9 March by Lol Wood, Family Project Leader for the Churches in Lunesdale
Reading: Luke 4 v 1 – 13
Theme: Temptation of Jesus
The temptation of Jesus in Luke 4 v.1-13 is a passage that has always led me to the child-like wonder of why would God allow Jesus to be tempted? The passage opens with ‘He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness’, telling us that the Holy Spirit led Him to that difficult place suggesting that perhaps this is part of a wider narrative.
Whilst in the wilderness for forty days we are told ‘Jesus ate nothing all that time and became very hungry.’ Being deprived of food often makes the human spirit weaker, yet when Jesus is challenged by the Devil in three different ways, He seems to gain strength. When He was invited to ‘change the stone into a loaf of bread’, Jesus refused, quoting Scripture back at the Devil. I reflect how hard I would have found it not to create food after being so hungry. Yet Jesus’ strength and sustenance in God is clear in His reply.
The Devil continues to test Jesus by offering Him the chance to be an authority over the kingdoms of the world, adding ‘because they are mine to give to anyone I please.’ The Devil’s words remind me of a temper tantrum by a toddler. The deep insistence of control really indicates that the Devil knows, on some level, that he lacks such authority. Jesus’ calm reply is such a contrast ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’
Finally, the Devil takes Jesus to the highest point of the Temple and challenges Him to jump off! This challenge echoes, for me, the teenage brain where kudos amongst peers is gained by completing slightly dangerous challenges. The Devil is even cheeky enough to quote Scripture at Jesus, ‘He will order his angels to protect and guard you’, indicating that the Devil is also challenging God to protect Jesus (or not) if He jumps. Jesus responds with further Scripture ‘you must not test the Lord your God’, reminding the Devil who is the authority in this world and who Jesus is following firmly.
The wilderness seems to be a place where God shapes and prepares people. I read this passage to be the place where Jesus was shaped into the Messiah the world needed: calm, authoritative, focused and mindful that He is part of a wider God led story.
I wonder how you find entering a time of wilderness? I wonder what you have learnt during your season of wilderness. Did it feel like a place of healing or shaping?
Loving God,
When we are in a time of wilderness,
help us have the focus and strength
of Jesus. Enable us to lean into
scripture and healthy friendships.
Keep us safe from anything
or anyone who does not have
our best interests at heart.
Amen
10 March by Peter Lumsden, Local Preacher in the Clitheroe Circuit
Reading: Matthew 8 v 28 – Matthew 9 v 1
Theme: Jesus healing two others
‘Move fast and break things’ is a mantra favoured by current day tech billionaires. Through these first chapters of Matthew, Jesus seems to be moving fast – he has spent forty days fasting in the wilderness; has been tempted to exercise power for his own ends; has set out a way of personal formation and a radical manifesto of service to others, over-turning worldly power structures and conventions. Putting that into practice he has healed many, particularly those deemed “unclean”.
And then he makes a strange foray into Gentile territory and encounters two “demon-possessed” men. Curiously, after their deliverance, we hear nothing about these men. We do though know that the people of the nearby town were fearful (of his power?) and asked Jesus to leave.
Medieval mystic Mechthild of Magdeburg helps us to better understand the notion of divine power. It is not sheer power that makes God divine, it is love. Divine power allows love to displace might.
Today we might ascribe at least some ‘demon possession’ to psychological or psychiatric conditions of guilt, fear, anxiety. Notwithstanding, these are powerful forces, but God’s power can release us. This power is not to control, but to heal; not to break, but to restore.
Points for reflection
From what patterns of thinking or behaviour do we want to be free?
What might be stopping us from embracing God’s power to heal and restore?
How might we view our circumstances differently if we considered ‘power’ as love rather than might?
Prayer
The soul is made of love and must ever strive to return to love. Therefore, it can never find rest not happiness in other things. It must lose itself in love. By its very nature it must seek God, who is love. Mechthild of Magdeburg
11 March by Peter Gregson, Cumbria Mission Area Lay Member of District Policy Committee
Reading: Matthew 9 v 2 – 8
Theme: Jesus heals a paralysed man
By any standards this is an extraordinary passage. The very thought of someone being able to heal the paralysis in someone else might seem unbelievable, but of course we are talking about Jesus here.
A number of other things have struck me.
It was after Jesus ‘saw their faith’ (v2) that he forgave the man his sins. But in v3 we read that the men didn’t really believe that Jesus was the son of God. So, their faith only went so far, whereas Jesus’s went much further. Perhaps they were so focused on getting healing for their friend that they couldn’t think beyond that. Their imagination may not have been big enough.
