Wouldn't it be nice if everyone always gave us what we want? Opening presents at Christmas and on our birthday would be great and there would be no need to hide the disappointment that sometimes tries to creep across our faces when we've just finished eagerly opening a gift from a loved one. No one would be wondering if their present had perhaps not been received with the hoped for enthusiasm, or if the recipient already had one of those, or even felt a little insulted for some undisclosed reason. Of course, Amazon and other online present lists reduce the need for disappointment these days. However, there are many other times when life doesn't deliver what we would like.
God is a big culprit in that. However much we've given our lives to him and perhaps have seen many amazing answers to prayer in the past, he doesn't always respond to us the way we want. Yes, want. I could say 'would like' to soften it a bit, but actually we want. I know there's a lot of talk about asking only for what we need, but actually we do want things from time to time - sometimes quite badly, whether we need them or not. Or course, God could just give them to us, because he loves us. And he loves everyone, doesn't he? So he could give us all what we want.
When Jesus went into the wilderness after his baptism, it seems that he was fairly continually harassed by the devil. He knew that this was a good opportunity to stop Jesus in his mission to defeat him before he'd really got going. After 40 days, we read, Jesus was hungry and the devil tempted him to turn some stones into bread. Jesus would certainly have been physically weak and it was time to break the fast. However, at that point in a fast, hunger is rather different from when you've just missed a meal or two, so the key point being addressed here was not Jesus' appetite for food. He could have broken the fast by creating some bread, but the bigger issue here was using his miraculous powers improperly. He was being tempted to use them for his own ends and set a precedent of doing miracles because he could.
The devil may not have known Jesus' plan for our redemption in detail, but if Jesus could get into the habit of taking shortcuts by doing a miracle or two, then that could make life easier for them both. Jesus had chosen the way of suffering. He was going to attract people to him by telling them to take up their crosses and follow him, that if they followed him there wouldn't necessarily be anywhere to lay their heads at night and that it was quite likely that they would be persecuted. He added a lot more along those lines, but you get the picture. He did heal the sick, out of compassion for them, but what if he did some major public miracles and gave everyone all the food that they all wanted, for ever? "Do away with your hunger, Jesus, and then you can do the same for everyone else and they'll follow you. You don't need to go down the personal sacrifice route."
Sometimes giving everyone what they want isn't a good idea. Jesus chose the route of telling people how life really is rather than candy-coating it.
oFunnily enough, after rejecting this approach at the end of his fast, Jesus did turn water into wine at a wedding, but only the servants and hi mother knew where the wine came from. It wasn't a public display for attention. He also fed two large crowds of 5,000 and 4,000 men plus a lot of women and children, with just a few fish and a small number of loaves of bread. In those cases as well, though, it was only the 12 disciples who actually knew that all the food had been provided miraculously; the crowd just ate what they were given. Jesus did the food multiplication miracles out of compassion for the crowds because they were hungry, it was late and there were no shops around. He did joke the morning after one of these that such a large crowd had turned up because they'd had a good meal the night before - and indeed they'd had all they wanted to eat, but probably at least most of them had no idea that it had been a miracle.
In general, though, Jesus didn't go to the Jews and give them what they wanted. Knowing what we do about those two miracles with bread and fish, we understand that he could have sorted out all hunger problems in the country. We know from the wedding in Cana that he could have added wine to that list! He could have healed everyone, but he did that almost entirely just for those who came to him. He could have set all the prisoners free, at least those unjustly charged, and even overthrown the Government. In fact, many, if not most Jews expected that that was the kind of thing that the Messiah was going to do.
Instead, Jesus attempted to attract a following by telling them that being as righteous as the Pharisees wasn't good enough and that the way forward was one of humbling themselves like servants and children, being self-sacrificial and not looking after their own interests first. In fact he encouraged them not to worry about their own food, drink and shelter but to put their efforts into seeking the Kingdom of God and allowing him to look after them in his own way. In the end it meant that Jesus was ultimately rejected himself and killed in the most cruel way through crucifixion, at which point even his Heavenly Father abandoned him. Wouldn't it have been much easier to have accept the devil's suggestion to do some food miracles and the like, so as to get everyone on his side and worshipping him as their provider? But then they would have been worshipping because they got good meals out of it, rather than developing a relationship with God.
Isn't it sometimes easier for us to going along with the devil's suggestions that we take shortcuts, rather than devoting ourselves to God, spending time getting to know him and obeying him when it's difficult. Yes, it's easier, but let's not do that.
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