Monkey Business

During the second retreat session we broke everyone up into 8 small groups and those groups rotated through 8 mini-sessions teaching about 8 different characteristics of Christ. The characteristic about which I taught was integrity; living a life consistent with God's way whether public or private, internal or external, and no matter what the cost.

We first looked at Matthew 4:1-11 where Jesus goes off into the desert and is tempted by Satan. Three times Jesus is tempted to sins that no one would no about. First, he is tempted to turn stones into bread (and after 40 days without food), and as no one is around who would ever know (plus, being God and all, He could make that some pretty dang good tasting bread). Second he is tempted to throw himself from the top of the Temple to test God and see if He really will keep Jesus from hitting the ground. While people certainly would see Him fall (and perhaps even more certainly notice that he doesn't land), who is going to be thinking "Oh, that guy Jesus, he's a sinner who just put God to the test" ? More likely people would think "Wow, that guy just fell off the Temple and God saved him...God must really like that guy. I ought to listen to what he has to say." Lastly Satan tempted Jesus with all the kingdoms of the world if only He would bow down and worship Satan. While once again people would certainly know if Jesus were political ruler of the world, people wouldn't think anything sinful of it because they EXPECTED the Messiah to become political ruler of the entire world...they were far more surprised by Christ's death than they ever would have been by his political ascension. Yet in all these temptations, though no one (other than God, Jesus, and Satan, of course) would ever have known, Jesus still did not sin.

Second we looked at what Jesus preached against the most and with the most vehemence: not prostitution or adultery or murder or theft or drunkenness, but hypocrisy. It was the Pharisees, the hypocrites, against whom Jesus railed the most. As his greatest enemies were those who failed to have integrity, how much must Jesus value this trait?

The most unique part of the session though had to be the monkeys. I can't say I've ever taught a Bible study session with monkeys playing in the trees above me. Something that just doesn't happen all that much back home. Especially unique was hearing something falling to the ground behind me and turning around only to see monkey pee landing at most a foot behind me. Glad that one wasn't directly overhead.