On Lent: Testing (Week 30)

Readings

  • Matthew 4:1–11

  • Deuteronomy 8:1–18

Silent Reflection

Remarks

Astute Bema listeners will pick up pretty readily on the fact that the 40 days of Lent correspond to other significant periods of 40 in the Bible—the flood, the wilderness, the temptation in the desert. In other words, Lent, like these other times, is a season of testing.

Why does God test us? Is it that God is unsure of what the outcome will be? Does God not know what we will do?

Deuteronomy 8 says God tested the Israelites “to know what was in their heart.” Doesn’t God know already?

Our hang-up is in the way we think about what it means to know something. We think of knowing as having all the information. If that’s what it is, then God does not need a test to tell Him. The data is not a mystery to Him. But by now, many of us understand that in the Hebrew mind, knowing comes through experience. As Thoreau wrote many years ago, if you’ve read a book about sailing knots, you still know nothing until you actually take a boat out on the water.

So, when God said He tested them to know what was in their heart, He meant He wanted to experience who they are as they went through trial. Trial often brings out dormant sides of us that we are pretty good about not exposing or engaging with in the course of routine life. God wants to experience the whole of who we are, not just the stuff we’ve been curating for presentation.

Testing is about who we are more than what we do. Consider how each of Satan’s tests begin in Matthew 4: If you are the son of God… It’s a question about identity. Who are you really, Jesus, and what does it mean for you to be the son of God?

The same is true for us during Lent. It is a season where we are encouraged to hear, “If you are [insert name here]…” and then ask, “What does it mean to be who I am?” What does it mean to be [Natalie] or [Alex] or [Carson] or [Leah]? Perhaps one good thing we can do with the space and quiet Lent affords us would be to ask questions about who we are that we normally don’t.

Silent Reflection

Response

  • When was the last time you felt really alive?

  • What makes you ache? What makes you heavy with sadness or hot with anger?

  • What is something people say about you that makes you feel really known and affirmed?

  • What is something that has been called out about you that makes you feel exposed?

  • When was the last time you saw something that made tears well up in your eyes?

  • When was the last time you laughed so hard that your side cramped up?

  • What do you tell people with confidence, but inwardly feel unsure about?

  • What keeps you awake at night?

  • If you found out it was your last day to live, how would you spend the day?

  • Is there something you’ve waited your whole life to do? Why haven’t you done it?