Readings: Genesis 4:6-7, and Matthew 4:1-11.

God is and has always been present to His creation. How fragrant and sweet is the breath that gave us life! The God of Peace in His love for us gave us a mind, heart and soul to steer through the changes and chances of life.

In our first reading God counsels Cain, the firstborn of Eve, who is angry and downcast. God tells Cain that if he does not do what is right, then the sin that leads to death is crouching at his door. Sin and death desires to have him, but he is told to rule over it. Despite this advice, Cain chooses what is wrong, he submits himself to his own passions and allows sin into the inner sanctuary of his heart.

So, just as Adam lacked self-restraint when he ate the apple in the garden, now Cain lacking a mastery of the ‘self’ has spilled the blood of his brother Abel, and the ground swallows it up, turning the waters under the earth to blood, and his soul a crimson red.

The cost of our freedom is great, it is a matter of life or death. Sin turns our hearts back into the dust of the earth and hardens it like stone. Sin makes us no more than objects alive only for the ends of ourselves or the whims of another. Objects to possess and rule over, or passions to be ruled by. Sin holds us in bondage to the externals of the world, it sees what is outside, it compares, judges, competes, despairs, and desires.

So, when God frees us from being bound to these externals, He is setting us apart from the world. We, like the Israelites, being chosen as children of God pass through the waters – a washing away of the world, and a passing away of the flesh into a time of wilderness.

When all that is outside is stripped away, we are left to face ourselves alone with God. The wilderness is the place of finding the self, a place of discovery, the place of awareness and ultimately the place where we build a relationship with God.

St Augustine writes “In your inner self you will be renewed in God’s image. And in His image, you will recognise your Creator”.

Jesus begins His ministry with a re-enactment of the first Exodus, as the writer of the letter to the Hebrews says, “For we do not have a high priest unable to empathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet He did not sin.” (Hebrews 4:15).

Jesus is led from His baptism into the wilderness where Satan tempts Him with pride, greed, and power. But the world does not belong to him, it belongs to God, it isn’t his to possess or give away – it’s all a lie. Satan attempts to imitate God, yet his offers are false, and empty. Satan’s promises are the road to death.

“Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.”

Let us keep our hearts and the eyes of our mind always turned to Him. Scripture says, “above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” (Proverbs 4:23). When Jesus enters Jerusalem, He is entering into the heart of His people. And it is from the heart that He is rejected and begins the second and new Exodus that frees us from our hidden faults. “You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence”. (Psalm 90:8).

For Christians, the Holy Spirit is the guiding light of Christ accepted and taken into our hearts. In finding ourselves and finding God we begin to build the bridge of relationship between heaven and earth. Relationship is that place of encounter and transformation, the place of being unique, known and loved. St Francis of Assisi is said to have prayed the words ‘Who are you, Lord my God, and who am I?’ Two fundamental questions for us on our Christian journey.

But this relationship is not a place of ‘self’ improvement, but of self-acceptance and a learning of self-restraint. It is the place of discovering what truly matters in life, which is His love for us, and our love for others. Love is not a silly desire or want but a necessity. Love is the light that shows us the Way through the changes and chances of life.

So, what of self-mastery? To become a ruler over the self is to fix the eyes of the mind in the darkness of the flesh, not on the light of Christ. It becomes an oppressive inward gaze that is not focused on God, it has rules, judgements, and punishments, and whatever we allow within us, we also permit outwardly.

I find it interesting that in ancient times, to be a ruler was considered a masculine and dominant trait. To be submissive to others or ruled by our desires was thought of as feminine. Our modern eyes might consider this archaic, but it can help us to understand scripture and understand how to navigate the relationship between God and the self. For the Scriptures say that we are to submit to God, this opens up the femininity of wisdom who is portrayed as a bride, and the adulteress or daughter Babylon who turns away and submits herself instead to the externals of our world, as well as being bonded to her passions.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” (Proverbs 10:27).

But in our hearts Christ is King, the masculine ruler, upon whom we lean for support. It is in His strength we exercise self-restraint and turn to Him in all things – whether that be success or failure – for everything is grace so that there is no meritocracy in heaven or on earth. This leaves us with unity of heart and mind, equality, and love – not based on what is seen, but what is unseen.

St Paul writes that by faith, “there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28).

Socrates also argued that wisdom and moderation cannot be separated, which means that we who now know what is right but do not do it are not in Christ but in ourselves.

Our souls, and our hearts were the dry and thirsty land, but the blood of His sacrifice is painted on the doorposts of our hearts, and death is defeated – so now all that enters and departs participates in His life and His love, sin is no longer crouching at the door and, “rivers are flowing on the barren heights and the desert turned into pools of water and parched ground into springs”. (Isaiah 41:18). Rivers of light flow in the eyes of the mind and springs quench the parched ground of our hearts. 

O Jesus come into our hearts and give us your eyes so that we can see! Let Your living water flow into our being – be Lord the gardener of that oasis within us. Let us participate in Your wholeness, and Your joy that completes – so that we too become ones able to stir the waters in the soul.

~

Our motivation, our gaze is upon the Lord of heaven and earth, our eyes and hearts are raised up to meet Him. The waters have become wine, and in our discipleship, we have become missionaries of the heart.

Amen.