First Reading:
8But what does it say? The word is near you, on your
lips and in your heart
(that is, the word of faith that we
proclaim); 9because if you confess with your lips that
Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the
dead, you will be saved. 10For one believes with the heart
and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is
saved. 11The scripture says, No one who believes in him
will be put to shame.
12For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the
same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on
him. 13For, Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord
shall be saved.
Second Reading:
1Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan
and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 2where for
forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during
those days, and when they were over, he was famished. 3The
devil said to him, If you are the Son of God, command this stone to
become a loaf of bread.
4Jesus answered
him, It is written, ‘One does not live by bread
alone.’
5Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all
the kingdoms of the world. 6And the devil said to
him, To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it
has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I
please. 7If you, then, will worship me, it will all be
yours.
8Jesus answered him, It is
written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only
him.’
9Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and
placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, If you are
the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10for it is
written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect
you,’ 11and ‘On their hands they will bear you
up, so that you will not dash your foot against a
stone.’
12Jesus answered him, It
is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the
test.’
13When the devil had finished every test,
he departed from him until an opportune time.
Today is the first Sunday of Lent… Lent is the season of the church year that we set aside to prepare ourselves for the mystery of the resurrection… but before we get to Easter, which is the high point of the church year, we're faced with the journey to Jerusalem where Jesus is eventually going to be executed on the cross. Of course the journey is more than the literal trek south from Galilee, it was also a journey through a whole range of life experience. And there may be no story of Jesus humanity that catches our attention like the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. There have been movies made about it and books written and this really is one of the quintessential Lenten passages… Lent itself is 40 days long… reminiscent of the 40 years the people of Israel wandered in the desert before they came into the promised land and also the 40 days Jesus was tempted while he wandered in the desert. As long as the story has been told, people have wondered what is the relationship between Jesus and temptation? What does it mean to say that Jesus, the Son of God, was able to be tempted? And I think part of why we wonder about that is because we also wonder what is the relationship between us and temptation.
Lori Brandt Hale wrote a lovely reflection on the experience she and
her son had based on this passage and I thought I'd share it with you.
Her son was almost 4 years old and this was the passage for the day in
the children's Sunday school class that he went to… and then
later in the day, after church was over he approached her and
said, mom, what do you know about the devil?
Being a professor
of religion and theology her mind went immediately to a whole spectrum
of theological views… Should I start with Augustine? What
about process theology?
she started to wonder… but then
she remembered that he was still only three years old… so she
asked, Well what do you know about the devil?
After thinking
for a moment he said, Well the devil talked to Jesus.
Good, he
was paying attention in Sunday school she thought… and then her
son continued in a sort of a hushed tone that really sounded like it
was becoming conspiratorial… If we were at a store, and you
and dad were in one aisle and I was in another,
and he paused for
effect… and there was candy… The devil would say you
should take some!
… And she asked, Honey, if we were in
another aisle and there was candy and the devil said you should take
some, what would you say to the devil…
And a smile lit up
his entire face as he said without hesitation… Oh, I would
say thank you!
And isn't that the way it works… it's so much easier to say thank you when a situation of temptation arises…I love the movies and cartoons that have the two little figures on the shoulders… the angel dressed in white with a halo and wings sits on one shoulder and on the other shoulder sits the devil in red with horns and a pitchfork… you all know the image, of course… and we also know that when the two figures appear, it's almost inevitable that sooner or later, the person stuck in the middle follows the advice of the one dressed in red. And most of the time, that advice is something detrimental. It could be detrimental to the person because the behavior is something like eating or drinking too much or it could be detrimental to the person's relationships because the behavior is something like hurting someone or unfairly using them. And I guess that is one kind of temptation, the kind where you know something is wrong but you want to do it for the immediate gratification or for the feeling of temporary satisfaction.
But to me it seems like the kind of temptation that we often face, and the kind Jesus faced in our passage today is different from that. It's not so clear cut. In our passage, what Jesus was tempted to do wasn't detrimental… Each of the temptations had a positive spin to it. Make bread so you wouldn't be hungry… govern the right way… show everyone that you are God's son. The temptations weren't nearly as obvious as taking candy or hurting someone because there was real good that would come from each of them. I mean who could blame him for feeding himself after going without food for as long as he had. And at the same time, there are lots of stones around and lots of hungry people… what if he just kept on going and turned a whole bunch of those stones into bread and fed everyone who needed food? It would be the end of world hunger as we know it. That would be a good thing right? To millions of people all around the world that would be a great thing. But Jesus said no. And with the second temptation… all the kingdoms of the world — yours to govern how you see fit — there's incredible potential for good there too… no more wars, no more political struggles, no corruption… a society characterized by justice and peace. It doesn't sound that bad does it? But again Jesus said no.
Either one of the first two temptations had the potential to change the world as we know it. But Jesus said no because it was going to take more than bread to make the world whole and it was going to take more than political power to set the world right. In fact, in the history of God's people, both of those things had been tried before… for 40 years as the Israelites wandered in the desert God gave them bread from heaven in the form of manna in the wilderness. And when the bread stopped, very shortly afterward, so did the people's devotion to God… And way back when the people first settled in the promised land they wanted a king to rule over them. It was supposed to be a king who would know God and who would follow God. And if you look back to the Hebrew Scriptures, you'll see what a good situation that was, for just about a generation and a half.
Jesus wasn't after a few quick fixes to make the immediate circumstances of life better. His goal was to transform and to redeem the world. His mission wasn't to make everyone's problems go away, but to reorient the hearts and minds and lives of people everywhere so that they might live differently, paying attention to God, caring for other people and frankly dedicating their lives to the kind of things that Jesus was being tempted to do for them while he was in the desert. You see Jesus was being tempted toward something that was good, no doubt about it, but unless people's hearts and minds were changed as well as their present situation, when Jesus eventually went away, things would go right back to the way they were. Again, all you have to do is read the stories of the old testament to see that prophets came and went, but the people continued to wrestle with God. After all, that's what the name Israel means. So when Jesus was tempted with something that was good, rather than do it, he held fast to his mission, he maintained his integrity, he remembered what he was here for, he turned to scripture and he obeyed God's commands. We don't live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God (Deuteronomy 8:3). It is written Worship the Lord your God and serve only him (Deuteronomy 6:13).
But what of the third temptation… It's interesting to me the Luke and Matthew, who both tell us about the temptation in the desert, switch the order of the last two temptations. For Matthew, the final test is whether Jesus will bow down and worship the tempter and we've already seen here in Luke, he doesn't… but for Luke the final test in the desert is what will Jesus do when the presence of God is called into question?
It's as if the tempter said if you're so interested in people knowing that you are the Son of God and if you truly are, why don't you just show them… you've been quoting scripture at me well here's one for you… throw yourself from the pinnacle of the temple and let the angels catch you . The 91st Psalm says you won't be hurt. And imagine what will come from that. If the idea is to reorient the hearts and minds of people, so that they believe and they follow God's commandments. If the hope is that they change their behavior and they provide for the hungry, they work for peace and justice what would be more convincing than to show them something spectacular that would serve as proof that you are indeed the son of God.
And how many of us at one point or another in our lives haven't wanted
some sort of proof. God give me a sign… show me that I'm on
the right track here… but apparently that's not to be either.
Again Jesus responded by quoting from Deuteronomy, Do not put the
Lord your God to the test.
When it seemed like God wasn't immediately apparent, what did Jesus decide to do? He decided to trust. I don't have to throw myself from the pinnacle. I don't have to test God because I trust God.
Each time Jesus responded to one of the temptations, the response pointed to the fact that he trusted God completely… and it wasn't just the words he spoke in the desert. He also chose to live that trust. He did some amazing things in his life… He didn't turn stones into bread in the desert but in his ministry he did feed the hungry both literally and spiritually… he didn't take the offer of political power in the desert but the heart of the message he proclaimed was the kingdom of God coming into the world. He didn't jump off the temple to see if God would send angels to catch him, but he did give a sign for us to believe in… he continued faithfully on the journey even when it led him to the cross.
Of course we won't face the same temptations Jesus faced, but
undoubtedly we will face temptations: we will be tempted to try to be
something we're not… we will be tempted to sacrifice integrity
so that we can get a little further ahead… we will be tempted
to do something that's good enough because it's easier than doing what
would be better. Our lives are made up of a series of choices and
sometimes it's easier to say thank you
when we find ourselves
in situations of temptation rather than turning toward God and God's
commands. And so I have two rays of hope on this first Sunday of
Lent… one: we are not alone as we make our decisions because
the one who chose to be faithful even to the cross was also raised up
three days later. It's his death and resurrection that we commemorate
in this time of Lent and it's his death and resurrection that makes a
new way of life possible to us. The one who was tempted in the
wilderness strengthens us in our temptations here. And two, we will
fail. We are not Jesus and inevitably there will come a time when we
do succumb to temptation of one sort or another. Sometimes it may end
up being a little thing; sometimes we will deal with the repercussions
of our actions for the rest of our lives. But even when we do fail,
as all of the disciples did, it's not the end of the story… and
it's not the last word. Because even when it seems like God is
absent, God is not. Forgiveness is still open to us as we trust and
turn toward God. Jesus' response to each temptation was to turn
toward God, and that's always the call… in the midst of the
choices, and even when we realize that we've made a bad one. May our
Lenten discipline and our way of life be marked by turning toward God.
In Jesus name, Amen
The foregoing sermon was given by Rev. Dan Holland at the United Parish of Bowie on the First Sunday in Lent, February 27, 2010.
© 2010 Daniel Holland
