The Selfless Way of Christ
Temptation: The Lure of Upward Mobility
The Temptation to Be Powerful
Pages 60-66
TOGETHER read the devotional and the scripture.
INDIVIDUALLY take notes in your journal on what stands out.
Mark 1:12 (NIV) At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
Matthew 4:8-11 (NIV) Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
Luke 4:9-13 (NIV) The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
TOGETHER pray for one another.
INDIVIDUALLY answer the questions in your journal - process your devotional notes and pray.
“From the moment we set out on our climb to the top we make ourselves believe that striving for power and wanting to be of service are, for all practical purposes, the same thing.”
How have you noticed in your life, in the church, and/or in different ministries you have observed the line between striving for power and wanting to be of service blurred?
“Power always lusts after greater power precisely because it is an illusion. Despite our experience that power does not give us the sense of security we desire, but instead reveals our own weaknesses and limitations, we continue to make ourselves believe that more power will eventually fulfill our needs.”
What are some ways that you have believed or pursued the illusion of “attaining” power? What might that reveal about your needs and desires?
“The mystery of our ministry is that we are called to serve not with our power but with our powerlessness. It is through powerlessness that we can enter into solidarity with our fellow human beings, form a community with the weak, and thus reveal the healing, guiding, and sustaining mercy of God.”
How does serving from a position of powerlessness reveal God to the world?
“As long as we divide our time and energy between others, we forget that service outside of God becomes self-seeking, and self-seeking leads to manipulation, and manipulation to power games, and power games to violence, and violence to destruction - even when it falls under the name of ministry.”
What is your response to this statement? Do you agree? Have you seen or experienced the progression from self-seeking to destruction?
EXTRA READING:
“I often wondered why, through the great prescient wisdom of God, the beginning of sin was not prevented. For then it seemed to me that would have been well. I mourned and I sorrowed on this account, unreasonably, lacking discretion. But Jesus answered me with these words and said: Sin is necessary, but all will be well, and all will be well, and every kind of thing will be well.”
- Julian of Norwich (1343 - 1416)
Isaiah 49:1-6 (NIV) Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the LORD called me; from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name. He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver. He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendor. ” But I said, “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing at all. Yet what is due me is in the LORD’s hand, and my reward is with my God.” And now the LORD says— he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD and my God has been my strength — he says: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
Mark 11:15-19 (NIV) On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’” The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching. When evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city.