40: The Temptation of Christ

My name is John.

For years I lived in the wilderness.

Waiting for the Messiah to come.

This is where I stay, every day.

Warning Israel they must turn from their sinful ways.

And prepare their hearts for the coming of our Savior.

Hundreds, thousands came to the river to be baptized.

Then one day,

He came.

The clouds parted and the Spirit descended upon us.

This is my beloved Son.

In whom I am well pleased.

And just like that,

He was gone.

This is where my story ends and yours with Him begins.

Before Israel, Christ journeyed into the Judean.

No food, no water.

No sin for Him to carry.

This is the beginning

of the 40-Day Temptation of Christ.

May the morning bring me word

of your unfailing love

for I have put my trust in you.

Show me the way

that I should go for to you I entrust my life.

Teach me to do your will

for you are my God.

May your good spirit

lead me

on level ground.

Remember not the former things

nor consider the things of old.

Behold,

I am doing a new thing

and now it springs forth.

Do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness

and rivers in the desert.

Yeshua?

Yeshua.

Go tell your father supper is almost ready.

He'll wanna finish his work soon so he can eat while it's still hot.

Yeshua, what's the matter?

This is rotted. This is no good. This is split.

No good.

I can use that.

That's not bad.

Yeshua?

Yeshua, what's wrong?

The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him.

Though he may stumble,

he will not fall

for the Lord will uphold him with his hands.

Send me your light and faithful care.

Let them lead me.

Let them bring me to your Holy mountain

to the place where You dwell.

The Heavens declare the glory of God.

The skies proclaim the work of His hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech.

Night after night

they reveal knowledge.

But they have no speech.

They use no words.

No sound is heard from them.

Yet their voice goes out to all of the earth.

Their words to the end of the world.

In the Heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.

It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chambers.

Like a champion rejoicing to run his course.

It rises from one end of the Heavens

and makes its circuit to the other.

Nothing is deprived of its warmth.

In the deserts,

prepare the way for the Lord.

And make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.

Every Valley shall be raised up.

The mountains and hills made low,

the rugged ground made level

and the rough places a plain.

And the glory of God will be revealed

and all of mankind will see it

for the mouth of God has spoken.

"Comfort,

comfort my people,"

says God.

I'm not hungry.

Please Mary, I have to finish this.

He's asleep.

Can you tell me what he said?

You heard what he said.

Not when he was with you.

You heard what he said, after.

Yes, but what did it mean?

You know what he meant.

Please don't speak to me in riddles.

Mary.

When I found him in the temple I went to reprimand him for running away

and he looked at me and said, "Where else would I be

but in my father's house?"

My father's house! He said that to me!

What else could he have meant?

Do you remember the year before he was born

or have you forgotten it? Because I sure haven't.

How could you ask me that?

Because sometimes it feels like it was a dream.

And sometimes I wish, selfishly, that it were a dream.

That he really is our son.

And he will always be our son.

When you found him, what was he doing?

What was he doing? He was talking with the elders in the courtyard.

About what?

I'm not gonna go there.

About what, Joseph? I want to know, I want to know what our son said.

Not our son.

Your son.

Your son.

No man in history has ever had to carry the burden you have, my love.

And no man ever could but you.

You.

You are the greatest man I've ever known, Joseph of Nazareth.

God would not have given you Yeshua if that were not true.

Yeshua was telling them the story of Abraham.

And how he carried Isaac up the top of Moriah

as a sacrifice for the sins.

And how God provided him a ram.

Mary, I was just telling him that story last week.

But it was different.

When he told it was, it was like nothing I ever heard before.

As if he, as if he were somehow inside the story.

As if it were about him.

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I shall fear no evil.

For You are with me.

Your rod and Your staff.

They comfort me.

You prepare a ta...

You prepare a table

before me

in the presence of my enemies.

Who are you?

What brings you here?

What have you come to do?

Have you not known?

Have you not heard?

Do you know who I am?

How you have fallen from grace, morning star,

son of the dawn.

You have been cast down to the earth.

You who laid low the nations.

You said in your heart,

"I will ascend above the Heavens.

I will raise my throne above the stars of God.

I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly.

I'll rise above the tops of the clouds

and make myself like the most high."

But you've been brought down to the realm of the dead

and the depths of the pit.

Those who stare at you

ponder your fate.

Is this the man who shook the earth

and made kingdoms tremble?

Is this the man who made the world a wilderness?

Who overthrew cities

and would not let his captives go home?

So you do.

Now I've seen you before, down by the river, with the Baptist.

You smell awfully familiar.

Like two people I have not seen in a very long time.

The first one I met in a garden centuries ago and the other one

is much older than that.

Do you know what brings you

or do you just follow the wind?

Where He leads me, I will follow.

Where He calls me, I will go.

Take a look where you're standing.

This.

All of this is mine.

And I can help you.

I can show you the way.

I am the way.

No.

No, what you are is lost.

You're frail,

afraid,

and helpless

ever since the day the dust released your kind from its clutches.

Just as the shepherd watches over his scattered flock when he is with them,

so will I watch over my sheep.

I will rescue them from the places they were scattered on that day of clouds and darkness.

The sheep are hopeless.

They do nothing but wander.

They always lose their way.

They always stumble to the mouth of the beast.

You think you are doing something good but you do it in vain.

Because in the end, death swallows it all.

I swallow it all.

I will find the lost and the stray.

I will bind up the wounded and strengthen the weak.

I will shepherd my herd with justice.