The Game Of Thrones Goes On

We continue our meditations upon the LORD's Prayer . . .

During the days of Jesus' earthly life many were playing—in terms of the currently popular TV show on HBO—their own Game of Thrones. Many members of the Jewish Sanhedrin tried to maintain their control of the Jewish people while balancing the Roman occupiers' demands for taxes. In turn, the High Priests sought to control the Sanhedrin and enrich themselves at the same time. The Herodians had limited political control of various parts of the land as they killed one another and indulged their fleshly appetites. And in the midst of all this the Roman prefects and governors had to maintain peace with all these factions while their soldiers pursued Jewish zealots and sicarii (assasins) hiding in the hills or killing in the very streets of Jerusalem.

Here's part of the private conversation between the Roman Prefect, Pontius Pilate, and Jesus as reported in the Gospel of John. Notice how each plays the game.

So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" 

Jesus answered, "Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?" 

Pilate answered, "Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?" 

Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world." 

Then Pilate said to him, "So you are a king?" 

Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world--to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice." 

Pilate said to him, "What is truth?" 

After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, "I find no guilt in him. - Jhn 18:33-38 ESV

What did Jesus mean by accepting the title of king? What did he mean when he said he was born for that very purpose? What did he imply by saying that he came into the world for that purpose? That he existed somewhere else, in some other world? And what is or was the nature of his kingdom? How could he come into the world and yet not be of this world? Or from the world? What world was he from?

It all sounded like gibberish to Pilate, this talk about kings, truth and listening to Jesus' voice. The guy was obviously nuts, spouting nonsense. That's why Pilate concluded, "I find no guilt in him." This prophet was not guilty of insurrection as the Sanhedrin claimed. They were playing their own games and Pilate knew it. He simply wanted to get rid of this craziness and be done with it. So he played his card, hoping it would all go away. He would release Jesus and crucify the robber Barabbas, but they demanded Barabbas and the game went on.

With all this in mind, we are taught by our LORD to pray, "Father in the heavens . . . your kingdom come!" So whose kingdom are we praying for? Jesus' or the Father's? Both? More on this in my next post.

The Life-giving Word From God

We continue our discussion of temptation in the Christian's life with a more detailed look at our Lord Jesus' temptations by the devil after his baptism.

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And 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, "'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" - Matt 4:1-4 ESV

Everything Jesus did was for us. Empowered and led by the Spirit, he spent 40 days in the wilderness. No one lived in the wilderness. In the wilderness John the Baptist called the Jewish people to repent. The wilderness had symbolical meaning. After their exodus from Egypt Israel was born while wandering for 40 years in the wilderness. John called his people to remember their history, to rethink who they were and whence they had come. He called them to turn away from their sinful ways, seek forgiveness from God for their sins and recommit themselves to His service. Jesus accepted this responsibility by being baptized by John out in the wilderness. At first John insisted that he was the one needing baptism by Jesus, not the other way around. To this Jesus replied,

"Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he consented. - Matt 3:15 ESV

The Father in heaven sent Jesus to live in complete and total obedience and to give himself as the final sacrifice for all men's sins. In this way he fulfilled all righteousness. As Jesus said,

"My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. - John 4:34 ESV (see also John 3:16-18)

But Jesus also knew he would have to fight the devil in our place. He must be tempted by him as are we. And he must show us how to overcome these temptations. We study these temptations in order to learn what to expect and how to resist them.

The first thing the devil did was to plant a seed of doubt: "If you are the Son of God." Jesus had gone without food for 40 days and was extremely hungry. He was probably so weak that he wondered if he could even make it back to civilization. Had his Father forsaken him?

In a 1997 editorial in the British Medical Journal, Peel briefly reviewed the available literature regarding human starvation. Generally, it appears as though humans can survive without any food for 30-40 days, as long as they are properly hydrated. Severe symptoms of starvation begin around 35-40 days, and as highlighted by the hunger strikers of the Maze Prison in Belfast in the 1980s, death can occur at around 45­ to 61 days

In such extreme cases of starvation the most common cause of death is heart or other organ failure. 

People are still starving in our day. For example, the United Nations World Food Programme has suspended operations in southern Somalia after recent terror threats, leaving a million people at risk of hunger because of the severe drought that is currently devastating the Horn of Africa.

Our Lord identified himself with Israel's wilderness journey by his life-threatening 40-day fast. He also identified with all the millions that starve to death because of lack of food. And he faced the temptation to doubt his Father's love as a result. Why does the heavenly Father permit such things to happen? The answer is sometimes hidden in the unknown counsels of God. 

In this extremely fragile situation the devil tempted Jesus to set aside his humanity and simply command the stones and rocks of the wilderness to become bread. To be sure, he could have done that, but then he would not have completely emptied himself of his divine nature and been completely one with us (Phil 2:6-8).

This he refused to do. Instead he threw himself into the hands of his Father by drawing on the written account of Israel's wilderness experience. Israel also had no food all the days of the Exodus. Each day they went out to pick up manna, that strange food that simply appeared. In this way they learned complete dependence upon the LORD. Moses reminded them of this as they prepared to enter the land of promise.

And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. - Deu 8:3 ESV

So Jesus teaches us about hunger, weakness, starvation, suffering, sickness, the danger of death and how to deal with the temptation to doubt in those situations. We must not question what the Father allows to happen. Our task is to trust and submit. The Father may well answer our prayers and provide manna. Or he may not. In any event we know that our earthly lives are in the hands of our loving Father. We know it because we have Jesus. He is our life. In him we have been reborn and he lives within us (2 Cor. 12:9; Gal. 2:20). Regardless of what may come in this present age, that is enough.

"'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"