Sermon for Lent I, Year C, March 10, 2019

Sermon for Lent I, Year C, March 10, 2019 Church of the Nativity-Episcopal The Rev. Susan Marie Smith, Ph.D. Deuteronomy 26:1-11 Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16 Romans 10:8b-13 Luke 4:1-13 Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. Luke 4:1-13 After his baptism, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread." Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.'" Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, "To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours." Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'" Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'" Jesus answered him, "It is said, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time. FREE US from TEMPTATION and EGO, LORD. FREE US to BE FREE. Amen. Every year on the 1 st Sunday of Lent, we hear the story of Jesus s temptation. In year A, we hear Mt s version; in Year B, Mk s version. IN this, year C, we hear Luke s version. They are almost alike. I had to write a commentary on this passage once for a Lutheran preaching resource. As I re-read what I had researched long ago, I appreciated the depth of this text all over again. --My one regret is that I never did finish reading C.S. Lewis s Screwtape Letters, which is a masterful piece on the process of temptation from the Devil s perspective. If you don t have your Lenten reading 1

all stacked up on your table, yet, you might consider re-reading Screwtape Letters interesting, in spite of its 1930 s British English. Pretend it s on the BBC. But let s really go through this. Please take your insert and let s look at this text from Luke 4 together. If you don t have an insert, please raise your hand and an usher will get you one. 1. PURPOSE OF SENDING JESUS INTO THE WILDERNESS. First, who sends Jesus out into the wilderness? V. 1, the Holy Spirit led him. This time in the wilderness, all together, is for GOOD: Jesus s good, the good of his ministry, the good of all of us. This time is holy. The fact that it is difficult does not in the slightest mean that God isn t in the middle of it, holding Jesus in the palm of his hand. This is true for us, too. Don t ever forget. Difficult often means good preparation. In one example of this, Randy Pausch, author of The Last Lecture, continually refers to the advice and mentoring he received from his childhood football coach. This guy, his actions, his words, his principles, his ethics, his coaching of Randy, shows up in every other chapter of the book. However, early on Randy recounts how his football coach was SO HARD on him! One day, at the end of practice, Randy felt insulted and put down by his coach. He was tempted to hate the guy and to quit the team, feeling he d never be acceptable or good enough. But as he was slouching his dejected way to the car, the assistant coach intercepted him. Coach was hard on you today, he noted. Randy nodded. I guess it s time for me to face the truth and quit the team, he replied. It was then that the assistant coach gave Randy a completely different interpretation. Randy, Coach doesn t waste his time, energy, or words on someone he doesn t think has the potential to be really good. He said those things to motivate you to work into your potential. If he didn t believe in you, you d get the silent treatment. Really?! And looking back, that coach was the most important influence on his life success: he showed him how to handle tough things (which we ALL have to face), and he encouraged him and let him know he had confidence in him. So temptation can be a HOLY TIME. A SPIRITUAL TIME. It can be good. 2. JESUS S IDENTITY AS GOD S SON Remember that just before this passage, Jesus has just been baptized. And remember what happened then? John baptized him. And then the Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove, and a Voice was heard from heaven saying, in Luke s case, directly to Jesus: You are my son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased (3:22). So now, in chapter 4, what happens? At the end of 40 days, (which might be literally 40, or, more likely, it means a long time that is now complete ), Jesus is hungry. And the Devil comes to him with a big empty doubt and says, IF YOU ARE THE SON OF GOD... What do you mean, If?? God has just been heard to give Jesus this very title at his Baptism. 2

