07/03/2022
We are now in Lent – Ash Wednesday was Wednesday 2nd March. Lent is traditionally a period of “giving up” something to enhance our awareness of God. Jesus was tempted in the wilderness – he gave up eating and drinking for a period, so He could deepen His reliance on God.
The recounting of the Temptations of Jesus has often been “spiritualised”. Did they actually happen? Were they from his imagination – 40 days of fasting would make anyone hallucinate, I would think – or Luke’s imagination? Whatever the source, I think there are learnings here for us today.
Jesus was grounded in the scriptures. In each case, he refuted Satan’s temptation with a scripture. Even though Satan was cunning enough to quote scripture back to him, it was out of context, and Jesus was able to refute that.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote of the temptation of Christ:
The Bible tells only two temptation stories, the temptation of the first man and the temptation of Christ, that is, the temptation which led to man’s fall, and the temptation which led to Satan’s fall. All other temptations in human history have to do with these two stories of temptation. Either we are tempted in Adam, or we are tempted in Christ. Either the Adam in me is tempted – in which case we fall. Or the Chris in us is tempted – in which case, Satan is bound to fall.
Whilst these temptations were for Jesus, they also have significance for us.
The temptation to turn stones into bread – Do it yourself
The temptation to give in to the easy way (you don’t have to die to have salvation)
The temptation to give in to our ego.
Turn these stones to bread:
Self-sufficiency has been a catch-cry over the last few years. Previously it was User-pays under Rogernomics, but since then it has morphed, probably because of User-pays, into Self-sufficiency. The temptation to turn stone into bread is exactly this temptation for us. Being dependent on oneself, being completely isolated from others is not self-sufficiency, as much as we would like it to be. It is actually egotistical. It has, at its heart, something that says, “I can do it on my own. I do not require any help.” It shrugs off community, interaction with others, and because it puts self – self-sufficiency, self-preservation – at the centre, it demotes the place of God in our lives.
We were made to live in community. To be dependent on each other. To work together. To support each other, to help each other bounce back – build resilience – when we fall. To lift each other up. Not just us, as a church community, but our wider community of suburb, city, country, world.
Worship me, and it will all be yours:
This was an easy way – but again it would satisfy ego, but no other purpose. He was offering Jesus the opportunity to rule the world, but it would not have achieved God’s goal – the forgiveness of sins. We would not be able to find our redemption, because grace would not exist.
Taking the easy way out means different things to different people. If something is too hard – do we give up? Do we take the attitude of “You only live once, so let’s live it up!”? “You deserve to be happy.” Do anything to avoid pain. Where do we take that easy road because it doesn’t make us happy – throwing in jobs, relationships … what else?
If you watched America’s Got Talent in 2021, you may have seen Simon Cowell take with a contestant Nightbirde. She said, “You cannot wait until life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy.” Happiness is a decision, to be content with what we have now, and give God the glory, not taking it for ourselves.
Prove it (jump from this pinnacle)
The third temptation is one which says, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Jump off the top of the Canterbury Cathedral spire – and God will rescue you. Can you imagine that? Such a supernatural beginning to Jesus’ ministry would have been something different, but I don’t believe it would have necessarily achieved the purpose. Jesus would have been “accepted, idolised” because of the miraculous show. And not because of faith.
This one has a sense of “show me you love me.” Show me I can trust you. It’s the equivalent of “I won’t believe in you until you show me on my terms.”
Each of these three temptations has the same the same goal – to distract Jesus from his ministry. Jesus stood firm, but Satan was still there – he would reappear at an “opportune” time.
What is it that we are doing as individuals, as a church community, which is distracting from our ministry?
It takes three weeks to break a habit – but where our temptations are concerned, “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” (Margaret Thatcher).
So in this time of uncertainty in terms of our health response to Covid-19, the prospect of real war in Europe again with Ukraine just being the start, the on-going effects of that socially, politically and economically, remember this:
We are not alone. God goes before us. We can and should depend on each other.
Peace is not necessarily the absence of war, but is being at the centre of God’s will.
God knows and understands us. He has been there, done that.
He has chosen to live among us. He will not desert us.
Amen.
