Luke 4:1-13 (MSG)
Now Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wild. For forty wilderness days and nights he was tested by the Devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when the time was up he was hungry.
The Devil, playing on his hunger, gave the first test: “Since you’re God’s Son, command this stone to turn into a loaf of bread.” Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: “It takes more than bread to really live.”
For the second test he led him up and spread out all the kingdoms of the earth on display at once. Then the Devil said, “They’re yours in all their splendor to serve your pleasure. I’m in charge of them all and can turn them over to whomever I wish. Worship me and they’re yours, the whole works.” Jesus refused, again backing his refusal with Deuteronomy: “Worship the Lord your God and only the Lord your God. Serve him with absolute single-heartedness.”
For the third test the Devil took him to Jerusalem and put him on top of the Temple. He said, “If you are God’s Son, jump. It’s written, isn’t it, that ‘he has placed you in the care of angels to protect you; they will catch you; you won’t so much as stub your toe on a stone’?” “Yes,” said Jesus, “and it’s also written, ‘Don’t you dare tempt the Lord your God.’”
That completed the testing. The Devil retreated temporarily, lying in wait for another opportunity.
Today is the first Sunday in Lent. Our word Lent comes from an Old English word for spring which is the same root word for length. So when the days begin to lengthen – which is, of course, in spring – we come to the liturgical season of Lent. It’s also a time of slowing down a little, both in secular life and in our liturgical life. When I look at it carefully, my life really doesn’t slow down any – in fact it may be even busier, but the longer evenings and the greening world around us tend to make us feel like slowing down to observe and be part of the newness.
Liturgically we slow down, too. From the first Sunday in Advent to Ash Wednesday there’s a lot going on, but once we get into Lent there’s just the ordinary day to day until we get to Holy Week and Easter, and even that doesn’t create the hoopla that Christmas and New Years do.
So Lent is a time we can slow down a bit and do a little meditating, a little praying and try to remember why it is we do this thing called “church” – however we define that -- what it is that called us here in the first place.
This year Lent begins by taking us backwards in Luke’s narrative of the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, to one of the stories we skipped over as we first began reading Luke’s gospel. The story today comes immediately after Jesus’ baptism by his cousin John.
The Synoptics -- Matthew, Mark and Luke -- all tell this story in one form or another. Jesus came to John for baptism and, upon rising from the waters of the Jordan went straight out into the wilderness for forty day alone – fasting and praying.
The number 40 clearly has some sort of significance in scripture. It rained for 40 days in the Noah story, and after fleeing from the Egyptians Moses spent 40 years as a shepherd before God called him out to speak to pharaoh, still later he spent 40 days and nights on Mt. Sinai when he received the tablets of the Law. The Israelites wandered for 40 years after leaving Egypt, and later when the people were settled in Canaan, Goliath taunted King Saul’s army for 40 days before being slain by the young future-king David.
That’s a lot of 40’s, but the Bible never says what forty means specifically but it is clear from the examples given (and there are a lot more besides these) that it is used to designate a time of trial and learning – a time when the subject is being pushed into new growth spiritually.
So – Jesus goes alone into the wilderness with no food, no companions, just himself and the Holy Spirit – and, another sort of spirit, one we name Satan (which simply means tempter). Whether the temptations came from something outside himself or from within his own soul, in those 40 days, Jesus met three temptations:
This day Jesus won – and having won, he returned to civilization and began gathering followers to himself.
So what do we learn from this story that impacts the lives we live here today? The first that comes to mind is how skillfully the tempter uses scripture -- he not only offers all these attractive things like power and glory but often backs them up by quoting Scripture, which just shows how easily the Bible can be, and has been, used for entirely wrong purposes.
I loved the reading in our daily devotional last Thursday, the one about the Devil quoting Scripture:
This reading also reminds us to check our own biases, the things about ourselves that we too often let slide because, after all, “we are good people” – (and we really don’t want to look too hard at ourselves, anyway) -- the things we cling to because they fill the empty spaces inside us.
Two quick quotes that really need more attention but we’re running short of time so I’m just going to throw them out here and then I’m going to stop. The first is from Lutheran author, John Stendahl: "The desert in this story is not God-forsaken nor does it belong to the devil. It is God's home. The Holy Spirit is there, within us and beside us. And if we cannot feel that spirit inside of us or at our side, perhaps we can at least imagine Jesus there, not too far away, with enough in him to sustain us, enough to make us brave."
The second comes from the writings of Henri Nouwen: "Success, popularity, and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection. When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity, and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions....Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the 'Beloved.' Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence."
