There is no doubt that Marley was dead. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate.
The big themes or the beauty of literature is usually lost on me. That being said though; the above two lines from the first chapter of Dickens' A Christmas Carol are some of my favorite in literature. Dickens spends his first few paragraphs detailing the fact that Jacob Marley (played memorably by this goof) is dead; dead as a door-nail, gone for quite a while. He goes to such lengths because if you doubt that Marley was dead, then the rest of the story loses its wonder; its oomph.
This Lenten season I've been struck by two lines in the gospel of Matthew.
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. (ESV)
After not eating for 40 days, Jesus was hungry. When you read it in isolation it seems like such an understatement. My stomach is growling now, barely three hours after my last meal. He's not just hungry, he is famished, literally, he is craving food.
We, especially those of us who call ourselves Evangelicals, tend to pass right by this simple statement . We are in such a hurry to show that Jesus is divine, that he is the Son of God who came to die for our sins that we often forget that Jesus was hungry, just as we would be after 40 days with no food. Maybe this is why Lent is often downplayed in Evangelical churches.
We need to stop, we need this to sink in, we need to make sure this idea is stuck into our skulls, that it jumps out at us from the text, because if we don't grasp that Jesus was hungry, then the rest of this story doesn't make any sense. This story, like Dickens' with a living Marley would lose its wonder and its oomph.
If Jesus was hungry, then he could really be tempted by the Devil's offer of fresh loaves of bread; then his desires could be bent into taking up the Devil's dare to leap off a tall building, or into taking the bait of bowing his knee for wealth and power. We all know that we can do uncharacteristic things when we're hungry. In short, if Jesus was hungry, he was human.
That's the beauty of observing Lent. It reminds us that Jesus was human, and no time is it more obvious then the 40 days he spends fasting in the wilderness. I was speaking to someone recently who is a non-practicing Roman Catholic. He mentioned that he likes the idea of saints (and has a few necklaces with medals of saints that are related to his way of life). I asked him what he likes about 'his' saints, and he said he likes their accessibility, that they are 'real' people. There's a longer discussion about saints that is best left for another time, but you see, this is what we are left with if you breeze by Matthew's statement that Jesus was hungry.
It was also in Jesus' humanity that he overcame the Devil's temptations. He didn't scare off the Devil with some extravagant divine fireworks coming from his fingers. No, he countered the Devil's scripture laced lies with a more wholistic picture of what the scripture teaches. Perhaps that is what we should be about this Lent, imitating Jesus' time in the wilderness, by taking up a thoughtful reading of scripture. Not sure where to start? How about reading an entire book of the bible in one sitting. It can be done. Bounce your understanding of them off of others in the Church. Let the scriptures build up inside of you.
The big themes or the beauty of literature is usually lost on me. That being said though; the above two lines from the first chapter of Dickens' A Christmas Carol are some of my favorite in literature. Dickens spends his first few paragraphs detailing the fact that Jacob Marley (played memorably by this goof) is dead; dead as a door-nail, gone for quite a while. He goes to such lengths because if you doubt that Marley was dead, then the rest of the story loses its wonder; its oomph.
This Lenten season I've been struck by two lines in the gospel of Matthew.
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. (ESV)
After not eating for 40 days, Jesus was hungry. When you read it in isolation it seems like such an understatement. My stomach is growling now, barely three hours after my last meal. He's not just hungry, he is famished, literally, he is craving food.
We, especially those of us who call ourselves Evangelicals, tend to pass right by this simple statement . We are in such a hurry to show that Jesus is divine, that he is the Son of God who came to die for our sins that we often forget that Jesus was hungry, just as we would be after 40 days with no food. Maybe this is why Lent is often downplayed in Evangelical churches.
We need to stop, we need this to sink in, we need to make sure this idea is stuck into our skulls, that it jumps out at us from the text, because if we don't grasp that Jesus was hungry, then the rest of this story doesn't make any sense. This story, like Dickens' with a living Marley would lose its wonder and its oomph.
If Jesus was hungry, then he could really be tempted by the Devil's offer of fresh loaves of bread; then his desires could be bent into taking up the Devil's dare to leap off a tall building, or into taking the bait of bowing his knee for wealth and power. We all know that we can do uncharacteristic things when we're hungry. In short, if Jesus was hungry, he was human.
That's the beauty of observing Lent. It reminds us that Jesus was human, and no time is it more obvious then the 40 days he spends fasting in the wilderness. I was speaking to someone recently who is a non-practicing Roman Catholic. He mentioned that he likes the idea of saints (and has a few necklaces with medals of saints that are related to his way of life). I asked him what he likes about 'his' saints, and he said he likes their accessibility, that they are 'real' people. There's a longer discussion about saints that is best left for another time, but you see, this is what we are left with if you breeze by Matthew's statement that Jesus was hungry.
It was also in Jesus' humanity that he overcame the Devil's temptations. He didn't scare off the Devil with some extravagant divine fireworks coming from his fingers. No, he countered the Devil's scripture laced lies with a more wholistic picture of what the scripture teaches. Perhaps that is what we should be about this Lent, imitating Jesus' time in the wilderness, by taking up a thoughtful reading of scripture. Not sure where to start? How about reading an entire book of the bible in one sitting. It can be done. Bounce your understanding of them off of others in the Church. Let the scriptures build up inside of you.
