February 29, 2004
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Immediately after his
baptism the Holy Spirit sends Jesus into the wilderness. He emerges after forty
days full of the Holy Spirit. We remember that Moses spend forty days on a
mountain, without food listening to God and writing down the 10 Commandments (Exodus
34.28). Elijah spent forty
days keeping away from Jezebel after defeating the prophets of Baal (I
Kings 19.4-8); and Israel spent forty years in the desert as they moved
from slavery to freedom (Deuteronomy 8.2-6). It is a good
thing the Spirit was with him because Luke tells us that every day he was in the
wilderness, he was tempted. We know about temptations. Temptations can indeed
distract us from the goals we want to achieve. They can get us off track, they
can cause us to lay aside our purpose and go off in all kinds of directions.
Have you ever gone to the grocery store for one or two items? You went with the
best intentions, but when you got there, something caught your eye, and you were
so distracted by it that you just had to add that item to your list? You went
for some bread and a carton of milk, but you came back home with ice cream,
cookies, salty snacks, and a few magazines because what you saw so engaged your
senses that you had to have those other items. Can we rid ourselves of
tempting distractions completely? Probably not, but there are some things we can
learn about how to minimize the distractions that tempt us away from our
purpose. Jesus shows us how to
keep our spiritual focus as he dealt with the temptations and distractions he
encountered. We learn that as Jesus emerged from the wilderness, the source of
his temptation a character called the devil in Luke, and Satan in other verses
of scripture came along also with him. The devil’s role is the same in Luke as
it is in the book of Job. It is to needle, to question, to get under the skin,
to test Jesus as he begins his ministry. What is the test? It is to see if Jesus
can be convinced to deny his identity as the Son of God. “From the beginning,
Luke's gospel has established that title for Jesus. Gabriel announces to Mary
that her child will be called the ’Son of God’ (1.35).
At his baptism, the heavenly voice announces, ‘you are
my Son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased’ (3.22).
The genealogy of Jesus, which immediately follows the baptism, concludes with
the disclosure that Jesus is ‘son of Adam, son of
God’” (3.38) (Texts for Preaching-Year C. Louisville.
Westminster/John Knox Press. 1994, p.196-197). We are told that when he
emerged from the wilderness, Jesus was hungry. So it does not surprise us that
the first temptation, is about a basic need, food. We know food is life
sustaining. Adequate food is the difference between life and death, and sickness
and good health for people who struggle day by day to feed themselves. And it is
also a matter of life and death for those who have so much food that they, we
can afford to make unwise and unhealthy food choices. Seizing on the hunger of
Jesus, not only for food, but for the beginning of his ministry, the devil tries
hard to distract Jesus from his mission and ministry. “Jesus, if you
are the Son of God, ease your hunger. It’s no big deal, it is just you and me
here, you can do this little thing, if you are who you say you are. I
believe “we can imagine the devil saying to us, “if you are the boss…if
you are the one who is supposed to…if you are my friend…if you a good
parent…if you love your country…if you are the expert…if you are a
team-player…if you really believe…even if you really love Jesus…take care
of your needs” (www.lectionary.org/Luke
, p. 4). We know that all of those are good things and if you are who you
say you are, what is the problem?” That is the question put to us to tempt and
distract us. All of us need food, but
just having food is about mere survival. We serve the one who is about life in
all its abundance (John 10.10). So we do not have to take
the bait. We do not have to react defensively because we are who we say we are,
sons and daughters of God, and followers of Jesus Christ. We have nothing to
prove to a presence that wants to distract us. We do have what Jesus did and
said, that life is more than bread (Deuteronomy 8.3). We
live not only by bread but by purpose, and by relationships, by what we learn
and whom we love, and who loves us. We live by joy, and by sorrow, and by faith.
We do not live by bread alone. “OK”, the devil
says. “What about this?” Can I tempt you, may I distract you from worshiping
God? After all, you serve a God who says that when your time on earth is done,
there will be a place for you at the right hand of God. But why wait, I can give
power and majesty now. So the devil shows Jesus
all the kingdoms of the world. There was the flora and diamonds of Africa, there
was the rich farmland, the glorious mountains and the roaring oceans of the
United States, oil from the Middle East, and the lush wildlife of the Southern
Hemisphere. There was the ice-filled beauty of the Northern Hemisphere. “Take
it all, have all the power and all the glory. I could have given it to anyone in
the world, and I chose you. Take it now”. Don’t we love feeling special?