And one last point about the temptations – Satan introduced each temptation by implying if not outright saying, “it is written...,” but then Jesus comes back every time and answers each one with “it is also written ...” We get to choose which one we will listen to and believe – which one we will hold as our truth. The version that tells us we are weak, that we are always wrong, that God's way is not the best way, that we are not good enough -- or the version that tells us we are God's beloved, held always in God's care.
I think I’m going to go with Jesus’s version.
Liturgically we slow down, too. From the first Sunday in Advent to Ash Wednesday there’s a lot going on, but once we get into Lent there’s just the ordinary day to day until we get to Holy Week and Easter, and even that doesn’t create the hoopla that Christmas and New Years do.
So Lent is a time we can slow down a bit and do a little meditating, a little praying and try to remember why it is we do this thing called “church” – however we define that -- what it is that called us here in the first place.
This year Lent begins by taking us backwards in Luke’s narrative of the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, to one of the stories we skipped over as we first began reading Luke’s gospel. The story today comes immediately after Jesus’ baptism by his cousin John.
The Synoptics -- Matthew, Mark and Luke -- all tell this story in one form or another. Jesus came to John for baptism and, upon rising from the waters of the Jordan went straight out into the wilderness for forty day alone – fasting and praying.
The number 40 clearly has some sort of significance in scripture. It rained for 40 days in the Noah story, and after fleeing from the Egyptians Moses spent 40 years as a shepherd before God called him out to speak to pharaoh, still later he spent 40 days and nights on Mt. Sinai when he received the tablets of the Law. The Israelites wandered for 40 years after leaving Egypt, and later when the people were settled in Canaan, Goliath taunted King Saul’s army for 40 days before being slain by the young future-king David.
That’s a lot of 40’s, but the Bible never says what forty means specifically but it is clear from the examples given (and there are a lot more besides these) that it is used to designate a time of trial and learning – a time when the subject is being pushed into new growth spiritually.
So – Jesus goes alone into the wilderness with no food, no companions, just himself and the Holy Spirit – and, another sort of spirit, one we name Satan (which simply means tempter). Whether the temptations came from something outside himself or from within his own soul, in those 40 days, Jesus met three temptations:
- The first was to trust in his own ability to take care of himself, to meet his own needs and not rely on God.
- The second was to join in the worship of all the goodies the world has to offer – to forget about building God’s heavenly kingdom and grab for what this world has to offer instead.
- The third temptation was to go for proof rather than simply holding onto faith – to take faith out of the equation and force the One he called Father to prove himself to him and to others.
This day Jesus won – and having won, he returned to civilization and began gathering followers to himself.
So what do we learn from this story that impacts the lives we live here today? The first that comes to mind is how skillfully the tempter uses scripture -- he not only offers all these attractive things like power and glory but often backs them up by quoting Scripture, which just shows how easily the Bible can be, and has been, used for entirely wrong purposes.
I loved the reading in our daily devotional last Thursday, the one about the Devil quoting Scripture:
- Before you tell Jesus to jump off the Temple; before you tell your neighbors that Jesus is the only way, truth, and life; before you tell your sibling that God has a purpose for their suffering; maybe double-check whether your faith is unnecessarily saddled with the baggage of scripture as litmus-test. Reconsider whether you need to burden those around you with that same baggage. (Rachel Hackenberg)
This reading also reminds us to check our own biases, the things about ourselves that we too often let slide because, after all, “we are good people” – (and we really don’t want to look too hard at ourselves, anyway) -- the things we cling to because they fill the empty spaces inside us.
Two quick quotes that really need more attention but we’re running short of time so I’m just going to throw them out here and then I’m going to stop. The first is from Lutheran author, John Stendahl: "The desert in this story is not God-forsaken nor does it belong to the devil. It is God's home. The Holy Spirit is there, within us and beside us. And if we cannot feel that spirit inside of us or at our side, perhaps we can at least imagine Jesus there, not too far away, with enough in him to sustain us, enough to make us brave."
The second comes from the writings of Henri Nouwen: "Success, popularity, and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection. When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity, and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions....Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the 'Beloved.' Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence."
And one last point about the temptations – Satan introduced each temptation by implying if not outright saying, “it is written...,” but then Jesus comes back every time and answers each one with “it is also written ...” We get to choose which one we will listen to and believe – which one we will hold as our truth. The version that tells us we are weak, that we are always wrong, that God's way is not the best way, that we are not good enough -- or the version that tells us we are God's beloved, held always in God's care.
I think I’m going to go with Jesus’s version.
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