A Picture Shared

Erin, Sienna and I went walking by the beach this Sunday with some friends (Leah and Tyler) and their new baby (Asher), and I thought I would share this beautiful picture with you. I can't get enough of her!

Blessings.

"Media and Religion" Trailer

This is a documentary I am working on. Thought I would share the trailer. Hope you enjoy.

God @ the Movies: Amazing Grace

The film Amazing Grace has a US release on Feb. 23 (none in Canada yet). It is the story of William Wilberforce's political opposition to slavery. His politics were most informed, of course, by his faith and his understanding of what it means to oppress another human being made in the image of God.

A vocal Christian -- and a renowned orator -- he expressed his opposition to slavery with great passion, writing: "If it please God to honour me so far, may I be the instrument of stopping such a course of wickedness and cruelty as never before disgraced a Christian country." Wilberforce spearheaded a movement which, after many years of struggle, led to the 1807 abolition of human trafficking throughout the British Empire.

I am encouraged by the release of this film, not least because it is another in a line of films that is Christian-based and quality. Until recently the only Christian movies which had money behind them had to do with the "rapture"-- a horrific myth of evangelicalism, that somewhere along the way got mistaken for gospel truth-- the disappearance of all the Christians from the world so the world is left to its own demise. Good Hollywood plot, bad Biblical theology. But that is a story for another day.

Amazing Grace might help the churches begin to think about social justice. It might get us reflecting on the message of Philemon: in a world run by the economy of slavery, the Roman Empire, Paul sends Onesimus a run-away slave back to his owner, Philemon, and declares that all slavery/social barriers are abolished in Christ. Hopefully this film helps the church to realize that mission does not have to choose between evangelism or social justice--but that they are two sides of the same coin-- you can't have one without the other.

The gospel declares that God has worked in Christ to restore humanity and that every human being inrecious in his sight and that those who put their faith and trust in his saving work are forgiven and made a part of his covenant family, not because of anything we can do but because of what he has done (which is what grace itself is all about; undeserved favor). But the gospel does not leave this world unchanged--those presently in relationship with God thorugh Christ are called to reflect God's image in the world in order to re-humanize it. We are called to pray and live the Lord's Prayer: to do what we can to see God bring his Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Fighting for those Jesus called "the least of these" is part of fulfilling that role.

Happy Saint Valentinus Day

Well, it is Valentine's Day, which begs the question: what is Valentine's Day? Glad you asked. Saint Valentine or Saint Valentinus refers to one or more martyred saints of ancient Rome. The feast of Saint Valentine was formerly celebrated on February 14 by the Roman Catholic Church until the revised calendar 1969.

His birth date and birthplace are unknown. Valentine's name does not occur in the earliest list of Romans martyrs, that compiled by the Chronographer of 354. The feast of St. Valentine was first decreed in 496 by Pope Galasius I, who included Valentine among those people "... whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God." As Gelasius implied, nothing is known about the lives of any of these martyrs.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the saint whose feast was celebrated on the day now known as Saint Valentine's Day was possibly one of three martyred men named Valentinus who lived in the late third century, during the reign of Emperor Claudius II (died 270):
--a priest in Rome

--a bishop of Interamna (modern Terni)
--a martyr in the Roman province of Africa.
Various dates are given for their martyrdoms: 269, 270 or 273. As Gelasius implied, nothing is known about the lives of any of these martyrs. The name was a popular one in Late Antiquity, with its connotations of valens, "being strong".

Many of the current legends that characterise Saint Valentine were invented in the fourteenth century in England, notably by Geoffrey Chaucer and his circle, when the feast day of February 14 first became associated with romantic love.

So, let this romantic holiday with your lover be immersed in reflections on the death of faithful Christian martyrs for the sake of the gospel in an Empire that was vying for their worship and allegiance. I'm sure that is what you were thinking about doing anyway. Like so many other things, Valentine's Day is a reminder that God brings life from death. That 'God makes beauty out of ugly things.'

