Session One - Invitation to fast in a desert

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Session One - Invitation to fast in a desert

Release date: 21st October

October 21, 2024 • Bishop Joe Kennedy • Luke 4:1–13, Exodus 17

Hello and welcome to the first session of Bishop Joe's course 'Six invitations to Dinner with Jesus'. Press play above to watch and listen and/or you can read the script below...

Hello, I’m Bishop Joe, and welcome to this, the first of six invitations to dinner with Jesus.

This first dinner invitation is to join Jesus not for a feast, but for a fast.

Here’s the story. It’s from Luke Chapter 4.

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tested by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over he was famished. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’”

Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus answered him, “It is written,

‘Worship the Lord your God,

and serve only him.’”

Then the devil led him to Jerusalem and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written,

‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’

and

‘On their hands they will bear you up,

so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.

So, Jesus crosses the Jordan and then goes out into the desert for forty days where he finds nothing to eat. He invites us to join him in the desert.

But do we want to join Jesus in the desert? I’m not sure most of us do, most of the time. An invitation to a feast sounds like a good thing. But an invitation to a fast sounds much less appealing.

So what’s going on in this story?

Well, I think one key to understanding this story is to ask whether it sounds a bit familiar.

Where have we seen something like this before?

This is a story about crossing a body of water and then spending forty days in the wilderness, finding no food and becoming hungry, and being tempted in a variety of ways. What’s that? It seems to me the same shape as the story of the Exodus, isn’t it?

In the Exodus story, you’ll remember, first the Hebrew people cross the Red Sea, escaping from Egypt; then they spend forty years in the wilderness; and in the wilderness Satan tempts them.

What’s more, he tempts them in the same ways that he tempts Jesus in our story.

Let’s look at the temptations in turn – and see for ourselves.

In Exodus Chapter 16, if you look it up you’ll see that the Hebrew people get hungry in the desert, and they give in to the temptation to believe that God has abandoned them (that’s why they’re hungry) ‘Oh, it was better back in Egypt,’ they complain.

Well, Jesus gets hungry in the desert too in our story. But Jesus doesn’t give in to the temptation to believe that God has abandoned him. Jesus continues to trust his Father’s promises to care for him. Even if he were to die of hunger, yet he will trust that God’s love will never abandon him.

OK, that’s the first temptation. Here’s the second one. In Exodus Chapter 32 – why don’t you look this one up too? Moses is gone, he’s off speaking with God; and again the Hebrew people give in to the temptation to believe that God has abandoned them, so that they have no God to protect them and care for them. So they decide to turn to Apis, one of the false gods of the Egyptian people. It was absolutely better in Egypt, they decide. Even the gods were better.

So too in our story, Satan tempts Jesus. ‘”Worship me,” he says to Jesus, “and I will look after you.” But Jesus does not give in to the temptation. He continues to trust that God is caring for him.

Thirdly, and finally, the Hebrew people are tempted over and over again during their time in the wilderness to test God – to demand that he proves that he’s caring for them. For instance, in Exodus Chapter 17, they’re longing for a drink of water. And in their desperation, they demand that God proves that he loves them. They “quarrelled and tested the Lord, saying ‘Is the Lord among us or not?’”

So too Satan tempts Jesus with the thought that he can be sure of the Father’s love only if the Father performs a miracle to save him. But once again, Jesus does not give in to the temptation – he continues to trust in his Father’s love, and does not ask the Father to prove his love.

So Satan tempts the Hebrew People in the wilderness in the Old Testament story of the Exodus. And then Satan tempts Jesus in the same ways in the New Testament story in the wilderness.

That’ really interesting, isn’t it? But surely – and in many ways this is the key point – surely, we have also seen these same temptations in our own lives too. When we sense mortality enter the room, the devil whispers in our ear that death is stronger than God’s love for us. When things go wrong in our lives, the devil whispers in our ear that it would be better to give up on God and turning our attention elsewhere. When we long for something but cannot attain it, the devil whispers in our ear that if God loved us he would prove it by giving us what we want.

