Tested, Tried and Trustworthy

Sunday, Day 10 - Mt 3:13-4:11, Mr 1:9-13, Lu 3:21-23; 4:1-13

This morning we find ourselves with ringside seats to Jesus' baptism and then his testing in the desert by none other than Satan himself. No matter where you land on the baptism spectrum or what your conviction is to its importance in any believer's journey, this bit of narrative here in the first three gospels presents a case for at least some further study and consideration outside of the often "is it essential" or "can I get to heaven without it" conversations we bookend it with. We find the son of God, Jesus, fullfilling what looks to have been his father's wishes!?!? Him making good on something he was trusted to do. Is that why God is pleased? Was it Jesus' actions that "fulfilled righteousness"?

I'll let you study that out and see where you land. The other bit of life we peek in on of Jesus' is his time in the desert. We find him being tested by Satan and at what we'd think would be a particulary easily distracted point of existence for Jesus. He's 40 days hungry. Not sure about you all, but I'm fairly distracted, angry and combative at oh say, 2 hours past hungry. Definitely a moment worthy of notice for us when we read this and consider how this fully god and fully man Jesus navigated this piece of the journey. Some things to consider...

Did you notice the tool Jesus used to answer and beat back Satan's tempations in all three of the well timed and cleverly choosen offers?
Just a thought, Matthew 4:2 could top the scales alongside "truest things said in one verse or less."
Maybe something else a little headier to consider... Take a second to ask yourself, what do you believe about Baptism? And what informs your belief? (No Judgement here, just asking : ) )
Is it scripture that forms your picture? Logic? Your parent's beliefs? Some mix of it all?

Have a great week and happy Sabbath!

Luke