Lent 1- 1

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: Lent 1
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: March 1, 1998

TEXT: Luke 4:1-13 - The Temptation of Jesus -
"Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him."

ISSUE: After Jesus' forty day ordeal in the desert wilderness, he is tempted to begin a self-serving ministry. He is also tempted to be distracted from being The Son of God in the most meaningful sense of that word. He remains faithful as God's son and suffering servant. It is a story of great grace: Jesus does what we fail to do or cannot do. He refuses to be a fallen angel jumping from the pinnacle of the temple, or even a figure of great success. He serves God only, and is our hope and our salvation, truly the new Adam.
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In today's Gospel account from Luke, we are told of Jesus' forty days in the desert wilderness and his temptation by the Devil. Luke wants us to know and his readers to know that Jesus is not unlike the great figures of Moses and Elijah, Israel's heroes. In the process of receiving the Commandments of God, Moses had spent forty fasting days on Mt. Sinai. (Dt. 9:9) Elijah the prophet also spends forty days fasting on Mt. Sinai and hears the still small voice of God directing him. (I Kings 19:8) Luke would have us know again that Jesus is among the great leaders of Israel.
Jesus' forty days fasting in the wilderness immediately follows his baptism in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. Recall that having been baptized, Jesus emerges from the water and receives the Holy Spirit. Filled with the Spirit of God, he and the spirits hear the voice of God: "You are my own dear Son, I am pleased with you." Jesus is given God’s highest honor. The implication here is that if Jesus is truly God's Son then he must be tried and tested. His worthiness of his calling is to be tested. The forty days fast is his preparation for the high calling to which he has been ordained. Can he pass the test?
At the end of the ordeal, Jesus is confronted by the Devil. It was believed in this period that many spirits dwelled in the desert wilderness region. God has not shielded Jesus from the realities of life. The testing is symbolic of Jesus' wrestling with the spirits, his own darker side as a human being, as he tries to grasp what it means to be the Son of God. He is tempted to serve the Devil, that is, to serve his own self-serving concerns. The Devil's first challenged is to have him turn stones into bread to meet the need of his own appetite. Jesus meets the challenge quoting Hebrew Scripture: "One does not live by bread alone." (Dt.8:3), which is a passage from Deuteronomy when Moses informed his complaining disciples that they do not live by bread alone. He refuses to meet his own personal need.
Passing the first test, Jesus is then offered all the world's kingdoms and full authority over them, if he will be bow down to worship the Devil, under the assumption that the world belongs to the Devil, and it is his to give away. But the Devil is a liar, and Jesus knows this fact. The world belongs to God, not to the Devil. The Devil can give him nothing of the sort, and so again Jesus responds out of his knowledge of the Hebrew Scripture: "Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him." (Dt.6:13), which statement is given by Moses in the wilderness journey with his fellow Hebrews. Jesus refuses to accept the phoney undependable security that world offers. Neither does he choose to be a powerful authoritative dictator like leader. He turns away from worldly power. He is totally dependent upon God’s power and authority, and chooses to serve only Him.
Finally, the Devil in the story, takes Jesus up to the pinnacle of the Jerusalem Temple. Everybody knew that there was quite a drop off the pinnacle, a shear drop of 450 feet. In this instance, it is the Devil who quotes Hebrew Scripture: "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written (in Psalm 91:11-12), 'For he shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. They shall bear you in their hands, lest you ash your foot against a stone.'" But Jesus responds himself with another passage: "Do not put the Lord your God to the test." (Dt.6:16), again a quotation from Israel’s wandering in the desert, when they complained that there was not enough water at Massah. Jesus is not concerned with his own salvation. He is not concerned with his own best interests and salvation. He will endure the pain and suffering of humanity as he is directed by God. Going to the cross will not be for his own salvation, but for the salvation of God's people. He will not come down from the cross to save himself.
