It was a terrible choice to make. The whole family was hungry. It had been days since they had had even a slice of bread. The father of the family was approached by a rich man from the edge of the village who offered a year of food in exchange for his daughter’s hand in marriage. The girl still had growing to do. The girl was in no way ready for marriage, and the father did not know if he could trust the man. He was not exactly known as good and honorable. What if something happened to his daughter? But, if they did not get any food, she would be dead soon anyway. Like I said, it was a terrible choice to make, made even harder by a starving body and mind. I cannot even fathom having to make that sort of decision. Hunger can tempt us in ways that other things cannot.
Was in not eating a very nice piece of fruit that led to the downfall of Adam and Eve? Adam and Eve failed to trust God’s wisdom. They failed the test. Was it not the lack of food in the wilderness that caused the Israelites to rebel against God and desire slavery in Egypt once again where they could find food? The Israelites failed to trust God. They failed the test.
You might be wondering what the man decided? He chose to give away his daughter in marriage. I do know that his family was fed, but I am sorry to say that I do not know how it all worked out for his daughter. I was never told that part of the story.
Was his decision a failure of an eternal test? Was he just in a bad situation with no good solution? I actually do not know the answer these questions. Hunger has a tendency to drive us to do things that we normally would not. What I do know is that the man said that he felt like he failed to trust God. He tried to fix things himself.
The man went to church ever morning, guilt clinging to the shoulders where his daughter should have been carried. At the church, he knelt in front of the carved wooden crucifix, the carved eyes of Jesus looking at him, and he asked for forgiveness from the one who did not fail the hunger test; Jesus, the one who forgives.
When driven into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tested by the devil, Jesus, like his ancestors Adam and Eve and all the freed Israelite slaves, was also given a test with food. Jesus was weak, after-all. Jesus was famished after eating nothing for forty days and forty nights.
Coming near the weak and famished Jesus, “The tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’” Notice that the tempter did not give Jesus some bread; rather he suggested that Jesus create bread for himself. “Fix yourself. Trust in yourself. Have faith in yourself,” the tempter enticed.
It is the test that Adam and Eve failed. They wanted wisdom for themselves. They wanted to decide things for themselves. So they ate of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. They did not trust that God had their back. Adam and Eve wanted to be in control. In the same way, Jesus is tempted with anxiety. Jesus is tempted with self-reliance. Jesus fought back with scripture. “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
This answer is so cool. Do you realize just how cool this answer is? Jesus admits that we do need bread to survive (“We do not only live on bread”), but more than bread, we need something that reaches all the way back to the beginning of all creation. In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, God’s “Spirit,” God’s “wind,” God’s “breath,” or as the Gospel of John puts it, God’s “Word” created life out of the chaos waters. God’s very breath hovered over the waters and created everything. God’s very words spoke everything into existence. God’s breath filled the dust and created a person. God’s breath and words are what fill us with life. Without that Word, that breath, we would not even have wheat to make any bread.
In other words, Jesus is saying, “Bread is good, but God is even better. I will trust in God.” “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” And, Jesus does. Jesus trusts that God will provide, even when things have gotten desperate.
Moments later, Jesus is tempted again by the devil. The devil places Jesus on the very peak of the temple; the temple in Jerusalem, the place where heaven and earth touch; the temple where God resides. The devil tells Jesus to jump off; after-all God will not let anything happen to him. God is right there, just through the curtain. Surely, God will send angels to catch him.
The devil is proposing a test; not of Jesus, but of God the Father. Will God truly provide? Will God truly care? Is God even there?
I have tested God. I have set up challenges by which God can prove that God is there and that God cares. I have stared at the stars, waiting for the shooting star to come, only to see none. I have prayed to hear a voice in the night, only to hear silence. I have tested God, and I think that most of you have also. Here is the thing. God will do what is right and good; not what I want God to do. God does not jump to it if a little boy wants a meteorite to fall from the sky. God does not snap to it a bored boy wants the rain to dry up. And, God will certainly not be tested when we are the ones being tested.
Faith means trusting
that God will provide, and trusting is done without proof.
When a parent says to the teen, I trust that you will not drink tonight when you go out with your friends; they send the teen out not knowing the results. They send them out without any proof. They trust that the teen will do the right thing. In the same way, Jesus trusts God the Father without prior proof. With scripture on his lips he declares, “It is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”
Do you see a theme with scripture going on here? Do you see how God’s word is guiding Jesus’ every decision, especially when he is weak and famished? I am not certain, but there seems to be something to that.
The last test is one that Israel failed again and again throughout the scriptures as they inhabited a land of their own. They were given the gift of land from God and they immediately and continually thanked and worshiped other gods. They would go up to high places and worship other gods. They would appease the culture and allow other idols of other gods to reside in these high places, so as not to cause a fracture in the culture. Over and over other gods were worshiped and put on high places.
And, it is not different today. We too put people and things on high places. We too lift up people and things and allow them to have a say in our lives. We too worship other gods; we just do not call them that. We call them celebrities. We call them influencers. We call them political analysts. We call them our beloved. We call it money. We call it power. We call it our truth. We look up to them and they dictate our lives.
On a high place, Jesus is drawn to look at all the land that he can see and he is tempted by the devil, “Worship me and you can have it all.” This seems so easy. Just say “no.” But, in real life it is not easy. A single mother struggling to get by once said to me, “I feel like money is my God. I don’t want money to direct my whole life, but when I have to struggle so much every day and work hours and hours to get enough, how can it not?” Sometimes, it is hard to not worship the very things that we despise. “I hope that Jesus forgives me,” she said, knowing that she cannot change a thing. Hopefully, Jesus can overcome what we cannot. Hopefully, Jesus understands. Hopefully, Jesus can make a difference.
Jesus said to the devil, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on [Jesus].
The Bible says, “Suddenly angels came and waited on [Jesus].” You see? God did not forget. God did not forget Jesus. God did not forget his needs. God did not forget to love. God did not forget. “Suddenly angels came and waited on [Jesus].”
I gawk in awe at the power of Jesus and I ask, “Where do I find myself in all of this?” I find myself with that father, begging for forgiveness. I find myself asking Jesus to forgive my inability to trust. I find myself in awe of Jesus’ ability to trust God the father, even when things were rough and the road clearly led to death on a cross. Like that father, I find myself just staring at Jesus, hoping that he gives me even an ounce of that trust. And, maybe that is a good place to start. Maybe, staring at Jesus, hoping that he can provide, is the start of something that we call trust and the church calls faith.
Maybe, I will spend my Lent staring at Jesus, trusting in his power and his love.
And, maybe I will give a
hungry person some food, so that they do not have to try trusting God on an
empty stomach. After-all, we do not live
on bread alone.
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