"Forward Thinking" Lent 1 Sermon

Year A Lent 1 “Forward Thinking”

St. Thomas Episcopal Church

Genesis 2:15-12; 3:1-7; Psalm 32, Romans 5: 12-19; Matthew 4:1-11

Matthew 4:1-11

¹ Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  ² He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.

³ The tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." ⁴ But he answered, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

⁵ Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, ⁶ saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'"  ⁷ Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"

⁸ Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor;  ⁹ and he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." ¹⁰ Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'"

¹¹ Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

With Great Power comes Great Responsibility, a pretty obvious cliche, espoused by many, most recently Spiderman in the recent movies.  But with Great Power, also, comes Great Temptation.  The old adage, “Power corrupts, and Absolute Power corrupts ABSOLUTELY.” attests to this.  It is not in his weakness that our Lord and Savior was tempted, but in his strength.

This passage is interesting, as it lines up Jesus as a second Moses, much like the Romans reading set him up as a second Adam as well.  40 days alone with God, for remember it was the Spirit that led him out, not Satan.  Satan just crashed the party.

Jesus was led to go out alone into the Wilderness, like the Israelites were in the Wilderness 40 years, and Moses was atop Mt. Sinai 40 days.  Then we are given a glimpse into what he treasured.  Ash Wednesday we were reminded of Jesus’ own words, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”  We see the nature of Jesus’ treasures, where he draws his strengths, by what was used to tempt him.

Now before we launch into his desires, we have to ask the question, “Could Jesus even be truly tempted?”  You could put a plate of the best Haggis in the world down in front of me and it would not be a temptation.  No matter its reputation.  For me, it is not a desire, so it is not a temptation.  For some of you it might be Brussel Sprouts, or Coconut Shrimp.  No matter how good, it is not a desire so cannot be a temptaion.  Could Jesus even be tempted?  I have to say, yes.  Scripture says he ways.  

Those who say that Jesus could not have been truly tempted are trying to uphold his divinity.  But temptation is not a weakness.  It is in our desires, what we treasure, that we are tempted.  C. S. Lewis said, “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”  Jesus was tempted because he had loves, and because he had loves, he had hopes and wishes.  What was it Jesus loved?

He had a body.  He was flesh and blood.  He had needs.  When they were not cared for, he had pains.  He had fasted in a most inhospitable place, and he was not just hungry.  He was famished, it says.  He loved to eat, and after having abstained for a month and a third, he wanted to eat.  I am reading the Life of Pi in one of my classes right now, and as Pi is listing off all of the food fantasies during his depravation on the lifeboat, I was reminded of how Jesus would have seen nothing but stones in the area between Jerusalem and Jericho.  There is still nothing there.  Nothing can be there.  Life is almost impossible.  This is the same region where he set his parable of the Good Samaritan.  Snakes, robbers, and rocks.  Not much else besides the baking sun and an occasional view of the Dead Sea.  When Jesus saw the stones, they would have looked like leavened rolls.  

³ The tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." ⁴ But he answered, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

Jesus loved life, and all that is needed to sustain it.  It is not accidental that he taught us to pray for it.  “Give us this day, our daily bread.”  Fasting helps us see the need, and be thankful for receiving it all the more.  But Jesus loved something more than bread, the other manna from heaven, the very word of God.  People live by every word that comes from the mouth of God.  It gives us strength.  From strength we receive responsibility, from strength we also receive temptations.

What else did Jesus love?  He loved life, and the fulfillment of the needs of life.  He also loved the Power and Authority of God.  He had just quoted about the words that come from the mouth of God, so Satan chases that rabbit.  We can almost see the gears working, “You love God so much.  Let him show how much he loves you!”

⁵ Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, ⁶ saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'"  ⁷ Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"

Fascinating!  Satan is quoting Scripture here.  Psalm 91, by the way.  Once again, picture Satan’s thinking: “Surely this is the word of God, Jesus?  Prove you are God’s Son as was just declared 40 days ago at your Baptism!  It would prove it to everybody, and you in your fainting delirium of this extended fast.  You need to make sure before you start this fool’s crusade.”  And Jesus fires back, that he, and Satan as well, should not put God to the test.

