Identity Check

The text for this week was Luke 4:1-13

Love draws people close.  When we meet that special someone, we want nothing more than to spend hours and hours alone with that person; getting to know more about them, soaking up their presence.  When children are born, our instinct is to hold them, and hold them, and hold them just a little bit longer; cradling them close to our hearts, even to the point of napping in chairs while their little bodies rest against ours.  Love draws people close. So it’s no big surprise that after his baptism, Jesus is led off by the Spirit of God.   

If you follow the continuity of the narrative, Jesus has just been baptized by John.  The voice of God has just confirmed the identity of Jesus: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”  It’s hard not to be full of the Holy Spirit after having your God-given identity verified...

These words must have been ringing in the ears of Jesus after he left the crowded banks of the Jordan for the less populated locale of the Judean wilderness.  “You are my Son, the Beloved.”

If you have ever participated in a silent retreat you know that some very challenging things can emerge in those quiet times.  Spiritual directors will most times give people breath prayers for seasons of silence: The prayer of the publican, “Lord have mercy upon me a sinner,” “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom,” “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me” are just a few.  Priest and author Brennan Manning tells of his experience of claiming this passage from scripture: “I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me.” (Song of Solomon 7:10 NASB).

Can you imagine the power of praying something like that in silence?  What an empowering passage.  “I am my Beloved’s and his (God’s) desire is for me.”  The words would roll in your head and into your heart; how could anything possibly disrupt the power of those words?  How could anything possibly disrupt the power of hearing God’s own voice declaring, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased”?

And yet, it is precisely in these types of situations where echoes, memories, phantom voices, new voices, the Enemy—it’s in these moments that we begin to hear other voices.  “If you are God’s Son...If you are REALLY the Beloved...and if God is REALLY well pleased with you...”

Traditionally scholars have looked at the temptation in the wilderness in terms of temptations to use power for selfish reasons and to achieve fame or popularity, and in service of someone or something other than God and God’s purposes.

 I can’t help but notice, however, that Satan says twice, “If you are the Son of God...”  Yes, at the end of 40 days of fasting Jesus’ resistance would have been very low and the urge to use his divine power for his own benefit would have been very hard to resist.  But when we are weak, when we are tried, it is so easy to give into despair and forsake our knowledge that we are the Beloved. When our energy is low we are apt to not have the patience to serve others and will most likely only look out for #1, or we give in to the ever present temptation to sell out to the vote of popularity—everyone will love me, I will be the object of praise, and so what if who God has made me to be is sacrificed just a little bit? ...or give in to despair and believe that IF God really loves me, he won’t let this tragedy happen and if he does, then I’m not loved…in fact I know I’m not loved because I’m all alone and I’m tired and I’m hungry…

At the core of all of these is the Imposter who lies to us and tells us we aren’t the beloved; we aren’t Children of God and God is not well pleased with us.  These lies come to us when we are alone, they also come to us when we are confronted with our brokenness and need for repentance.  How can anyone accept me when I’m this much of a mess?  How can anyone believe in me when I’ve failed so many people?  The liar says no one will accept us, no one will believe in us…

Easter on the other hand, that celebration that lies at the end of our 40 day journey through the wilderness, Easter promises us that no matter how many lies are thrown our way, no matter how difficult the trials may be, no matter how much of a mess we are accepted and forgiven, no matter how many people we have failed we are still believed in and forgiven.  No matter what, God is still God and we still belong to our Abba.  We are not forsaken.  We are marked and we are sealed and we forever belong to our Beloved whose desire is for us.