Tempted

Rev. Dave Kovalow-St. John   V   2/28/10   V   Luke 4:1-13

One subject for today is temptation.

Temptation.

Everybody has their own definition.

Mae West said of temptation: “I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it.”  That definition puts her one step ahead of Mark Twain who just threw in the towel entirely and wrote, “I deal with temptation by yielding to it.”

Lately, my favorite quote about temptation is by Dan Bennett: “Middle age is having a choice between two temptations and choosing the one that’ll get you home earlier.”  I never would have understood that as a kid, but now it makes perfect sense.

However, if you are in the mood for Biblical wisdom on the subject, you might go to James 1:12:  “Blessed is the man who endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life.”

You might start there, OR… you could even look at our passage this morning.  Check out the story of our Lord who – in spite of being perfect! – was as tempted as any person in this room to do something other than the will of God.

Who IS Jesus?

Let’s start with a little context.  At the start of his gospel, Luke is a cagey about his presentation of Jesus. The angels sing to the shepherds, "Glory to God in the highest," but what sort of glory? No answer. Mary magnifies the Lord singing, "God has helped his servant Israel," but what kind of help?  She doesn’t say.

When Jesus is baptized, we do get to overhear a heavenly voice: "You are my Son, the beloved" (Lk 3:22 KJV). But what does that mean exactly? We’re all God’s children, yet the passage certainly seems to be saying that Jesus is God’s child in a very special way. 

Who IS Jesus, and what does it mean to call him “God’s Son”?

It’s not until we get to the temptation story that we begin to get a definitive answer. A big part of “Who Jesus is” … is revealed in his encounter with Satan.

In one of my favorite “Calvin and Hobbes” cartoons, Calvin asks his pet tiger, “Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man?”  Hobbes wisely answers: “I'm not sure man needs the help”

Whether you think of Satan as a solid, flesh and blood being, every bit as real as God; OR as a manifestation of our own dark side, the name we give to our penchant for evil – notice that, in the temptation story, Satan is raising the identity question and trying to answer it.

The First Temptation

“If you are the Son of God – if you are who the heavenly voice said you are at your baptism – then turn these stones into bread."

Pretty clever.  Jesus hasn’t eaten for forty days; he is surrounded by a bunch of loaf-sized rocks, and remember: he knows what we call the Old Testament backwards and forwards.  Jesus surely would have realized that Satan is evoking Manna, the miraculous bread that sustained the Children of Israel when THEY were hungry in the wilderness.

But then (I’m speculating here, but this is my guess), he remembers that GOD gave Manna to the fleeing Hebrew slaves.  Satan is saying, “You don’t need to wait for God.  Do it yourself.  Take care of Number One.”

A Parable

Once upon a time, there was an elder in a little church who called for prayer requests during the Sunday service. Folks called out the names of people in the congregation who were suffering from various sorts of physical maladies. The elder wrote them all down and was about to enter into prayer when something occurred to him.  It was such a stunning thought he just stopped and said it out loud:   “Do you know…, all these prayer concerns are about us.  I wonder if we are in danger of reducing our relationship with God to “me and mine”?

I wasn’t there, but I bet the pastor of that church thought: “If I try to answer that question, we would be here all day and the Baptists would beat us to Wendy’s.”  

Jesus resists the temptation to reduce religion to “me and mine.” He tells us not just to pray for ourselves and our friends but also to pray for our enemies, even to pray for those who abuse us.

I would even say he models what it means to “Always look out for Number One,” but only if – by “Number One” – you mean God and God’s children. 

At any rate, he does NOT use his power to make himself bread.

The Second Temptation

Next, Satan offers Jesus a career in government, “If you are the Son of God, use power to do good – not for yourself, but for others!  Look at it this way,” says Satan, “all political clout has been given to me and I can give it to anybody I want. Just worship me and I will put you in charge!"

(By the way, we don’t have time to explore this question:  but let me at least ask it:  is Satan lying here, or does he control any and all political power?  At the very least, if it’s true, it might explain some things about how congress works.)

