Follow Our Leader

You may not know the name Meghan Rutledge.  I certainly had never heard of her until I saw a “highlight” of her on SportsCenter recently.  “Meghan Rutledge, 18, was comfortably leading the Women’s Moto X 12-lap race at the X Games in Los Angeles on Saturday night when she inexplicably started to pump her right fist during a jump just before the final corner of the race.  Unfortunately for young Meghan, taking her hand of the bike caused her to lose control and, as the bike nosedived, she landed awkwardly, allowing her rival to steal the lead.”   (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/sportvideo)  See Video Below.

As unfortunate as this was for Meghan I imagine she learned a valuable life lesson.  Hopefully, we can learn the same lesson.  We must be careful not to celebrate our victories and triumphs too early or too often for fear of losing perspective and losing sight of reality.  For when we take our eyes off the race, and focus on ourselves, we often crash.  Now please do not misunderstand; we should celebrate, and we should rejoice.  However, our rejoicing should be in Christ and in God the Father and in the Holy Spirit.  Because the reality is this; with every spiritual victory in our life we can expect a vicious attack from the enemy to follow. 

Take a look at Christ’s encounter with victory followed by attack.  In Matthew 3:13 “ . . . Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.  (14)But John tried to deter him, saying ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ (15)Jesus replied ‘Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteiousness.’ Then John consented.  (16)As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water.  At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him.  (17)And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”  Jesus’ baptism was the coronation of Christ as King.  This was his commissioning to his ministry.  I love how John MacArthur puts it: “His baptism in the Jordan declared his royalty; His testing in the wilderness demonstrated it.” 

For immediately following his baptism, Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tested.  Matthew 4:1-4 “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. (2)After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.  (3)The tempter came to him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.’ (4) Jesus answered, ‘It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

The baptism of Jesus was an amazing moment.  It was a fantastic moment.  It is a beautiful picture of obedience and an even more beautiful picture of the relationship of the Holy Trinity.  I love everything about this scene, but I also love what follows.  I love the humility I see in Jesus’ response.  He submits to the leading of the Holy Spirit into the wilderness.  This is not a leading into paradise, or a leading to a crown, but a leading into a barren, hot, dry, wilderness where he will be tested.  Furthermore, I love the humility Christ exhibits as he spends his time fasting, realizing that communion with the Father in Heaven is where he will find his real strength. 

We are all to often eager to celebrate and pat ourselves on the back, yet in Christ we see our Savior showing dependence on the Father.  Attacks will follow our victories;  we can either celebrate, swell up with pride and lose perspective, or we can follow the example of Christ and feast on the Word of God and bask in the presence of God.

When we celebrate ourselves we run the risk of crashing like poor Meghan.  We take our eyes off of the prize, we lose focus in the race, and we crash and burn.  However, when we follow our leader and follow the example of Christ and rely completely and utterly on our Father, we can resist the attacks that come.