Everything feels different today. It may be because we started the liturgy with the Great Litany. Sometimes when we’re not expecting the liturgy to be any different than it was last week and we come to Church expecting that, then I think it’s hard to hear what makes the difference. It’s all a bit unsettling. But it’s supposed to be.
We have begun a forty-day journey of Lent. Immediately we are reminded that something is different when we hear the words of Luke, telling us that Jesus was led by Spirit into the wilderness for a forty day adventure.
Maybe calling it an adventure is wrong. It certainly was a journey. And Jesus was led to undertake it by the very Spirit of God. That part might surprise you because it leaves me with a sense that Jesus may not have necessarily been looking forward to this extended time dealing literally with his demons. Or if not his demons, it certainly becomes clear that the evil one is present with Jesus. Not only is the evil one present, but the evil one seems to have an agenda that Jesus faces head on.
Remember Jesus is equips himself for the temptations that he will face with fasting and prayer. Fascinatingly enough, if we would have been able to tell Jesus he needs to be prepared for what will be a harrowing encounter with the very essence of evil, I am not sure we would have told him that he needed to fast for forty days and nights. We would probably have told him to get ready to pray but I am not sure we would have any hope that power to overcome the evil could be found in both prayer and fasting. Perhaps we need to look closer at both spiritual disciplines when we face the struggles in our own journeys.
But I don’t want to get sidetracked here. There is much revealed in these few verses and when we unpack them, much can be learned about our own struggles and what this all means to those of us who face temptations not dissimilar to the ones Jesus faced.
When Jesus emerges from this time in the wilderness, he will return to Galilee in a way that is quite different than how he began this adventure. Luke tells us that he returns “in the power of the Spirit.” Through this encounter with the evil one, Jesus succeeds with true power and reveals, through each of the three trials he faces, where true power is found: Jesus power, the power of evil and ultimately God’s. Let’s look closely at the three temptations.
In the first of these three trials, the evil one suggests to Jesus that if he is truly the son of God, he ought to be able to turn a stone into bread. This is quite frankly brilliant, given the fact that Jesus had been fasting from food for some time and he is hungry. Jesus responds to this trial by basically reminding all who would listen that a life is more than cravings. It seems quite natural that Jesus would use his divine power to take care of his personal needs and eating doesn’t seem like a sin or anything. But lets scratch under the surface.
Remember that the emperor Augustus and his son Tiberius claimed to be the son of god. By claiming this title, they had the authority to have at their fingertips any resources, including food, that they needed or desired. They could get grain, obtain money from taxes and use military might if needed. They just had to speak, and those words had the power of life and death over anyone in the Empire. So, this means that if they had the power to turn a stone into bread to take care of their hunger, then, they would do that. But not so with Jesus. Pay attention, there’s a pattern quickly developing between the self-serving power of the leaders in the Empire compared to the self-emptying and humble power of Jesus.
Jesus quotes Hebrew Scriptures and helps us by saying that we, as humans are not totally responsible for our own well-being or even existence. In his quote he reminds us that there is much to learn from the Israelites who wandered in the wilderness for forty years. Despite not knowing what tomorrow would bring, God always provided. God provided manna for forty years and the pillar of cloud and fire guided them through the wilderness. There’s a lesson here for us, since we too live in uncertain times. When we are led by God’s Spirit, uncertain times do not overwhelm but remind us, as Jesus does in another place that “life is more than abundance of possessions.” Jesus is showing us, that we can confidently follow the Spirit into the unknown.
But this isn’t the end of things. The evil one then claims he can give Jesus’ power and fame over all the kingdoms of the world. The rub is that in order to receive such prestige, Jesus will have to worship him. Again, Jesus quotes from the Hebrew Scriptures and calls the evil one’s bluff. Fame and authority are clearly not some Jesus seeks. Jesus knows where true authority is found and it’s not in the worldly empires being offered by the evil one.
And now the third temptation arrives as the evil one quotes from the Psalms in an attempt to convince Jesus to throw himself down from the highest point of the Temple. Jesus is told that the angels will protect Jesus from harm and once again Jesus quotes from the Hebrew scriptures in response. Deuteronomy 6:16 that he quotes recalls when Yahweh provided water from a rock for the complaining Israelites. They had angered God (the Owner, the Lord, kurios) because according to Exodus 17:7 at Massah they queried “Is God among us or not?”
So the evil one is trying to get Jesus to put God on trial. Jesus’ response insinuates that the Scriptures should not be used to cast doubt on God’s presence with God’s people. They should not be used for a game of “gotcha” nor should they be recited to serve selfish interests. Instead, the Scriptures are reminders of God’s powerful presence with God’s people even in the wilderness. There the Spirit leads them to resist the allures of the Evil One and empire.
And so, we are left with knowing that Jesus not only overcame these trials but show us a way out as well. For we too are faced with false claims about where to find power, prestige and a sense of rising above all the challenges of life in the midst of uncertainty. But remember that Jesus would have none of the lies and twisted truths of the evil one. When Jesus heard the temptations, the promises were plausible, but they fail deep scrutiny. The evil one suggested “that if we want good things we must make sure we keep them to ourselves. Someone else might take some. But Noah’s ark is the sign that we can only be saved together. Those who refuse untidy and unpredictable intimacy, clinging to the right to control and manipulate, drown in the water which they cannot control. The water is the water of life, and life is the spirit that grows and flows and bears up the arc on its buoyant surface.” -Rosemary Haughton.
We could leave it here and probably be pretty good to go. But the problem is that not all of us struggle with the desire for power and prestige, or even the concern over whether or not God will provide. Our struggles are apropos to Lent since we have been asked to reflect on what the liturgy calls “manifold sins and wickedness.” Before we let go of this gospel and the temptations of Jesus, let’s take a quick look into what we tend to struggle with because of our misunderstanding of sin.
It’s difficult dealing with our sins because we have made sin into something that is primarily personal and pushed into a narrow category of moral impurity. Jesus saw it quite differently.
We struggle with the same issues the gnostics did in the early church. We tend to have a dualistic understanding of sin and righteousness, putting sin and evil on equal footing with love and goodness. They are not. Love wins. Eventually Love Wins because in the very essence of God is love. Our temptation is often one of judgement, separating those who are the inside from those who are on the outside. When we do this we end up “aloof, separate, or superior.” We stand up and against those who don’t measure up and feel pretty good about ourselves. Indeed it is a heady feeling putting ourselves on the inside and then feeling as if we can keep those we find living morally impure lives on the outside. But what if these feelings could change into compassion and forgiveness. Instead of counting sins as a moral failure, we take our focus off of that and enter into a different way of being “where grace and mercy allows us to let go, trust and love instead of paying back in kind.”
This is truly a transformation that can only take place when we learn to trust in God, even when things are in such flux and confusion. But ultimately when we face the truth that often we follow God for the benefits instead of the truth of love, forgiveness and grace that happen in us when we let go. We probably aren’t tempted to throw ourselves off the temple roof and see if angels will catch us but what if we stop caring about who’s in and who’s out and simply love. Love others completely without strings attached. If we do that, like Jesus, we will leave whatever wilderness we find ourselves in and find ourselves comforted and empowered to love.
Wonderings of a Deconstructed Priest
Found Jesus along the road of grief