Conversation in Faith

  • The Proper Use of Power

    I’ve been spending a lot of time this past year thinking about power and how it is used and misused. Perhaps you have been too. The more I read and contemplate on the gospels, the more I realize how important it is to think seriously about how Jesus uses power and what he teaches about power.

    Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”But he answered,

    “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

    Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,

    ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”

    Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

    Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written,

    ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’”

    Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him. Matthew 4:1-11 NRSVue

    What I find interesting, this year1, about these temptations, is that they concern the proper use of power. Jesus isn’t without power and the ability to use that power. All we have to do is read the gospels to see that. The tempter asks Jesus, since he is the Son of God,2 to do things that he can already do. He does not tempt Jesus with new abilities or new powers. The temptation is to misuse the power he has.

    Jesus, while not specifically turning stones into bread, does miraculously feed thousands of people. And of course, he himself is the bread of life. The issue in this request is how Jesus is to use his power?

    Then at the pinnacle of the Temple, Jesus is challenged by the devil again and it’s a two part temptation. First, make God show that God will send angels to save you. At the end of this encounter with the devil, God does indeed send angels to care for Jesus. Angels are sometimes called the heavenly host, meaning the army of God. When Jesus was arrested, he reminds the disciples and those coming to arrest him that God would send angels to protect Jesus if Jesus asked.3 Will Jesus use his power to summon the army of God to save him?

    Secondly, appearing on the pinnacle of the Temple and then leaping off to be saved by an army of angels would certainly be a dramatic and highly visible declaration of power. And Jesus never does that. His entire ministry is with the forgotten and marginalized. Even the resurrection is revealed only to a few at a time. The way of Jesus is not high visibility grandstanding. Will Jesus use his power to dramatize his status as Son of God?

    Finally the devil claims he can deliver all the kingdoms of the world to Jesus in exchange for worship. Of course the irony is that all the kingdoms already belong to Jesus, as the Son of God. With whom will Jesus align himself? With the one who promises an apparently easy path of domination or will he use his power as the Son to follow the more difficult, non coercive way of God?

    How does Jesus use his power? For his own respite, for his own care, for his own comfort, his own glory?

    These temptations, and Jesus’ response to them, set the context for how Jesus lives and moves in the world. Jesus has power. He knows it. The devil knows it. The disciples know it. We know it. The point isn’t that he is powerless.

    Jesus’ power isn’t simply raw, brute force power. Jesus’ power isn’t self aggrandizing. Jesus does not use his power for his own glorification. It’s not coercive or manipulative power over others. Jesus’ power both grows out of and is rooted in love. Love controls and guides and shapes Jesus’ power. Jesus uses his power out of love and to increase love in the world.

    The gospel lesson for us is seeing how Jesus uses his power. And modeling the use of our power after his. We all have some measure of power. Some of us, obviously, have much more power than others of us. We have, at least, power over how we respond to God’s intention and hope for us. We have power over how we respond to other people. Do we respond out of love, or in anger or fear?

    What would it mean for me to be aware of the power I have and then to intentionally use it as Jesus does, rooted, grounded, and growing in love?

    1. The story of the temptation of Jesus occurs every year in the lectionary. For some posts from previous years, see, here, and here, and here ↩︎
    2. Commentators tell us that the “if” in this text is not so much about proof- prove to me you’re the Son of God by doing this thing. This “if” is more in line with our word “since” – since you are the Son of God, do this. ↩︎
    3. Matthew 26:47-56 ↩︎

  • Listen to Him!

    Sometimes stories in the Bible are hard to grasp. Perhaps the cultural context is so different we have trouble understanding it. Perhaps the text challenges some deeply held belief or a long held assumption. Sometimes the stories are just weird and perplexing. The Transfiguration story is a bit of all of these. What do we do with such a strange story? Why should it matter to us?

    Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became bright as light. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will set up three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” And when they raised their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

    As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.” Matthew 17:1-9 NRSVue

    Just before the Transfiguration, Jesus has asked the disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” and “Who do you say that I am?” Peter responds, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” Then Jesus tells them he must suffer, die, and be raised. And then he tells the disciples, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?”1

    This was the first time Jesus told the disciples that he will suffer, die, and be resurrected. This was not at all what they expected the Messiah to do. Six days later, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up the mountain. I wonder what they talked about in those six days? Surely they had questions.

    Jesus and three of the disciples go up a high mountain. In the Bible, mountains are places where important encounters with God occur. So we are forewarned that something significant is going to happen. On the mountain, Jesus is transfigured, or transformed or metamorphosed or changed2. Whatever we call it, Jesus is revealed in a new way to them. And if that wasn’t enough, Moses and Elijah show up and are talking with Jesus. I wonder what they were talking about? Perhaps they all commiserate about how difficult working with humans actually is. We don’t know.

    How do you react when something amazing and totally unexpected happens? Some of us are silent, as James and John were. We are literally speechless. Others of us,like Peter, start talking.

    It’s a very human impulse to want to mark the location to remember this extraordinary occasion. Peter proposes building tents. The word “tents” could also suggest building tabernacles, perhaps like the dwelling of God during the Exodus. Just as God appeared in a cloud in the tabernacle, God comes and is present in a cloud at the transfiguration.

    And then,God interrupts Peter! Peter is talking, trying to make sense of what is happening, trying to properly honor the experience, and God cuts him off. I chuckle every time I read this. I wonder how often God hears our enthusiastic attempts to honor God and thinks that maybe we should be quiet and reflect more?

    What God says is mostly exactly what God said at Jesus baptism. “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”3 And then God says, “Listen to him!” The Bible rarely gives us clues about tone of voice. This year (2026) I imagine God is emphatic. Maybe God is just a bit frustrated. Perhaps even shouting. LISTEN TO HIM!

    That seems to me to be a word for us today. Listen to him! Our inclination may be to memorialize. To build something. Create a painting, a song, a poem, a theological treatise, a social media post. We may be inclined to analyze and evaluate the experience. We may earnestly desire to stay in the presence of the Holy. None of those impulses are wrong. They can be useful. They have their place.

    But God doesn’t say, “Great idea Peter!” God says “Listen to him!” Perhaps because God knows how hard it is for us to really listen and then follow Jesus. That question for Peter and the other disciples is a question for us as well.

    What would we be doing today if we listened to Jesus? What if we read the gospel of Matthew (or any of the gospels for that matter) and pay attention to what Jesus said and did? How would our lives be different? Many of us would be making some changes in our lives and in our churches, and in our communities.

    After they hear the voice of God, the disciples fell to the ground and “were overcome with fear”. Perhaps, likely even, because they were in the presence of God. But what if they were also overcome by the implications of listening to Jesus? What if they were overcome by what listening to Jesus, taking him seriously would mean?

    No wonder they were afraid.

    And then, the divine cloud is gone. Moses and Elijah are gone. Jesus is no longer transfigured. They see “Jesus himself alone”. They are will the Jesus they know and trust and love. And they get up and they go down the mountain with him.

    We often treat what happens next as a separate incident. But maybe we shouldn’t. When the three disciples follow Jesus, after this holy encounter, there is no pause for reflection other than the time it takes to walk down the mountain. They walk down the mountain and end up in a crowd. A man comes and begs Jesus to heal his son.4 They have followed Jesus right back into the thick of things. Because listening to Jesus, means following Jesus. And when we follow Jesus we end up in the midst of the world as it actually is. Not the world of secluded mountain tops. We end up in and among real people with their real lives and concerns.

    How would our lives and our world be changed if we listened to Jesus?

    1. Matthew 16:13-26. selected verses NRSVue ↩︎
    2. each of these words is an acceptable translation. ↩︎
    3. Matthew 3:17 ↩︎
    4. Matthew 17: 14-21 ↩︎

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