You Are the Son of God, He Said

LUKE 4:1–9

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”

The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”

The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here.”

CONSIDER THIS

Within the third temptation of Jesus lies an issue of vocation, yours and mine, that our Lord had to face down so we could face it down behind him: trust.

Trust? Trust is acting on the belief that who God says you are, is who you actually are. Trust is believing that the Father’s naming of you, and the purpose it carries, is enough.

Trust that has nothing to prove, no need to be validated.

Being the Son of God and the Son of Man couldn’t have been easy. You are somewhere between flesh and blood and heavenly reality; seeing what is seen by all and seeing what is unseen by others. You are alive to God yet alive to self, present to divine communion and present to earthly desires. You are a place where heaven and earth meet, and you will be the firstborn from the dead—while knowing that death is final unless a will beyond you intervenes.

Before Jesus will step into the wild of his Isaiah 61 ministry, he will have to decide something: Does he trust his Father’s plan, and does he really believe as the Son of God he will be caught if he falls?

For you and me, it is different, but no different, at the same time. We must trust God. We must. If we don’t, we will live safely behind our home and church walls, talking about the easy themes of virtue and morality, while leaving all the risk-taking and Holy Spirit–following to those who are the real spiritual superstars. We will sigh over the news, nod our head at church, or perhaps lob a social media post into the fray (of our social media echo chamber, that group of people who are selected by algorithm to largely agree with what we say) of public opinion.

But we will not truly live.

We will certainly not live as a follower of Jesus.

Many years ago, I commissioned a student of mine to write a quote, in calligraphy, on the wall of my office. It was from early church Bishop Irenaeus of Lyon, and it said, “The glory of God is a human being, fully alive.”

If we’re going to follow Jesus, we’re going to have to trust who he and the Father and the Spirit have said we are: beloved, chosen, royal priest, living sacrifice, child of God. Then, we’re going to have to risk something, to actually trust, knowing it could cost us our lives.

We’ve got nothing to prove.

But we do have a life to live. Our name carries our purpose. The name “child of God” carries with it a purpose and a destiny to be lived, not hid or destroyed early because we have something to prove.

Let’s do that. Today.

Let’s live, fully alive in the presence of God.

THE PRAYER

Lord of the Wild, we have nothing to prove to anyone. We are your children, and we trust you. In Jesus’s name, amen.

THE QUESTIONS

How have you lived like you have something to prove in the world, like you need validation to assure you that you matter and are needed? How might the Father want to speak into this way you are living and seeking affirmation?

For the Awakening,
Dan Wilt

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