safety from one of the Psalms. It is never reasonable to misuse Scripture in that way. God’s promises of eternal life are not the same as a safety rail for our mortality. Instead they provide the signpost for the next step when the rails of our sense of danger let us down and something happens.
Part of preparing for Holy Week is to remind ourselves that God is always around us. Sometimes there are great risks and dangers. When we are vulnerable he walks with us and will enable our sense of danger to keep us alert. Nothing will remove all risks from our journey through life but as we travel with Jesus through an especially risky part of his route we see how to hang on, knowing always that resurrection is the end and a new beginning.
A Prayer
Lord, help me never to abuse my faith by feeling entitled to special protection measures. Grant me the grace to acknowledge that you are always with me and that my eternal soul has a future while at the same time having a healthy sense of responsibility and realism about my mortality. Amen.