Luke 4:1-15
When I was a young teenager, I learned
to sail. We lived in the Caribbean, on the island of Grenada where my parents
were missionaries. They did the “church thing,” and I hung out on the beach.
Sailing was something I just knew I could do, so when the chance availed itself
one afternoon, I jumped at the opportunity. That day, I learned the importance
of “reading the wind” as it came across the water. Knowing the wind made the
difference between a cracked skull or a capsized boat…and smooth sailing.
When we come to the event in
scripture in today’s reading from Luke, Jesus is in the wilderness. The devil
comes and tempts him—really tempts him. Jesus is tempted to use his power to alleviate
his hunger (“turn these stones to bread….”), to take a short-cut to his end goal
of redeeming all the world (“worship me and it’s all yours!), and to gain the
ear of everyone through spectacle (“throw yourself off the Temple…and see the
angels catch you). Jesus is able to respond to each of these real temptations by
using scripture.
This is probably a familiar event
for many church-goers. But, what we often fail to see is how this passage opens
and closes:
“Jesus, full of
the Holy Spirit….
“…Jesus
returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit….”
Jesus goes into the desert with the
Spirit…goes through the temptations with the Spirit…and walks out of the desert
with the Spirit. “Spirit,” translated from the Greek pneuma, is a word
that mean ‘spirit,’ ‘wind,’ and ‘breath.’ The Holy Spirit can also be the “Holy
Wind” or the “Holy Breath.” I like the sense of ‘wind’…the invisible presence
of God blowing through our world and through our lives.
Jesus knew how to “read the Wind.” Like
I learned to read the wind on the surface of the bay where I sailed, Jesus read
the Wind in the words of scripture. When the devil threw something at him, he
knew the direction the Wind was blowing, and he could counter the ideas of the
devil.
Too many people today do not learn
to ‘read the Wind,’ and their lives often capsize, or they feel that they keep
getting slammed by life and the circumstances around them. When we learn to
read the Wind in scripture, life becomes smoother sailing. We may still miss a
gust here and there, but life is smoother sailing if we take time to learn how
to read the Wind, if we take time to make scripture a part of our lives. Then,
when the inevitable temptations come to us…to serve ourselves, to take shortcuts,
to seek fame over relationships—when these are more come, we will know how to
read the Wind and make our way more smoothly in the direction God leads us.
Sunday, January 19, 2025
“...Shared Ministry: The Spirit”
Watch/Listen: HERE
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