But part of what the Enemy does is to sow doubt. The Enemy questions his intellect but worse, he s quick to try to pique Jesus s ego. It s like saying, If you were a good father, you d let me do what my friends fathers are letting them do. Or, in the Sherlock Holmes story I m reading, If you were a real detective, you d have this mystery solved by now. Any manager worth his salt would know how to manage this employee. We re all tempted at times like those to give in, or to pretend we know what we don t. IT S OUR EGO SET AFIRE. If you are really the Son of God... Just turn these stones into bread. You can do it. You re hungry what s your problem? Implied... and if you CAN T turn these stones into bread, maybe you re AREN T REALLY THE SON OF GOD??? The marvelous thing about Jesus here is that HIS ego is never even touched. Because it s not HIS MINISTRY It s GOD S ministry. Jesus has just never succumbed to the ego-thought, Hey, howdy, I M THE SON OF GOD!! Maybe I CAN GET A FEW PERKS OUT OF THIS. Never. In this, JESUS IS A FREE MAN. It s not even a temptation for him. It s possible that, even though Jesus is REALLY HUNGRY, because he grew up a Jew, he was USED TO FASTING, and so he was used to being hungry. The fact that here he may have been hungrier than usual was a matter of degree. It didn t freak him out. It didn t freak his ego out, either. The Spirit sent him there. He s focused on something else. When the Devil tries to bring his focus to a vulnerable place how hungry he must be, and his ego, and his power as the Son of Man, and doubts about his identity as the Son of God Jesus simply quotes Scripture. He cites the Torah, Deuteronomy 8:3, THE LAW, the TEACHING. One does not live by bread alone. --It s just not about Jesus. JESUS IS FREE OF EGO. It s about GOD: God s law, the COVENANT God has with us, which is the New Law, which is what Deuteronomy means second law. Hunh. Well, that one fell flat. Let s try again. 3. IF YOU LL ONLY WORSHIP SATAN, LOOK HOW MUCH GOOD YOU CAN DO!! 3

So In Luke, the next two temptations are reversed from what they are in MT and MK same temptations, just different order. Luke 4:5-8, The Enemy takes him up where he can view the whole countryside. You can have authority over all of this, Jesus. All you have to do is bow down and worship me. That s all. Easy. [This time,]... the devil tempts Jesus not in relationship to himself his needs, identity or power but in relationship to others. Some see this as appealing to his loving kindness: If you ll bow down and worship me, I ll give you the world implying, imagine how much good you could do! 1 After all, would bowing down a few times really make that much difference? Of course, it makes ALL the difference. Character is what you do when no one is looking. But nonetheless, you and I know that this temptation happens all the time. And we as a culture have gotten lax over the years. When the vote over the Supreme Court justice came up, a concerted group tried to bribe Senator Susan Collins of Maine to vote their way: they got pledges for lots of money if she voted no, and told her they would release the funds to her after her vote was cast. I don t know what her conscience was. How easy it would have been to vote, and then find her bank account filled! Lots of other public servants do this every day, to our chagrin and the defamation of our national character. Senator Collins called it what it was: a bribe. That s pretty overt; but there are lots that are more subtle. If you ll just stretch these numbers, we ll come out even. Or, as a seminary student shared with me, If you ll just report these numbers instead, you can keep your job. He quit the company and went to seminary but there are others who stayed. If you ll just sell your name, you can pay for your child s college! We ll give you all this if you simply If you really care about your children, then sign up for this If you were a responsible spouse, or parent, or citizen, of course you ll want to Really, Jesus, you could do so much good!! You know you wouldn t mis-use this power. Why not? 4. DOSTOYEVSKY S TAKE on the TEMPTATIONS Ironically, I came across an essay I was supposed to read in school and never did: How many of you have heard of Dostoyevsky s The Brothers Karamazov? or at least, chapter 5, called The Grand Inquisitor? I pulled up the essay to find that Dostoyevsky s view about Jesus and the temptations is not only that JESUS was A FREE MAN, free to give himself away, and therefore to act on principle instead of on selfish ego; but also that Jesus s responses to the Enemy were for OUR FREEDOM. OUR TRUE FREEDOM. Jesus never deviated from God s priorities, in which it s not just the result that matters, but the means which is important. God s means are neither violent nor bottom line ( just worship the devil, get the world and be done with it ), but loving and honoring of human free will. 2 1 Susan Marie Smith, Lent, Homiletical commentary for RCL texts for Lent, Year A, in New Proclamation: Preaching Commentary, Year A, ed. David Lott (Fortress, 2010), 135-189. 2 W. Powell, The Temptation, response to Peter Doble, The Temptations, in The Expository Times 72 (Oct. 1960-Sept. 1961), p. 248. Cited in Smith, ibid, Lent, New Proclamations: Commentary on Year A (Fortress, 2010). 4

