Matthew 4:1–11
The great hymn text by George Herbert, Come, My Way,
My Truth, My Life offers a helpful way into today’s scripture passage. The text of the hymn comes from Herbert’s poem titled, The Call, later beautifully set to music by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and taken from his work Five Mystical Songs. The hymn follows the same movement we see in Jesus in the passage: Way, Truth, and Life.
Some have suggested the hymn invites us onto a path of trust, a road not unlike the wilderness path of temptation, and ultimately the long journey toward Jerusalem that Lent leads on. The desert is where it all begins. Each year, Lent walks us there again, asking the same questions asked of Jesus: Who are you? What shapes your life? What claims your worship?
So allow the poem to wash over you. Hear it not only as praise but also as your own call to obedience, to trust, and to the slow formation of the heart.
Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life:
Such a Way, as gives us breath;
Such a Truth, as ends all strife;
Such a Life, as killeth death.
Come, my light, my feast, my strength:
Such a light as shows a feast,
Such a feast as mends in length,
Such a strength as makes a guest.
Come, my joy, my love, my heart:
Such a joy as none can move,
Such a love as none can part,
Such a heart as joys in love.
Before Jesus teaches, heals, calls disciples, or proclaims the kin-dom, the Spirit leads him into the wilderness. His public ministry does not begin with crowds; it begins with testing.
• Turn stones into bread.
• Throw yourself from the temple.
• Worship power instead of God.
Each temptation asks a deeper question:
Who are you? What will you become? Can you be bought?
Another thing to note, the “forty days and forty nights” is not a literal keeping of time but a biblical way of speaking: a long, stretching season. Jesus prays. Jesus is alone. Jesus is tempted. Jesus answers every temptation not with a show of force but with obedience. Before he shows the world what he can do, he reveals who he is.
Come My Way, My Truth, My Light, indeed!