Friends in Christ, 

Arise 

Let's turn to Saint Matthew 4, the verses 1-11. When one is in the desert, then all the 
unnecessary matters do not seem to be important anymore. We , as human beings are 
there alone, alone with the light side or the dark side of your personality and in the shadow
with your own desires and the fact that in the eyes of God you are weak and small.

In the long period covering the first Christians on earth, monks went into the desert
in order to feel more connected with God, with the earth and with this life. 
Whosoever spends a long time in the desert will realize that it will become a fight , either
for life or death. Or in other words, in the confusion you get lost in yourself to the extend 
of madness, or you discover a living fountain in yourself, and your life reveals an 
astounding solidarity. Or are you sticking further and harder to all your ego's and build a 
dam around you, or do you become a part of the sober life that is all around you.

The same issues our blessed Lord Jesus experienced after He withdrew Himself.
This was after the baptism in the river Jordan. He wanted to think about the message 
of Saint John the Baptist and to think about his own purpose during his time on this 
earth. Did Jesus do this just like the great prophets, or did He personally repeated 
everything His own people had been put through?And that for many years. The 
evangelists only give account how the wilderness played its game with Jesus and 
how it forced Him to make some fundamental choices. Let us have a look to how 
the evangelists picture this. 

The temptation to turn the stones into bread. The temptation is a metaphore , which 
points to how people get hooked onto material things.There are the forces of this life 
on earth, which present us with an economy for us to serve. The emphasis is not on us being there, but on our material possessions. Life is about having many possessions  instead
of sharing them. Jesus is standing here as a model for His disciples and teaches them,
that man does not live by bread alone in order to live, but also through the Word of the Lord.

The second temptation related to throw oneself from the roof of the temple and force
God to intervene. A misuse of trust through a wrong interpretation of Psalm nr 91 ("even 
when thousands fall at your left and tenthousands fall at your right, nothing will happen to you."
Jesus however condemns such attitude. It is forcing God to intervene. He is reduced to 
a robot, who has to follow our commands in everything. In contrast Jesus introduces 
to us the Trust in God. That means daring to surrender to His Holy Word. That means 
daring to fall into the arms of God without feveriously trying to find yourself. 

Amen. 

Father Ed Bakker 
Anglican Catholic Church / The Original Province 
Mission of Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne
Bendigo 
Australia