Reflection - Called, Tested and Prepared

by Rev Dr Clive Ayre

My own call dates back to late in 1958. On a Sunday night, as a 17-year-old with a messed-up education, and unsure about what direction to take in life, I was listening as usual to the broadcast of Gordon Powell’s midweek service. At about 9.45pm it was as if a little voice in my head said, “That’s what you have to be – a Minister.” It was 5 seconds that changed my life. The next nine years of candidature and training were not always easy, but by October 1967 the Methodist Conference had satisfied itself that I was called, tested, and prepared for ministry.

The baptism of Jesus by John marked a confirmation of Jesus’ call to ministry, and was the effective commencement of his work. But our own call to a particular ministry may also be tested and confirmed in one or more ways. It can be easy to skim over the cost of responding to such a call. I sometimes wonder how different my life would have been without those 5 seconds that changed everything! I suppose I had the power of choice; but in another sense the call brought with it a kind of compulsion that would not take “no” for an answer.

But there was a secondary call for Jesus also. Matthew 4:1 records, “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil”. It may seem strange to say that, but there is a lot at stake here! We may be aware of the call of God in some particular way, but we should not be surprised if sometimes we are called into the wilderness. The important thing is what we are able to learn in the wilderness, and what lies on the other side of it.

But what does it mean to be tested? Life isn’t always easy for the person who sets out to live by faith in God, and I don’t think it was easy for Jesus. But are we talking here about being tested or tempted? What we are asking of God is that we will not be tried beyond our capacity to cope. Jesus knows that his calling is to be the Christ of God. The question is therefore what sort of Messiah he will be. How will he exercise his ministry? That is what this wilderness experience is all about.

The wilderness experience for Jesus was a time of preparation through prayer, and we too may find that it is an opportunity to establish goals, methods, and priorities. Without that kind of preparation, we run into the danger of falling victim to the temptation to engage in a false mission, embracing goals and methods that our Lord would never own. There are no short cuts or easy paths in the service of God. For Jesus indeed it was the way of the cross. “Living he loved me, dying he saved me” – and risen triumphant, he beckons us on – called, tested, and prepared to share his costly ministry.