13 March 2011

“Faces of faith – Jesus and the Devil”
Matthew 4:1-11
First Sunday in Lent cycle A
13 March 2011


It is a troubling part of the most familiar, comforting Christian prayer …
“Lead us not into temptation.”
For some, those words are so disturbing that they would just as soon never use the “traditional” language version of the Lord’s Prayer, but rather, always the “contemporary” one … as we are using here in worship during this season of Lent … in which those words “lead us not into temptation” are retranslated as “save us from the time of trial.”
As one who expressed their disturbance to me, once said, “why would I ask God not to lead me into temptation – why, God doesn’t try to pull a bait-and-switch on us, does God?”
Well, does God?
That question, it must be an old one … certainly as old as the time of Martin Luther. For, in his Small Catechism … specifically, his explanation to the Sixth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer, Luther writes thus:

It is true that God tempts no one, but we ask in this prayer that God would preserve and keep us, so that the devil, the world, and our flesh may not deceive us or mislead us into false belief,despair, and other great and shameful sins, and that, although we may be attacked by them, we may finally prevail and gain the victory.

Although we may be attacked by them, we may finally prevail and gain the victory.

That’s certainly a great summation of our First Sunday in Lent Gospel reading, isn’t it?
We have once again begun the liturgical season of reflection and renewal … and, once again, just as in every year on the first Sunday of Lent, our story is about Jesus’ experience away, by himself, in the desert wilderness of Palestine.
And right away, we are presented with the dilemma with which we began our message-time this morning.
“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil.”
What is happening here?
Chronologically, we’ve gone back in time … long before last week’s trip up and down SonShine Mountain of Jesus’ transfiguration … before the Sermon on the Mount, in which we spent most of the Epiphany season … even before Jesus called his first disciples … here we are, right after Jesus’ baptism by John, and the first hearing of those words we also heard last week … “THIS IS MY SON, THE BELOVED, WITH WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED” …
So what happens to the beloved Son? Where does the well-pleased Father’s Spirit lead him next? Into the wilderness … the dry, desert places … to be tempted by the Devil.
It is a strange sentence … especially given our understanding that “God tempts no one.”
But that still holds. It’s not going to be God that is doing the tempting.
And second … the word Matthew uses in his Greek language, which we translate as “tempt,” can also mean “test.” Here, I think that’s more the meaning. God’s Spirit, fresh from lighting on Jesus in his baptism, a sign that God is with him and well pleased with him … God’s Spirit is going to lead Jesus into the wilderness to test him … to show him what being God’s Son is truly going to be all about … and, in that other, not as often used sense of “test” – for which we use a similar word, “temper” … the one we used to hear in those aluminum foil commercials that went “oven tempered for flexible strength” … God’s Spirit is leading Jesus into the wilderness to be strengthened for service.
But perhaps we don’t even get that far into the story … maybe we stumble on that name, the personification of the Tempter, the Tester … the one Matthew, here, calls “the Devil.”
Well, we’ll take a look at that in a minute … I don’t want to get stuck on the personification of the Tempter first.
Instead, let’s look at the individual temptations or testings themselves.
They are, really, innocent enough. Not “pushing the envelope” for the Beloved Son of God, not by a long shot.
For, what’s wrong at turning stones into bread to feed the hungry? Would we not expect this of the Beloved Son of God?
What’s wrong with believing the Scriptures so strongly that Jesus would trust the angels to protect him, even in the most severe of situations? Would we not expect this level of trust of the Beloved Son of God?
And what’s wrong with Jesus – the “King of kings and Lord of lords” – assuming control and leadership of all the kingdoms of the world? Don’t we expect this of Jesus at the end of all things anyway? What would be so bad if he took hold of things now, at this point in the story?
These are terribly logical choices, laid out before Jesus.
If Jesus took them, he’d certainly be living into what we would expect of the Beloved Son of God, wouldn’t he?
