Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany (Year 4, NL)

It is tempting to sit in judgment on others. Sometimes we do it in jest, as Mark Twain did when commenting on Adam. “Adam was but human—this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple’s sake, he wanted it only because it was forbidden. The mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent.” But sometimes the serpent eats us, and then we judge in earnest.

This is not a metaphorical desert. Left alone here at high noon, Jesus could die without water.

Only one who loves you knows your deepest desires.