Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.”
NL Daily Devotion for Tuesday, January 14, 2025
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
The devil is patient. Having failed to trick, cajole, or entice Jesus into turning away from his mission, he’ll settle for straight up killing him off in the end. What this tells me is that the devil could not have been more wrong about what Jesus’ mission was. He, too, must have believed in the prevailing messianic concept of the time—that Jesus was going to usher in a worldly kingdom of one kind or another. He doesn’t realize that be facilitating Jesus’ death, he is playing a prescribed part in the drama that will lead to his own destruction.
The devil is also beautiful. We shouldn’t think we would be able to easily recognize evil by its ugliness. It comes dressed in lovely things to trick, cajole, and—most often—entice us to turn away from what God calls us to. And if, with God’s help, we succeed in chasing him off, the devil will simply bide his time until he can try again. Luckily for us, he is also mistaken about us and our mission. We are citizens of a kingdom that is not of this world. No matter what is thrown at us, now matter what tragedies befall, God stands with us, sharing our place, feeling our pain, and transforming all into joy in the end (even if that end is not in this temporal existence).
How do I recognize evil? Do I feel safe from it? Why or why not?