Do you see, in the Exodus story, in the story of Jesus’ temptation in the desert, and in our lives too – the devil has just the one song to sing. He’s a one-hit wonder. Throughout our lives, he whispers again and again the lie that God does not love us and cannot be trusted to care for us.

And this is why Jesus invites us to join him in the desert.

It’s not that Jesus has gone into the desert and invites us to join him there, so that we can suffer with him.

No, that’s not it. Rather, what’s true is that at times we all find ourselves in the desert, and Jesus comes looking for us there. He invites us to keep company with him in the desert moments of our lives, when we are feeling unloved and tempted.

When we turn to Jesus in these moments, he will speak again to us the truth which Satan wants to hide from us. Jesus will speak the truth to you – that God loves you with an everlasting love, a love stronger than your grave, a love which will never leave you, a love which will in the end answer your deepest longings.

So let us take courage, with the great sixteenth century theologian, Teresa of Avila, as we listen to her words: “Let nothing disturb you, let nothing frighten you. All things are passing: God never changes. Patience obtains all things. Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices.”

More from NEW! Six invitations to Dinner with Jesus

INTRO to Six invitations to Dinner with Jesus

Bishop Joe Kennedy

Join Bishop Joe as he leads us in responding to six invitations to dinner with Jesus, as they come to us in Luke's Gospel. With each invitation, Jesus calls us to experience for ourselves the generosity of God. Session one begins on Monday 21st October, and then a new session will be released each Monday until Monday 25th November. Press play above to watch and listen to the introduction and/or you can read the script below... Hello and welcome to Six Invitations to Dinner with Jesus. I’m Bishop Joe, and I’m delighted that Bishop Philip has commissioned me to offer six biblical reflections and conversation starters for our Diocese’s Fruitful App. Before we open the Scriptures together, I want to invite you to think with me for a moment about the wonder of God’s Word. And the first thing to say, surely, is that it is astonishing that God communicates with us at all. We don’t often consider how startling it is that God should communicate with us – tiny creatures on a rocky outcrop in the middle of nowhere much. And yet, God gives us the Scriptures as his written Word. And the Father sends Jesus, who is his living Word. It is said that Queen Victoria used to complain that Gladstone spoke to her as if she were a public meeting. Matters are quite different between us and God. God never addresses us as if we were a public meeting. God speaks to each of us as though we were the only person he speaks to. God’s Word is always a word of personal invitation, from person to person. In this series, I shall be inviting you to join me in accepting six invitations to dinner with our Lord, which come to us in St Luke’s Gospel. Each invitation is personally addressed to you. With each invitation, Jesus opens the door for you to experience the generosity of God. Join me, as together we respond to the invitation of Jesus.