"Rich Man's War"--- Steve Earl

Jimmy joined the army ‘cause he had no place to go
There ain’t nobody hirin’‘round here since all the jobs wentdown to Mexico
Reckoned that he’d learn himself a trade maybe see the world
Move to the city someday and marry a black haired girl
Somebody somewhere had another plan
Now he’s got a rifle in his handRollin’ into Baghdad wonderin’ how he got this far
Just another poor boy off to fight a rich man’s war



Bobby had an eagle and a flag tattooed on his arm
Red white and blue to the bone when he landed in Kandahar
Left behind a pretty young wife and a baby girl
A stack of overdue bills and went off to save the world
Been a year now and he’s still there
Chasin’ ghosts in the thin dry air
Meanwhile back at home the finance company took his car
Just another poor boy off to fight a rich man’s war


When will we ever learn
When will we ever see
We stand up and take our turn
And keep tellin’ ourselves we’re free

Ali was the second son of a second son
Grew up in Gaza throwing bottles and rocks when the tanks would come
Ain’t nothin’ else to do around here just a game children play
Somethin’ ‘bout livin’ in fear all your life makes you hard that way
He answered when he got the call
Wrapped himself in death and praised Allah
A fat man in a new Mercedes drove him to the doorJust another poor boy off to fight a rich man’s war

"Beauty": A Poem

"Beauty" they say "is only skin deep."

I think it is deeper.

Deeper than flesh and bone.

Deeper than muscle and sinew.

Deeper...Soul deep.

I have watched the sunrise.

I have watched trees dance.

I have seen water sing.

I have seen my daughter smile.

Deeper.

Deeper than skin and shade.

Deeper than length and bredth.

Deeper than weight and style.

Soul deep.

Life gives birth to life, and grace to grace again.

Shallow minds can see the beauty and never comprehend;

Where it is, why it is, how it came to be.

Help us Lord to understand, it comes from You and not from me.

It does not exist in the beholders eye, But the Eyes of one who cares;

Who works to mold and shape and try, The Eyes of one who dares;

To give His world a glimpse of who He is.

Forgive us if we never see. Give us eyes.

Forgive us if we never hear. Give us ears.

Reflection on Pop-Culture (3): Music

The final reflection in this series that I want to offer is on music. Music is somewhat touchy because its beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, but I think we can all agree when something is quality but not our style versus just plain garbage. And most of the music being created today is just that--garbage. It is all tied in to our earlier reflections on media and conglomerates ownership of multi-media outlets and the selling of records. We have moved away from quality musicians to images we can sell. Thus, the biggest thing in the music industry right now is American Idol. This is what makes money.

The decline of album sales due to Internet sharing is a large blow and one that record labels feel. There are now only four or five major labels around--again owned by the larger media corporations--Sony, Viacom, TimeWarner, Capitol, Universal, Dreamworks. But for the last number of years music has been about selling albums by a single or two. Thus the quality of an entire album suffered at the hands of acts that producers, managers and public relations people created--so they coud sell a few millions albums and then move on. Music has suffered. Go through the list of popular "musicians" of the last few years and the same is true about them as the movies an shows that are popular--directed and twelve year old kids--not to say that hasn't always been, but corporate agenda's define the field so much now that those are the only choices: Britney Spears or Backstreet Boys or Ashlee Simpson...this is the end of music. But out of the ashes something can be restored...

The hope lies in this: that the decline in music sales will forces labels to produce better quality albums and not just singles. Here's to hoping!

Reflections on Pop-Culture (Part 2): How the Brightest are becoming the Dumbest--- Amused to Death

"You cannot do philosophy on television. Its form works against the content...our discourse has become shriveled and absurd."
-- Neil Postman

"He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore."
-- Isaiah 2.4


I am afraid that the smartest generation is on the brink of becoming the stupidest, in part, because of media. 'Media' is a wide ranging term encompassing all kinds of areas: print, broadcast, electronic, news. The existence of such a thing as media has not made us dumb--in fact the opposite is true--but the decline in the quality of media has helped add to our cultures present and prevailing shallowness. Again, we are the most educated generation the world has ever seen, and yet we consider CNN and FOX News to reflect our many-sided and complex opinions. The debates we see and hear are 5 minutes long in totality, one side screaming about some issue: always extremists, representing the extreme sides of issues, and then commercial. Is that what has become of the sacred institution of public discourse? Two animals not listening to each other yelling about absurdities because it gets ratings. Because this is all people can handle?

