Lord Throughout These Forty Days...20

We began yesterday unpacking the temptation in the wilderness as an assault on the baptism in the Jordan. There the Triune God appears in a specific point in time/space. There God the Father defines Jesus' identity in terms of acceptance, affection and affirmation. Today we continue with a look at the attack on affection.

In the Jordan, Jesus heard Father-God claim Him as the one "...Whom I love..." The Father loves His Son as He had from eternity past. For in the Trinity we see love perfected. God created the universe, not as a necessity for love to exist between He and humanity, but as the product of that mutual love already operational among the Three-Who-Are-One. This love continues even though the Son has now taken on humanity for the sake of salvation.

In the wilderness, Satan seeks to undermine this mutual affection. Jesus walks the wastelands hungry. He has not eaten in 40 days and nights. Now the tempter calls, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." "If you are..." the clause causes pause, raises doubt. If God loved you He would have given you manna just as He did Israel, whom He loved. How could a loving Father allow His Son to suffer so? Would a loving Father give His Son a stone if that Son asked for bread?

Jesus reaffirms the Father's affection by quoting, "Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word coming from the mouth of God." Father is providing for Jesus in the wilderness. The word sustains. The Father hasn't diminished His love or affection. Interestingly, after this temptation Father-God sends angels to minister to the Son. Could they have brought him angel food, bread of heaven?

Later in His ministry, Jesus, humgry and thirsty, sits by a well while His followers go for some lunch. There He leads a woman to new life. When His followers arrive from the local grocery store with food, He says "I have food you know not of." The Father sustains again, though not through physical supply.

For us we need to realize that gifts do not equal love. The starving Jesus knew better. Even if our needs -- real or supposed -- go unsatisfied, God still loves us. He gives. His word sustains. He does provide. Our spirits need supply as well as our bodies.

"Lord for this and all Your blessings, make us truly grateful. AMEN"