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Walking in the Wilderness Rev. Dawn M. Haeger, Church of the Cross, Hoffman Estates, IL, February 25, 2007 The story goes that there was a woman in New York City who was able to weave an irresistible web of temptation. She learned that city residents, many of whom have pets, had no place to bury their pet when it died. They couldn't bury it in the sidewalk for obvious reasons, and they weren't allowed to bury it in the park, so what were they to do? This woman let it be known that for $25 she would take care of their deceased Fido or Fluffy. How did she manage that? Did she take the dead pets to the surrounding suburbs or out to New Jersey for burial? No! She went to thrift shops and bought old suitcases for a couple of dollars. Then she filled the bag with dead pets and took a ride on the subway. She would set the bag down and pretend to be looking somewhere else and thinking about other things. Within a stop or two, an obliging thief would notice the lone bag of luggage and the distracted woman and would then steal her suitcase. Just imagine the surprise that the thief got when he opened that bag, expecting to find some treasure, but something else altogether! The Merriam-Webster Dictionary tells us that to tempt is “to entice to do wrong by promise of pleasure or gain.” Our scripture reading this morning, often known as the “testing or temptation of Jesus,” is common to all three synoptic gospels and is read on the first Sunday of Lent each and every year. This fact alone should tell us that the text has something significant to teach us. The first important thing to note is that this testing of Jesus comes right on the heels of his baptism in the Jordan and that right before he returns to his home in Galilee where he begins his active ministry. This testing then has something to do with Jesus’ call and response to God’s claim on his life. In each of these three readings the Holy Spirit is prominent. In Jesus’ baptism, the Spirit descends upon him in bodily form and we hear a voice from heaven declaring that Jesus is God’s son, the beloved. In the text following today’s, we hear that Jesus, filled with the Spirit, begins active ministry, teaching in the synagogues. So then how is God’s Spirit present with Jesus in this fourth chapter? The Holy Spirit is certainly present, but not in a way that most of us would expect to find. We hear, “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.” What? He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness where for forty days he was tempted by the devil? Not quite the role we had envisioned for God’s Spirit. This text reminds me of a dear friend who wasn’t baptized until she was in her mid-thirties. Not long after her affirmation of faith and joining the church, she experienced a lot of pain in her personal life. I remember her asking me, how was it, now that she had become a Christian, she felt like she was being punished. What she wasn’t saying, but what she meant was that for some reason she believed that, once she became a Christian, life’s pains and disappointments were somehow mediated and believers were free from experiencing the sorrows and disappointments she had experienced before her baptism. Or if not completely free from pain, the sacrament of baptism ought to provide, at least some temporary respite from these wilderness experiences. Today’s text eliminates that illusion for both my friend and for us. Not only is the wilderness, that place where we come face to face with life’s challenges, still a present reality, it can also be a place where we are tempted to reject what we hold to be of great value to us. Sam Levenson, an American author and humorist, is quoted as saying, “Lead us not into temptation. Just tell us where it is; we’ll find it.” Indeed we will find it. It’s amazing how easy it is to find temptation – it surrounds us and just like the devil in today’s reading, it’s waiting to test us and our faith. After forty days fasting in the desert, Jesus is famished, “The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread’” (Luke 4:3). The “If” here can also be translated, “Since you are the Son of God…” The devil is acknowledging Jesus’ status as God’s son and is urging him to use that position to satisfy his own needs. Jesus, trusting that, despite his great hunger, God will take care of him. There is no need for him to take matters into his own hands. Jesus responds to this taunt with, “One does not live on bread alone” (Luke 4:4). Jesus’ answer comes from the Old Testament text of Deuteronomy, the eighth chapter. In verses 1-3, we hear Moses speaking to the people of Israel and he states, “This entire commandment that I command you today you must diligently observe, so that you may live and increase…” He continues, “Remember the long way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments. He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” Jesus places his own context into that of the Israelites wilderness experience. God was faithful then and would be faithful now. The question for Jesus, and for us, is will we or will we not keep God’s commandments in the face of such temptation? We can be tempted, Jesus was, but we still have agency, the ability to choose our path. Will we choose God’s way or the devil’s? Trust in God or trust in self? Will we live not by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the LORD? The devil then offers Jesus glory and authority over earthly kingdoms if Jesus will just worship him. Glory and power are easy temptations to fall victim to; of course we don’t generally view it as making a deal with the devil. We are drawn to the idea that we are the center of the universe; the earth rotates on its axis because of something remarkable about ourselves. Jesus reminds us, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him” (Luke 4:8). We are not the creator, just the creations. God is God and we are not. Finally, the evil one takes Jesus to the top of the Jerusalem temple and using Psalm 91, says, “Since you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone’” (Luke 4:9-11). The devil has appealed to Jesus’ physical and emotional needs, and failing those, he now tests his faith. This temptation, I believe, is familiar to all of us. I don’t know about you, but I can think of many times that I have done something incredibly stupid and then pleaded with God to bail me out. My actions had nothing to do with honoring God, but meeting my own needs. Then surprise, surprise, I discover that the moment of pleasure has a price, one that I don’t really want to pay. Attempting to avoid the consequences, I try to make a bargain with God. It becomes a test of faith. If you really loved me, you would _____ and I promise never to do whatever brought me to this situation again. This prayer is all about me and my needs and nothing to do with God and God’s glory. Jesus, seeing through the devil, says simply, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test” (Luke 4:12), because he knows the rest of that psalm says, “Those who love me, I will deliver; I will protect those who know my name. When they call to me, I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble…” (Ps 91: 14-15a). Not being able to compromise Jesus, the devil departs, until an opportune time. I wish that facing temptations was a once in a lifetime effort. Unfortunately, experience teaches us that time and time again we will face the desire to fulfill our needs physically, emotionally or spiritually in ways that do not honor God and our relationship with God and one another. When we face these temptations and rely upon the power of the Holy Spirit, as Jesus did, we will come out the victor. We and our faith will be stronger for it. But when we depend upon our own abilities, we are bound to fail because temptations are most alluring when we are at our weakest. The devil didn’t approach Jesus the moment of his baptism; he waited until Jesus was famished and physically weak. Evil is insidious that way. So what are we to do if being a Christian itself is not enough to prevent life’s temptations from reaching out and trying to grab a hold of us? First, we can be like Jesus and be steeped in God’s word, knowing what it says about God’s love, God’s power and God’s expectations of believers. Not only knowing what it says, but living into God’s word gives us the ability to face temptation head-on and know what God would have us do. Also, we need to remember that Jesus was not alone in that wilderness place and neither are we. God’s powerful and abiding Spirit rested on Jesus both in his baptism and throughout his ministry. This same powerful Spirit rests upon every baptized believer and is encouraging us to live lives that honor God with all that we say and do so that our lives of ministry may lead people to God. Finally, we can be like Jesus and recognize that God is God and we are not, falling prey to our temptations is trying to reverse that order and place ourselves at the center of the universe. We and all the powers of this world are not worthy of worship…only God is. Lent is about us consciously reordering our thoughts and behaviors so that we clear our vision and recognize the folly of self-sufficiency. We can stop trying to save ourselves. God has already done that through his beloved son Jesus Christ. We need to simply choose, which path through the wilderness we will take…the one that leads to abundant life or the one that does not? To God alone be all glory and honor both now and forever more. Amen. | |||||
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