Year A, 1 Lent An atheist was walking through the woods and said to himself, “What majestic trees!” “What powerful rivers!” “What beautiful animals!” As he walked alongside the river, he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. He turned to look and saw a 7 foot grizzly bear charge towards him. He ran as fast as he could up the path. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the bear was closing in on him. He looked over his shoulder again, and the bear was even closer. He tripped and fell on the ground. He rolled over but saw that the bear was right on top of him, reaching for him with his left paw and raising his right paw to strike him. At that instant, the atheist cried out, “Oh my God!” Time stopped. The bear froze. The forest was silent. As a bright light shone upon the man, a Voice came out of the sky. “You deny my existence for all these years, teach others that I don’t exist, and even attribute creation to cosmic accident. Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament? Am I to count you as a believer?” The atheist looked into the light and said, “It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask you to treat me as a Christian now, but perhaps you could make the Bear a Christian?” Very well, said the Voice. The light went out. The sounds of the forest resumed. The bear dropped his right paw, brought both paws together, bowed his head, and spoke: “Lord bless this food, which I am about to receive from Thy bounty, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Isn’t that a great story? And I bet you’re wondering what that has to do with today’s lessons, the temptation of Christ. Honestly, very little. It was so much fun I had to share it. But one would think that the atheist would have been tempted to say he was a believer! And at least he wasn’t hypocrite. Lent doesn’t have to be all somber, does it? But back to our lessons. And in order to look more closely at Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness, I’d like to back up a bit and put that in perspective, in context. In the verses immediately preceding our text, Jesus went to John to be baptized. Picture that in your mind? What does it look like? Is it a beautiful, pristine scene of clear blue water, with just Jesus and John in the picture, the spirit descending like a dove from heaven? I’m afraid that we’ve seen too much Christian art. In actuality, it was probably more like Jesus among great masses of people, multitudes, swarming in a muddy river. In a sense, it was when Jesus identified himself with humanity that the Spirit and the Father affirmed his divinity. This was the moment of truth. And the very next thing that happened was that the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. Matthew says he was led, Mark says Jesus was driven, compelled, cast out. Jesus was almost forced to go to the wilderness to be tempted. The word for tempted also means to be tested, and in a sense they are two sides of the same coin. In temptation, there is an enticement to get a person to act contrary to God’s will. In testing, one is challenged to be faithful to God’s will. God does not tempt people, but he does allow circumstances which test our faith and commitment to him, tests as it were. In our gospel reading, the devil is trying to get Jesus to act in defiance of God’s will, but at the same time the Father uses the devil’s evil intention to strengthen Jesus for his mission and work.1 In the desert for 40 days, Jesus must “reconcile his sense of uniqueness as the Son of God with his vocation as Son of Man to compassion and solidarity with needy, failed humanity.”2 After nearly six weeks of isolation and hunger, the Devil shows up to tempt him to use his divine power, and “what was at risk was Jesus’ solidarity with ordinary human beings.”3 If he is the son of God, why not provide food for himself? His answer is that humanity cannot live by bread alone, but by the words of God. Jesus makes himself like us, a man who must be dependent on and listen to God’s voice. If he fed himself using miraculous powers, he would “part company with ordinary men and women struggling to be faithful to a hidden God.”4 Jesus is then taken to the pinnacle of the temple, the highest point. If he is the Son of God, why couldn’t he throw himself off—after all throngs of angels would be there to catch this precious one! But this would put God to the test and would not allow for basic trust in God. To be human is to be vulnerable—and Jesus aligns himself again with our humanity. Finally, if he is the Son of God, why shouldn’t Jesus just take the power that ultimately would be his anyway? Jesus knew that to do so would be bowing to evil and so he refuses the way of power—over and over and over again. He chooses to remain one with God’s children, struggling, needy and dependent. Martin Smith says, In the stillness of the desert, Jesus looked into his heart and sow how his sense of special ness as the Anointed could be distorted into a demand to be exempt from hardships and to have control over others. His surrender to the Spirit allowed him to break through to the truth that his special ness as the Beloved Son gave him the freedom to take human suffering upon himself and to be Servant of all.”5 Of course it’s not the same, but don’t we too have cravings to be special, to be strong and invulnerable, to dominate? These are some of our greatest temptations, those of pride and power. And we have other weaknesses and temptations in our lives too, don’t we, like lust and coveting, anger and lying, and so on. The early church fathers . . . recognized that temptation comes to us all and is common. They described six stages of temptation: the first stage they calledprovocation. It’s the temptation from outside of ourselves, or if you will, it’s the knock on the door. Everyone has gone through this stage of temptation, even Jesus. A thing comes to the door and as long as we don’t give any attention to what may be behind the door, we have not given in to sin. This comes to all of us. The second stage they called thedisturbance. This marks the point where sin begins because it’s at this point that we notice the temptation. There has already been a knock at the door and now we go to the door and actually take a little glance through the peephole to see what’s there. The third stage they calledentertainment and it’s at this the stage that we begin to turn the thing over in our minds, giving more attention to it — maybe gawking through the peephole a little bit longer than we need to. The fourth stage is the assent, which is the decision that we make to act on the temptation — we’ve decided at this point to open the door. And then, the fifth stage is theact itself, giving in to whatever has just tempted us, opening the door, and letting it in. Then they describe a sixth stage which is essentiallyaddiction, a habitual kind of giving over to the act again and again, to the point where you don’t even hear the knock anymore, and the thing is already in your heart, taking full reign of your life. The higher the stage, the more power is given to the particular sin.6 The good news, though, is that we don’t have to give in to temptation. When identified at an early stage, we can combat it with God’s help. The bible says that Jesus was tempted in every way like we are—tempted in his humanity—and yet did not sin. Paul says that No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it (1 Cor 10:13). With the help and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, we can be victorious. The temptation is real, but so is God’s power working in us. We don’t have to give in. We will fail, but we can also learn to be more focused on God and his resources than on the temptations we face. One young college student recognized the truth of this and said that “if I really believed this verse, my life will never be the same. I don’t have to give in!!” And she went on to believe it, and to practice it, triumphant by the power of the Spirit.7 May we take hold of the same power and victory in Christ when we face temptations in our own lives! Amen!
1 Wilkins, Michael. NIV Application Commentary: Matthew. 155, 2 Smith, Martin, A Season for the Spirit 12. 3 Ibid. 13 4 Ibid. 13 5 Ibid. 14-15 6 http://www.thefallschurch.org/templates/custhefalls/details.asp?id=29455&PID=239842&Style= 7 Wilkins, 155. |