March 6, 2022 – First Sunday in Lent
Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness – overcoming them for us, and showing us how, with God’s grace, to align ourselves with God’s Word to overcome the temptations we face.
Let us pray. Merciful God, we give you thanks for your presence in this time and place, and within each one of us gathered here and in our many places we have gathered this day. Help us now to open our minds, our hearts, our whole lives to receive the gift of your living Word for us this day, and may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
For those who have been participating in our Monday evening group on ‘Being God’s Church’, it’s very tempting with this First Reading to kind of dive into it. It’s an excellent example of a contemporary worshiper immersing themselves into the historic tradition of God’s people – identifying with and placing themselves into the covenant with God. That contemporary worshiper is instructed to say, “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, …” And then notice, as our worshiper continues, the direct relationship. The worshiper says, “The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, …” Note that he says the Lord brought “us” – not “them.” This contemporary worshiper is expecting this powerful God to be present now – just as God was then. This is what we do when we gather in worship – especially in the Eucharist at which we immerse ourselves into God’s great act in the birth, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But that’s another sermon!
So I want to take today and dive into the Gospel reading – Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness after his baptism and anointing in God’s Holy Spirit. We tend, I think, to take the term “40 days” literally. We do 40 days of Lent, for instance. But in biblical languages, it’s more of a convention to mean “a long time.” It’s not 40 as opposed to 39 or 41 – it’s a long time. And in my experience on this day and with this reading, we tend to focus on Jesus’ suffering – on his deprivation on our account, and how, even though he’s tempted by Satan, he did not succumb – unlike us who do give in and sin.
But as disciples of Jesus Christ, we also need to ask what is Luke trying to show us about Jesus, and about following Jesus faithfully? First of all, the fact there is a 40-day trial in the wilderness should come as no surprise. Other great prophetic leaders had a similar experience. Elijah spent 40 days travelling in the wilderness to Mount Horeb – the mount of God – where the Word of the Lord came to him. Moses spent 40 days on the mountaintop receiving the commandments of the Covenant from God – the ‘ten Words’ from God. So it fits that Jesus, also, undergoes a wilderness experience. And he experiences it just like us – human flesh – with all our frailties. And Luke says that at the end of the time he was famished – just like we would be – very hungry! And Luke makes this statement at the end of the fast – so it’s over. Jesus should now be free to eat in some way.
So the first temptation says this. The devil says to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” Now it’s important to know that in the biblical languages the word we’re translating there – ‘if’ – really means ‘since.’ So in other words, the devil is not asking him to prove that he is the Son of God, but rather, because of who you are, the position you hold, do this! Think of the many ways that that plays out in our lives. Think of people who can say to themselves, “Because I make lots of money, I can spend it where I want to.”, or “Because I’m the boss of this company I can expect some of my employees to do me favours – especially ones that meet my needs.” Or, “Because I’m the Rector of this parish, I can expect it to run the way I think it should.” All of these statements are made from a position of entitlement – exercising power – because one can, as a result of their position. Jesus resists by quoting Scripture from Deuteronomy chapter 3. I’m going to read the whole quote – Jesus only gives us the first half. “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” Just because you and I can obtain something, and you have the power to do that, and you think you maybe even deserve it, does not give you the right to do it. God is ultimately the source of authority and power. It is God who directs the proper use of power and authority.
In the second temptation, Jesus is tempted to grasp worldly power – maybe to become a kind of military or revolutionary Messiah. And it’s not necessarily that he would be fighting for a bad cause – the emancipation of Israel from Roman rule could be viewed as a good cause. He’s invited to put other causes, other aspirations, other opportunities to exercise leadership and power, and as I say, not necessarily bad ones, but to make these other opportunities the centre of his life – the projects, programs, and priorities that he will put first in his life, and will cause him to decide how to live that life. Jesus resists by quoting, again, from Deuteronomy – chapter 6 this time. He says, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” We need to think of ‘worship’ there broadly – not just in doing ritual actions in front of a divine being, but rather thinking about the most important things in your life – what you submit to, and what determines your priorities and behaviour. Those are the things that you worship.
In the third temptation he’s invited to live his life without limits – a kind of ‘assumed invincibility’ – denying that life has boundaries or risks. The devil says to him, “If 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.’” It’s inviting him to take a kind of proud and naïve approach to life – “I’ll always land on my feet – Somebody up there will look after me.” And Jesus’ response is this, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test’.” – also from Deuteronomy 6. Jesus is saying it is God who directs the risk-taking in my life, just as it is by God’s grace that I will be protected from harm.
So while Luke presents these temptations in the context of confrontations with the devil, we can see that they are temptations in some form that are common to us all. What Jesus demonstrates for us is the fact that it is by living the life of a disciple – accepting the grace of the Spirit to live our lives submitted to God’s Word – that we experience real life – eternal life – life in the fellowship of Christ.
We prayed in today’s Collect Prayer, “Give us grace to discipline ourselves in submission to your Spirit.” That doesn’t mean ‘try harder’! It means making a conscious decision to submit our will to God’s will – to put discerning God’s will and ordering our lives accordingly, above all else. And God enables us to do this. The Collect Prayer continues, “…as you know our weakness, so may we know your power to save.” Jesus spent those 40 days in the wilderness as one of us, precisely to know and understand and overcome the trials that we all face. And he overcame them by aligning himself with God’s Word – God’s will.
As we just sang in our Gradual Hymn – “your word fills our hunger, your word, Lord, sustains us.” This is why, even in the midst of our sin, in our failures, in the many ways that we do come up short, we can celebrate and give thanks for Jesus’ 40 days, and his demonstration of the power of God’s Word – wherein lies our hope and our life.
Amen.
