Being able to Say no is the starting point of a successful mission

​In the book of Matthew, shorty after Jesus was baptized, he went into the wilderness to fast and pray for forty days and nights. While there, Satan approached Jesus three separate times with three distinct temptations.

First, Satan tempted Jesus to turn stones into bread to relieve his hunger. Then, Satan challenged Jesus to jump from the top of a temple to prove God could miraculously intervene. And finally, Jesus was offered all the kingdoms of the world if he would simply bow before Satan and worship him.

Jesus said no to all of these temptations.

It would be missing the point if we assumed these temptations were easy for Jesus to say no to because he was the savior of the world. We can't forget, this savior of the world came to the world in the form of humanity to assure us that he DOES understand every bit of our humanity.

Not the least of which is the lure of human temptations.

I think it's also important, and this is a point becoming clear to me for the first time this morning as I write this, that these temptations in Matthew happened at the beginning of Jesus' ministry. Before Jesus went about showing us the things he would do to reflect his character, he showed us there were things he would refuse to do.

He showed us that becoming who we long to be often starts with being able to say no to who we do not long to be.

Maybe Jesus could see coming what has certainly come to be, at least in our American culture. There are more temptations available today than anyone could have seen coming when Satan was tempting Jesus to turn stones into bread in the wilderness.

We are all in a wilderness of sorts today, and Satan is showing up with a relentless discharge of temptations.

Technology and social media has been Satan's friend in this discharge. The availability of alcohol and drugs certainly hasn't hurt his cause. Nor have the endless invitations and opportunities for humans to express disdain for one another.

And that's only the beginning of Satan's 2024 arsenal.

Yes, temptation has always been an obstacle to human beauty. But today it can get to feeling like we are carrying a three-ton weight on our backs while trying to scoot ourselves over and around those obstacles.

So I think it's more important than ever to know that where we want to go starts with being able to refuse to NOT go anywhere that isn't that place.

Jesus had a pretty important mission in mind when he came to earth. And he started that mission by demonstrating that an important part of a successful mission, maybe the MOST important part, is being able to say no to things trying to pull us away from it.

We all spend a lot of time planning where we want to go. We also spend a lot of time being frustrated that we aren't there yet.

Maybe it's time to consider that what's holding us up isn't that we aren't doing the right things, it's that we haven't demonstrated the capacity or willingness to say no to the wrong things.

This was Jesus' starting point.

Maybe we should consider making it ours.