First Sunday in Lent
February 10, 2008
Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7
Psalm 51
Romans 5:12-19
Matthew 4:1-11
People who are around me often enough have undoubtedly heard me say at one time or another a well-known comment by Oscar Wilde: “I can resist anything but temptation.” Of course, I say this in fun, but there are times when these words come close to being a moment of truth telling. It is not temptation itself which is the problem, the problem comes when I give into it. To struggle with temptation is bad enough, but to give into it almost always has unhappy consequences—perhaps not right away, or not in the ways I imagine, but I have learned that for good or bad, my actions have consequences, and giving into temptation almost always has bad consequences. I imagine this is true for you, as well.
Then, again, we are only human, and in that regard we have one important thing in common with Jesus in Matthew’s gospel lesson today. Jesus is also human, and so he must also be subject to human temptation. The important difference, of course, is that Jesus is also divine, but that does not seem to help him very much in the circumstances of his temptation. In fact, we are told that he is purposely led into temptation by the Holy Spirit. But why? Why would God allow the Holy Spirit to lead Jesus to be tempted by the devil, especially with temptations of such magnitude?
I might begin to answer that question with another question. How many times have you and I prayed the Lord’s Prayer in our lifetime? And how many times have we said these words: “and lead us not into temptation?” Have you ever wondered what you are praying for in that moment? I have. And I don’t know about you, but it is not easy for me to think that the Lord would purposefully lead me into temptation. In fact, I can only imagine that if the Lord wanted to lead me into temptation, then my begging him not to would not likely change his mind. Nevertheless, these are the words we say every time we pray our traditional Lord’s prayer. So what are we to make of this request of God, not to lead us into temptation?
Well, I am not going to pretend that I have any firm or comprehensive answers to that question, but I believe Matthew’s gospel gives us some guidelines for thinking about temptation, because today’s gospel account is entirely about Jesus own experience with temptation. If you remember, soon after Jesus is baptized he goes to the desert for forty days where he will prepare himself for his ministry. It was common practice in ancient times for religious people to go to the desert for sanctuary and retreat. Church historians refer to many of our early saints as “desert mothers and fathers.” These were people who believed they were called by God to remove themselves from the world in order that they might achieve a purity and holiness which would make them worthy to represent God to the world, especially to people who came to them for advice or instruction, or just to learn spiritual disciplines. So, it was not unusual that Jesus went into the desert to prepare himself for his life’s ministry.
What IS different about Jesus, however, is that Jesus is already God. It doesn’t seem likely that he needs the same kinds of preparation for religious life necessary to the rest of us. So why does Jesus go into the desert? Well, I think Jesus goes to the desert precisely because he is like us; precisely because he is completely human. In fact, we believe God’s greatest gift to us is that he sent his Son to be born, to live and to die as one of us. But becoming human also has the potential to be Jesus’ greatest liability. When God takes on human form and sets himself free to enter into human community, he becomes subject to trials and temptations the same as the rest of us. And like us, Jesus is given the same kind of freedom God gave his human creatures in creation. The freedom to choose between good and evil; between God and Satan. It seems to me that God takes a great risk in sending his Son into the world because in order for Jesus to redeem the world, Jesus must choose God’s purposes of good for him if he is to live into the divine nature of his life. Jesus must choose to live as God would have him live in this world if he is to accomplish his purpose of redemption. And it is so important that Jesus is given this choice, because it is not in God’s nature or in his plan of creation to require his human creatures to love him or serve him, or to make them be in relationship with him. We know this from the story of creation.
Giving his human creatures freedom to choose must have been the most difficult decision for God to make in creating us because, if you remember, God created us out of his loneliness. He wanted more than anything to create humankind for the purpose of being in loving mutual relationship with him. But God knew something most of us learn the hard way; you can’t make anybody love you, and you can’t make anyone be in relationship with you. And that is a good thing. In fact, a necessary thing. Because if we could make people love us, it would not be love. If we could force people to be in relationship with us, it would not be relationship. Neither love nor relationship would be mutual because they would not be freely given or gratefully received. So it was necessary that God created his human creatures for love and for relationship by his own choice, and that by our own choice we might choose to love and be in relationship with God and each other.
