DEUTERONOMY 26:1-11

PSALM 91:9-15

ROMANS 10:5-13

LUKE 4:1-13

Sermon – 2/29/04

Jesus’ Temptations—And Ours

Jesus was tempted.

Jesus did not float through his 30-some years on this earth above it all, immune from human experiences and emotions, secure in impenetrable divinity. No, Christ was fully human as well as fully divine; the pre-existent Second Person of the Trinity, God the Son, became flesh as a human being and enjoyed or suffered a huge range of human experiences and emotions. As the first Proper Preface for Lent in the Eucharistic Prayer says, Christ "was tempted in every way as we are, yet did not sin. By his grace we are able to triumph over every evil, and to live no longer for ourselves alone, but for him who died for us and rose again."

It was immediately after his public baptism in the Jordan River by John the Baptist at the age of 30 that Jesus, today's Gospel tells us, "was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil."

Jesus' period of sustained temptation was real, was not an accident or a mistake, and was part of God's plan: he was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness, an isolated, desolate, place with no distractions, with simply a titanic spiritual struggle over what exactly it meant to be Christ, to be the Messiah, to be the Savior of the World.

Now, the devil is not an independent power equal to and opposite from God. That is not Christian doctrine. The devil is a fallen angel, the chief among those who the baptismal service calls "The spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God." The three biggest mistakes we could make with regard to the devil would be to either pretend he doesn't exist, or to become preoccupied with him, or to worship him.

The devil's power is to tempt people, not to "make" people do things unless they in fact become possessed, which is very rare compared to successfully tempting people to do the wrong thing of their own free will. To say "The devil made me do it" is a cop-out 9,999 times out of 10,000.

Now, I'm not saying that there's a man in red with a tail and horns that drops by to whisper nasty suggestions in our ears. That would be far too obvious. Let's look at how tempting the temptations he offered Jesus were, and so be able to better identify - and resist - the ones we are offered.

In the first temptation, as reported by Luke, the devil said to Jesus "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread."

On the most straight-forward level, Jesus is tempted to use his own miraculous powers to end his time of fasting, which had left him "famished." At a deeper level, this is not just about how Jesus should get breakfast, but about whether he had to prove himself to Satan by doing a miracle exclusively for his own benefit. Another deep level is the one at which Jesus responded: "One does not live by bread alone." In Matthew's account of Jesus' temptation, Jesus' response - which is a quotation from Deuteronomy 8:3 - continues with the rest of that verse: "one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord."

Jesus never used his powers to do a miracle that only benefited himself. He was tempted to do so - both here and, far more profoundly, in the Garden of Gethsemane and while on the cross. Those who taunted Jesus yelled at him, “let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he wants to; for he said, 'I am God's Son.' "

That was tempting: to show his torturers and taunters who he was by coming down from the cross. "I'll show you I really am God's Son" he might have bellowed - but he didn't. That would have been no victory, but a hollow bit of bravado. In order to be the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the world, he had to give himself 100% even and especially for the most unloving people he ever met, without responding to their baiting, to their temptations.

Christ never did a miracle that only benefited himself. He did plenty for others. And in that way he showed us that material needs - even legitimate material needs, not wants - should not be at the center of our lives. We need to seek first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness, and then our needs will be met as well. If we put our needs first and always, our list of "needs” will expand exponentially as wants become needs and we are still hungry, never satisfied.

The stewardship ritual which Moses prescribes for the people of Israel in today's first reading is designed to remind people that their every opportunity for prosperity is possible because of the grace of God. Their ancestor - our spiritual ancestor, as well - was Jacob, a homeless man who was kept safe by God, led by God with his family to Egypt when there was a famine in the Holy Land, and whose descendants were delivered from slavery by God and given land, law and the opportunity for prosperity by God. Truly, in King David's words, "all things come of thee, O Lord; and of Thine own have we given thee."

In the second temptation, Jesus is tempted to worship Satan for the sake of the power Satan promises him. The temptation is to be "King of the World" in a wordly way - to be a dictator, and a dictator with miraculous powers in allegiance to Satan. Picture Hitler and Stalin rolled into one immortal, all powerful figure with dominion over the whole world or what would be left of it, for some have pictured Satan "turning the world over to Jesus" (if Jesus had yielded to this temptation) after destroying the world and leaving it a nuclear wasteland.

The temptation here for us is to seek power for ourselves while believing that the end justifies the means. "If only I was President, think of the good I could do," we might say - and be tempted to lie, cheat, steal and slander so as to achieve power. And what would we be like if we once did achieve power by such means - in a country, in a corporation or union or town or church or family or even so-called power over ourselves?

Lord Acton's dictum is still true: "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

If we bow down and worship Satan, we will be absolutely corrupted. If we worship ourselves - a more subtle temptation - we are simply at a rest stop on that same road, the road to Hell.

Jesus' final temptation at the simplest level, is to show off - to jump off the pinnacle of the temple, the highest point on the highest, biggest and most important building in Jerusalem, as a way to attract worshippers, perhaps, but also to dare God to catch him. Those in the public who would be impressed by a self-serving display like that would not be those of deep potential faith. In the rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar", Herod Antipas says to Jesus - then being held by his soldiers, "Show to me that you're no fool; walk across my swimming pool."

Again, Jesus never did a self-serving miracle - and he did not dare God to protect him from all the risks inherent in human life, never mind from silly, unnecessary and pointless risks like those involved in jumping off roofs.

We are tempted to put material things first and foremost and to give spiritual commitment room at the margin of our lives at best. The follow-ups to Satan's temptation to put material things first would be lines we've heard for years: "Go ahead. It doesn't hurt anybody else." (It hurts yourself.) "Go ahead. You owe it to yourself - you're entitled to it" (and what are the people of Rwanda entitled to?). "It's no big deal. You're so much better than lots of people." (and where are they going when they die?)

God knows we have legitimate needs.

When Jesus saw hungry people, he fed them. When Jesus saw sick people, he healed them. When Jesus saw lonely people, he invited them to join his community. Jesus responded to legitimate needs. He still does. In order for us to accept his gifts, we need not to be preoccupied with our needs - or wants.

We are tempted to believe that we would use power differently from those warped by power. We are tempted to believe that we wouldn't be changed by unethical achievement of power. We are tempted to believe that the ends justify the means. They don't.

We are tempted to say to God, "If you are real, if you are powerful, if you are loving, why didn't you protect me" from whatever the painful life experience that's uppermost in our minds" "Why didn't you give your angels charge over me all the time instead of just those times I was helped but haven't realized it yet?"

These are tempting temptations, and the fact is, sometimes we yield to them, and to others again and again. That's why we need a savior. Without him, we'd be stuck with our sins - and their consequences - forever.

We have a Savior.

All we have to do is acknowledge our need - and him.

As it is written in the letter of John, Chapter 1:8,9: "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us, but if we confess our sins, God, who is faithful and just, will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church