It’s just that … that’s it.
The reason Jesus is led up by the Spirit into the wilderness is to see how he’s going to go about being fully God AND fully human, in walking in the way of the Cross.
Though we-people might expect a Superman-Messiah, this isn’t what God wants at all. Or, what we humans need.
Because, if you haven’t noticed … we’re not supermen or women. We’re all very, very human.
So we need a fully human Messiah to show us A Different Way out of our temptations.
Actually, I should have said, Temptation. Because if you get to the root – commonality – of these temptations Jesus encounters … they are the same as those we encounter … the core of which is hubris.
Hubris. We hear that word a lot lately, but maybe we don’t know exactly what it means.
So here it is … hubris is “extreme arrogance.” “Not being realistic.” “Overestimating one’s competence or capabilities.”
In other words … putting one’s self in the place of God.
That’s what each of these temptations does. “Oh, just make yourself bread out of these rocks, Jesus, and break your long fast … who cares anyway.” “Go throw yourself off the highest building around, Jesus, … you won’t die.” “Become the ruler of the world, Jesus – who wouldn’t want that?”
That’s hubris.
Of course, for Jesus, fully God … being Godlike was, is, would be OK.
But for Jesus, also fully human … sent to save us from our sins … well, giving in to those temptations would also be totally self-serving … there’s no “for us” in them at all.
That’s why he didn’t give in.
And for us – who give in to temptations to hubris in so many, many ways every single day … Jesus’ not giving in shows us another way … another way through which, as Luther says, “although we may be attacked by them, we may finally prevail and gain the victory.”
Attacked … by …Them. What tempts us to hubris … putting ourselves in the place of God …
Once again, in Luther’s words …
…the devil, the world, and our flesh.
OK – NOW we can talk about the Devil.
Matthew uses two words here -- “devil,” or diabolos in his Greek language … and what Jesus himself calls the “tempter,” … “Satan.” It’s no surprise Jesus uses that word Satan, because it’s Hebrew - Sa’tan – and Jesus was a Jew, of course – Sa’tan is the Hebrew term for “adversary.” In the Old Testament – and this would have been the sense in which Jesus knew and used the term – Sa’tan is that which opposes God and the coming kingdom or reign of God. People are primarily the source of this satanic behavior. So when Peter speaks to Jesus in chapter 16 of Matthew’s Gospel, and says things which oppose Jesus continuing in the Way of the Cross – “God forbid it, Lord, this (suffering and dying on the Cross) must never happen to you” – well, Jesus calls Peter “Sa’tan” or adversary … “Get behind me, Satan!” You – Peter – are opposing God’s will and way, in me.
And that is really all that is going on here, between Jesus and diabolos or Satan. He – Jesus – is encountering opposition as he seeks to continue in the Way of the Cross, opposition which comes in the form of these three temptations ... and, rightfully, he calls it as such.
But something happened with how people used those words, “devil” and “Satan,” soon into the history of the Christian church. Instead of understanding the meaning of those names as descriptors for those who oppose the way of Jesus … Christians soon started using them in another way …
… to label – demonize, if you will … those who opposed them.
Elaine Pagels, in her book “The History of Satan,” outlines this shift. We start to see it in Luke and John’s gospels, where Satan – evil personified – is said to enter into Judas, leading him to betray Jesus. But then other church fathers start using the label for those who opposed what they interpreted as “orthodox Christianity.”
Certainly Martin Luther understood things in this way. His was a very different medieval world view … where demons were palpable and temptation was around every turn. But Luther was also terribly guilty of labeling anyone who opposed the Reformation … or him - Luther, as he interpreted God’s word, as “Satan” – from the Pope and the Roman Catholic church … to the Jews.
And so today- how do we use the words, the terms … devil, Satan? Most likely, either as a “passing the buck” excuse for our own sin – “the devil made me do it” … or, in the demonization of our opponents … Democrats, Republicans, “Religious Right,” “Religious Left,” large corporations, Congress, the Supreme Court, the President … “our opponents” are “evil” … meaning, “of the devil.”
