Stones to Bread

The beginning of the Lenten season seems to shake winter right out of our soul, no matter how cold it remains.  It brings hope.  As I’m writing, there are 11 days and 18 hours till Spring. Count ’em!

The Old English word lent refers to a lengthening of days or spring.  So no, it’s not in the Bible. It’s the tradition of doing or giving something up. However, skipping a meal or doing without chocolate or wine for forty days won’t bring us closer to Christ unless we take time to pause and reflect why. Some say it’s simply a ritual.  But I say, if it causes us to take an intentional space to self-examine and repent, what’s wrong with that?  Nothing.  Unless it only lasts for forty days.

Ah, but that word (repent) is in the Bible —- repeatedly.  It basically means to make a u-turn and return to God when you’re going the wrong way.  This is when we get tripped up in our understanding of what, why and how we need to repent and think, “who me? I’m a good person, all’s good here”  That changes when we take a deeper look.

Lent is life.  We can’t simply follow Jesus on a year of Sundays or a forty day hike through the wilderness.  It is a sacred and daily walk of sacrifice, one with choices and alterations to keep on a path of faithfulness.

All of us like sheep have gone astray.  Each of us has turned to his own way.  But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.  Isaiah 53:6

Are you part of all?  Have you turned to your own way?  Yes and yes, me and you. So then, the Lenten life is a sacred invitation to refocus a repentant heart to notice the holy in the ordinary.  When we linger in the stillness, a reflection appears in the well of the Word.  And we will see our inner landscape in every ripple surrounding the image.

We can see clearly when we close our eyes and look through His.

The story of the temptation of Jesus in Matthew ‘s gospel account (4:1-11) has imagery of stones as the enemy taunts a hungry Messiah to satisfy His hunger by turning stones into bread and to jump off the ledge to rely on angels to break His fall.  He could have. Of course, Jesus was hungry after more than a month of fasting in the desert.  And so, we think He could handle it because He is divine, but His humanness was hungry.  He responded to that hunger with an “it is written.”

“It is written, man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”  ~Jesus.

We are one of the hungry crowd . . .

The enemy struck at His deep hunger, exhaustion and identity.  Maybe you’re wrestling with the same right now.  You may be feeling starved for the truth and totally worn out, so much so that you don’t always know who you are in the moment.  The gospel passage is a blueprint in how to stand firm against the enemy who knows where to hit.  So, hit back and fight like a Spirit-filled girl (or guy) with the weight of the Word as you are delivered from the weight of the world.

Jesus is bread.  The Word is manna.

To know Christ the Living Word is to love the Bible, the written Word.  Jesus pursues us in our wilderness to sustain us with the manna that He is.  Each step retells the hope that we are resurrection-renewed as we touch His wounds and He reaches into ours along the way.  May we know it . . .