Because of Holy Week, this reflection is being released on Monday morning instead of Wednesday morning. The hopes in doing so is that there would be more time to reflect on and linger in the truth concerning testing. My prayer is that it produces confidence to face the reality of this week in order that we may experience transformation in our lives.
Who doesn’t love a good cliff-hanger? Mallory and I recently watched a show together where every episode left us wanting more. The episode would end, we would look at each other, glance at the clock—ignoring all good sense to say enough is enough—and ask “one more?” Cliff hangers provide exhilarating and uneasy feelings. They shake up the snow globes in our brains and oftentimes we do not give enough time for things to settle. Our modern day media platforms have ruined the cliff-hanger. Instead, they have exploited the human desire for wanting more. And to quote the old JG Wentworth commercials that I hated as a kid, “we want it NOW!”
It seems that we have been conditioned to resist any and all tension that arises in our lives. Rather than sitting, reflecting, and forming real ideas around what we are consuming, we just watch more. We worry that we will miss out from a cultural conversation that lacks any real substance. Why sit and wait when you can just have what you want now? But what if this is not good for us?
This is a funny way of easing us into a less than desirable conversation: a conversation that involves embracing and enduring suffering. All human beings suffer. This is because all human beings are tested. Yet, humans treat the tension of testing the same as we treat the tension brought about by inconsequential cliff-hangers. Rather than embrace the tension—a place of intense formation and discipline—we either succumb to the test through lack of resistance or we race to the next thing to avoid it. Both of these ways expose our lack of preparation for testing.
Testing (peirasmos) is half of the the climactic close in the Lord’s Prayer. The Lord’s Prayer, which we are well-acquainted with by now, goes as follows:
Our Father in Heaven,
May Your name be kept holy.
May Your Kingdom come.
May Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not bring us to the time of trial [peirasmon, test],
but rescue us from the evil one.
A few weeks ago, I found myself rushing through the end of the prayer. It was as if I removed the comma break entirely. My conditioned soul raced past testing to find deliverance. Then a moment of conviction came. Instead of racing through the comma break, I began to treat this phrase about testing as a cliff-hanger.
“Lead us not into the test…”
Lingering in the tension of this phrase, I allowed the Holy Spirit to come and settle my soul in those three dots. In some way, it was accepting the reality I had been running from. I have been tested. I am being tested. I will face greater tests. And while the reality of testing is inescapable, so too is the Presence of God Who guides me through testing and equips me with strength to endure.
This cliff-hanger—those three dots—allow us to remember that testing reveals trust. Testing acts as revelation of an inward reality, exposing the true allegiances within us. While initially the thought of testing may seem repulsive (as it should to our flesh), it often serves as a way in which we are formed and God’s glory is revealed. In reflecting on the forty years of wandering in the wilderness, Deuteronomy 8:2 reads:
Remember the long way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments.
As humans, we often glorify short-cuts and efficiency. God in His wisdom and patience may not agree with this, especially in the area of formation. He uses tests to reveal what is inside of us. This is true of all human beings, not just the unlucky few. No matter the demographics, testing will come. This brings to mind 1 Corinthians 10:13 from this Sunday’s sermon:
No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and He will not let be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing He will also provide a way out so that you may be able to endure it.
The most important part of this verse is not what you may think. The key takeaway here is not “provide a way out” but “God is faithful.” The “way out” is not escaping the test, but being able to endure the test on account of God’s faithfulness. Not only does testing reveal what is inside of us, but it reveals the nature of Who God is. It is here that testing becomes something worthy of our attention. For if we try to outrun the testing set before us, we not only reveal our faith-lessness but we miss out on experiencing God’s faithfulness. This is hard pill to swallow, but a necessary one. It is here we look to Christ as our example.
Jesus Christ was fully human and fully God. This idea is known as the hypostatic union and is integral to orthodox Christian doctrine. Because Jesus Christ was fully human, we know that Christ was tried and tested in all ways known to humans except He was without sin (Hebrews 4:15). We should not be so dismissive to this fact, attributing it only to His divinity, but with humility we should sit at our Master’s feet and learn from how He handled testing. For it is true of us who are in Christ that we have been equipped to the good work prepared for us in advance to do and that the Spirit of God who raised Christ from the dead now lives in us and guides us into all truth, especially in times of testing. In short, Jesus submitted fully to the Father’s will, not His own. This is captured in the Garden of Gethsemane (the Garden of Pressing) as He prays before His betrayal, arrest, torture, and crucifixion.
Jesus understood the test set before Him. He did not blink. He did not run. He yielded. In doing so, the test revealed the trust He had in the Father and would lead to proving the Father’s faithfulness to Him through His resurrection. Testing revealed the true nature of Christ and the true nature of the Father: faithful. The tests we face present the same opportunities.
A simple way of concluding this reflection is as follows: in order to experience the glory of the empty tomb we must embrace the Cross. This week, the Church observes the final week of Jesus’ life. Let us not forgo the reality of Good Friday in exchange for Easter Sunday, but hold both together. Let us embrace the tension of testing. While it may bring suffering, this is temporary state will be exchanged for eternal glory. In short, He is worth it. Therefore, we embrace the temporariness of the cliff-hangers that life gives as we settle deeper into the reality that God’s faithfulness is eternal.
As we approach Easter Sunday and face testing in our own lives, consider this verse:
The saying is sure:
If we have died with Him, we will also live with Him;
If we endure, we will also reign with Him;
If we deny Him, He will also deny us;
If we are faithless, He remains faithful—
He cannot deny Himself.
2 Timothy 2:11-13