Lent Alive
Luke 4:1 - 13

February 29, 2004

"Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer." (Psalm 19:14)

Today is the first Sunday in Lent, the first Sunday of the forty days that leads to Easter. Lent has its origin not so much in the recalling of Jesus' time in the wilderness, but in Christians preparing to celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ during Holy Week and Easter. As Christ spent 40 days in the wilderness fasting before he began his ministry, we spend 40 days examining our lives. Moses spent forty days on the mountain before he received the ten commandments: Exodus chapter 34, verse 28 says, "He was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments." Elijah, likewise, spent forty days in the wilderness on his way to the same mountain, for 1 Kings 19:8 says, "He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God." Now is the time we venture into our own symbolic deserts to be freed from that which keeps us from our commitment to God and responding to Jesus' call for love and mercy toward all of God's children. This is why we heard a scripture from Romans today: Paul emphasizes that Christ accepts Jew and Greek alike, and that all people have a place in Christ's community.

We all grew up hearing the story about how Jesus was tempted in the wilderness during his own forty-day journey. The scripture from Luke is not new to us. Temptation is a fact of life. The last time my husband and I were in New York, in September of 2000, we found ourselves in Grand Central Station waiting for a train to take us to my husband's sister's home in Peekskill, just north of New York. At the top of the splendid staircase of Grand Central, the one often shown in movies, there is a little café and bar called Michael Jordan's. While we were waiting, my husband ordered an ale, and I was tempted to have a piece of cheesecake and a cup of coffee. Now, the New York cheesecake is like no other: it is deliciously dense and drips of creme cheese. One devours it plain - it doesn't need the usual topping of strawberries in syrup. I simply couldn't avoid the temptation, so I gave in. Our cheque came to twenty-eight American dollars for the three items, plus tip! Regrettably, if I had this kind of money to cast aside, I could have just walked outside the doors of Grand Central Station to the street and dropped it in the cup of one of the many faceless and homeless citizens of New York City. Indeed, some temptations cost us more dearly than others. I was neither hungry nor thirsty, yet I gave in.

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus is tempted in the midst of severe hunger and deprivation. As we personally digest the meaning, we are given an opportunity to explore our own temptations that keep us separated from God and from each other.

The temptation of Jesus as recorded in Luke is paralleled in Matthew chapter 4 and Mark chapter 1. Luke leaves no doubt that Jesus is directed to the desert. After forty days of fasting, Jesus is first tempted with the offer of food: "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread." Jesus resists the temptation and hurls back a quote from Deuteronomy 8:4: "...man does not live by bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord." As necessary as food is, it is not as important as being sustained by the Word of God. The words "if you are the Son of God" is an attempt to get Jesus to act on his own without regard for his Heavenly Father. If Jesus is God's beloved Son, as was declared at the baptism, God will care for him. Such trust is awesome.

The second temptation is the invitation to engage in false worship. It is a challenge to the first commandment to worship God alone from Ex 20:3: "You shall have no other gods before me." Apparently Jesus is offered a vision of the kingdoms of the earth in a Look what can be yours! attempt. Jesus' reply rejects the offer totally: "Worship the Lord your God and serve him only." The quote is from Deuteronomy 6:13, which follows closely on a passage recited daily by Jews, that of Deuteronomy 6:4: "Hear O Israel: The Lord our God is one." By putting worship and service together in the verse, Jesus makes it clear that both words and life are meant to honor God. Jesus' numerous quotes from Deuteronomy in response to these wilderness temptations recall another time and place where temptation and God's chosen people met in the wilderness. During the Exodus, the Israelite nation failed this test. Jesus succeeds where Israel failed.

The third temptation is also likely visionary in character. Jesus is placed on a high point of the temple and is urged to jump to experience the joy of God's certain protection. In an ultimate attempt, the Tempter now quotes Scripture himself from Psalm 91:11-12, the very same Psalm we read together moments ago: "He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone." Again the temptation is made in terms of Jesus' being the Son, as it was in verse 3. But Jesus refuses to test God's provision by insisting on a miracle. So Jesus cites Deuteronomy 6:16: "Do not put the Lord your God to the test." The Old Testament background is significant. Israel had presumed about God's goodness, doubting why he had sent them out into the desert and pledged them the Promised Land. Jesus refuses to demand God's protection knowing that such a demand is neither faith nor loyalty.