So Jesus loves life, and Jesus loves God.  What else does Jesus love?  Jesus loves the world.  And despite the trailer for the new Son of God movie, Jesus never says in Scripture, “We are going to change the World!”  He was the Messiah, not a motivational speaker, no matter how motivating his sermons were.  But Jesus’ mission and message were key, and if he took a short cut, or another way, his message and his mission would be destroyed.

⁸ Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor;  ⁹ and he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." ¹⁰ Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'"

It is just like the Satan, to make promises that he cannot fulfill.  From atop a high mountain he says as far as the eye can see, and Jesus sees a world, desperate, but a world that he loves.  Full bellies, and miraculous powers, and worldly authority would have gotten a lot of shallow followers.  And these followers would have flocked to him, but his message of love and grace and sacrifice would not have made since from a royal throne, now would they?  Jesus’ defense again, was quoting Deuteronomy back at Satan.  (All three of his responses were quotations from Deuteronomy.  Remember how I said he is being cast as a second Moses?)  

And it is said that Satan departed and he was ministered to by angels.

As important and pivotal as this is in Matthew, and the other synoptics, what has this got to do with us?

A few things, actually.  This is the first Sunday of Lent, and like Jesus, we have entered a season of 40 days.  Our Lenten practices stem from these passages, times of testing, trials and fasting, as we await with hope the Resurrection celebration of Easter.  But what else?

It speaks to us of temptations.  We all have them.  In our strengths and abilities to choose, we are given the choice of what to do daily.  Think about it.  If you have no choice, you have no temptations.  If you have no power, you cannot choose.

In our strengths, we have some important decisions to make, decisions which shape our actions.

We need to listen to our bodies.  Jesus knew that he was famished.  He wanted food.  He had the choice to stop this fast at any moment.  In graduate school, I did an intensive study of Alcoholics Anonymous, and I took a lot from their thinking.  An acronym I learned I have used 100 times in teaching and training.  It is H.A.L.T.  HALT.  When we are Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired, we make bad decisions.  We need to take care of those basic needs, or get to a place where we can clearly see that we are being affected by being hungry, angry, lonely, or tired.  When we are, we simply need to HALT, H.A.L.T.  Jesus halted his musing on bread by quoting Deuteronomy.  Jesus, in his ability to see his choices, chose the better path.  And we can, too.

We also need to keep our eyes on the prize.  What is the bigger thing I hold more dear than the temporary pleasure of this moment?  What is this current temptation trying to feed in my soul at this moment, and what greater goal do I need to keep in sight?  Jesus kept his eye on God and his message to avoid flashy gimmicks and absolute rule.  If Jesus had taken the shock value of jumping off the Temple, or accepted absolute rule by bowing down, he would have effectively taken away peoples ability to choose.  They would have not been able to choose to “drop their nets and follow him.”  Grace wins by being chosen.

Our ability to look ahead is where we gain power to let go of the good of the now, and claim the best of the goal.  Fascinating research has been done with children, looking at the kids who could have one cookie now, or two cookies later.  The kids who could hold out for two cookies proved after years of being followed to be more successful in every aspect of life, occupations, relationships, attitudes.  More recently, Virginia Tech Professor and Director of the Advanced Recovery Research Center Warren Bickel studied how drug addicts think. When study participants are asked about their sense of the future, control participants referred to a future of 4.7 years ahead while heroin addicts refer to a future of nine days.  Why would anyone not turn down a high right now if their idea of “the future” was only nine days away?  A bigger picture, a longer future, a higher goal enables us to reach beyond the temptation of the now to leap beyond the now to a better tomorrow.

Grace wins by being chosen.  Shortcuts, no matter how tempting, destroy what we truly want.  As Saint Paul reminds us...

I Corinthians 10:13  ¹³No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.

May the same Spirit that led Jesus into the Wilderness, guide our steps on our way to Easter.  May the loves that we have set aside for a season, help us to draw closer to the One we hold most dear.  And, Lord, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the Evil One.  For Yours is the Kingdom, and the Power, and Glory Forever, most especially in Lent.  Amen.