Sunday Readings: Deuteronomy 26.4-10; Romans 10.8-13; Luke 4.1-13
“If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for scripture has it, ‘God will bid angels to watch over you,’ and ‘With their hands they will lift you up so that you do not stumble upon a stone.'”
(Luke 4.9-11)
The devil’s third and climatic temptation invites Jesus to prove he is God’s Son. The devil mocks the poetry of Psalm 91.11-12, which describes God as protective, bearing up the faithful person to protect him or her from stumbling upon a stone.
God the Almighty is an image of God that leads to unbelief for many. Reasoning goes that if God is all-powerful, all-knowing why doesn’t God use the power to end war or violence or suffering. A better image is God the all-loving and merciful. Jesus’ Father, the faithful and steadfast God of the Old Testament, accompanies us in our failures and sufferings as surely as in our successes and joys.
What tests your faith? What affirms God’s sustaining love?
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