Prayer: God of wisdom, keep my mind always turned in your direction. Amen.
6 – Do I Have to Do That?
Matthew 3:13–17 — (13) Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. (14) John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” (15) But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. (16) And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. (17) And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
Before college, when you lived at home, there were probably a lot of things you had to do that you didn’t think you needed to do—like be home by 10 pm week nights. Now you’re in college and . . . you discover that college will make you do things you don’t want to do—like fill out a form that you already filled out. Or maybe they want you to learn something that you absolutely know you will never need to know.
This is really where it gets interesting. Let’s say you are going to be a brain surgeon or an orchestra conductor and your college says you must learn a foreign language. You think: I’ll never need another language because everything I will need to know is already written in English. And then you wind up in the Army fighting in Afghanistan or stranded as a tourist in Argentina. Surprise! It would really have helped to know the local language.
Or you say you are going into sales and advertising and your college says you also need to have math. You think, I’ll need to know about interpersonal relationships and TV because that’s where supply meets demand; but who needs math? And then your boss sends you to accounting to figure out if the company is really making money.
John the Baptist called people to repent—literally, “change their minds”—and make that “change” (repentance) public by being baptized. While Jesus did not need to repent or be baptized he went to John and was baptized. Here was an example—one of the first of many—of Jesus’ doing what he really didn’t need to do but did anyway. Usually, doing what college wants you to do won’t hurt. And who knows, it might turn out that you really did need it.
Prayer: Lord, can you give me the grace to do what I have to do even though I don’t want to? Amen.
7 – Don’t Mess with My Resume
Matthew 4:1–11 — (1) Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. (2) And he fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was famished. (3) The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” (4) But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (5) Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, (6) 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.’” (7) Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (8) Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; (9) and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” (10) Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” (11) Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
Do you ever wonder if your parents would like you more if you changed in some way? Jesus is the Son of God. Okay, but what does that mean? The ability to leap tall buildings in a single bound? Having a chart-busting IQ? Being the nicest person of all time?
Here at the beginning of his public ministry, Jesus is questioned by the devil, and we get to eavesdrop on this conversation where the “job description” for Son of God is the topic. Satan tempts Jesus with options—all of which look good. He doesn’t try to sidetrack Jesus from his role as Son of God as much as it is to get him to betray his “family.” Satan wants Jesus to live out his Sonship in the service of another family.
The options presented by Satan are stunning: feed the hungry, use the power of God for personal gratification, take over the whole world. But the real temptation—the elephant in the room—was to deny God and accept the plan and the authority of Satan.
This story is about Jesus, not about you. But you might learn from it that you are part of a family and growing into who you are to become does not necessitate your leaving that family.
Prayer: Father of Jesus, I am thankful that Jesus’ deepest loyalty is to you. Amen.
8 – The World’s Shortest Sermon
Matthew 4:12–17 — (12) Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. (13) He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, (14) so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: (15) “Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—(16) the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.” (17) From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
In many of your classes, the main thing the instructor wants to accomplish is to shake up your thinking and open you to thinking in new ways. But even students can be hesitant about thinking in new ways. You can overestimate the probable (the sun will rise tomorrow) and underestimate the improbable (the events of 9/11).
An improbability that Christians have struggled with for centuries is that of the kingdom of God. (In the Gospel of Matthew, it is always called “the kingdom of heaven.”) It is a shorthand expression for the effective rule of God over the world and for the commitment of all people to live as God intended us to live when he created us. This “kingdom of heaven” was described by Jesus in his numerous parables as he told story after story, comparison after comparison to try to suggest what it might be like if God were totally accepted as “in charge.” If that happened, there truly would be a change of thinking.
Jesus came into the world at a time when a foreign nation ruled his people. That was about the fifth different foreign government that had ruled God’s people since 587 BCE. They were getting pretty tired of it. But Jesus had a truly game-changing idea: that God should be acknowledged as ruler of all people and that people accept that as the motivating idea in their lives. And that was his message: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Indeed Jesus incarnated that kingdom, making it happen and making it near. It still is near because he still brings it.
Prayer: Help me to repent each and every day to look for the new ideas that you have for me. Amen.
9 – Disengagement
Matthew 4:18–22 — (18) As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. (19) And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” (20) Immediately they left their nets and followed him. (21) As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. (22) Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.
The transition to college can be hard. Part of it is the newness. New people. New places. New stuff.
But what about the old stuff. Do you leave it behind? Do you keep connected to it? How does that work?
You can’t just up and leave it all behind; even if you wanted to. There are things that can’t be changed: family relationships, deeply held convictions, some personal habits (good ones and bad ones).
Your encounter with Jesus has something of the same