Beyond Tempting
Lent 1c, February 14, 2016 (Luke 4:1-13)
Sometimes (often?) there are unspoken assumptions about what we should or shouldn't talk about, particularly in church. When I was a child those topics were sex, religion and politics.
Over the years some of this has changed, perhaps even for the better. We haven't always been comfortable, nor particularly sensitive in speaking about sex or even other faiths in church. We have occasionally attempted to wrestle with what God is calling us to as followers of Jesus to do in terms of political action. In some ways we have begun to make attempts to talk about things that we feel are uncomfortable realities in church. Such conversations are necessary.
In wrestling with the Gospel text for this week I began to ask myself – what are we now uncomfortable talking about in church?
Two realities sprang to mind. Firstly there is money! Occasionally we will broach that subject but only when absolutely necessary: at council meetings, later today at the Annual General Meeting. As I scanned our list of nominees for the committees I couldn't help but notice that not one person allowed their name to stand for the stewardship committee. To be sure Christian stewardship isn't only about money. Yet at the same time it most certainly includes money.
Secondly, we don't often converse about the reality of temptation in our lives. I'm not so much speaking about lesser forms of temptation – such as whether or not the Pastor has been indulging in the goodies left over in the church kitchen's freezer. Instead, I am speaking about temptation that goes to the core of who we are, temptation that when yielded to has the power to destroy, to overshadow the very image of God in us.
Such temptation when yielded to, has the power to rip us like small vessels from our moorings, to propel us into rough waters where panic can easily set in, as we are terrified of being swamped, not realizing that we are not to be the captains of our small but significant vessels, nor are we ever to be solely under our "own" "power".
It's strange that we are hesitant to speak about the power of different forms of temptation in our lives because temptation is such a dynamic and ever present power, so much a part of our human fabric. After all, we are descendants of Adam – creatures of the earth.
Jesus, being fully human, is no stranger to this deepest kind of temptation which does its devilish best to steal our identity from us. Upon losing our identities, who can tell what we might do?
Notice the temptations that Jesus faces in the Gospel text. Are you hungry? Well, feed yourself! What could be wrong with that? Certainly, we are familiar with such temptations. They show up offering us convenient rationalizations. Just take care of yourself – if you are hungry, eat; if you are lonely, love the one you are with; whatever is itchy, scratch it. Take what you need, better yet, whatever you want. Who will ever know?
Secondly Jesus was tempted regarding power. We are familiar with this temptation. At times we are tempted to think that If we just had more: more money, more influence, more stuff, more time – life would be so much better. But to get that money, that influence, that stuff, even that time, so often we have to compromise who we are and what we believe .
We are God's children. As such we live in relationship with God, with others and with creation. By violating trust and or promises we hurt ourselves and others. Even if we do get more - more money, more influence, more stuff, it is incapable of holding the lasting reward that it had so slyly but falsely promised us.
Thirdly, Jesus was tempted to avoid sacrifice, pain and suffering. Sometimes as his followers we also experience this temptation. Occasionally we may feel that we should be exempt from the difficult trials and vicissitudes of life: from debilitating chronic pain; from illnesses that rise up and sap our strength, our joy, the length of our lives or the lives of those we cherish; from injustice, from tragedy. Some might tempt us into believing that following Jesus only has to do with certain "spiritual realities". Yet as we attempt to live our lives we begin to see that following this crucified One doesn't exempt us from pain or suffering, from sacrifice or conflict. Sometimes following him throws us ever more deeply into all of those realities.
Occasionally we see temptation coming. At other times we don't. Sometimes the tempter simply leaves us until a more opportune time.
The first Adam gave in to temptation. But Jesus, this One who according to Luke, is descended from Adam, does not give in to temptation.
Jesus resists those temptations. Somehow He continually knows who He is. He is God's own Son. To be sure he needs bread and all that we need to live. But he also realizes that those things are not the sum total of his identity. Like Jesus we too need "daily bread" but we also need more. We need communion with God and with each other.
Jesus resists the temptations of denying who He is and who He is called to be as God's Son. Thank God that He was able to do so.
But what about us?
Sometimes we fail to resist temptations. We harm ourselves and others. As we do so we disobey God, even attempt to push God away. In those moments the powers of evil and death rejoice. It may even appear that they are "winning". In those moments life can be awful!
But even as we face temptation and see our failures let us also know this. As powerful as evil is, as cunning and sly as temptations can be, nothing can finally usurp the power of God in Jesus Christ.
Jesus comes: to live, to love, to suffer, to be crucified. In doing so He takes on evil in all its forms. Jesus also comes to live, to love, to suffer, to be crucified in order to reach out to us and to all others. It is through these acts of his that we can be freed from being enslaved to those powers.
Lent is intended to be a time when we are enabled to look at ourselves honestly. As we are enabled to do so, we will also be moved to turn to God for forgiveness, strength, courage and hope to try again, to live out our identities by God's grace as God's sons and daughters.
Remember. Know. We do not live by bread alone. Human power and influence is not that which frees us. Pain and suffering will surely come. But we are never alone. Jesus Christ our Lord is with us and for us. We are God's children. God can and will help us. Something not just to talk about – but to rely upon, whatever the temptation. Amen.