A Sermon from Falmouth Congregational Church…

A Sermon offered by the Rev. Ian F. “Jack” Steeves in the public worship service of the Falmouth Congregational Church United Church of Christ in Falmouth, Maine on the First Sunday in Lent, February 21, 2010. The scripture readings were Romans 10:8b-13 and Luke 4:1-13.

“And when the devil had ended every temptation,

he departed from him (Jesus) until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13).

“The Path of God”

The story of the Temptation is a very personal story.  Only two persons were present: Jesus and the Devil, elsewhere called the Tempter. At some point, Jesus must have related this most intimate experience of his soul to his disciples, or else we would not know it. While some scholars dismiss the story as imaginative and others have called it impossible, the events are necessary, if we are to make sense of the life and ministry and sacrifice of Jesus of Nazareth. I believe the Holy Spirit uses our imagination to lead us to reality and truth.

The temptations themselves are personal, too. The point is that they could come only to a person who could do astonishing things. It is not temptation for us to turn stones into bread, or exercise power over all the nations on earth, or leap from a high parapet of the temple, for the simple reason that it is impossible for us to do such things. These temptations came to a person who had unique powers and who had to decide how to use his powers.

Imagine Jesus in the wilderness. He is hungry, tired and thirsty. Most of all he is concerned about the forward path of his ministry. He knew what his task was; he was to bring people to the Kingdom of God. The question was ‘how.’ How shall he proceed? How will he get people to listen to him? How shall his mission be achieved? It is to these questions that Jesus found his answer in the events of the temptation story.

Luke does not imagine pitchforks, horns, pointy tails, or the red long-johns that you see in cartoon devils. Luke imagines a seductive voice offering very “good” things to Jesus, an attractive strategy for his burgeoning ministry. And the devil not only offers attractive things but backs them up by quoting a little scripture, which just shows how easily the Bible can be perverted, and has been, used for wrong purposes.

Imagine Jesus in the wilderness. As he sits there alone, his stomach empty, throat parched, his eyes out of focus and his mind full of questions, a stranger walks by.  The stranger has the very voice of reason itself. “A little hot today, don’t you think? Say, you look like you’re having a difficult time.” The stranger pauses, takes a sip of water from his flask, and then continues, “You aren’t treating yourself very well! You are hungry, aren’t you?” He pauses again. “By the way, you’re the Son of God, why don’t you take a couple of these stones and turn them into loaves bread? Mind you, not just for yourself, but for all the hungry people in the world. They need you. They need your power. Give them what they need and you’ll be their hero! How about it?”

After another pause, and a little more water, the stranger says, “You know, you really need to be king of more than just this little backwater here. I know, how about my giving you the whole world? You can be king of everyone and every thing. It’s the easiest way. I mean, look at all you’ve been through these past forty days and nights, and that’s nothing compared to what you will face. Believe me! How about it?”

Still, the temptation doesn’t stop there. “You know,” says the stranger, “I’ve been thinking. It’s easy to convince the peasants, but the most important people to reach are the Pharisees and the members of the Sanhedrin. With them on your side, the sky is the limit. You’ll have to grab their attention. I’ve got it! In the middle of their Friday prayers you float down from the highest parapet of the temple. No one could follow that act. After a perfect landing, they will believe anything and every thing you say! How about it?”

The Son of God did not come to grab power for himself, or to show off how much he means to God, or to work a little magic for the masses. That’s not how it is going to work. Public relations stunts contradict the gospel, and the people of Jerusalem will prove to have another welcome for Jesus because of the nature of the gospel he brings and would share.

It is easy for us to listen to the supposed voices of reason and expediency, too. They are all around us. Jesus was tempted with what is good – to be fed when hungry, to have authority to bring about the changes he wanted, and to be protected from danger. The subtlety of these temptations is that they built on what Jesus knew about God and the ministry he was about to undertake. The temptations would have him distort the good he knew and the good he was about to do.

Jesus responded to these temptations. His mind turned to scripture to refute all these very sensible suggestions. Where the devil tried to have him focus on the means of achieving his goals, Jesus concerned himself with the will of God. God never sought to circumvent human free will. God never sought to trick anyone.

Although Jesus overcame his three temptations, evil was not defeated. It simply waited for a more opportune time, and that time comes through Judas during Holy Week.

We too are often tempted – tempted to give up, to despair. Tempted sometimes to cruelty. Tempted not to help because we think “what’s the use?” Behind each of these temptations is a distrust of self, a denial that God is in us. Christianity is not an “all smiles and happiness” kind of religion. There are strong forces of evil which cannot be ignored. Evil does not just go away when we close our eyes or smile. The good news is that Jesus identifies with us in our self-doubt and weakness. We have his example, and his promise that the Spirit will be with us, too, in times of testing. Jesus relied on the power of the Spirit, here and throughout his ministry. It was not strength of character, or psychic powers, or coping skills, or conflict management techniques. It was the Spirit that gave him the power to resist evil. We need God’s Spirit within us, too, so that we will have a reservoir of strength to draw on in difficult times.

While the goals of the temptations may be admirable – feed the hungry, bring the world under the control of good, trust in God’s power to protect us – we often choose to accomplish them in ways that are far less than admirable. We try to perform the extraordinary so what we do reflects favorably on us. We use brute force in order to achieve control. We put God to the test rather than live peacefully with God’s plan as it unfolds within and around us. We seek to be super-hero, super-preacher, super-Christian, on our own. In the season of Lent, we are presented with an opportunity to re-examine our priorities and reflect on where we place our trust, as well as what truly holds power in our lives. In Lent and beyond, we might practice being both intentional and receptive to God’s grace at work in our lives.

All too often when we look at the wilderness we see only the testing and not the faith. We are tempted to see the testing in our lives as a sign of God’s abandonment or our hopeless failing. Testing can be a positive sign that God’s Spirit enables us to meet the power of evil when it wears away at the soul of our community and the world. And if we cannot feel that spirit inside of us or at our side, perhaps we can imagine Jesus there, not too far away, within enough spirit in him to sustain us, enough to make us brave.

Being tested and tempted is not always a bad thing. After his time in the wilderness, Jesus was ready to tackle a very difficult albeit short ministry. Our times in the wilderness can clarify, strengthen, and empower us, too, for ministry. So, let us take to the Path of God in the season of Lent. Eyes toward the cross and remember the empty tomb beyond.