Let's look at the series of events in this Gospel from another perspective: Before these forty days, Jesus had just emerged to publicly begin the mission that God had set before him. He has been baptized and declared as the Son of God by a voice from heaven. It was at the beginning of his ministry that Jesus identified himself with sinners by being baptized by John as a sign of repentance. He who was without sin accepted the role of a sinner, and it was then that he was recognized as the son of God when the Holy Spirit came upon him.

Jesus knows that God had sent him to be the Messiah, a suffering servant. Jesus would tell his disciples that accomplishing his mission would include suffering, rejection, persecution and ultimately lead to his death.

But, in the wilderness, the Tempter offers him an alternative, a type of Plan B. He advises Jesus to follow another road that would help him accomplish the mission of drawing people to God’s cause ... without all the pain and suffering of Plan A.

Jesus is offered temptations that seem, on the surface, harmless enough. They are not temptations to do evil but rather suggestions to take the easy road to prove to the world that he really is the Son of God. Let's revisit these "harmless" temptations. Temptation number one is: "Command this stone to become a loaf of bread." Not a bad idea, really. Think about it. A lot of good could come from such a gesture. It would remind the Jewish people of how God fed their ancestors in the desert with manna. And what’s inherently wrong with feeding the hungry anyway? Isn’t it a good thing to do? Isn’t God concerned with the hungry people of this world?

Or what about that second temptation? "Worship me," says the Tempter, "and to you I will give all authority over all earthly kingdoms." It's as if a compromise is suggested here: sign right here on the dotted line, the temptation suggests, and I’ll leave you alone. No one else needs to know. How about it?

Then the Tempter comes up with a sensational plan as he takes Jesus to the top of the Jerusalem Temple, that which was the focal point of the Jewish faith. It was a crowded place where people would not miss the action. "Jesus, throw yourself down from here and let God perform a dramatic rescue. After all, didn’t God promise to break your fall by sending angels to provide you with a safety net?" Imagine the publicity this stunt would generate. With this plan, Jesus could accomplish his mission instantly. These "harmless" temptations could lead to Jesus being King of the World immediately and easily -- no more preaching to crowds on hillsides, no more healing the sick, no more teaching to those who do not understand, and, most importantly, no cross to bear. The temptation of Jesus was to choose another way, one that would bypass the cross.

The final words of this passage in Luke are: "When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time." We know, as humans, that temptations face us daily. Our Psalm today, Psalm 91, reminds us that God saves, protects and rescues us from temptation. The key to Jesus' triumph over temptations is his faithfulness in the midst of testing times. To love God is to be faithful to him, worshipping and serving only him. Most lives have a moment of truth, a crossroads where one's mettle is tested and one's character emerges. The temptations of Jesus are, when lumped together, such a moment. His choices reveal his commitment to God and point to the road of faithfulness that all disciples should travel. Jesus shows that spirituality does not always take the easiest road; it trusts God's word and remains faithful to his way.

We all do it: we put ourselves in the middle of everything and then we push with our worries to see what it will take for God to stop loving us. It is our fear that we are not good enough to deserve the loving forgiveness that Jesus promised us. Yet we are promised that just as the angels were sent to Jesus after his temptations, God will be present with us when we turn to him.

But we need to make the space and the time to hear him where we can take refuge in God as our Psalm says. This is the gift of Lent – a period of time for us to listen to the inner voice and know that God will always love us. Lent is an intentional journey with Jesus toward the cross. On our Lenten journey we are forced to decide both "who we are" and, "whose we are". We are forced to decide how we are going to live out our baptismal identity. We live amidst a sea of choices to define ourselves and those closest to us. In Lent we are called to face the temptations to be less than we are called to be, less than we can be, and less than God wants us to be. Our goal this Lenten season could be to reach out to a fuller and more faith- filled and meaningful journey, one where we know the outcome because we know what happens on Good Friday. But Lent is not complete without the message of Easter; that is: with God what looks like defeat can be turned into victory.

At the end of those forty wilderness days, Jesus returns to his people. He knows he is loved. He trusts God. He is ready to go. The same length of time is offered to us now to step back from the noise and despair of life, and focus instead on God, to choose the right and good and just and loving, to go in Jesus' company to change the world. Amen.

Lenten prayer: Almighty God, whose blessed Son was also tempted, come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations. As the days lengthen and the earth spends longer in the light of day, grant that we may spend longer in the light of your presence, O Lord, and may those seeds of your Word, which have been long-buried within us, grow, like everything around us, into love for you, and love for people; to become a visible declaration of your presence in our lives. Grant, Father, that this Lenten season is a springtime for our lives in Christ. Through Jesus Christ your Son who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit one God, now and forever. Amen.

Preached by Sharlene McGowan
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan