Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Matthew 4:1-11

Final Solution

It is not fair when a 12 year old boy – new kid in town - who has no idea who he is or what a friend is – he for whom the world is strange and often hostile – is offered something in a vial at a neighbor's house that will make everything okay. In twenty minutes there will be no more bullies. No inadequacy. No unfulfilled needs. No fear. Not for about ten hours.

It is not fair that Amelia, also 12, an orphan on the streets of Rio de Janeiro, who scrounges in a crowd of orphans at the dump every day for something to eat, has to make the choice between eating garbage and accepting the invitation of the man in a car who stops by the curb where she is sitting and opens the door.

Or that in Gaza the men handing out the bread at the corner are part of the same organization as the men strapping bombs to their bodies in a market square 200 miles away. We could go on.

The devil put it to Jesus like this: "we can fix this thing right now, or you can wait on your Father in heaven to take the initiative and watch the death come down all around you. I've got a plan. Let me feed you. After that, call your Father's bluff and force his hand - if he's serious about doing good. If that doesn't work, I'll be your God and we'll get it done."

"No." That's what Jesus said.

"It's the other way."

God help us.

© 2011 Andy Gay