The Distorted Story of Broken Fallen Men

From The Voice New Testament

Matt 4:4--It is written, "Man does not live by bread alone.  Rather, He lives on every word that comes from the mouth of the Eternal One."

     Satan had just delivered his first temptation to Jesus after Jesus had fasted for 40 days.  Jesus, of course, was hungry.  It's not that He could not have done it.  As a matter of fact, the gospels declare that He seemingly pulled bread and fish out of thin air to feed thousands of hungry people.  What's the difference?

     Look at this familiar exchange between Peter and Jesus as interpreted in The Voice New Testament.  In Matthew 16, Jesus had started teaching them that He was going to be crucified and would rise again.  Peter chastised Him by telling Him "No, Lord! Never!  These things that You are saying--they will never happen to You!"

      Here is Jesus answer.  "You are a stumbling block before Me!  You are not thinking about God's story; you are thinking about some distorted story of fallen, broken people."  The King James Version quotes His comment this way.  "Thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men."  Peter was looking at what Jesus had just said from the light of the fact that he never, ever wanted to be away from Jesus.  He did not even want to entertain any idea of Jesus passing from the scene of action.  


     Jesus was talking about His death and resurrection.  Peter could not get resurrection through his thick skull.  He heard Jesus say that He was going to die.  Peter did not want to be without Jesus.  He couldn't understand that Jesus was just paving the way for the whole scale return of God's Presence on the day of Pentecost.  Rather, just like you and me, this broken, fallen Peter was thinking some distorted story of how awful it would be if Jesus were to die.


     Just like Peter, the rest of us broken, fallen people fashion distorted stories about God through our broken, fallen minds.  Now, let's go back to the main question about Jesus turning stone into bread.  You and I see nothing wrong about turning stone into bread because we would be hungry after fasting for forty days.  That seems to us broken, fallen folks as being the "normal" thing to do.  After all, it's all about us.  Isn't it?


     Jesus put the correct perspective on it when He declared to satan in Matthew 4 that He prefers to live by every Word that comes out of God's mouth.  Hear God's heart.  He sent His Son to heal and enrich the lives of broken, fallen people who could only think of life as some distorted story.  He came to tell the true story of a Heavenly Father that loves them more than life itself.  That was His focus. That was the reason for His living and His dying.


     In John 13, Jesus talked about the "new" commandment.  He instructed His disciples to love one another as He loved them.  It was that love for a broken, fallen people with a distorted story, that caused the Son of God to refuse to turn stone into bread for his own consumption.  All He had to do was walk into town and buy some.  

     After all, it was not about Him anyway.  It was all about us that He spent His life on earth.  That was His Father's heart.  That was all that the Father thought about and that was behind all of the Father's actions.  Heal and feed the broken and fallen.  Then re-write the distorted story they had been forced to read by the evil one.  Jesus wrote the story of God's unselfish love by His actions.  If we will choose to dwell in His Presence,  He will teach us the REAL story of His desire for mankind.