We should not be surprised then that after God creates heaven and earth and all of the creatures which inhabit the earth that God would provide his human creatures with choice. We are well familiar with the story of Adam and Eve in today’s lesson from Genesis. God has made them so that they will love him and be in relationship with him, but without choice God knows there is no such thing as love or relationship, either between Adam and Eve or with God. Adam and Eve just are. They merely exist in the Garden of Eden just as God exists in heaven and the whole arrangement seems to be not very interesting or satisfying at all. So God introduces choice into their life, in the hope, of course, that they will choose him and choose the good that that he provides for them. God tells Adam that they may “freely eat of every tree in the garden, except for the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Now, we all know that if you tell people they cannot do something or have something which is readily available to them, you know what they will choose. And most likely they will try to blame someone else for the consequences of their choice. Like, “the devil made me do it.”
Well, we all know how the story of Adam and Eve transpires in Genesis. Both make the choice to eat of the fruit of knowledge, and as soon as do, they unleash the power of choice into the world, and all of our books of scripture become a record of the consequences of choices God’s human creatures make, sometimes for good, but more often for ill, until God decides he must redeem us.
This is why God sends his Son into the world; to break the power of sin which keeps us from being in love and right relationship with each other by the bad choices we make for our life. This Jesus whom God sent to us in human form must go into that desert for forty days to see if he can pass the test of overcoming the most demanding of all human temptations, our self-centered greed, our overweening pride and ambition, and our uncontainable desire for power and control over people and things of this world. Jesus goes into the desert because while he is completely God, he is also completely human. And being human, God has also set him free to choose to live the life God has sent him into the world to live. It is certain that Jesus would not be able to do God’s work of redemption in the world if he is not able to overcome the temptations of this world. Jesus has no choice about being divine, and he cannot escape being human. This is God’s intention for his Son, because if Jesus can overcome temptations and choose what is right and good for him and for his relationship with his divine self, then he will not only be able to redeem us from our sin, he will be a model for how each of us can choose to live in this world. A model for the love and relationship we can have with God and with each other. But only if we choose God’s good. Only if we choose to overcome the temptation to self-love, controlling love, abusive love, neglectful love and all other kinds of love which are limiting and destructive to us and to our relationship with God and with others.
So now I think I am ready to suggest what it is we pray for when we ask God not to lead us into temptation when we say the Lord’s prayer. And I find the more modern interpretations and translations of the word “temptation” to be most helpful. For instance, we have been saying the modern version of the Lord’s prayer from the beginning of my tenure as your priest. In this version, we ask God to “save us from the time of trial.” Other modern translations ask God not to “put us to the test.” And I think the words “trial” and “test” help us to understand what we are praying for. At the same time we recognize that the use of the word “temptation” in scripture is accurate notion of Jesus intention for his prayer. Jesus is helping his disciples deal with their Jewish understanding of God’s end time which they believed was soon to come. “Lead us not into temptation” is a plea to God not to let make require that they endure the most unbearable temptation which the Evil One will bring to them when God establishes his kingdom.
But modern interpretations and translations are based upon many other references to temptation in scripture which suggest that the prayer Jesus offers has broader purpose and more immediate importance for us today. When we ask God to keep us from being tested, or when we ask him to save us from the time of trial, we are asking God to help us resist the temptation to make bad choices, and to help us through the consequences of the bad choices we make. Modern versions of the Lord’s prayer become for us a way by which we pray for God’s help in resisting the temptations we suffer daily and for God’s mercy in repenting of those temptations we give in to.
On this first Sunday in Lent, it is important for us to consider our human propensity to sin by the choices we make when we are faced with temptation. Because Lent is the one time in the year we focus on our need for repentance. Our need to turn away from the things of this world which tempt us to make bad choices for our life. Lent is the one time in the year we are invited to go to a desert place where we can make an honest assessment of our life and encounter the forces which threaten to diminish our human potential and keep us from living into the fullness of all that we might become when we are able to be in right relationship with God and with each other.
This forty-day period of Lent is essential to the life and maturity of a practicing Christian; the outcomes of our self-examination in the context of our worship and spiritual practices can be both surprising and rewarding. But we must be willing to walk with Jesus through Lent and Holy Week to the cross. We must be willing to go with him into the desert and stand with him against temptations we know all too well. Willing to journey with him to Jerusalem on roads much like the roads we travel on in our journey though this life. Willing to suffer with him in times of trial which feel painfully familiar to us. Willing to die with him in the many deaths we will die before we die our own death. Only then will we arrive at the place of greatest love and deepest relationship with our God. The place of resurrection. The place of new birth, and new life in Christ, both in this life and in the life to come.