This fact contradicts the myth of 'progress' that makes up the Western narrative that media, schools and religious institutions tell Western societies day in and day out. You know the myth: civilization keeps progressing to a more civilized state with the advancements in technology etc. This is untrue. Humankind simply changes the way it packages itself, but are our atrocities any worse then the Mayans? Are our depravities any worse then Rome's? Let's remind ourselves that it was the Western world that dropped a nuclear bomb on innocent civilians less then a generation ago killing hundreds of thousands of people in a matter of days. Have that amount of people ever died so fast in all of human history? So blindly and without remorse, guilt or conviction? We continue to fight the ancient barbarian battles of centuries ago, but unlike the prophet Isaiah had hoped, we continue building swords instead of ploughshares. But our swrods have become much more dangerous and less personal. And we have not grown frightened of using them.

But what of media and progress together? Though we have progressed, we have not. We are educated, have degrees--send ourselves to the moon--and yet, as "entertainment" we watch the kind of stuff at one time only a twelve year old boy would covet. So, what happened?

Acclaimed writer and thinker Neil Postman argues that it was a change in our epistemology (the way we learn and find meaning). He says the major epistemological change was our cultures move from a word-based culture to an image-based culture (Amusing Ourselves to Death, 61). At one time politics, theology and philosophy were about ideas, and words. They have now become about image. "It is quite likely that most of the first fifteen presidents of the US would not have been recognized had they passed the average citizen on the street" (60). Such reliance, indeed, dependence on image has caused us to sacrifice content at the expense of being amused and titillated. Postman does not believe in an epistemological relativism. He says

Some ways of truth telling are better than others, and therefore have a healthier influence on the cultures that adopt them. Indeed...the decline of a print-based epistemology and the accompanying rise of a television-based epistemology has had grave consequences for public life...we are getting sillier by the minute. (24)

Interestingly enough Postman was writing in 1985, a decade before the image saturated society that was pushed even further by the invention of the Internet--where for instance the latest Presidential hopefuls launched their announcements to run for President--sitting comfortably on sofas in warm rooms. All of which is part of what Noam Chomsky argues to be the case in Manufacturing Consent--that the corporations and the media control the discourse because they control the medium.

I close with a reflection from Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death, in light of the sound-bite messages we have become accustomed to to inform our thinking. When Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas were getting into politics they debated each other as follows:

On August 21, 1858---Douglas would present his views for one hour/ Lincoln would take an hour and a half to reply/ Douglas a half hour to rebut Lincoln's reply. On October 16, 1854 Douglas delivered a three hour address, Lincoln sent people home for dinner and they returned for his four hour reply. What kind of people were these to give themselves to seven hours of oratory? They were regular farmers who were attending state fairs in the middle of Illinois (where the two aforementioned stories took place). Note: these two were not even senate or presidential candidates when speaking, they were just political educators. (44-45)

My point is this: Something has changed. We perceive ourselves to be smarter then all other civilizations and yet our level of discourse, I fear, has been lowered to that of an introductory class on tenth grade sociology. What makes up the landscape our discourse? Friends, the OC, "24"----do we have reason to celebrate our intellectual "arrival" or are we to lament our descent?

Reflections on Pop-Culture (Part 1): One of these Do Not Belong

Aldous Huxley prophesied in A Brave New World that humankind would be taken prisoner not by externally imposed oppression, as Orwell had thought, but by our pleasures...as he saw it people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think. Those capacities have been undone and the discourse has been shrivelled to nothing more than "winners" of game shows and the latest sex scandal on the latest soap with the latest big star with the latest...you get the picture.

Is this the legacy of "art" our generation wants to leave behind? The writing of the Elizabethan period, the paitings and scupturesd of the Renaissance, and the winner of AMerican Idol XXV from the era of Pop-Culture?

Mission Trip 2007: Turkey

Yesterday I offically decided to take the Young Adults of our church to Turkey. We will be going to support and work with one of the young adult missionaries from our church in her work there. Every year we go to a diferent place and look for different experiences. The first year we went to San Francicso to work with the poor. Last year we went to hike the Himalyan mountains in India to support one of our missionaries, and pray for that country. This year will be similar to that, in that alot of the work will not be tangible expressions of mission work--building stuff etc., but be relational/spiritual in its accomplishments.

We will spend time helping add to the continued building of Christian relations in that country between Christianity and Islam. Sharing the life-giving message of Christ with those we build relationships with and looking for every opportunity to live out the gospel as a way of life not only as a message. We will spend time doing ministry in coffee-shop style Christian gatherings, sharing, leading in worship, doing campus ministry on University Campuses, helping a company with the creation of Biblical materials for those who cannot read Scripture because of threat. These are just the opening ideas of what we will be doing in Turkey, and I will continue to update these things as they unfold. I am looking forward to it and will look forward to sharing the experience with all of you!

