Saturday, October 26, 2024  

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Today's Scripture
Matthew 4:1–11

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “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 him. (NRSV)

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Reflection

A popular streaming service featured a gameshow called Is It Cake? in which professional pastry artists competed to craft confections in the form of daily objects with the goal of achieving the finest level of verisimilitude. The final test involved a panel of judges being presented with each “object” to determine, from a visual distance, if what they were looking at was an object (such as a sneaker, tube of toothpaste, stapler, etc.) or a cake decorated in its exact likeness. Consummate artists, the chef contestants often achieved staggering results that fooled even the most discerning eyes. What a nasty surprise to bite into what one hopes is a cake, only to break a tooth on plastic or metal instead!

Sometimes what is most harmful to us comes wrapped in the image or couched in the words of what we presume to be not only ideal but, even, holy. In this passage that typically inaugurates the season of Lent, Jesus encounters the temptation to give into a series of toxic delusions. The tempter began his attempts to destroy Jesus by quoting from scripture, of all things. He appropriated the essence of Jesus’ own existence to try to destroy him, but Jesus both was better and knew better than to be seduced by such shallow and elusive tactics.

May God bless our own discernment with such wisdom, even in the face of temptation.

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Prayer
Wise and wonderful God, help us today to remember the truth that “not all that glitters is gold.” Amen.

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Written by Nancy Benson-Nicol, Associate Pastor for Caring Ministries and Spiritual Formation

Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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