Don Friesen
Twenty-five years ago Bill Watterson debuted a comic strip with two main characters, an adventurous six-year-old boy, and a stuffed tiger. Respectively named after John Calvin, a sixteenth-century theologian, and Thomas Hobbes, a seventeenth-century philosopher, one might rightly expect great things of this pair. The very first strip pictured Calvin's father working on the car, and Calvin bidding him good-bye, saying, "So long, Pop! I'm off to check my tiger trap! I rigged a tuna fish sandwich yesterday, so I'm sure to have a tiger by now!"
"They like tuna fish, huh?" asks his father, and as Calvin walks off, he says, "Tigers will do anything for a tuna fish sandwich!" The final pane of the strip shows Hobbes, the tiger, hanging by his foot from a tree, munching on a tuna fish sandwich, and saying to no one in particular, "We're kind of stupid that way." Well, as the next decade of the comic strip would show, Hobbes, the stuffed tiger, was anything but stuffy or stupid. However, he had a weakness for tuna fish sandwiches!
We too have our weaknesses, and the season of Lent is an occasion to examine them. C.S. Lewis, the much-loved creator of The Chronicles of Narnia, The Screwtape Letters and other literary gems, and to whom many looked for spiritual wisdom and direction, said that he was appalled when he examined himself, for he found within "a zoo of lusts, a bedlam of ambition, a nursery of fears, a harem of fondled hatreds." (Surprised by Joy: The Shape of my Early Life, 1995, page 219)
It Started Shortly after Creation
We're kind of stupid that way, and the stupidity started shortly after creation. God had no sooner formed us from the dust of the ground than we developed a taste for forbidden fruit! (Genesis 2:7) There was no shortage of fruit trees in the idyllic Garden of Eden, but our forebears just had to munch away on the one fruit that was off-limits, and their perspective on life became skewed, much like that of Hobbes hanging upside-down from a tree.
Every act has consequences, and the consequences of our forebears' disobedience were increased pangs in childbirth, and back-breaking toil. (Genesis 3:16-18) If you want to see a humourous take on this, check out YouTube for comedian Ricky Gervais' hilarious commentary on how the lying little snake got off so easy!
Perhaps the fruit tree that was off-limits represented a test. If so, our primordial parents failed miserably! And suddenly Paradise was lost. Innocence gone. Concealment and deception took the place of openness and honesty, and humanity started down the path of evil. Despite the fact that evil ruins us, harms us, messes up our lives, fouls up our relationships and makes us miserable, we continue down this path. We're kind of stupid that way!
Jesus' Temptations Shaped His Ministry
Evil tried to ruin Jesus, to mess up his mission and to foul up his plans, but this is more than a deja vu moment from the debacle in Eden. The biblical plot-line takes a turn here. By now evil has several names devil, tempter, Satan (Matthew 4:1, 3, 10-11) and he's been personified. Devilishly clever, he presented Jesus with three temptations. Firstly, the Tempter came and said, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." (Matthew 4:3) An appeal, perhaps, to end Jesus' own hunger after forty days without food, or perhaps a nobler appeal to eliminate hunger in the world.
Secondly, the Tempter took Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, He will command his angels concerning you,' and On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'" (Matthew 4:6) An appeal to exploit his power, and an appeal to Scripture to add to the allure of this temptation. If God is a God of signs and wonders, how about a big one no one will forget! Diving from the top of the temple without a safety net would be impressive!
Thirdly, the Tempter took Jesus to another high place, a mountain, and "showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour; and he said to him, All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.'" (Matthew 4:8-9) A rather crass appeal, perhaps, but imagine what Jesus could do with immense political power!
There are various ways to view Jesus' temptations, and one can try to figure out what each temptation represents, but there is another way to look at them. Matthew, in introducing the temptations, tells us that "Jesus was led ...by the Spirit into the wilderness...." (Matthew 4:1) In other words, there appears to be a positive reason for this desert struggle. Perhaps the substance and commitment of Jesus were being tested, and like many trials and temptations, it affected him, and it shaped his ministry. His time in the wilderness had a formative effect. It helped him clarify what he was about and what he was not about.
The temptations shaped the contours of Jesus' ministry, for Jesus did on occasion provide bread for the hungry, and expects us to do the same, even among strangers. (Matthew 14:13-21 and 25:31-46) Jesus preached good news to the poor and release to captives. (Luke 4:18) His healing ministry was impressive, and his ministry had and continues to have enormous political impact.
When Adam and Eve were tested, they found the opportunity to "be like God" too attractive to resist. Not so Jesus. It's as if he determined: The stupidity stops here. His refusal to try to be "like God" did not go unnoticed; as the Apostle Paul phrases it in our Scripture memory passage, Jesus "did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant...." (Philippians 2:6-7, RSV)
Shaped by the Master's Hand
The Gospel accounts of Jesus' time in the wilderness spoke to a church whose own faithfulness was forged and shaped again and again in the wilderness of human experience. It continues to shape us. Centuries of persecution have shaped the Church. The blood of the martyrs have coloured the hue of the Gospel the Church presents. Other experiences have also shaped the Church, not always for the good.