The Importance of the People

"The most effective answer to this leadership vacuum would be a new era of political activism by ordinary citizens. The biggest, most far-reaching changes of the past century — the labor movement, the civil rights movement, the women’s movement — were not primarily the result of elective politics, but rather the hard work of committed citizen-activists fed up with the status quo. It’s time for thoughtful citizens to turn off their TVs and step into the public arena. Protest. Attend meetings. Circulate petitions. Run for office. I suspect the public right now is way ahead of the politicians when it comes to ideas about creating a more peaceful, more equitable, more intelligent society."

- Bob Herbert, New York Times columnist.

Conservative or Liberal: Pepsi or Coke. What's the Dif?

“People should not fear their governments. Governments should fear their people.”
—“V”, V for Vendetta

"He has shown strength with his arm;He has scattered the proud in the imaginations of their hearts.He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,And lifted up the lowly;He has filled the hungry with good things,And sent the rich away empty."
—Mary, the mother of Jesus, Luke 2

Today the US congress turned down a bill that would raise the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to above $7.00. According to calculations done by those within the US, that means that those who make minimum wage, who work 40 hours a week, bring home just under $8,000 a year. Well below the poverty line. Congress turned down the bill, while just months ago they gave themselves a raise. In fact, they have given themselves a raise eight times in the last ten years, while the minimum wage has stayed the same for those ten years. The reason for this rejected bill, like so many others, has to do with corporate lobbying. It is sad, but it is becoming more and more apparent that multi-national corporations actually run America (and Canada by extension). Large, multi-national corporatations do not want the wages to be raised—because they would be forced to pay higher wages to their workforce—these corporate structures "buy politicians" on both sides of the aisle of Congress, and influence them through their so-called “support”. Not even partisanship can change this. Democrats, who took the House and Congress this past November, are the ones who posed the bill and could not even get it passed—though they had a majority vote (over 50%)—they needed sixty percent to pass the bill though not fifty.

This is injustice. And I would venture to say, as Christian, that God is not happy with such policies. And this is not about being against one political party or another: both parties (as if two can represent the opinions of the people, or even three like in Canada!) are corrupted by the influences of the corporate agenda, and will thus continue to keep their people poor and working three jobs, while saying things like the President said a few months ago: to keep the economy going, he said “I would encourage you to shop more.” Shop more! Are you crazy? We are the most materialistic, consumeristic generation that has ever walked the face of planet earth. We face all kinds of economic injustices in the world because of our over-indulgent bodies and minds and the solution from the highest office in the world—the most influential pulpit in history is “Buy more stuff”—buy more cheap and useless consumer goods! How are people supposed to do so, with no money in their pockets—which is not even to mention the debt that our generation is accumulating due to high prices of real estate, etc.

I am convinced that "democracy"—you know that thing the terrorist supposedly hate us for, or was that "freedom"—has been flipped upside down at every level. The majority of the American people (85% polled) say that they are in support of raising the minimum wage. In a “democracy” who, theoretically, holds the power? The people. We are beginning to realize one sad thing about that concept. It is a façade--a lie—to make the people think they hold power. They really hold very little but a vote once every two years, and every four years that actually makes a difference. And that vote is between two parties that are two sides of the same coin. The rhetoric between Conservative and Liberal, Republican and Democrat—is really just a front, just that "rhetoric" that does not trasnlate into reality—there is little difference on the ground between the two parties. The difference is solely symbolmythical if you will--perpetually perpetrated on the watching public, by TV debates and broadcasts that show two aisles. The reality however is far different and scarier: the policies are not worlds apart, but the same. As someone has said recently: “It’s the difference between Pepsi and Coke.” Such is “democracy” I guess.

John 1.1-14: The Life-Light

This is part of the poem that makes up John 1.1-14, re-written by one of the professors of Regent College--a well-known writer, pastor and theologian--Eugene Peterson.

The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word. The Word was God, in readiness for God from day one.

Everything was created through him; nothing—not one thing!— came into being without him. What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn't put it out.

The Life-Light was the real thing: Every person entering Life he brings into Light.
He was in the world, the world was there through him, and yet the world didn't even notice.
He came to his own people, but they didn't want him.
But whoever did want him, who believed he was who he claimed and would do what he said, He made to be their true selves, their child-of-God selves. These are the God-begotten, not blood-begotten, not flesh-begotten, not sex-begotten.