Jesus ‘knew their thoughts’ (v4). He knew what is in their mind and why they were there – they wanted their friend to be healed and to be able to walk again.
Jesus did this, but he did so much more. He did what they weren’t expecting. He knew the paralysed man’s thoughts and knew that he was sinful. That’s why he forgave the man’s sins first and then healed the physical affliction.
Some things I have been pondering:
- Are we, like the crowd (v8), ‘filled with awe’ and do we praise God well enough, and often enough?
- What are the situations around us which need healing – they can be small things known only to us (and God) or large global problems (there seem to be a lot of those). Do we pray enough about these (and our own sins) and ask for healing and remaking and forgiveness?
A prayer for healing:
Jesus, like a mother you gather your people to you. In the depth of your mercy, heal us. In the tenderness of your love, remake us. In the compassion of your grace, forgive us. For the beauty of heaven, prepare us. Amen.
Anselm (c. 1033-1109)
12 March by Rev Caroline Ainger, Liverpool Plus Mission Area Lead and Superintendent of Emmaus Circuit
Reading: Matthew 9 v 9 – 13
Theme: The calling of Matthew
NOTES
In Matthew 9 we find Jesus walking along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, surrounded by a crowd of people drawn to him by his teachings and his miracles. As Jesus walks on, he comes across a tax collector called Matthew, also known as Levi. Matthew is sitting at his tax booth, collecting taxes from the people passing by. His role reminded everyone that they were living in an occupied territory, and their daily lives were being shaped by empire. As such, Matthew would have been regarded with a mixture of fear, anger and distrust – a collaborator, a traitor, and a mercenary.
And yet Jesus approaches Matthew and simply says, ‘Follow me.’ Matthew immediately makes a choice, and he decides to leave everything behind and to become a follower of Jesus. He recognises Jesus’ authority, and he obeys. He realises he needs to reorientate his life, and he trusts. He responds to an invitation that affirms his intrinsic worth, and he receives grace.
This encounter takes place in the midst of a bustling marketplace, with merchants pitching their wares, customers haggling over prices, fisher folk mending their nets, and children laughing and playing. ‘Follow me’ says Jesus to Matthew, and he does. It only takes a moment for an everyday place to become holy ground and for a life to pivot in a new direction.
The action moves from Matthew’s place of work to his home and a somewhat eclectic dinner party where the guests are Jesus, his disciples, Matthew’s colleagues, and other ‘sinners.’ The Pharisees object to the company kept by this rabbi from Galilee, but Jesus knows what he is about, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but those who are ill… For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners’ (Matthew 9:13). Moreover, he gives them some homework! ‘But go and learn what this means, I desire mercy, not sacrifice’ (Matthew 9:9:13). Here, as throughout his mission and ministry, Jesus emphasises the restoring of lives and relationships over religiosity. For such restoration, healing and wholeness to be possible, all people must know their worth and be seen and heard and included, as Matthew was by Jesus.
WONDER
What is your equivalent of Matthew’s tax booth – your place of work, your daily commute, your digital presence – where you can meet Jesus in a new way this week?
How could you express radical and inclusive hospitality this Lent? It doesn’t have to be a dinner party!
Have a look at the news and consider who is being regarded with fear, anger and distrust. How might God see them differently?
PRAYER
Reflect on the words of the following hymn and make your own response in prayer.
Have you heard God’s voice; has your heart been stirred?
Are you still prepared to follow?
Have you made a choice to remain and serve, through the way be rough and narrow?
Will you walk the path that will cost you much and embrace the pain and sorrow?
Will you trust in One who entrusts to you the disciples of tomorrow?
Will you use your voice; will you not sit down
when the multitudes are silent?
Will you make a choice to stand your ground
when the crowds are turning violent?
In your city streets will you be God’s heart?
Will you listen to the voiceless?
Will you stop and eat, when friendships start,
will you share your faith with the faithless?
Will you watch the news with the eyes of faith
and believe it could be different?
Will you share your views using words of grace?
Will you leave a thoughtful imprint?
We will walk the path that will cost us much
and embrace the pain and sorrow.
We will trust in the One who entrusts to us
the disciples of tomorrow.
Written by Jacqueline G. Jones
13 March by Col Ritson, CASAI Lay Minister
Reading: Matthew 9 v 14 – 17
Theme: Fasting
I love being part of these daily thoughts because it encourages me to reflect on texts that I don’t know or don’t normally choose.