The notion of shaping brings to mind the biblical passages about the potter and the clay, which illustrate, beautifully, the way that the hand of the Master Potter shapes both the Church, and each of us, individually. Isaiah and Jeremiah (Isaiah 29:16; 30:14; 41:25; 45:9; 64:8; Jeremiah 18:2-11; 19:1, 11) especially liked the potter-and-clay imager, but several other biblical writers (Daniel; Matthew; Paul) use it as well.
Jeremiah acknowledged that God's shaping powers were at work even before he was a fetus in his mother's womb! (Jeremiah 1:5) He recognizes God as the one who "...form(s) all things." (51:19) Jeremiah once watched a potter at work, and noticed that the vessel being worked on was not turning out as wished. He watched as the potter kneaded it into a lump and started over, reworking it. (Jeremiah 18:4) The Master Potter does the same with us. Raw lumps of humanity, we don't always end up as well-contoured vessels, and sometimes we have to be pounded back down to work out the flaws. At least, that was Jeremiah's message to his own community, and in case they were metaphorically-challenged, he took a very fine piece of pottery and smashed it in front of the elders! (19:10) Jeremiah, however, felt that God preferred to "refine (His people) and test them...." (Jeremiah 9:7)
God, with our Trust, Can Shape/Transform us into Durable Vessels of Beauty
One of our temptations is to resist the touch of the Master Potter. We prefer to avoid circumstances that cause us stress and heartache. Oh sure, we're aware that the New Testament says that "the testing of (our) faith produces endurance," and eventually maturity (James 1:3-4), but perhaps maturity is over-rated. We prefer to go our own way; at least that way we can see where were going, and we're in control or so we think. Spiritual transformation, however, requires our trust, which entails relinquishing control.
Years ago I received some elementary flight instruction in a two-seater aeroplane. It was pretty exciting, but flying over the flat plains of Saskatchewan really doesn't present any outstanding obstacles. And the visuals are outstanding, with a big sky that provides ample opportunity to correct mistakes. Those who are serious about piloting aircraft, however, need to learn to trust the aeroplane's instruments. Apparently when you are tested on this, you put on a hood that prevents you from seeing anything but the instrument panel. The examiner takes control of the plane, and while your eyes are closed, the examiner goes through some manoeuvres that mess with your ear, such that you may feel the plane is climbing when it is actually descending! What to you feels like a right bank may actually be a left bank. When the examiner gives the controls back to you your task is to put the plane on a straight and level course, and since you have no visual cues except the instruments, you have to trust them. If there is a conflict between the instruments and your feelings, your sense of balance, or any other instincts, flight school teaches you, always, to trust the instruments! It's with good reason that budding pilots are told: "There are old pilots and there are bold pilots but there are no old, bold pilots!"
God requires our trust that the experiences that happen to us can shape us for good. It's hard to keep that in mind when our life falls apart. Some of you may be familiar with the life story of Lucille Wood Smith (1912-2001), an actress, writer, and singer-songwriter better known by her stage name, Dale Evans. Dale was married to Roy Rogers, and when I think of the two of them I think of a couple dressed up in silly cowboy outfits who need not be taken seriously. Fortunately, during the time that they were on television, our family did not own one. We could have bought one, but we had no electricity to run it. The only reason I've even taken any interest in this couple is because Roy Rogers and I share a birthday.
Until lately I didn't realize that Dale Evans had a difficult life. She married at the age of fourteen, and divorced at the age of seventeen, In 1948, however, she seemed to have everything: a successful career, a solid marriage to Roy Rogers, a celebrity, and an adorable family. Evans is a Christian, and she says, "What I didn't know was that the Master Potter was about to begin shaping my life in very painful ways." (In the Hands of the Potter, book jacket, 1994)
Evans had nine children, the first of which had developmental disabilities, and who died before she was two. Another daughter died in a church bus accident at the age of twelve, and a son died accidentally while serving with the military. Evans herself suffered severe health problems, but when writing of all these experiences she does not view them through eyes of a victim. In fact, she uses the image of the Master Potter to view these circumstances as things that shaped her faith in God. She learned to trust the sure hands of the Master Potter, and though some of these experiences were painful, she tells how they re-shaped her priorities, re-shaped her ambitions, and re-shaped her relationships. She watched God use adversity to create beauty in her life.
Life leaves its mark on our faces and our bodies, as well as our hearts, minds, and souls. We may be tested by life's harsher experiences, but each one of us bears within us the image of our Creator, and God can use any circumstance to shape us into a "new creation". (2 Corinthians 5:17), which, says the New Testament, "is ever in the process of being renewed and remoulded into ...the likeness of (the One) Who created it" (Colossians 3:10, AMP), so as to reflect God's goodness and loving purpose. May God so work in our lives. AMEN
Quotations of Scripture are from the New Revised Standard Version, unless otherwise noted.