The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.

We all live off his generous bounty, gift after gift after gift.
We got the basics from Moses, and then this exuberant giving and receiving, This endless knowing and understanding— all this came through Jesus, the Messiah.

Though no one has ever seen God, not so much as a glimpse, This one-of-a-kind God-Expression, who exists at the very heart of the Father, has made him plain as day.

My Favorite Three Films of the Year on the Eve of Oscar

By the time anyone reads this the Oscar nominations will have been read. So, I wanted to reflect on three of my favorite films without influence from the Academy. These are not predictions--I am sure you will not see any of these nominated for best picture!--but my own favorite films of the year. This year I have not seen as many films as I usually do--that's what happens when you have a child in August I guess, but with limited viewing these are my top three:

3. An Inconvenient Truth-- Such an important movie. It is about the effects that Global Warming is having on the world. It is a kind of documentary on the issue and the fight that Al Gore has had in congress making them realize the importance of the changing environment due to humankinds negative influence. Something to think about in relation to our God-given mandate to care for creation not to destroy it!

2. Blood Diamond-- Again, an important movie. About the diamond trade in Sierra Leone. But it gives a picture of Africa that is important for people to see including the civil wars, genocides, corrupt governments supported by Western interests. The questions that arise from the film have to do with the Western responsibility: How do we as individuals stop supporting economic stuctures that cause/ continue to uphold the oppression of human beings. This was truly a life changing film that has me praying and thinking alot about Darfur and the present genocide that is happening there--a repeat of what we saw in Rawanda in 1994, where over 800,000 people were slaughtered systematically. Where is the outcry for Darfur today?

1. Apocalypto--I know I know, what an odd choice for number one. Well I have to say this choice is purely based on entertainment/ artistic value--though the message of the film is thought-provoking too. This film is nothing less then amazing. It's beauty, and cinematography is astounding, it's images breath-taking and it's plot has one at the end of ones seat. It takes the genre of chase to a whole new level and just commits to telling the story of this culture in a parabolic way, with lessons for our own culture. From the opening quotation by historian Will Durant about the fall of the Roman Empire: “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within,” to the shocking exploration of this cultures religious beliefs including human sacrifice, it is truly an original tale in Hollywood today. And that's where I take the critics to task. The film critics did not like this movie--not least because of Mel Gibson's anti-semitic comments--which I condemn as well--but with all the garbage Hollywood produces (the same story over and over again), you take on a risky/ original project and they hate it! My friend Dan and I didn't hate it. Our jaws were on the ground the whole time.

Risky and original is important these days in Film, even as I look at the list of films being made for 2007: Saw III, These Hills have Eyes II, Hostel II--Blah Blah Blah--one thing Hollywood loves to do: exploit an economic success to the ground, even if it has zero artistric integrity--and that is what they are doing with this renewed "teenage-horror" genre. I would watch something original any day over that.

Other films that I know I would have like if I could have gone to them, and which might get nominations this year include: Babel, The Queen, United 93, Children of Men, Flags of our Fathers, and Letters from Iwo Jima.

Sunday Night Reflections: What Brought Me to Tears this Week

I cried this week. They tell me that is what happens when one begins to get a prophets heart--you weep. Partly because you begin to feel the sadness that you speak and live against. Partly because of your fear that no one will listen to your message. Jeremiah (the Old Testament prophet) was called the weeping prophet. This week I understood why.

Sienna and I were on a walk around Tssawwassen--the town I live in--she in her comfortable little baby carrier, strapped to the front of me--me on a mission to get coffee at Tim Horton's, iPod in my ears listening to the Massey Lecture series by Stephen Lewis, former Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations called A Race Against Time--about the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the continent of Africa. He was telling a story about a group of teenagers he was speaking to in Africa and one of the fourteen year old girls said that the boys were all pressuring her to have sex with them and the girls were laughing at her because she refused--they called her silly. She asked Stephen Lewis pointedly in a crowded auditorium: "Do you think it's stupid to not want to die?"At that point the entire crowd stood to their feet in applause in support of the girls question. It was at this precise moment, I remember it vividly, that I began to physically cry and mourn.

