Scripture: Matthew 4:1-11, 27:45-52

“This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

With those words from the cloud ringing in his ears, the young man left the river behind and headed into the desert. In the summer heat, what vegetation had greened up earlier was now brown and dry. He walked alone, without fear of predators—bears or lions.

Crossing empty wadis, skirting the steep cliffs, and ascending barren bluffs, he maintained a westerly direction. Finally, near sundown, he settled in a cave on the edge of a wadi with a little trickle of water. Some vegetation grew there, enough to draw some wildlife. In the night, he heard them coming to water, predator and prey alike.

Here he stayed while he pondered the past and the future. Not just his personal past, but the past of his people: Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac, Moses leading the people in the wilderness, Elijah challenging the prophets of Baal.

The past with its wars, always different groups battling for the good places, the fertile fields, the sources of water, control over the trade routes.

The past with its judges and kings. The past when they remained faithful to their beliefs, the past when they did not.

Hundreds of years of these people trying to identify not only who they were, but whose they were. To whom did they belong? Whom should they worship?

Finally, with no resolution, hungry, he began the return journey. There was no path, as this was not a well-traveled place. Nobody came out here willingly. Rocks and stones littered the ground.

A half day later, another joined him. They began to converse.

“You’ve been out here a long time. I’ve watched you,” said the stranger. “You haven’t had much to eat. You must be famished. I’ll bet you’d love to have some bread.”

“Yes,” he agreed.

“IF you are the Son of God …” A gleam came into the stranger’s eyes. He had emphasized that first word for a reason. He repeated the phrase. “IF you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

Suddenly, what had been random-sized rocks, irregularly-shaped stones became, in the young man’s mind, the breads that his mother pulled from the oven, freshly baked, steaming, soft and chewy.

He shook his head and looked the stranger in the eyes. “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”

The stranger mutter, “So be hungry, then. See if I care.”

The weary young man did not answer.

As they walked on, the scenery changed. They walked into Jerusalem, across the arch to the Temple Mount. They stood on the pinnacle of the Temple, some 20 stories above the pavement below. For a moment, looking down, dizziness filled his head. What if his foot slipped? What if he fell?

As if reading his mind, the stranger began again with an emphasized “IF.”

“IF you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command the angels concerning you.’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’ ”

The young man’s mind cleared. He saw the angels coming, holding him up, gently escorting him to the ground. The people below, at first not realizing what was happening, looked upward in amazement. Then, by the time he was half-way down, they were kneeling and then prostrating themselves as his feet touched the ground. They thought he was God. And why not? With the angels holding him as he slowly descended, they would worship him.

The second time he shook his head. “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

The corners of the stranger’s mouth turned down. His shoulders sagged. “You really think you have to do it the hard way?” he mumbled.

Another scene appeared. High again, but now on a mountain. He recognized Mount Horeb, where Abraham took his son Isaac to sacrifice him, where Elijah stood in the cave as the wind crashed through the mountain side, breaking open rocks around him; as the earthquake threatened to close the mouth of the cave, and the prophet fell to the ground in fear; as the fire blazed through, sucking the oxygen out of his cave. Mount Horeb, the holy mountain.

But they were not in a cave, the stranger with the young man. They stood out in the open, at the peak of the mountain, looking across the vast terrain below them. And the young man saw, not just the plain, but across the sea to the city of Rome.

“Look,” the stranger said. “There’s Caesar sitting on his throne.”

He pointed south. “And there’s the ruler of Egypt, with the pyramids. And beyond that, Ethiopia’s king. And see, even farther than that, all the kingdoms in the world.”

For a moment, only for a moment, he saw himself sitting on the throne of Caesar, gazing out upon the pyramids, being carried through the streets of the capital of Ethiopia, ruling kingdom after kingdom around the world. He felt the power of the scepter in his hand. His decisions made life or death for those around him. Just think of all the good he could do.

The stranger seemed to read his mind. “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”

His mission—to bring all peoples together in an understanding that would bring peace to the world. To bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. As ruler of all the kingdoms of the world, could he not bring about an eternal peace? Could he not share the wealth, release the captives and the oppressed, abolish slavery, eliminate greed, pass on the word of God’s benevolence?

A deep sigh escaped his lips. No, that forced kind of peace never lasts. It has to come from within, not from without.

He watched the stranger’s expression change from “Aha!” to a frown, a deep, sad frown, as the young man spoke again. “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve only God.’ ”

As the devil turned away, he threw back one last comment. “The offer stands. It does not expire. I’ll be waiting, if you should ever change your mind.”

Years passed. The young man who would not feed himself with stones-turned-into-bread fed a large crowd with five loaves and two fish. Unwilling to test God by throwing himself from the Temple, he healed the sick and disabled. Rather than sit on a throne ruling all the kingdoms of the world, he now hung on a cross.

 With pain flooding his body, his lungs collapsing, blood stinging in his eyes, the young man remembered. In the garden the night before, he prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”

Now doubt filled his mind. Was this his mission, after all? Was this God’s will? What if he had, back then, fallen down and worshiped Satan? Would he be hanging here? Would he be dying this painfully?

His eyes looked upward. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

The devil’s words returned. He could hear the laughter and the triumph as the stranger whispered again in his ear, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”

But his answer still held.

“No!” he cried out in a loud voice. “No!” and he breathed his last. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.

The earth shook, and rocks were split, as with Elijah. But God was not in the earthquake. God was not in the wind that tore the curtain in the Temple in two. The Holy of Holies where God had been confined no longer kept God from the rest of the world. God moved out among the people. Emmanuel, God with us.

For consideration:

General questions

1) How does this story follow its Scripture?

2) How does this story expand its Scripture for you?

3) What is the message of this story?

4) How does the message apply to us today?

Specific questions:

5) Where do you go to ponder your past and your future?

6) Why would Jesus not turn stones into bread but feed the multitude with five loaves and two fish? How was that different?

7) Why would Jesus cry out his feeling of abandonment by God?

8) We know the rest of the story, the resurrection. How does that change the ending of this story?