During the season of Lent, questions of identity come to the fore. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the church has always insisted on beginning the Lenten journey in the Wilderness, with Jesus’s forty-days of fasting and testing: at the heart of Jesus’s time in the wilderness is the question of Jesus’ identity and purpose: Who is Jesus really, and what is he going to do? Or, to put it a little differently: what kind of Son of God is Jesus going to be?
That’s really the question: it is not whether Jesus is God’s Son, the question is what kind of God’s Son Jesus is going to be. Even the devil knows Jesus is God’s Son. But the devil also wants to know if Jesus is going to take the easy route or the hard route to being the Messiah, the Son of God.
Jesus’ identity is really at the core of the temptation story, as he goes into the wilderness to take an “exam,” if you will, like no other exam, to find out what kind of mission he is going to fulfill and what missions he will not.
As we move into the Lenten season, what kind of exam might we take? What mission is God wanting us to fulfill? Who are we as God’s people?
These are questions as old as Adam and Eve in the Garden or the people of Israel in the wilderness: who are we and to whom do we belong? It is easy to forget, but Lent is a time when we can return and remember. It is a time when we can count the costs and follow Jesus.
Pastor Andy Kinsey
That’s really the question: it is not whether Jesus is God’s Son, the question is what kind of God’s Son Jesus is going to be. Even the devil knows Jesus is God’s Son. But the devil also wants to know if Jesus is going to take the easy route or the hard route to being the Messiah, the Son of God.
Jesus’ identity is really at the core of the temptation story, as he goes into the wilderness to take an “exam,” if you will, like no other exam, to find out what kind of mission he is going to fulfill and what missions he will not.
As we move into the Lenten season, what kind of exam might we take? What mission is God wanting us to fulfill? Who are we as God’s people?
These are questions as old as Adam and Eve in the Garden or the people of Israel in the wilderness: who are we and to whom do we belong? It is easy to forget, but Lent is a time when we can return and remember. It is a time when we can count the costs and follow Jesus.
Pastor Andy Kinsey
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