No Adults Allowed!
So, all of creation becomes the children’s playhouse and Jesus posts a sign above the door, “No Adults Allowed!”
Jesus told them they could not even enter His kingdom thinking this way. They would have to become childlike by humbling themselves. (The Child in the Mist)
We began in “Child in the Mist,” with MacDonald telling us he would show what he wanted to say through his progressions. We reached series one’s chiastic point in “The Heart of the Treasure,” and now we have moved to the first reflection, Temptations, in the returning profile of our arrow. This mirroring will add color, depth, texture, aroma, flavor, and harmony to our Treasure in the God-Man, Jesus Christ!
Temptations
The Temptations are not about Satan, who gets way too much credit, but about Jesus Himself. He is the Treasure, the One at the very Heart of it! Immediately after His baptism, He goes into the wilderness. His telling of it is His own because no one else was there to tell it. It is His heart He wants to reveal in the story. Satan and evil are but sand in His sandal. All it takes to expose and destroy sin and darkness is to turn on the Light, and that is precisely what Jesus does! MacDonald suggests that this is less a narrative and more a parable which may offend some Biblical literalis. For him and me, the Bible is the inspired word of God and the most instructive and beautiful of all man’s written and inspired words. However, it is not the “Word,” for that alone belongs to Jesus! God’s Word is a person in a relationship of Love, not systems, doctrines, and history. The Bible is not the holy and sacred fourth member of the Trinity, but The Guide, the road signs along the way that point and lead us to Him!
Jesus, in this parable, wants us to see, understand, and know what the path is to our “New Name.” He too, received a “New Name” when through His incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension, became what He was! In fact, in Him, every “New Name” is found – yours, mine, and everyone’s! Brothers and sisters, context is Everything!
Yoke
Matthew 11:29 KJV & MSG
“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” KJV
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” MSG
Meekness is not weakness; it is not the introvert in the corner. It is power in harness! In the case of Jesus, it is infinite Power! The Power of the Creator and Sustainer of everything from moment to moment. Wow, what a Big Jesus!
Feel free to stop for a moment and give thanks and praise. As my Pentecostal brothers would say, “Give God a Hallelujah!” Our Servant King, the King of the Universe, just gave you that breath of Life for the Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus, that You are the full expression of the Divine, the ALL in All!
Three
Returning to the parable, the first is that of the stones to bread. The rejection by us of our independent ways and moving into the life of the Child, interdependence. We move from dependence to independence as we mature by the Spirit’s tutorage. We surrender control and move into Life, to living in Divine Mutuality. Jesus lived this way as Life. He only said what He heard the Father say and only did what He saw the Father do. Oh, the humility of our King! This humility is His yoke, the one He wore. The one we must wear to become our “New Name,” become what we are!
Next, the temple roof, that is to tempt God by trying Him. Demanding He does what He has no plan or need to do. Believing that we have to prove who we are to others, when all we need to do is trust and obey in simple obedience, moment to moment, in each moment as they come. This trust is the only rest for our weary souls.
Finally, to acknowledge the root of our true selves and its part in the bearing of fruit. We are not expected, nor could we produce fruit on our own. We bear it! We offer ourselves as vessels of Living Water and leave all the results to Them. Satan has no Life, nothing to offer, but darkness and death. Only lies that tell us we can know what is good and evil for us. The letting go of our “Wanter,” as Julian Fagan calls it, in submission to Their Will and Way, is Life and Rest indeed! Only They are Good, only in Them is Life, and only They know what Freedom is! Theirs is only one Way!