Luke 4:1-13
As those of you who joined us for the Bible study this past Thursday night will already know, this passage from the Gospel according to Luke is more than meets the eye. This scene is relatively short, but it is rich with images and action and quick dialogue. On the movie screen of our imaginations, Jesus’s encounter with the devil in the desert is a trailer for a feature film, flashes of color and scenery overlaid with tense dialogue and theatrical music. Our hero, Jesus, has just received the baptism of John in the river Jordan, and with it a sky-shattering message from on high. The Holy Spirit descends upon him and fills him to the brim, and leads him into the wilderness. Away from the river, away from his friends and his family and the creature comforts of civilization, Jesus follows the prodding of the Spirit. He has no food, no water, nothing but the clothes on his back and the Spirit of the Lord to protect and sustain him. And in his isolation and vulnerability, the devil comes upon him to tempt him. As we begin our own Lenten season of prayer, study, and self-discipline, we are given the chance to watch Jesus process the truth of who he is, the power he holds, and the torment and death he will soon endure. This is the first stage of our hero’s journey, the moment when he might bow out of the quest, leave the saving the world to someone else, choose to be a different sort of king.
In a way, we are witnessing the second act of the temptation and fall of humanity from Genesis. A tempter seeks out the vulnerable beloved of God and offers a different way, a different life. As the serpent offered the fruit as a way to be like God and to know what God knows, so the devil offers Jesus a path toward dominion over all creation, an opportunity to reverse the gift of free will for all creatures. Unlike the humans in the garden, Jesus does not choose power over love. But the devil sure does make it tempting.
Tempted in every way as we are, yet did not sin. That is one of the ancient ways we as the church name who Jesus is and what makes him like us and unlike us. We are not to imagine Jesus in the wilderness unmoved, uninterested in the temptations of food and authority and importance. Our hero is not just shown all his options, he is tempted by them. And yet, he does not fall. In order to understand the magnitude of that statement, we first need to understand his temptations.
First, the devil tells Jesus to turn stones into bread, a way to prove his power as the Son of God over all created things and to satiate not only his own present hunger, but the hunger of the world. The devil is tempting Jesus by challenging at once both his incarnate humanity and his divine identity. Jesus recognizes the challenge, and declines to dignify it with a sign. Instead, once he has returned to civilization to begin his ministry, Jesus will dine at tables with sinners, and he will feed the multitudes with impossible abundance. The devil tempts Jesus to use his power to feed himself. Instead, by his power and humility, Jesus feeds the world.
Second, the devil elevates Jesus above the entire world, another image we could imagine viewing on a big theater screen. The adversary shows the Son of God all the kingdoms and powers of the world, both present and yet to come, and offers him dominion over all of it. In exchange for the authority to rule the nations as he pleases, Jesus must simply submit to evil itself, to worship the powers and principalities that influence all rulers and dictators for their own gain. In a sense, Jesus is offered the kingdoms of the earth; in exchange, forsake the kingdom of heaven and the God of Love. He will be offered this temptation again, on Palm Sunday, when he is welcomed into the city of Jerusalem with the glory, laud, and honor of a king. Jesus will choose to be a different sort of king, a Messiah not of might but of meekness and forgiveness. By choosing to live and die as an ally to the least of these, Jesus plants the seeds of the true kingdom of God.
Finally, the adversary snatches Jesus up and places him precariously on the pinnacle of the temple, balanced impossibly high above the city that will one day reject him. Once again, the devil tells him to prove that he is the Son of God, to make a spectacle of himself and be saved by the angels from death. In this final moment of temptation, the devil even quotes scripture back at Jesus, as if to prove his point using the same tools that Jesus has used to rebuke him. Again, Jesus denies him and turns away from the opportunity to prove his own exceptionalism, to save his own life and live among a people who have seen incontrovertible proof that he is beloved of God. Jesus will face this temptation again, in the garden at Gethsemane on the eve of his arrest. He will pray to God for the cup to pass from him, for a different path. And yet, he will continue to the end, choosing death that we might live. In his final moments, Jesus will not ask to escape the fate of the sinners on his right and on his left as the devil might tempt- instead, he will hear the final confession of a penitent sinner, and he will pray God’s mercy for his tormenters. In the end, Jesus chooses mortality, that we might all know everlasting life.
Very infrequently in our lives will we face the level of temptations illustrated by this passage. We are not God, and our tempters are very rarely a personified image of evil or a talking snake. One thing this glimpse into the desert journey of Jesus does tell us is that temptation and power are related, and that the greater our power, the greater our temptations and the greater the impact of our choices on the world. You may not be able to turn stones into bread, but you may face the temptation from time to time to do something to benefit yourself without thinking about the consequences. I may not be qualified to lead the nations, but I do hold very real power and influence as a Christian leader and keeper of confidences. Perhaps in your family, your workplace, or your community, you hold a similar amount of power. We’ve all seen examples of people who have succumbed to the temptation to gain attention, acclaim, and resources through questionable or even downright evil means. When we are put in positions of power and trust, we must remain vigilant for the moments of temptation that could impact every person in our care. Perhaps none of us has ever felt the need to test God’s love for us by behaving rashly or placing our bodies in harm’s way simply to prove something about God. Or, perhaps some of us have. Perhaps there are places in your life where you’re being pushed to “live by faith” in a particular way, or perhaps you’ve been accused of living in fear during the past two years. Perhaps you’re feeling the temptation within your own heart, or from a family member or close friend or employer to cast off precautions and trust that God will protect you from harm. Perhaps you’re worn out in the wilderness and the freedom from worry sounds awfully tempting. You’re not alone in that desert, Jesus is intimately familiar with that temptation. He chose to stay the course, and he found strength in Holy Scripture to survive the wilderness. For these forty days, I hope you will too.
Mother A Writes 