No More No Less

The chapter that our class covered last night in our book study of Yancey’s The Jesus I Never Knew was called Temptation: Showdown in the Desert. When I read this chapter the first time, I liked it. If you were to look at my book, you would see lots of underlining and stars in the margin – moments of ah ha. This week as I re-read the chapter, worked on the lesson, and discussed it with the other teacher of the class, I found that I was learning even more. It’s the work of preparation behind the teaching, and it can often be a blessing. It was this week.

One “ah ha” moment has been in my mind today. The scriptural basis for the lesson was Matthew 4:1-11 – the temptation of Jesus. If you remember, the second temptation was for Jesus to jump off the temple and be saved by angels (verses 5-7):

For the second test the Devil took him to the Holy City. He sat him on top of the Temple and said, "Since you are God's Son, jump." The Devil goaded him by quoting Psalm 91: "He has placed you in the care of angels. They will catch you so that you won't so much as stub your toe on a stone."

Jesus countered with another citation from Deuteronomy: "Don't you dare test the Lord your God."

Yancey postulated that this temptation must have been especially appealing to Jesus. Protection. An end of the vulnerability that he was facing. Later in the gospel he is still tempted when Peter assures him that he need not give away his life, Jesus responds, “Get behind me Satan.” (Matthew 16:23). Even on the cross, the temptation is almost played out again. As he is being crucified, the teachers and elders mocked him and said, “He trusts God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him….” (Matthew 27:43). Yancey writes, “But there was no rescue, no miracle, no easy, painless path. For Jesus to save others, quite simply he could not save himself. That fact, he must have known as he faced Satan in the desert.” It had to have been a temptation – to save himself.

Are we ever called to do that? Are we ever called to step into vulnerability in order to help others? I think we are, and I think we called to it often.

Mercy Me has a song on their Coming up to Breathe CD called No More No Less. The chorus:

Let me introduce myself to you
This is who I am
No more no less
I am just a man who understands
Because of you I’m blessed
No more no less.
I’ve mentioned before that Andy of Enter the Rainbow is working on his ordination papers, and that he is posting excerpts on his blog. Today’s question was regarding the human need for grace. He talks about three kinds of isolation – pride, prejudice and isolation. I’m only going to talk about the isolation here, but go read his definitions of the other two – they’re great. Pretentions. We have them – we pretend that we are more than what we are – that everything is OK. We pretend that we are less than what we are. To quote Andy, “Pretensions separate people from one another by inhibiting true relationship based on openness and honesty."

God calls us to vulnerability. Let me introduce myself to you – this is who I am. No more, no less. What are our weaknesses, our strengths, our gifts, our failures? Not only are we called to recognize them, but we are called to lay them on the line – to put them “out there” to be used by God as he would. No more, no less. To make ourselves vulnerable for the benefit of others.

On the West Virginia Annual Conference page, Dr. Bill Wilson talks about a “false sense of self” which leads to three temptations – to be liked by all, to be perfect, and to have it our own way. We do that, don’t we? I do. I think we are called away from all of these temptations and called to risks and vulnerability.

This notion of exposure – placing it “out there” – is part (not the main part) of why I write on this blog.
Let me introduce myself to you
This is who I am
No more, no less.
Keep me honest. Keep me real. Keep me from pretensions.
Lead me not into temptation.

And a tidbit for JMers -- I found a sentence in chapter 8 of the book that I'm paraphrasing -- We are called to Common Ground, as sinners equally desperate in our need of God.