Temptation

When Jesus was being tempted in the wilderness in our passage from Luke today, we probably each have an image in our mind about what this scene looked like.  Perhaps, the devil, in a red suit with a tail and horns, drags Jesus from place to place luring him with food and power and control.   That is how the devil tempts us, right?  Actually, not entirely.  More realistically, the devil comes dressed in the best finery, indistinguishable from our acquaintances, friends and others, offering  reasonable and rational responses to our crazy world.  God helps those who help themselves, right?  Well, again, actually Ben Franklin said that, not Jesus or the Bible.  So maybe this whole thing about temptation is more complicated than we think.

Will you join me in prayer?  “Dear God who knows our hearts, do not let us be led into temptation, no matter how reasonable or rational or nice it may seem.  Keep us on the right path toward you.  Amen.”

The stories of Jesus in the wilderness for forty hungry days, and the Israelites in the wilderness for forty hungry years both start our season of 40 days in Lent.  And while deprivation and hunger seem to be common themes here, let us look at these passages a little deeper.  These two stories contain the seeds to begin to reflect on one of the most basic human tendencies.  When things get tough, we tend to forget about the source of our blessings, and when we forget the source, we are tempted to think the story becomes all about us.  And when the story focuses solely on us, the sin of pride is but a few heartbeats away.  Both of these stories focus on gratitude as the medicine for pride.  Gratitude to God or all we have saves us from thinking we have all the answers.

God saves the nation of Israel from destruction and delivers them out of Egypt.  And no sooner had they set foot on dry land after crossing the Red Sea, they forgot gratitude for being saved, and instead, began grumbling that they wished they were back in the good old days in Egypt, where at least they knew where their next meal was coming from.  They grumbled about food, about things taking too long, about not having a God they could see and touch.  All Moses had to do was turn his back for just a moment, and they formed a golden calf idol.  The story keeps returning to the spiritual center that God provides out of grace abundance and humans always seem to forget.  We seem to want to believe that we have earned and deserve the blessings of life—like we are entitled to blessings and forget to be grateful.  Our story from Deuteronomy today reminds us that the Hebrews were commanded to give of their first-fruits, not of their leftovers, in their offering to God.  Why?  A grateful people offer thanksgiving to God first and foremost.  They begin with gratitude to God, not gratitude for our human structures or institutions or technologies.  If we start with gratitude for God’s abundance, we can stay the journey with God.

We have all re-learned this same lesson here recently.  Hurricanes and snow storms have leveled and paralyzed our human social and civil systems.  All of our structures that we think will protect us from harm just collapsed in a swirl of frozen snow blown by angry winds.  We think we are high and mighty, but then a hurricane floods the shoreline, destroying parts of New York City and the Jersey shore, or the storm of the century blows in and we are frozen in time.  We are reduced to the same place the Israelites were reduced to in the desert; reminded, once again, that our technology and engineering and systems and structures fail and leave us vulnerable when disaster strikes.  And in the good times we tend to forget that disaster always strikes sometime, somewhere.  There is always a valley with a death-like shadow somewhere over the horizon.  This fragile life will end.  So where is our hope as Christ followers?

Our hope lies in Jesus’ answers when the luring beautiful cunning devil tempted him with reasonable and rational things.  The devil, dressed as a doctor or a lawyer or a politician says, Jesus, you are hungry.  Just make some bread, right here.  You know it is easy.  Fix this disaster, Jesus.  And how does Jesus respond to this rational and reasonable temptation?  He says simply, “Humans do not live by bread alone.”  Think about this for a moment.  Jesus says more stuff is not the answer.  Jesus resets life’s priority here—it is not physical food but spiritual food that most primarily sustains us.  The internet or electricity or drugstores or gas stations do not sustain us, instead, it is our relationship with God that is our real sustenance.  The grocery store does not sustain us with eternal food, but rather, our visits to the eternal store of God’s love and wisdom sustain us forever.  This is our Lenten journey; we are just dust, and all of our magnificent creations that we feverishly build to protect us are merely dust, too.  Only the spiritual food of God’s love is eternal.  All else is dust and ashes.

Then the devil says to Jesus, you need more power, more glory and more authority—you deserve it!  Take it, Jesus, it is right here for the taking, and we both know you want it.  And Jesus responds that God is the glory and power forever and ever, Amen.  The devil tempts each of us with the power of money, the glory of fame and fortune, and the temptation of feeling good when the world looks up to us uttering how wonderful we are.  This temptation is subtle, but completely pervasive in our culture.  Virtually every commercial we see presents a product or service that if we only had it would give us more power, more appeal, more attractiveness, more glory.  Thinner, more beautiful skin, better smelling.  Not overt red-devil power, but subtle be better-than-everyone-else prideful power.

Finally, the devil whisks Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple.  Throw yourself down and save yourself, Jesus.  From the vantage point of your religion, the devil says, you can save yourself: build higher walls to protect yourself.  Save yourself with gated communities or alarms or more guns in every house.  Save yourself from the perils of the world, build walls along your borders.  And Jesus’ reply?  Humans must not test God.  In addition to not yielding to the temptation for power, do not yield to the temptation of insisting that God act the way we say.  God does not respond to our testing and power seeking.  We do not direct or force God to act.  The devil knows this sin of pride all too well.  And Jesus says, No.  Now, it is very ironic that throughout Jesus’ ministry he answers each of these calls to action through God’s love.  Jesus does feed the multitudes, but out of compassion and love.  Jesus does speak truth to power and defy Rome, appealing to God’s power.  Jesus does do the impossible things, he heals and raises from the dead.  Jesus answers every temptation of the devil by doing the work of God in the world.  Through God’s love, Jesus had the last laugh proving the devil wrong.

Each of these temptation categories is still rampant in our world today, brought to us by subtle forces always pushing at us and luring us to grab for more power promising more control over our lives.  And then the storms of life come and we are reminded, just like the Hebrews in the desert and Jesus talking with the devil, that we cannot and do not control the world.  All we can do as Christ followers is control our responses to the world, patterned after following Jesus and his answers to the devil.  Here is how Jesus responded to the three temptations of the devil:

(1) to the temptation to satisfy our wants, Jesus says Focus on God and not the world.  Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and mind and soul.  We eternally thrive on spiritual food, not physical food.

(2) to the temptation of power, Jesus says remember in thanksgiving that by grace, God alone is the source of all abundance and power in our lives.  Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.  And

(3) and to the temptation of control, Jesus says remember that we are not in control, no matter how much we may think we are.  God does not promise there will be no trouble in our lives—but God does promise to walk with us always, even in the darkest valley of suffering and despair. 

So what tempts you in your life?  What beautiful attractive wonderful reasonable practical thing is a strong magnet for you?  What do you hunger for?  What power or wealth do you yearn for?  What do you wish you could control?  How do these temptations distract you and keep your attention from God?  This is our Lenten journey, to examine our hearts and lives, and seek first the Kingdom of God.  The journey of Lent is to be humble exactly where we are, fully present to the way things are, journeying home to God.  When we are tempted, simply refocus on gratitude for God’s grace and blessings, and the temptation will begin to lose its power.

King David responded to these questions of life’s temptations best when he famously reflected in this beautiful psalm about always being grateful toward God;

 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be tempted by want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters;

He restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.

And to the 23^rdPsalm we respond, And lead us not to temptation, but deliver us from evil.  For Thine, O God, is the Kingdom, and the power and the glory forever.  Amen.