Session Two - Invitation to lunch in a cornfield

October 28, 2024 • Bishop Joe Kennedy • Luke 6:1–5, Deuteronomy 23:25

Hello and welcome to the second session of Bishop Joe's course 'Six invitations to Dinner with Jesus'. Press play above to watch and listen and/or you can read the script below... Hello, I am Bishop Joe, and this is the second of the six invitations to dinner with Jesus from St Luke’s Gospel which we are reading together. This one is an invitation to lunch. And it takes place in a cornfield. You can find it in Chapter 6. One Sabbath while Jesus was going through some grain fields, his disciples plucked some heads of grain, rubbed them in their hands, and ate them. But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” Jesus answered, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? How he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and gave some to his companions?” Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” Well, so last time, we were invited to a fast. No food at all. Today, we’re invited to a fast-food restaurant. This is definitely ‘food on the go’. I remember as a child being a bit disturbed by this story – it can feel to us like Jesus’ disciples are stealing the food. After all, the grain was in someone else’s field, wasn’t it? So, I wondered as a child, why doesn’t Jesus tell them to leave the grain alone? But then as an adult, I discovered that the Law of Moses laid down that when you were passing through a grainfield you were free to pluck corn from the field and eat it, so long as you plucked it with your hands, and don’t get serious and take a sickle to it. You can find the law in Deuteronomy Chapter 23, verse 25, if you want to look it up for yourself. So, when Jesus’ disciples pluck the grain and eat it, that wasn’t a crime in itself. It’s the timing of the act that causes controversy. The Pharisees complain that Jesus’ disciples are helping themselves to a snack on the Sabbath. That’s the problem. Now, the Law of Moses lists all the forms of work which you must not do on the Sabbath, so that you are free to rest that day. So for instance, you mustn’t reap, thresh, or winnow grain on the Sabbath. And these are the rules that the Pharisees claim Jesus’ disciples have broken. By picking the corn, they have reaped. By rubbing it in their hands, they have threshed. By discarding the husks, they have winnowed. The Pharisees, seeing Jesus’ disciples doing these things, ask why they are doing what is forbidden on the Sabbath. In response, Jesus asks the Pharisees a question. That’s something Jesus does often: he often answers a question with another question. But before we get to that, we might have some questions of our own to ask the Pharisees. Firstly (it occurs to me) how do they know that Jesus’ disciples did this? Perhaps they just happened to be following the disciples and noticed them snacking as they walked. Or perhaps – seems more likely to me – perhaps they were spying on the disciples, looking for some way to catch them out and accuse them. Secondly, we might ask the Pharisees whether it’s really reasonable to equate what the disciples are doing– picking just a few grains of corn, rubbing them in your hands and eating them – to equate that with the hard work of harvesting, which is surely what the Law of Moses intends to forbid on the Sabbath? And the interesting thing is that later Jewish tradition didn’t think that was reasonable. The Babylonian Talmud is quite happy with the sort of small-scale harvesting on the Sabbath that Jesus’ disciples engage in in our story. So – we can’t be sure – but it's plausible that the Pharisees in our story are applying a ridiculously strict standard to judge the behaviour of Jesus’ followers. Anything to make them look bad. OK, so these are plausible things Jesus might have said to the Pharisees. He might have asked them whether spying on other people to catch them out was a good thing to be doing. Or he might have asked them about laying heavy burdens on other people’s shoulders – being pedantic. It seems to me that these are the more obvious lines of defence. But what makes this story so fascinating, is that Jesus doesn’t go for these lines of defence. Instead, Jesus chooses to tell a story found in the First Book of Samuel. Jesus reminds the Pharisees of the time when a young David is travelling with a little group of followers. He has been anointed king but is waiting for God’s People to recognise him as king. He and his followers are hungry and so they eat the showbread in the temple – bread which it was lawful for only the priests to eat. But David claims the right to suspend this law, presumably on the grounds that he is the King of Israel. So, Jesus’ argument seems to conclude, if it was okay for David to give the showbread to his hungry followers, then it’s also okay for me to allow my hungry followers to harvest on the Sabbath. Do you see how much Jesus is upping the ante here? Jesus might have simply told the Pharisees not to spy on other people, or not to make a fuss about very little. But he didn’t. Jesus accepts the accusation that his disciples have stepped outside the stipulations of the Law of Moses, and that he has allowed them to do so. But he says he is permitted to do this because he is the new David – the expected Messiah who has come to save Israel. He is Lord of the Sabbath because God has appointed him Lord and King, of Israel. We can learn from Jesus only if we give time each day to prayer and to listening to God’s Word in the Scriptures, only if we spend time with Him. And we can learn from him only if we let go of the notion that we have life figured out and allow our hearts and our minds to be taught by him. That is what it means to have Jesus as our Lord, our King.

