Jesus the Resistor: Refusing Easy Answers This Lent

as we look for love, we're looking to Jesus as the resistor, the resistor of easy solutions, the resistor of just doing the bare minimum. We're looking to Jesus for that. Just like so many of the gospel lessons, there is some serious brilliant symbolism happening here. At this point in the scripture, Jesus had just been baptized. He was just baptized. He's coming up out of the water, and he is whisked away into the wilderness. And the wilderness was across the river. [00:43:31] (43 seconds)  #JesusResistsEasy

So they walk to the river, be baptized, and then repent, turn around, and rejoin their lives in the city. So Jesus comes to be baptized by John the Baptist. Jesus doesn't need to repent. And so Jesus walks to the river to be baptized by John, and then rather than repent, rather than turn around, he is taken across the river into the wilderness. He's taken across the river into the wilderness. He doesn't repent. [00:44:53] (50 seconds)  #BaptizedNotRepent

So Jesus is in this desert. He hasn't eaten for a while, and the first thing the tempter uses to try to trap Jesus is what? It's food. Of course, it is. Maybe the tempter thought that Jesus would grow up to be a United Methodist and therefore couldn't refuse food. But it's more likely it's more likely that the tempter used food to tempt Jesus because Jesus was hungry. He hadn't eaten for a while. [00:48:04] (37 seconds)  #TemptedWithFood

The tempter knows what to do and how to do it. The tempter says to Jesus, hey, Jesus. Bet you're hungry. Make these stones into bread. And Jesus says, no. I'm not going to do that. Now how hungry must Jesus have been? The tempter offers Jesus food because that's where Jesus would have been most vulnerable. He was hungry. And so the tempter says, hungry? Make yourself some food. [00:48:41] (37 seconds)  #TempterTargetsHunger

The tempter tempts Jesus where he is most vulnerable. And here's the thing. It would have been so easy. It would have been so easy. It would have been such an easy solution. Jesus is like, I I'm really hungry. I've got these stones. I could just go, corn muffin. It would have been so easy. And Jesus would have proven so much by doing that. He would have proven so much by making the stones into into bread. [00:49:19] (35 seconds)  #EasySolutionTemptation

Jesus is thinking to himself, man, I I just fed 5,000 people with a couple of fish and a little bread. I could definitely do this. It would have been easy, but Jesus was not tempted by the easy solution. Jesus is a resistor. He resists the easy road forward. But why? Why does Jesus resist the easy road forward? I think it was because the spirit was leading him, not to the wilderness, but in the wilderness. [00:49:54] (39 seconds)  #JesusAResistor

Not into the wilderness, but for the wilderness. Jesus' whole life was culminating in this in this case, for this moment. The tempter wasn't going to give up, though. The tempter offers Jesus unlimited power. All Jesus would have to do is bow down to the tempter, and Jesus says no, and the prop then the process repeats. Right? How easy it would have been. How easy it would have been for Jesus to just do a quick quick bow [00:50:32] (36 seconds)  #NotIntoButForWilderness

There is an archbishop from the country of Brazil was an archbishop from the country of Brazil named Hector Camara. And he is somewhat famous for saying this. When I fed the poor, they called me a saint. When I asked why they were poor, they called me a communist. What Kamara was saying was that he refused the easy answer. And when he refused the easy answer, that was offensive to the people around him. [00:55:13] (45 seconds)  #FeedAndAskWhy

And so Jesus walks to the river to be baptized by John, and then rather than repent, rather than turn around, he is taken across the river into the wilderness. He's taken across the river into the wilderness. He doesn't repent. Now it's important that he went across the river. You know why. Right? Because there's another prophet named Moses. And remember what he never did? Moses wandered the desert for forty years with the people of God, but Moses himself never crossed the river into the promised land. [00:45:16] (55 seconds)

The spirit was leading Jesus not into the wilderness, but for the wilderness. Jesus' entire life was culminating in these events. He was preparing for ministry in these moments. The spirit was preparing Jesus for his whole life for this moment. [00:51:32] (21 seconds)