Jesus says "No.”  He quotes God’s first words to the Hebrews as they stood on the threshold to the Promised Land: "I gave you this good land. I own you and I'm jealous of what I own. Do not worship any god except me."

Now, if you’re like me: your reaction to that is: “Way to go, Jesus!  That’s another one for you, and a big zero for Satan.”  …But think about it for a second.  What sort of Savior turns down the chance to do some powerful good for the suffering and oppressed of the world?  For that matter, what kind of God just hangs on the cross and does nothing but quote scripture and forgive those who are killing him? What species of deity would get into a theological argument with Satan rather than destroying Satan?

Apparently, the same sort who says of a thirty-year-old, soon-to-be-crucified carpenter, "You are my boy; I'm as pleased with you as I can be."

The Third Temptation

Well, with two strikes against him, Satan gives it one more try.  “If you are the Son of God, Throw yourself down from a tall temple, for the Bible says, ‘the angels will guard you carefully and not let your foot strike against a stone.’”

Notice two things about this.  One: just because we know Scripture, that does not mean we will never be tempted.  Apparently Satan knows Scripture at least as well as we do and can twist it to do just about anything.

Two:  I think the big temptation here is that while Jesus has begun to accept his role as Messiah, he would very much like to fulfill it by walking a road that does NOT go through Calvary.  Think about it:  Matthew 16:23 – Jesus turns to Peter and says, “Get thee behind me, Satan.”  Why?  Because Peter has just told him he doesn’t have to DIE in order to be the Messiah.

Or take our Lord’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane:  “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass me by.”

Jesus does NOT want to be crucified.  And I think Satan is saying, “You don’t have to be.  There’s an easier way to get people to follow you, an easier way to convince them you are the Chosen One, an easier way to show them they need to listen to YOU for the truth about God.  Simply do a miracle that has only one purpose: to dazzle them!  (And by the way, in contrast to whips and nails, it will be FUN – plus it’s even Biblical!!!)

You don’t think that would be tempting?  I think it would be tempting.  And by definition (I mean, it’s in the “Temptation Story”), JESUS found it tempting.  However, as he would later in the Garden of Gethsemane, he responds to this temptation by saying, “No.  I will not test God, I will obey God.”

And with that, Luke says: …Satan leaves.  I appreciate the fact, though, that Luke admits right up front that Satan, the Great Tempter, does not leave forever.  Satan only leaves “until an opportune time.”  Apparently, like each of us, Jesus found resisting temptation was something he had to do one day at a time, for his entire life.

His Temptations/Our Temptations

Well, our Lord’s temptations were unique to him, because he was unique.  If I had to put them into a single sentence, I would say he was tempted to lay aside the horrendously painful part of saving us and move on to more agreeable work.

The good news on this Second Sunday of Lent is that he resisted that temptation.  He refused to be our Savior on Satan’s terms – both because he knew that was not God’s will, and because he trusted God to have the only way that would actually work.

Now, you and I are not tempted to save the world in an easy way.  (That temptation was unique to him.)  Also unique to Jesus, as Christians we believe he was the only one who always resisted temptation.  Put another way, temptation is a door you and I have both walked through (at least from time to time) – sometimes it’s even a door that we have deliberately left open!

On Ash Wednesday, many of us wrote a few of our sins on red pieces of paper and nailed them to this cross.  I’d like to end with a few moments of silence in which we all imagine ourselves doing much the same thing with our temptations.  What temptations are you struggling with?  Envision yourself writing them down, nailing that paper to the cross, and asking God to help you resist. 

Let’s pray, starting with silence in which we see ourselves doing just that.

(Silence, then:)  Lord Jesus, when you came to us, you were not the Savior we were expecting. We rejected you, turned away from your love, and attempted to go our own way. You were tried and tested, but you did not turn from your calling.

Help us to do the same.  Help us to FIND God’s will, and to WANT God’s will, and to DO God’s will in our lives.  In the words of a prayer we speak every Sunday, “Lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER us from evil.” Amen.

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Hymn

With that, it’s time to prepare for offering and communion, which we’re going to do with the hymn on page 561.  Please turn to 561 and join in singing the first three verses of “It Is Well With My Soul.”