We can see that Jesus does not confuse himself as human with the Lordship of God. The World is the Lord s, and is not the devil s to give. Further, no one may inherit the promises [of God] without obedience to the Word of God. 3 The Brothers K takes place in 19 th c. Tsarist Russia. Dostoyevsky himself wrote a piece called Poor Folks, which got him sent to prison on death row because it was anti-tsarist. Of course, the Tsars were extremely wealthy and out of touch with the people who were truly starving so such books were censored. Dostoyevsky was released at the last moment, but then sent to Siberia for 5 years. In that setting, writers could succumb to temptation to write what pleased the Tsars. But Dostoyevsky and others had the very Freedom we are all given in Christ. His character, Ivan Karamazov, is struggling with faith and power and suffering. He encounters Alyosha who decided to join the Christian monastery. One day, when they re together, Ivan, coping with his own cynicism, tells Alyosha that he has written a parable. It takes place in 15 th c. Seville, Spain, during the Spanish Inquisition. It goes like this: As it happens, the Lord Jesus Christ shows up for a visit. People recognize him right away!! They follow him with love and gladness, and witness miracles as he heals people right and left. He arrives at the steps to the great cathedral in Seville, and teaches people, and raises a young girl from death she sits right up out of her casket. Just at that moment, the Grand Inquisitor, the chief of the Inquisition, walks by. He, too, recognizes Jesus and with a scowl, he lifts a finger to the guards to have them arrest him. The guards trounce over to Jesus and the people, in fear, back off and let the guards take Jesus. There is not one movement of protest or protection. After Jesus is safely in the dungeon, the Grand Inquisitor comes to see him. Lord, you made a few mistakes when you walked the earth before and it has taken the Church 1500 years to correct them. Remember when you were tempted in the desert? Your answers were exactly wrong. 1 st, you wouldn t make bread out of stones, because you know there would be plenty of bread for all if people worked for it and shared with each other. You silly Lord!! What made you think humans were great-hearted enough to share? You wanted them to have the FREEDOM to make the choices themselves about distributing bread, knowing the joyous community they would have! But PEOPLE ARE WEAK. They don t share. So we have fixed the problem you created. We have taken their freedom away. They depend upon us for bread. We give them SECURITY AND THEY ARE HAPPY. 2 nd, you were offered authority over the world to dictate how things should be and you stupidly refused it. You wanted your precious humans to CLAIM THE FREEDOM GOD GAVE THEM, TO LEARN 3 Peter Doble, The Temptations, in The Expository Times 72 (Oct. 1960-Sept. 1961), 92. Cited in Smith, ibid. 5

AND WORK AND MAKE A WORLD AS GOOD AS THEY COULD IMAGINE. But they are COWARDLY. They don t want this freedom. They want authority,. We give them authority we lord it over them and they have security, and they are happy. And 3 rd, people want SIGNS AND WONDERS. They want SPECTACLE. They want CIRCUS. If you had thrown yourself off the mountain and let the angels catch you, THAT would have been spectacle. Instead, you wanted them to USE THEIR FREEDOM TO FIND WONDERS in the EVERY-DAY WORLD. They don t have that kind of patience or perseverance. We give them spectacle, all right. We did 100 public executions of heretics yesterday. No, Lord, you mistakenly stayed with the GIFT OF FREEDOM God gave humanity. But we know better. Your Church gives them bread, and circus, and dictates their lives. They would rather have security. And this is what we give them. We don t need you any more. Did you hear me? We don t need you any more. So I want you to go and NEVER COME BACK. And with that, the Lord looked at the Grand Inquisitor; and got up, and walked over and kissed him on his tight, pale lips, and left. Alyosha listened to Ivan s tale in shock. So, Alyosha, perhaps I have saved you from an empty life in the monastery? And with that, Alyosha stood up, walked over to Ivan, gently kissed him on the lips, and went back to the monastery. Remember, my brothers and sisters, that Freedom isn t free; and it s not shallow. We are invited to the depths of wisdom, and self-giving love, and courage, and perseverance. We are invited and called to rise to the occasions that present themselves to us. Some are extremely difficult, in private life, public life, civic life, family life, church life, the life of Creation. We must not fear being tempted: only giving in to temptation. We are called to Love. Like Jesus, we are called to do GOD S MINISTRY, not our own. Leave ego behind. Don t worry about difficulty: stand up to it with courage. For the Holy Spirit baptized us, just like Jesus. The holy Voice says also to us, You are my child, my beloved. As to Jesus, God gives us freedom, and a part in God s ministry. Therefore, like Jesus, let us leave ego behind, and live in this freedom. Jesus was very clear that he was about his Father s business, not his own. He was able to resist the Evil One partly because the devil tempted Jesus with ego desires. But Jesus was not oriented toward ego, self-indulgence, nor even toward Jesus own agenda. Nor must we be. Lead us away from temptation, O Lord, and rescue us from the Evil One. Amen. 6