Review of Life

Review of Life based on the temptations of Jesus – Talk at Ashley 27 July
(Luke Chapter 4)

Every so often it might be useful to take a step back and review our life to see where we have been, where we are now and where we are going. It can take many forms and cover a long period and could be our whole life or it could be much shorter period of time like yesterday, last month or last year.

The story of Jesus time in the wilderness and his temptations could be seen as his review of his own life which was a prelude to his ministry. Jesus is our role model and this shows that for him it was very challenging thing to do and the extent of this challenge will depend on such things as personality, life experience and our current circumstances of life. He faced powerful temptations in his life related to what he knew of his own power, authority and gifts and the way they might be used. The temptations in the garden of Gethsemane indicate that the questions never completely left him and his choice of vulnerability, service and suffering and whether this was the right way to go would return.

In the light of this it may be that sometimes a review could be best done with the help of a friend to encourage and lift us out of a sense of failure or ‘what ifs’ that we can all be prone to at times. Maybe sometimes it is best left alone completely until we know we are in the right place to cope. I just offer this as a way we might consider at opportune times to re-gain a sense of meaning, purpose or direction in our life which offers clues and encouragement as to the future. Jesus ministry we believe was only about three years and he changed the world – so it is never too late and we are never too old!

Jesus in his wilderness temptations can be seen as him seeking the way to go and how to make sense of what he knew already about his birth and his life so far. With what we know about his life could there be hints of the material he might have been wrestling with? What about the circumstances of his birth and what his mother might of told him of angels, wise men bringing gifts and prophecies. What was the meaning of his baptism and the words that his cousin John spoke about him? What about the story of his parents fleeing to Egypt when he was a baby? How come he seemed to be able to speak so easily with teachers of the law at such a young age? What was the point of all that training in the carpenters shop? What does it mean to set people free? Was he pondering on the verse in Isaiah that he was to preach on in the synagogue at Nazareth? What is God’s kingdom? And may more questions……. Forty days wrestling with what was his mission in life and how was he to fulfil it. What we are told in the three temptations could be seen as attempts by Jesus to make sense of what he already knows, what he feels called to and how this might be worked out in his life.

He leaves the desert full of the Holy Spirit and goes in to his home town and preaches about releasing captives and setting prisoners free. After this encounter he realises that he needs to leave Nazareth and that his ministry can not be fulfilled there and tells everyone this. He is then rejected by his home town which leads him to a wider ministry in Capernaum and Jerusalem. Was the rejection with all the pain there must have been the spark that produces the explosion of his ministry with healing, preaching and casting out of demons to a wider audience? It is amazing to think that rejecting could be a powerful tool for doing God’s work in the future.

We might think that ours in so small a life in relation to Jesus but in God’s eyes we are all called to be a part of God’s presence on earth. We are now his Body. Sometimes a review can be tied in with a holiday or a retreat, a day’s walk or just a short time-out which gives you an opportunity to:

STOP and look at your life
LOOK at what you see and ponder on it
LISTEN to what this might say to you.

In the end this is an unpredictable spiritual exercise with the Holy Spirit. It always seems best to me to not try too hard and have patience. We are looking for ‘clues’ as to what might be there for us. It might take a while to see anything and so you need to stay with it and have the faith that there is something there that God wants to communicate.