Transcript
Jesus was led by the spirit in the wilderness, where for 40 days he was tempted by the devil. Please be seated.
The first Sunday of Lent is always the same story, or pericope, as we say in seminary. Sometimes it is Mark’s version, which is about six lines long. Very disappointing. Sometimes it’s Matthew’s version and sometimes it is Luke’s version. And all three versions are about Jesus immediately following his baptism, being pushed, moved, shoved, led. Whatever the verb is that you imagine Jesus spending time in the desert 40 days to be exact, a fact stated in all three versions of this pericope. And during those 40 days, Jesus is tempted by the devil.
I kind of feel bad for Jesus. I mean, come on, we all know Jesus is the Son of God. In fact, if this part of his life is immediately following his baptism, then we definitely know that Jesus is the Son of God. And in case you don’t remember, it’s during Jesus’s baptism when we hear God’s voice for the first time, Scripture says, A voice from heaven said, you are my son, the beloved. With you I am well pleased. So we already know that Jesus is God’s Son, and thus we already kinda know that Jesus is without sin. So why does the poor guy have to spend 40 days in the desert being tempted to sin?
Anyway, perhaps this is another chance for us to see and know exactly how much Jesus actually is like us, and also to see and know how much he isn’t like us. After all, just like Jesus, we are constantly tested, constantly tempted, constantly offered the shinier things, the fancier things, the better things. But we are not like Jesus because unfortunately, we often will choose said shinier, fancier, or better things.
As I mentioned during my Ash Wednesday sermon, if you were here for that, as humans it is our very nature to be sinful. It is who we are and how we are created. I like to say humans are perfectly made imperfect, perfectly made by an all powerful, all knowing, all loving God. To be imperfect, to be sinful, to be human.
You know, what’s that saying? To err is to human. It’s actually from an 18th century poem, not Scripture theology. But that doesn’t make it any less true to err is to human. To have fault is to human, to fall, to temptation, to sin. All of that is what it means to be human.
If we were the ones in the desert being tempted by the devil, how many of us would fall? Honestly, depending on the day. I would probably fall for that very first temptation. I mean, turning stone into a loaf of bread. That warm, gooey comfort of just out of the oven bread so perfectly made that butter gracefully melts into the holes. Sorry I skipped breakfast this morning. I can practically smell the fresh bread, though.
Add to this that suddenly all global hunger would go away with the simple miracle of turning stones to bread. They would no longer be starving children around the world. There would no longer be food deserts in urban areas across the country. Kitchen pantries would never go empty. Grocery bills would become irrelevant. Jesus could solve a lot of the world’s problems if he had just created bread for the hungry.
And let’s not even dive into the fact that Jesus practically does this a little bit later, when he feeds 5000 people with only two loaves of bread and five fish. And yet, as tempting as it would be for all of us, Jesus says, no. And that is the case for each of the three temptations turning a stone into a loaf of bread. Having all the kingdoms of the world, testing God’s power and love. Jesus says no to each of these because Jesus, being God, also knows the consequence of each of these and knows that temptation is not worth it. If only we could have that much foresight.
Although, to be fair, we probably wouldn’t fall for these temptations. Or at least I would hope we wouldn’t. You know, maybe we would realize that we don’t have the ability to turn stones into bread, no matter how hungry we are. Maybe we would realize that the price to pay for all the kingdoms of the world wouldn’t be worth the price of all kingdoms in a millions worlds. Maybe we would realize that there would definitely not be angels to catch us if we jumped off a cliff, but I can guarantee we have our own temptations.
The things that trick us. I’m going to come back to this. So put a pin in it, because I realize I haven’t defined sin yet. Because falling to temptation is sinning. And according to our Book of Common Prayer, sin is the seeking of our own will instead of the will of God, thus distorting our relationship with God, with other people, and with all creation. It is what separates us from God and our neighbor and all creation, and is what keeps us from turning fully to God.
So back to our own temptations. What are they? There are so many, the obvious ones and the not so obvious one. Something maybe like just one more glass of wine with dinner or another piece of cake won’t kill me. Or stepping on this scale will show me how much I need to control my body, or yelling at my spouse or child or parent or friend or partner, insert whatever here, would help them better hear and understand me. Or if I can do this, one more act of semi-questionable morals, or if I own my- If I blame my own shortcomings on those closest to me, or if I fail to see how my thoughts, my words, my deeds affect the people around me, or if I fail to say thank you or sorry, or admit to my own errors, or say I need help, I could keep going.
I’m sure you could too. Maybe you’ve thought of your temptations, your sins, or maybe I just named 1 or 2 of them for you. Or maybe you already know and face your demons on a regular basis no matter what, though. One thing we can all agree on is if we were Jesus, none of those temptations would matter because we would be without sin. But we aren’t as blessed. Or perhaps we’re more blessed because if we were Jesus, well, we know how that story ends.
And no thank you. Instead, this season of lent, rather than trying to be like Jesus or even trying to be Jesus, why don’t we just journey with Jesus? Don’t try to take on his life, but witness it. Observe it.
We can walk next to Jesus during these 40 days. Days that will continue to hold temptation and sin, and also days that can remind us that God loves us. God wants the best for us. We can journey with Jesus through the desert to the Last Supper, the washing of feet, the new commandment. We’ll get that on Maundy Thursday. But in case you don’t know, it is during the Maundy Thursday gospel that Jesus will say, I give you a new commandment, that you love one another just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
We can journey with Jesus to the Garden of Gethsemane, enemy to the desperate prayers of a man in lament to his arrest and trial and to the base of the cross on Good Friday, on which Jesus will hang and die. And after all of that, we can journey with Jesus to the other side. Through our Easter Vigil service and Easter morning the other side of death to resurrection and eternal life.
But before we get to that part of the story, let us journey with Jesus now. In the desert, seeing, hearing, knowing, understanding our own temptations, our own sins, our own separation from God and our neighbors and all of creation, and let us, with Jesus, look towards the end of the journey when love will prevail.
If Jesus says, follow me. Let us begin the journey now.
Amen.