Anonymous: Jesus' hidden years...and yours

by Alicia Britt Chole

He was hungry and made no effort to deny the existence of that hunger.

In some ways, our global economy thrives on enabling our appetites’ addiction to immediate gratification. In such an environment, appetite has become the spoiled child of our culture: she gets what she wants when she wants it; otherwise she cries loudly. The emotional volume of that cry can be deafening, but it is either her tears today or our souls’ tears tomorrow.

What grows in anonymous seasons? The

anchor of God’s Word in our souls. Hidden years provided the space for Jesus (and provide the space for us) to invest in Scripture meditation and memorization.

Consistency, not speed, is the key to this adventure.

Esteeming God’s Word as even more than a treasured Bible but as the initiator and preserver of our very lives will grant us the motivation necessary to reposition our resistant feelings behind God’s preexistent truth. Disciplining our emotions and appetites is strenuous. But refusing (or simply ignoring) the life-sustaining, preexisting power of God’s Word is spiritual selfsabotage.

Icebergs do not grow their virtually indestructible strength top down, but bottom up.

Like love and peace, self-control is not conferred or awarded; it is cultivated and accumulated.

Paul lists self-control as a nonnegotiable quality of anyone placed in governing or mentoring roles2 and as a virtue the learning generation should seek.3

Anchoring ourselves in God’s Word is close to impossible if, in our hearts, we are unsure that God and his Word are good.

“Why not now?!” is a cry that brings to the forefront what we actually believe about God. His timing, especially during hidden years, can offend our sense of justice: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8–9)

During these hidden years, Jesus evidently did not underestimate the lifetime consequences of seemingly small, unseen choices in the realm of appetite.

Today always counts. If we fail to deal with

issues today, they will deal with us tomorrow.

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:7–8)

Standing on the temple’s tip, Satan dangled before Jesus another enticing lure: mankind’s attention and awe. He whispered, “Imagine what you could accomplish if you were viewed and pursued as spectacular.”

I liken mankind’s acceptance and applause to rain: we appreciate it when it comes and yearn for it when it is gone, but we have precious little control over its coming or going.

Standing on the tip of the temple, Jesus heard Satan’s voice again: “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” (Matthew 4:6) Evidently, someone else had also been memorizing Scripture, which simply cautions us not to confuse reading the Bible with obeying God’s Word.

Instead, Satan was inviting Jesus to use privilege and performance to win the approval of man.

Satan’s temptations often muddy our noble intentions with his ignoble methods.

More specifically, selfpromoting means and methods have a way of mutating beyond recognition even the most selfless of original intentions.

Their history, and our own experience, reveals that miraculous signs do not automatically create within us either contentment in our circumstances or confidence in God’s future provision.

From the tip of the temple, amidst the leaders and the crowds, and eventually upon a splintered, bloodied cross, Jesus saw clearly that honoring God’s ways and living for man’s awe were mutually incompatible life motivations. True then and still true today.

Praise slid off Jesus like water off a window. To have allowed it to collect would have warped the image of God others could see through his life.

In that silence, unsupported by rounds of applause, hidden years provide the opportunity for us to wrestle with what truly makes us significant.

Rarely does hiddenness visit us only once in our lifetimes.

Stripped of what others affirmed in us, we are left staring at our undecorated selves, wondering what makes us truly special.

Through the first layer of the temptation we saw how hidden years provide the opportunity to develop an accurate portrait of God. In this second layer, we discover that hidden years also provide an environment in which we can develop a healthy portrait of ourselves.

What grows in anonymous seasons? Our trust in God’s timing.

Much earlier in anonymous, we examined how Jesus must have awakened each day during his hidden years and asked, “Father God, are we there yet? Is today the day?” Day after day, month after month, year after year Jesus would have heard the same reply: “No, my Son. We are not there yet. Today is not the day.”

More than we can imagine rests on whether we will yield to God’s not yet. The time would come when Jesus would defy death, not from a temple height, but from an empty tomb!

before Jesus a lure of earthly power and possession.

We all have a natural human longing to make a difference in this world.

I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me. But he said to me, “Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers the prophets and of all who keep the words of this book. Worship God!” (Revelation 22:8–9) Basically, the

On the edge of the desert, physically and spiritually, Moses set this choice before the people: worship only God or pay for idolatry with your life.

But nothing in heaven or earth was worth more to Jesus than Father God’s presence.

back. In that sense, souls are not sold; they are forfeited.

Satan’s offer was real but shortsighted. He tempted Jesus to give up his soul permanently to gain the world temporarily.

Like a shrewd salesman,

Satan customizes his offer for each person. The view changes, but the price is fixed.

As mentioned previously, the word desert in the Scriptures is not necessarily a reference to oceans of dry sand but to any empty or abandoned place or thing.

solitary or lonely places.

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. (Mark 1:35)

Jesus headed for the desert early in the mornings, in times of grief and times of joy, even in the busiest of seasons, and especially at the height of his popularity.

During his uncelebrated anonymous season, a quiet reserve had been building within Jesus where he savored God’s sweet fellowship undistracted by whatever circumstances happened to surround him.

May that sacred space always be well watered in us. Then, when possessions and power do come, we will be quick to use them for God’s glory and not for our own.

such enduring spiritual strength is the fruit, not of movement, but of rest; not of activity, but of stillness.

What must have been developing in Jesus during long, hidden years to enable him to refuse the lure of earthly power and possessions?

Or, since Jesus had already waited long decades in hiddenness, perhaps Satan hoped he had grown impatient and lost trust in God’s timing.

Because it is when we forget who we are that we are most vulnerable to bowing down.