4th meditation: pick up your cross
readings
The tempter came and said to him ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’….’If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you”’….Again, the devil…showed him all the kingdoms of the world… ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me’….
MATTHEW 4:3-9
…sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.
GENESIS 4:7
readings
The tempter came and said to him ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’….’If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you”’….Again, the devil…showed him all the kingdoms of the world… ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me’….
MATTHEW 4:3-9
…sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.
GENESIS 4:7
moment of thought
For Christ this was the place where he decided to go the way of the cross. The temptations that Satan presents him with – an instant following, security in his identity as the Son of God, and in his kingship over all creation – all these things are his already, but the temptation is not those things in themselves, rather the way in which Jesus acquires them. Jesus knows that the way we do something is as important as what we do.
The temptation is ‘the way of the cross’ vs ‘the way of violence’ and exerting power by force.
The wilderness becomes the cross roads – do we choose to pick up the cross and follow Jesus?
prayer
because You are love
I desire You
because You are the forerunner
I follow You
because I am broken
You heal me
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