Holy Comments, Batman!

I just realized that I haven't actually posted anything for a week here. I've been so busy with school, work, family, life -- not to mention the marathon record-setting number of comments on last week's post -- that I haven't had time to gather my thoughts and write...

I do want to express to all those who have repeatedly dropped by and offered comments, stories, struggles, etc., my thanks for your input, and also for the respectful way that the majority have interacted with each other. Yes, it gets "hot" here a few times, but I really appreciate the efforts people have made to make this a "safe place to be dangerous".

The other day in my Synoptic Gospels class, we were looking at the temptation of Jesus -- right after His baptism, when the Spirit drove him into the wilderness for forty days to be tempted by Satan (now maybe we know why we pray "lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one"!).

Anyway, what really stuck out to me was that in answering Satan's three recorded temptations, Jesus didn't assert His divine authority -- instead, in each case, He acted as the Son of Man, God in the flesh, and answered as an obedient Servant of God. He could easily have asserted His Divinity as the Son of God, but for some reason, He chose instead to come at it as the Son of Man, an obedient Son to the Father -- identifying with us as humans?

And then to read that this take-the-humble-road Carpenter, just a few chapters later, is described by the crowds as one who has "authority" in His teaching. Interesting to note that Jesus seems to have chosen to not parade His divinity as a calling card for His ministry, and yet people saw this humble rabbi from Galilee as having "authority".

There's a sermon illustration in there somewhere, methinks. Maybe I'll do my research paper on Jesus & authority in the Gospel of St. Matthew...