When we do, we can be tempted into
all kinds of things and we begin to believe that the one doing the talking
thinks we are more exceptional than anyone else. We might become distracted
enough to say, “Yes, I will take it all now. What do I have to do to get
it?” “It’s all yours. All
you have to do is worship me”. We can become so distracted that we agree to
pay the price before we know how high the cost will be. Many of you will
remember the play and the movie, about a middle aged man from Missouri who sells
his soul to the devil for a chance to play major league baseball. “Shoeless
Joe from Hannibal, MO” gets the break he has wanted his whole life, he gets to
live his dream but he soon learns that the price is way too high, and eventually
he realizes that he has mortgaged his life for a quick fix and he gets his whole
life back. Jesus says, “I
will not worship you. Only God is worthy of worship (Deuteronomy
6.13).” He says to us, develop spiritual patience, trust that God will
move in God’s own time. Keep the faith in the God who called you life into
being and who holds you even now. Know who is worthy of worship, especially in
these days of distraction and temptation. We can go for what seems easy right
now, and we can get short term results. But that temporary fulfillment is like a
snack, it eases our hunger for the moment, but it can ruin our appetite for the
feast that is waiting for us. When
we worship whoever makes us happy in the short-run we always want more. But when we worship God,
we have a relationship that is eternal. When we worship the one who promises
never to leave us alone, we find strength for the journey, vision for what can
be, energy to withstand the ups and downs and ebbs and flows of life. Worshiping
God is about building a relationship that will last. “Fine”, the devil
says. “Come with me. I want to do one more thing.”
Then Jesus is taken to the top of the Temple in Jerusalem. He is brought
to the highest point of the most important city in Judea, and once more, an
appeal is made to his identity. “If you are who you say you are, if
you really are the Son of God, jump. Step off this tower and ease yourself down
all that distance to the ground. What harm will come to you? Doesn’t your
scripture say, “For he will command his angels
concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you
up. so that you will not dash your foot upon a stone” (Psalm
91. 11-12)? Jesus, take a risk! What would you do? Is leaping from the
tower of this building something you want to do? Is it a risk you want to take? The temptation is not
about risking, it is about not understanding that God is in charge. Friends,
don’t leave this house today thinking that we should never take a risk for our
faith. We certainly should. Faithful risks are what we do every time we start a
new ministry, or reach out to people who need us. We take risks each time we
join with others in the making our communities better places to live, work, and
study. We have some responsibilities for caring for all that God has given us,
including our health and well-being, but God is the one who gives real meaning
and direction to our lives. Jesus knew that and so whether out of exhaustion or
exasperation, he says to the devil, “Don’t test God”
(Deuteronomy 6.16). We know the temptations
Jesus faced because some part of us longs for what they offer. Fred Craddock
puts it this way: “Stones to bread – the hungry hope so; take political
control – the oppressed hope so; leap from the temple – those longing for
proof of God’s power among us hope so. All this is to say that a real
temptation is an offer not to fall but to rise. The tempter in Eden did not ask,
‘do you wish to be as the devil?’ but, ‘do you wish to be as God?’ There
is nothing here of depravity; no self-respecting devil would approach a person
with offers of personal, domestic, or social ruin. That is in the small print at
the bottom of the temptation” (Interpretation Series. Luke.
Fred Craddock. Louisville, John Knox Press, 1990, p. 56). We do indeed
know these temptations. They have created a hunger in us. When we are really
honest with ourselves, we know what makes us hungry, and what raises up our
cravings in our spirits. So many of us are hungry for intimacy, for financial
security, for respect, for personal power. We are tempted to worship whatever
will give us healthy families, solid marriages and loving partnerships, success
in work and in our lives. We desire so much that we can almost taste it, a
church that is strong in fellowship as we build up a spiritual community; we are
hungry to be better disciples of Jesus Christ, we long for strong worship, for
ministry that makes a difference in the lives of people and bears witness to the
good news of Jesus Christ, and we desire to grow larger as we provide a church
home for people looking for the living God. Our spirits have a craving, a deep
desire, I believe, to know who we are as God’s daughters and sons, and as
disciples of Jesus Christ. Resolve today to learn
from Jesus as we do all we can to withstand the temptation and avoid
distraction. He was able to withstand the attempts to distract him by
remembering. He remembered that he was indeed the Son of God, sent to the world
for the redemption of the world. He remembered that he walked with the Spirit of
God all around him. He remembered that from the moment he emerged from his
baptism, he lived his life in the shadow of the cross, and even so he was about
inviting people into the life that God wills for us. He was not distracted from
his ministry. In fact, he went on to Nazareth to declare that the Spirit of the
Lord was upon him to preach good news to the poor, set the captives free, to
give sight to the blind and to proclaim that the acceptable year of the Lord,
the Jubilee year in which debts are forgiven and freedom is granted has come
(4.16-19). He remembered and it is
a good thing that he did, because the time of temptation was not over. The devil
simply goes away to wait for a better time: ”He would inspire the scribes and
Pharisees to attempt to ensnare Jesus. He would inspire others to demand a sign
from Jesus (Luke 11.16’ 29-32). He was surely present
with Jesus on the Mount of Olives, hoping that Jesus would be dissuaded from his
mission at the last moment (22.39-46). The devil would
wound Jesus with the betrayal, not only of Judas, but of Peter (22.3,
54-62). At the cross, he would mock Jesus through the voices of the
leaders, the soldiers, and the criminal (23.35-39). And yet the devil would
fail, because Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit and was led by the Spirit (v.1)
(lectionary.org. p. 6-7).” May that same Holy
Spirit give us strength to resist distracting temptations. May the Spirit give
us hope and may it give our souls satisfaction as we hunger after all that God
has for us. May that same spirit help us remember that in the shadow of the
cross there is life. Thanks be to God. Amen. Dr.
LaTaunya M. Bynum |
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Broad
Street Christian Church
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