There was once a young boy who had big
dreams. You see, he desperately wanted a
new bicycle. His plan was to save his nickels, dimes, quarters, and the
occasional dollar until he finally had enough stashed away to purchase a real
mountain bike.
Each night he asked God to help him
save his money. Kneeling beside his bed, he would pray, “Dear Lord, please help
me save my money for a new bike - and please, God, don’t let the ice cream man
come down the street again tomorrow.”
Ah – temptation, the difficult testing
of our resolve that we have all experienced at one time or another. And because it is the first Sunday in the
season of Lent, here in church we are having our formal, lectionary-based, once-a-year
reflection on it.
What I mean is that the Gospel story is
always the same for this particular Sunday.
It is the story of Jesus heading off for 40 days into the wilderness (or
desert, as some Biblical translations say).
The narrative is found in three of our
Gospels - though only two of them provide any details. The Gospel of John does not mention this
story at all, and the Gospel of Mark tells it in a mere two sentences. So, if when you
think about Jesus in the wilderness, you recall him conversing with Satan or
the Devil, then you are remembering the tale as the Gospel writers of Matthew
or Luke tell it.
According to our Gospel writer today,
the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness shortly after John
baptized him in the murky waters of the Jordan River. Actually the Greek word for “led” is a bit
misleading. It might better be
translated as "hurled, threw, impelled, or directed."
As Episcopal Priest James Lemier
reminds us, “It's not a blithe spiritual expedition here. It is the very Spirit
of God throwing Jesus into the physical wilderness and, even more so, hurling
him into the wilderness of his own soul, his own call, his own identity.”
The Gospel writer tells us that Jesus
stayed alone amidst the sand, the heat, the pucker brush, and the plain old
barrenness for 40 days – and you better believe that 40 was a carefully chosen
number. It is one of those numbers that conjures
up all sorts of Biblical references.
Most likely the Gospel writer had in
mind two stories from the Old Testament book of Exodus. The first was the one where Moses fasted for
40 days while carefully etching the words of the Ten Commandments onto stone
tablets. The second was the one where
the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, working through their
own set of temptations before God felt they were fit to enter the Promised
Land. With Biblical relationships that
those, is it any wonder that the season of Lent is 40 days long too – from Ash
Wednesday through Holy Saturday – not including Sundays?
So much for the length of time that
Jesus spent in the wilderness. Now, as far as the conversation with Satan or
the Devil goes, I do not think that the Gospel writer was imagining a character
distinct from Jesus – someone bedecked in red long johns with a pointy tail, a
pitchfork, and a wicked set of horns.
That image is scarcely Biblical and in fact comes out of the creativity
of the Middle Ages.
In our story, I think that the
so-called Devil or Satan was more like a soft seductive voice that whispered
louder and louder in Jesus’ head even as he became lonelier and lonelier and
hungrier and hungrier during his 40-day retreat. Lack of community and lack of food can do
funny things to the psyche.
In the words of UCC pastor Kate Huey,
this voice offered “very ‘good’ things to Jesus, an attractive strategic plan
for his ministry…N.T. Wright suggests that ‘the devil's voice appears as a
string of natural ideas in his own head. They are plausible, attractive, and
make, as we would say, a lot of sense.’ This, Wright says, is a very ‘personal
and intimate’ struggle for Jesus; remember, he was fully human as well as fully
divine. And the devil not only offers attractive things but backs them up by
quoting Scripture, which just shows how easily the Bible can be, and has been,
used for entirely wrong purposes.”
And so Jesus finds this voice in his
head suggesting an almost irresistible new direction. Alluring, charming, and bewitching, the voice
suggests three ways that Jesus can avoid a lot of personal struggle in his
ministry and even redefine his destiny. And what’s more,
these alternatives are backed up by sacred words – right out of the Jewish
scriptures.
The voice starts out with something
simple and straightforward. Jesus is
hungry. After all, it has been nearly 40 days since he last ate. Actually, he is more than hungry. He is famished - physically depleted and
extremely vulnerable, so the voice offers him food.
“If you are the Son of God, then turn
this stone into a loaf of bread – like the Israelites wanted God to do when
they were wandering in the desert. Do
it, just do it, and then come, for all is ready. Come and eat and be satisfied….For crying out
loud, you have not had a bite to eat in over a month. If you are the Christ, the Messiah, then perform
a teensy weensy miracle here, and let’s just move on, you and me.”
But Jesus is pretty good at quoting Scripture
too, and so he replies by referencing from the Book of Deuteronomy, surely
remembering those Israelites who grumbled about their lack of food: “It takes more than bread to really
live. One can not live on bread alone.”
The voice is asking whether Jesus would
perform a miracle simply for his own sake. That is the question. Would Jesus put his own well being and
security first? And the answer is no.
And so the voice ups the ante. Whereas the first temptation or test was
personal, the second was political. And
in a flash, images of all the kingdoms of the world flitted and swirled before
the hungry eyes of Jesus. Palaces. Wealth.
Ruby-encrusted crowns. And best
of all, the Roman Emperor himself bowing down to Jesus – and all the people,
all his people – cheering loudly.
JE-SUS! JE-SUS!
“They’re yours in all their splendor to
serve your pleasure. I’m in charge of them all (the voice proclaimed), and I can
turn them over to whomever I wish. Worship me and they’re yours, the whole
works.”
But once again, as the Message
translation of the Bible tells us, “Jesus refused, again backing his refusal
with Deuteronomy: “Worship the Lord your God and only the Lord your God. Serve (God)
with absolute single-heartedness.”
The voice is asking whether Jesus might
fulfill his destiny by ruling the Roman world.
That is the question. Would Jesus
accept the power and glory that, in the not-too-distant future, his disciples and
the crowds of people that followed them would expect him to accept? And the answer is no.
Not to be outdone, the voice tries a
third time. Pulling out all the stops,
he conjures up for Jesus a remarkable publicity stunt. Quoting extensively from Psalm 91, parts of
which we read and responded to this morning, the voice suggests that Jesus can
prove once and for all that he is indeed the Son of God if he simply jumps from
the highest pinnacle of the Temple in Jerusalem. God would surely save him if he were the Son
of God. And if he was not, well, perhaps
it is best that everyone knew that sooner rather than later.
But Jesus once again responds by
quoting the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy, the foundation of Jewish
law. “You shall not put the Lord your
God to the test.”
The voice is asking whether Jesus would
turn his ministry into a circus to garner support (albeit superficial). That is the question. Would Jesus resort to the WOW factor rather
than exemplify in his own life that trust in God is what will save him in the
end? And the answer is a resounding, “No.”
And so ended the dueling Scriptures,
and we are told that Satan, the Devil, the voice, left Jesus – at least for the
time being.
We often refer to this story as the
Temptation of Jesus. However, the Greek
word for “temptation” can also be translated as “test.” I like that term better
– that Jesus passed a sort of test in the wilderness and in doing so etched
more clearly for us what his ministry and mission were not about. I think this story is a kind of backhanded means
to realize who Jesus is, and the literary convention is by affirming who he is
not. Each of the tests highlights a
different aspect of his ministry.
The first was the bread business – and
from it we learn that Jesus’ mission was not about himself and his own
personal well being and security. He chose
not to assuage his hunger by making a loaf of bread from a stone because
that is not what miracles are for.
Those mighty acts
will be done to benefit the poor and the hungry and the ones who seek healing. From this first test, then, the Gospel writer
affirms that Jesus’ mission focuses not on himself, but on others.
The second test is the offer of the
imperial leadership of the ancient world, and from it we learn that Jesus’
mission is not about power – or at least not about the kind of power
that we are best acquainted with – the power of affluence, the power of
military spending, the power of a congressional filibuster. Jesus’ mission is not about political or
economic power but rather about the transformation and restoration of a hurting
and broken world.
The third and final test was the
publicity stunt, and from it we learn that Jesus’ mission was not about
proving his trust in God by doing something stupid like throwing himself off
the Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus’ mission
is about quietly and continually enhancing and strengthening his relationship
with God – through prayer, through teaching and study, through outreach to
others - so that one day as he hung from a cross – abandoned, once again hungry
and seemingly powerless –
he could faithfully
commend his spirit to the Holy One, trusting, always trusting in the abiding presence
and love of the Almighty.
And so it must be for us today if we
really are Jesus’ followers – as we proclaim simply by our presence here this
morning. Our mission as Christians and
as the church must be a reflection of Jesus’ mission.
And so it is not about our own personal
well being. In the end, worship and
church is not about our own comfort and security. Oh, there will be times when we will find
comfort here. There will be times when
we will feel secure, but our mission as the church is to perform mighty acts that
transform and restore the world around us.
Our mission is focused not we who sit here in these pews but rather on all
the others outside our doors. It is not
about us, but about them.
Likewise, our mission is not about
power as an end in and of itself – being the biggest or the best (whatever that
means). At the foundation of our mission is our motivation and commitment to expand
our ministries that feed the hungry, heal the sick, and be servants to those in
need. it is not about the top-down power
of the world but about the upside-down power of God (Audrey West).
And finally, our mission is not to
prove our faith in God by putting on a performance every Sunday morning. I have heard people say that they have
friends who might come to church if those friends knew in advance that the
sermon topic would be of interest to them – or if they knew what was happening
in worship that day. Entertainment is
not our mission.
Our mission is to quietly and
continually strengthen our relationship with God – through study, outreach,
prayer, and worship. Those who gain the
most from being a part of this church family are those who choose to
participate in this community in a variety of ways.
Through this story of testing, this
tale about the little voice in Jesus’ head, the Gospel writer makes an
important point – and that is that Jesus did not waver in his mission. He did not affirm alternative ways of
defining his destiny. Jesus was
committed to a journey that we know (and perhaps he did too) would lead him to
Jerusalem and to a very painful and undignified death.
That is what Lent is about, you know. It is about our committing – or recommitting
ourselves - to the mission of Jesus. Lent
is about allowing the Spirit to lead us – just it led Jesus – in order to more
clearly define our call and our identity as Christians – just as he more
clearly defined his call and so his destiny.
Lent is about the journey we take each year at this time – a journey
that takes us to the wilderness of our own hearts and souls - testing our
ministries, testing our very lives.
And so my prayer for – and my challenge
to - each one of you this Lenten season is to use these 40 days and intentionally
reflect upon the mission of Jesus and how we as the body of Christ manifest
that mission in all we say and all we do.
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