Remedial Living

Benjamin Franklin coined a proverb for the world when he told of his visit to a store at age seven to make a purchase. Franklin gave the merchant a whole fistful of coins for a child’s toy whistle. He wrote, “I then came home and went whistling all over the house, much pleased with my whistle, but disturbing all the family. My brothers, and sisters, and cousins, understanding the bargain I had made, told me I had given four times as much for it as it was worth. Clearly, Franklin had been cheated. And over the years, he would often look at something a friend was doing and say to himself, “That fellow paid too much for his whistle.”

In today’s Gospel Lesson, Jesus withdraws from the desert — scene of His forty-day fast and His encounter with Satan — prepared to begin His public ministry. And He begins to preach, saying, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Mt. 4:17). Having said…