Temptation Isn’t A One Time Thing
Not Even For Jesus

       In Luke’s version of the temptation of Jesus in the wildeness it says, “when the devil had ended everyt emptation, he departed from Jesus until an opportune time.” Yes, Jesus faced down the tempter and was able to ward off his weaker impulses in favor of the path God had laid out for him. But it doesn’t mean that Jesus never faced serious temptation again. Old Satan decided to wait it out for a more opportune time to try again.

Less Transactional and More Transformational

       Sunday, we talked about how easy it is to fall into a ‘transactional mindset’ when it comes to relating to other people.  Jesus wasn’t a fan of looking at others in terms of what they could do for him.  In fact, he was much more likely to wonder what he might offer to them.

  I Think I’m Better Because I’m Afraid I’m Not

         We create pecking orders and hierarchies of moral or religious achievement so that we can have concrete proof that we are okay—that we are at least better than obvious ‘sinners.’  The whole nature of judgmentalism flows from our fear that we are not good enough, attractive enough, accomplished enough, popular enough, or loveable enough.

One More Thing...
Everything Jesus came to accomplish had to do with reuniting the Father with his children. So if access to the Father was Jesus' purpose on earth, then it logically follows that it angered Jesus the most when people created barriers to that access.