I was, in Jeremiah's language, "Lamenting" the realities of this world, specifically the dark world of this girl and everything she represented to me: the evils of humankind, the folly of human politics/ oppressive economic ideologies and practices (those of the IMF, the Bank of America, etc.), the continued spread of this disease because of carelessnes and promiscuity--Yes which those who continue to make those decision are to blame for--but that carelessnes is often due to ignorance and lack of education--which is something we could help change, but also because the disease continues to go unchecked, though the Western world clearly has the means of treating it--Magic Johnson anyone!--which is great, but we should live in a world where the rich are not the only ones who get to live healthily with AIDS. The poor need help as well until we can cure it. Jesus was a prophet who wept and he loved and helped lepers and other diseased outcasts of his society--he would do the same today with those living with this terrible disease.

May we think and pray on Africa this coming month--I know we all feel helpless...but there are things we can do. We just need to dare to dream. Like the prophets did.

"Belief" By John Mayer

Is there anyone who
Ever remembers changing there mind from the paint on a sign?
Is there anyone who really recalls
Ever breaking rank at all
For something someone yelled real loud one time?

Everyone believes
In how they think it ought to be
Everyone believes
And they're not going easily

Belief is a beautiful armor
But makes for the heaviest sword
Like punching under water
You never can hit who you're trying for

Some need the exhibition
And some have to know they tried
It's the chemical weapon
For the war that's raging on inside

Everyone believes
From emptiness to everything
Everyone believes
And no ones going quietly

We're never gonna win the world
We're never gonna stop the war
We're never gonna beat this
If belief is what we're fighting for

What puts a hundred thousand children in the sand
Belief can..Belief can
What puts the folded flag inside his mother's hand
Belief can..Belief can.

Swim Day

Last Friday was Sienna and I's first swim lesson. Though the formal lesson was cancelled we had a great time swimming around the pool!

Sienna: Beginngs (Part I)

The beginning of the beautiful life of Sienna Paisley Clark

Sienna: A Life Dedicated to God

Erin and I continue to live and breathe our daughter Sienna, and have both concluded that she is our common best friend. She is a person that we dedicate to God and ask that He raises her in his ways. That He draws her to faith in Jesus and into a Spirit-filled life. That she would think of others as greater than herself and live and move as the Spirit leads her. That she would work hard at understand and living out the gospel (the "good news") of Jesus in a world filled with bad news. That she would be defined by the grace and love of Christ in a world filled with un-grace and hate toward people for a litany of "reasons": race, creed, religion, etc. We pray that we would be good models of God's new creation to our daughter for all the days that He graciously gives us to spend with her. Amen.

Deuteronomy 8: Man does not live on bread alone

"Remember"...that is what Torah is about: remebering. Here it is a command to remember what YHWH had doen for Israel in the desert. He provided them with bread. With manna--lit. "What is it?" a substance that came from the earth that they would eat and be filled. It was their "daily bread"-- and Jesus used this Exodus image in his instructions about prayer: "Give us this day our daily bread" (Mt. 6.11). There is another story of Jesus that echoes this one as well. The story of Jesus temptation in the wilderness found in Matthew 4. 1-11.

The whole story is very Exodus-like isn't it? Israel was in the wilderness for forty years, Jesus in the wilderness for forty days. He is starving, and being tempted by Satan to give up on YHWH. And then during each temptation he leans on the Hebrew Scriptures to support him.

Temptation #1: Tell these stones to become bread. Jesus answer: "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God"-- he quotes this very passage from Deuteronomy. But that is not the last time he will do so, which hints at something extraordinary.

Temptations #2: Throw yourself off the temple, become a star so all of the religious community can see you and follow you. Jesus answer: "Do not put YHWH to the test"-- where is this quotation from? Deuteronomy 6. Interesting. Well maybe it is a coincidence. Two times isn't really a pattern.

Temptation #3: I will give you the nations of th earth if you worship me: Jesus answer: "Worship YHWH, and serve Him only"--Wow--thats from Deuteronomy 6 as well! Ok so we have a pattern here, but what is the point?

Jesus is Israel in person. He is where the long story of Israel climaxes. He is its point...he embodies and represents the people in himself. He experiences their exile and their wilderness experience and succeeds where they often failed. Here he is in the wilderness being tempted by the enemy and he quotes all Deuteronomy passages, a book about Israel in the wilderness dealing with her own demons, before they enter the promised land. Is it a coincidence that this story follows directly after Jesus baptism. Israel thorugh the Red Sea before their forty years in the wilderness, anyone?