There has never been a time when God has not watched over and cared for us. From the days of creation, to the time of the oppression that the people of Israel endured and were rescued from, to the days of Jesus time here on earth, right up to this very day – He is ever watchful and loving.
In our earliest days He was stern and commanding because we were young and rebellious and were easily led down wrong paths. We had no roots in the land. Gradually though, we grew as a people, through His grace, and became more than nomadic tribes, we took root in Israel. We learned and worked to educate others about Israels God. We stopped wondering, and we built our homes, cities, and places of worship. We matured and grew and sought knowledge of our Creator.
In his time, our Lord came to us in our own fleshly manifestation, and walked among us, taught us, healed our bodies, and gave his own for our sake so that our souls might be healed and we could be reconciled with our Father in heaven. He took the suffering that should have been ours upon himself and gave everything of Himself for us so that nothing was left. He did this out of love.
Yet with all this history of love and caring, we sometimes doubt. We think that the God of the universe who did all this for us, somehow may not understand us and what we deal with in our daily struggles. It doesn’t make sense if we really think about it. This is especially true in light of todays Gospel. There is literally nothing that the devil did not try to get our Lord to give in to temptation. The narrative doesn’t fully do justice to what our Lord endured and stood fast against. We all know that Satan has many means at his disposal to try to tempt us, and he certainly did not spare effort when he encountered our Lord in human form. This, however, is the whole point, he tried everything and failed. Our Lord would not give in to sin, and yet experienced all the powerful temptations we do because He was one of us in the flesh. This should give us a great deal of confidence in both his understanding of all that we are subject to, and also in His mercy because he has been through it and knows how difficult it can be to remain unscathed. Difficult, yes, but not impossible, He proved that as he was both God and man. He gave us a model to follow, a success to take confidence in, and an unwavering love so that we are to be assured of his forgiveness for each of us when we stumble and come to him in repentance and humility. No temptation is not understood, no sin is beyond His forgiveness, and no person beyond his loving gift of redemption.
The Deacons Bench 