Which, conveniently, removes the personal responsibility of our own shortcomings … wrongdoings … omissions … sins … removes the personal responsibility from us, and slathers it all over “them.”
They did it. It’s their fault.
Which couldn’t be further from what Jesus is intending in our Gospel reading … which is … pointing out the inevitability of our temptation to sin … and his “other way” through it … the Way of the Cross which leads to his reconciling sinful shattered people with a “perfect” whole God.
Contemporary author Jim Crace – he, undoubtedly, tired of the “traditional” approach to today’s Gospel text … leading to people “using” Satan as a convenient scapegoat for their sins … or as a hateful label hurled at political enemies … Crace wrote a book which has become the epitome book for “post-modern theology,” called “Quarantine.”
The title refers to that forty day period Jesus spent in the Wilderness … remember “Quarantine” means “forty.”
In the book, the temptations Jesus encounters while on his Quarantine end up being more of a struggle with his own demons, if you will … Jesus’ time of resisting temptation is truly a battle against himself, and his fully human desires.
Though Crace’s approach is different – even, perhaps, disturbing to some readers – his point is well taken.
Temptation … hubris … wanting to be like God …
… in the end … the one with whom we truly have to do battle, as we fight that tempting, which leads us from the wholeness, peace, shalom of God … is … none other than … ourselves. Me, myself, and I.
And this is why we have Lent. Lent calls us to what theologian Paul Tillich called “the crisis” … the realization that we are all searching for meaning in everything else other than God … that we at base do not want to admit that we are ultimately powerless in the face of everything which tempts us … and that we need God to be God in our lives, not us.
It is the Crisis which brings us back from hubris to reality … that “we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves” … that, as we sing in that Holy Week hymn, “twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied thee, I crucified thee” … that, as we confess our sins and hear the words of forgiveness, as we gather around the table of the Lord, we come back together from our shattered brokenness, our selfish singularity, and form a new community, forgiven, freed, to live, refreshed, reborn, in him.
Granted, that’s not a popular word today … nor, would I offer, at any time in human history. Maybe that’s why the Lutheran Church … those Lutheran churches where the Cross is central and the word of confession and forgiveness is truly and rightly proclaimed …
… those churches are never the humongous cathedrals of the Gospel of Glory and Success … places where we hear that “if we but follow Jesus, it will all be ours” … and where anyone who doesn’t agree with the preacher’s political or social views are demonized as “evil” …
… but rather, we are most often small congregations of humble people, quietly, faithfully living out their, our salvation in service to others.
This is after all, where Jesus is, and does, and goes, in our Gospel text.
Jesus leaves his baptism … arises and goes into the wilderness, the desert, where he successfully navigates the dangerous currents of temptation and hubris … he does not serve himself in his Godliness, but lays that aside for his humanity … for our humanity …
And guess what … Jesus ends up “getting it all” anyway. The bread, the life, the Way of the Kingdom. “And suddenly angels came and waited on him.”
He is surrounded by his community of care, and is cared for, restored, strengthened for the journey … the journey in the way of the Cross, the journey he and we will make together as we continue in this Lenten season …
… and we, too, we are surrounded here by our community of care, as we make our own way through the wilderness of this life … the times of trial … the temptations … the worldly pull to hubris .. the little voice inside our heads which says “you are the master of your own destiny.”
Our community of care in which, through which, we are held accountable to and by the Word of Truth …
… forgive us our sins … even as we forgive those who sin against us …
Our community of care in which, through which, we walk with each other, through the temptations and trials of our lives …
…save us from the time of trial, and deliver us from evil …
Our community of care, where we are given true food, true life, true leadership, true companionship, to walk in the Way of the Cross, together with Jesus, true God and true human … God for us.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen.