Advent 7 - stones to bread

 And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”  Matt 4:3

Ive been thinking alot about the 'temptation in the wilderness' story recently.  And Im seeing lots of things in it that I havent seen before.  And as we are looking at stones, I turned my attention to the stones Jesus was stepping over and sitting on during His 40 days and what Satan had to say about them.

The traditional interpretation of these verses often focuses on the fact that Jesus was fasting and therefore hungry. So the temptation to turn stones into bread was all about Him satisfying His natural desires by using His creative powers etc etc.  BUT..... as someone who has fasted for reasonably lengthy periods in the past I can report that once you are past about day 3 you dont really feel hungry much.  And past day 5 or 6 hunger pangs disappear completely.  Ive never lasted 40 days so I cant say for certain what happens at that point, most certainly weakness, dizziness etc. But I cant imagine that hunger is top of the list cos the body adjusts quite quickly to having no food.  Its what makes anorexia so difficult.  Once you are starving you lose the impulses to eat and feel hunger.  So Im not sure that being hungry is really what this is all about.  ( Although I acknowledge that the scripture does tell us Jesus was hungry)

In my head this verse in Matthew has become mysteriously linked with the story we looked at yesterday - Moses striking the rock.

In that scenario God told Moses to speak to the rock in order to provide life-giving water to the people.  Here Satan is telling Jesus to speak to the rocks to provide life-giving food for Himself.  In the Moses story Moses disobeys, and loses the right to enter the promised land. In the Jesus story Jesus obeys by not speaking to the rocks and enters into the promises of God.  ( I hope Im making sense 😀)

Jesus knows He is called to be the Saviour of the world.  He knows He is going to die.  But at this point in His life does He know how ?  Is He thinking back to Abraham and Isaac? After 40 days when God hasnt spoken to tell Him to eat maybe Jesus is thinking that this is it.  This is how He is going to lay down His life?  In the desert. Without having really done anything much at all.

The mental battle that is going on over this time in the wilderness is fierce and dreadful. Satan is goading Jesus with all the things he goaded Adam about.  If you are the Son of God.....   Take for yourself food which is good to eat....you can rule independently of the Father....... worship me.

Praise be to God that Jesus, in His weakened and unsteady state, managed to muster the resources to defiantly rebuke Satan with Truth.  And the Truth about the stones is a profound one because actually we do not live by food alone. We think that food keeps us going but it really doesnt. God keeps us going. Every breath we take, every cell that moves, every tissue that grows every breath in our lungs only happens because the creative Creator God is sustaining us.  This is why fasting is powerful. Its a statement of faith which acknowledges that I dont actually rely on pizza and chips to give me energy for my day.  I rely on Him.  I eat and drink Him.  He is my life.

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