The above passage to me is particularly inspiring at this time of year because it is giving us permission to change …to be different…to be flexible…to be authentic…and to be real in our relationships with God, myself and others.
I love visual imagery so seeing myself as “new wine” trying to fit into ‘old “soggy “wine skins’ sadly reminds me of Church that can’t welcome me because of closed interpretations, and so I have to look for new wine skins for my faith to flourish.
These images show me that Jesus had so much empathy for those he met who were struggling with feeling like another image, “a new patch on an old garment.”
Jesus is encouraging transformation, and not just doing or saying things just because we’ve always done it this way.
I work with trauma victims/ survivors/ thrivers who would recognise themselves in these images and the pain and struggle of trying to fit into the old skins and garments, so appreciate hearing Jesus is with them.
WONDER
Are you aware of doing things just because you’ve always done them?
Can you risk doing something different?
What would stop you changing?
PRAYER
Empathic discerning dazzling God of love and light
Thank you for your encouragement!! You light up our search and thirst for affirmation.
Your influence on those who ‘got’ you when you were on earth is still getting through these days so that we can read between the lines of
your parables for what matters to us.
Help us to go out of our comfort zones
“our depleted exhausted and fearful” skins so we can truly welcome new ideas, new ways and most importantly, people who are different but definitely not less than.
Amen
Permission to use image from Methodist Minister Rev Sally Coleman
14 March by Rev David Newlove, Cumbria Mission Area Lead and Superintendent of North Cumbria Circuit
Reading: Matthew 9 v 18 – 26
Theme: Jesus heals two more
Notes
9 22 Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.”
I love these stories from Matthew 9. These are ordinary folk whose lives have been filled with adversity and limited by illness. What has inflicted them has caused them to be unholy and therefore outcasts in their society – the law would state this, it was not in dispute. When the world shuns them Jesus cares. He cares enough to put himself out for them. He heals them and restores them to their community. This is the good news.
I love the faith of the community leader who falls at Jesus feet saying “come, and she will live” and of the woman, saying to herself “if I only touch his cloak”.
It is faith that has brught them to Jesus. Faith that is full of error and inadequacy, a last resort and a suppositious belief – but Jesus responded to both without judgement. We see on the flip side those who are not desperate for restoration missing out, being sent away.
Jesus says to the woman “take heart”. He says that to us too, as we reach out to him in our imperfect faith seeking the healing only he can bring. What is your need and in what way will you come to him?
Wonder
I wonder what you hear when you read these two stories. How are you heartened by them, how God is speaking to you through them and what are you being called to say or do with or for another because of what God is saying to you?
Prayer
Heavenly Father,
We take heart at the way Jesus responds to the needs of those cast out by society.
We are heartened by his reaction to them.
Grant us, we pray, the faith we need to reach out.
That in him, we may find our healing and restoration.
And may we be those who support others as they reach out too.
That together, we may rejoice in faith and the life he brings.
Amen.
15 March by Rev Jane Wild, Superintendent of Preston Ribble Circuit
Reading: Matthew 9 v 27 – 31
Theme: Jesus heals more
The film “Up” is about an elderly man named Carl who, after losing his wife Ellie, decides to fulfil their shared dream of visiting Paradise Falls by tying thousands of balloons to his house and flying away. This seems a ridiculous thing to seek and dream. Almost as extreme, perhaps, as a blind man in the days of his passage. Wishing and hoping that they could see, and yet Jesus was able to offer that realization of dreams. The blind men who believed in him were able to become what they believed. The passage highlights the importance of faith and the belief in the possibility of healing and liberation from burdens.
So often what we believe, when we are feeling less than whole, constrains what we are and how we behave. The healing in this passage is one of freedom and liberation from the things that burden us. It’s about cutting ties with the past and seeking to find new hope in the future, realizing dreams.
Interestingly, in this passage, Jesus checks out with the blind men what they really believed was possible. It was only when they confirmed their dream and committed to it that the healing came about.
I wonder how you might have responded to Jesus when he asked that question. Are there things that are holding you back that you need to cut ties with? In relation to your healing, can you answer the question that the blind men were asked with the same words: “Yes, Master. I do want to be healed and freed and see things in a different way.”
God of healing and peace, grant us the courage to cut our ties with those things that burden us and trap us in the past. Allow us to catch hold of the dream of your freedom, love, and live it.