Session Three - Invitation to feast in a desert

November 4, 2024 • Bishop Joe Kennedy • Luke 9:10–17

Hello and welcome to the third session of Bishop Joe's course 'Six invitations to Dinner with Jesus'. Press play above to watch and listen and/or you can read the script below... Hello, I’m Bishop Joe, and welcome to this third in our series of reflection on invitations to dinner with Jesus from St Luke’s Gospel. Today, we’re reading from Chapter 9 - and one of the best known and most loved stories in the Gospels, the feeding of the five thousand. If you want to read along, we’re beginning at verse 10. On their return the apostles told Jesus all they had done. Then, taking them along, he slipped quietly into a city called Bethsaida. When the crowds found out about it, they followed him, and he welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God and healed those who needed to be cured. The day was drawing to a close, and the twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away, so that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside to lodge and get provisions, for we are here in a deserted place.” But he said to them, “You give them something to eat.” They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish—unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.” For there were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” They did so and had them all sit down. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed and broke them and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And all ate and were filled, and what was left over was gathered up, twelve baskets of broken pieces. So this is a story with three characters – so to speak. The crowds, the disciples, and Jesus. And it seems to me a really interesting way to read this story is to ask who is the story really about? Let’s take them in turns. First the crowds. Most of us, I imagine, are unlikely to receive an invitation to stay as a guest of The King at his Norfolk home in Sandringham. It’s said that King Edward VII’s commitment to being a generous host was so great that he had a pair of scales installed at Sandringham House. Guests would weigh themselves in on their arrival and departure – to ensure that they had put on a few pounds during their time as The King’s guest. Probably King Edward VII didn’t have the story of the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand directly in mind when he was light-heartedly weighing his guests. But it has just the faintest echo of what is going on in this story. Jesus provides more than enough for his guests – 5,000 families, likely; not just 5,000 men. Enough people to fill to capacity Turf Moor, the home of Burnley Football Club. When they had all eaten their fill, there were twelve baskets left over. One for each of the twelve tribes of Israel – so, symbolically, enough for everyone all over again. Enough for everyone to take a party bag home with more food in it. This is a story about the generosity of God: the God who gives to us everything that we have, and who sees our needs and meets them, with more than enough. So one way we might reflect further about this story is to think of all the ways that God blesses us, or of times when God has met our needs. This story invites us to give thanks to God for his provision, and to trust God in our needs. Or perhaps, instead, we might read this as a story about the disciples. One of the loveliest features of this story is found right at the start and we often miss it. Taking his disciples along, Jesus slipped quietly towards the region of Bethsaida. Jesus was seeking some time away from the crowds, a period of rest with just those who are closest to him. But when the crowds followed him, he immediately welcomed them and meets their needs – teaching and healing them. And even when the evening was drawing in, and his disciples suggested that He might send them away to find food and lodgings for the night, even then Jesus (tired though he is and wanting some time away) was unwilling for them to go. He wants to continue to welcome them – to feed them. And he draws his weary disciples into this ministry of welcome. ‘You feed them,’ he says to his disciples. The Greek text emphasizes the word ‘you’. You feed them. And on his instruction, the disciples gave out the food and collect in the left-overs. Presumably, they also travelled into Bethsaida to buy the baskets. So another way to read this story is to say that we have been invited along to dinner now for the third time – but this time we’ve been invited as a waiters or the washers-up. If this is a story about the generosity of God, it is also a story which invites us to look to see what Jesus is doing and join in. A story which invites us to be generous ourselves, and to give our time, our talents, and treasure to God’s work. ‘You feed them,’ Jesus says to us too. Or thirdly, perhaps this is really a story about Jesus. Immediately before this story, and immediately after it, in St Luke’s Gospel, we find questions about who Jesus really is. Is he Elijah, returned to earth; or is he the new Moses; or is he the Messiah – the expected king, who would come to set God’s people free from all that oppressed them? This story provides an answer to that question that becomes immediately before and afterwards. Jesus is greater than Elijah – who miraculously fed just one family, at Zarephath. Jesus is greater than Moses too – who miraculously fed the People of Israel in the wilderness, but just one day at a time with no more left over. Jesus is greater because he is the Messiah, who invites us to the heavenly banquet, the feast which will fill the Lord’s house and which will have no end.