Hungry Reflections
March 13, 2011 (Lent 1a, Matthew 4:1-11)
What do you do when you are hungry?
What do you do when you are thirsty?
Ah, but what do you eat and what do you drink?
Jesus was hungry and very likely thirsty. To be sure, these were his own choices. He had been fasting a long time. Fasting is not in vogue these days. But at its best fasting is intended to deny oneself some basic needs in order to focus on the goodness of God, to ask God to open our hearts and minds to God's presence and to be honest with one's self in doing so. You can be sure that after a significant time of fasting that Jesus was hungry and thirsty.
It's then that the tempter comes to Jesus – and to us. When we are most vulnerable. I don't know about you but when I'm hungry I can be a bear. In my hunger I am less patient, less kind, more demanding, more prone to rage. Similarly when I am tired my behaviour is often less than exemplary. Or when I am particularly singled out for what I have said or done I am more prone to do things that are destructive to myself than when I am experiencing much acceptance. There are many times and circumstances in which I become more vulnerable. How about you?
So we meet Jesus. He is hungry and thirsty. At times we are also "hungry" and "thirsty". It is often in those times that the tempter draws near. At first glance, temptations may seem harmless. What could be wrong with satisfying one's hunger? Surely God wouldn't want us to be hungry? If Jesus had decided to do what the tempter was so seductively inviting him to do – make bread out of stones, a kind of magical thing – who knows how many could have been fed? I am sure that the bread so made could have benefitted many people. Similarly today in places like Japan, Libya, many areas of Africa and in many soup kitchens and food banks in Canada. The tempter's word to Jesus seemed so straight forward. It was either "If you are the Son of God" .... or, "Since you are the Son of God". The tempter's word was a challenge to Jesus' identity – to Jesus' trust of God the Creator. Prove that you are who say you are, the tempter is saying.
Thanks be to God that Jesus does resist the tempter. In doing so Jesus points out a fundamental truth – lifted from the Scriptures: one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Wow! In Jesus' response to the tempter we see that Jesus is very clear about whom he trusts.
But the tempter does not give up. Once again the tempter challenges Jesus identity. If you are the Son of God or since you are, throw yourself down from a very high holy place. Surely God will take care of you, since you are God's son! But once again Jesus resists the temptation, the challenge to, in some sense, prove his identity. He responds to the tempter, "Do not tempt the Lord your God!"
Once again the tempter is foiled. But he does not give up. He ventures into the political realm. Wouldn't you like magical power over all the realms and machinations of the world without having to suffer or really do anything for it? If we could magically have such power, what would we have done?
But Jesus will not cut a deal. He will not trust anyone else before God regardless of their power. Jesus cuts to the chase, "Away with you Satan, for it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him'."
With that the tempter withdraws – but not forever.
In some ways all of this seems surreal – or at the very least long ago and far away. But is it?
What are you hungry and thirsty for? What do you yearn and long for? Escape from responsibility? Peace and quiet? A respite from financial worries? Assurance that you will be physically or mentally well? Magical deliverance from any pain or struggle? Relief from compulsion and compunction to overeat or under eat, to purge or even to seek thrills without any repercussions?
An important part of being human is that we have longings, yearnings, sometimes almost an insatiable thirst or hunger. These "drives" may be for many things. They may take on many forms. We are very often like the old country singer used to twang, looking for love in all the wrong places. I suspect that lyricist knew something about the reality of temptation.
St. Augustine also knew something about temptation. He said something like this (I paraphrase) – our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee – meaning in God.
God has created us to be in relationship – with God, with others, with creation. This yearning is deeply embedded in our beings. Some might even say that in some mystical way, these yearnings are part of the makeup of our DNA. But too often we think, we feel that we can control the fulfilment of such yearnings ourselves. Then we take the piece of "fruit". Overstep-ping our boundaries we place our trust in ourselves or someone or something else, rather than God. Then instead of loving God others we seek to love things and use people. We forget whose we are and then lose sight of who we are.
I have to tell you it's not easy to remember whose we are and to live that way. Even though most of us have had the cross marked on our foreheads for a long time and even though in that moment God promised to seal us with the Holy Spirit forever, there are other spirits at work in this universe. Such spirits are similar to that first tempter who addressed Adam and Eve and then who "seductively invited Jesus" to throw himself down for a kingdom. Such spirits seek to worm their way into our hearts and minds: to deceptively manipulate us into thinking that we are in control when in reality they are seeking to control us.
But beware people, giving into such temptation leads only to momentary "highs" accompanied by long and depressing lows resulting in ultimate emptiness and heartbreak both for us and others.
As human beings we cannot escape temptation. Nor will we will always be successful in resisting temptation. This is sad but true.
But this One who marks us in our baptism with Christ's love and victory over sin, death and evil in the sign of the cross, loves us deeply. This One, this God in the flesh, keeps on seeking us, calling us to remember whose we are, inviting us to follow His Son in obedience.
So I invite you, you who are hungry and thirsty. Be sure to be honest with yourself and with others. Know that there is food which fills, enabling us to be healthy – to love and be loved, to forgive as we are being forgiven, to care with all we have even as Jesus has cared for us by emptying himself. This is the food and the drink that God wills for us. May we eat and drink of these slowly and deeply. We still will be far from perfect – but in our humility, by God's grace, we will be enabled to live as God's children. Who knows by God's grace some others may even see the face of Christ reflected in our faces. Amen.