Remember too that in Christian mythology the Devil is seen as a fallen angel. The implication here is that if Jesus jumps off the pinnacle at the challenge of the Devil, then he too will be a fallen angel. That does not happen, because Jesus' purpose and his ministry is clear. He shall serve God and his Sonship is validated by his rejection of the call of the Devil and the popular notions of the world. He shall embrace his humanity as the new Adam that does not fall and maintain he is the Son of God. He does not snatch at being God, but takes the role of the Son, the suffering servant of God. (Phil.2:5-9)
As human beings all of us too are tempted. There are the temptations to do things that are stupid, even evil sometimes. We are all often tempted to bad and inappropriate behavior. We often succumb. In our thinking today, it is not so much a devil or evil spirit that tempts us, but rather our own darker side. God does not tempt us in this way. In this area we are our own worst enemies and we like to say humorously, like the comedian, Flip Wilson, "The devil made me do it." Yes, sure, he did. Essentially we are responsible for our own actions and deeds. It may be comfortable to attribute badness to others and undefineable spirits, but we may just be trying to fool our selves. The temptation or the testing that comes from God is whether or not we are faithful. Are we in fact the sons and the daughters of God, trusting in God, or is our allegiance elsewhere?
There is always the temptation today to merely serve and save ourselves. Caring for ourselves and those who are closest too us, trying to turn our own stones into bread. American obsession with individualism and our need to be self-made men and women plays a big part in our thinking and in our actions, which give us a somewhat inflated picture of our own self worth and importance. Many people are success driven. Some find themselves in positions of successfulness, but with it comes even greater vulnerability. How many successful superstars, athletes, politicians, and even clergy fall from grace because of the temptations that come from their own sense of power or self-accomplishment that makes them feel larger than the humans. Many such people succumb to drug addiction, alcoholism, depression, and sexual acting out and scandal. Enveloped in their own success and false sense of power and control over their own lives they fall from grace. We try to save ourselves, but we cannot. The best efforts of every generation are met with continued various forms of human vulnerability and sinfulness, pestilence, plague, and war. We are intent on thinking that we can feed and manage ourselves when in fact everything we have and possess comes from beyond ourselves. If truly alone, no one of us could survive. We need one another in community. We need God.
While in our culture we are not very taken with evil spirits for the most part. We do become enamored with power and possessions. This is the land of the Big Whopper and the Big Mac. This is the land where more is always better. Homes in a time of small families are the size of castles. We cherish our possessions, and the control over our own individualism, and the need to often be controlling and powerful, if not manipulative. American needs are often in contrast to the simplicity, humility, and servanthood of the Gospel of Christ. We might all want to look at that in our personal lives, and reflect on just how consumptive we have become, and personally satisfied with our lives in the midst of a world we great human need. Maybe we may need to take more seriously the words in the Lord’s prayer, “Lead us not into temptation,” the temptation to be so self absorbed in our own needs that we miss or calling to serve others, and to be rich in our love of Jesus Christ.
Our salvation, which is truly the message of this passage today, comes from the one who did pass the test. Jesus Christ embraced his humanness, and did not seek to be more than human. His life was one of a servant and an obedience and trusting love in God the Father. This way of life is how he saw his sonship. He placed his trust in the Father. He carries on a ministry, which incorporated a community of people who dared to follow him as best they could. He provided a teaching of the genuine love of God for his people. He respected the dignity and worth of all people. He saw value in all the disenfranchised poor, the afflicted and did what he could to restore and heal. Out of his devotion to God, people saw in him healing and hope. When faced with opposition he remained faithful to his ministry and calling. Salvation is found in his doing what we have difficulty in doing. He is the way that helps us find God, which is the Good News of today's Gospel reading. Jesus Christ is the new Adam, the one who did not fall. Embracing him with faith and love, we find our opportunity to be lifted up. In his humanity, he resisted temptation, and fulfilled the words of John the Baptist, “There is one coming who is greater and more powerful than I.