TEMPTATION SUNDAY

"When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time."  Luke 4:13

We might call today Temptation Sunday.   For the better part of two millennia the first Sunday of Lent has focused on the temptation story of Jesus.  Every year on this Sunday we read the temptation story from Matthew, Mark or Luke.

In 1 Peter 5:8 it is written, "Be vigilant always, for your enemy the devil is always about, prowling like a lion roaring for its prey." (Phillips)

The first point of this story is that there is a power of evil at work in this world. This power has a lot of names: the Devil, Satan, Beelzebub, or Lucifer. Call it whatever you want, but the New Testament declares that there is a operative power of evil in the world. The mission of this power is to throw the world in to any kind of chaos that it can.  The Evil One can strike one life at a time or can eat away at the foundation of civilization affecting thousands or millions at a time - like in starvation, war or Holocaust. The power of evil can strike suddenly or work more slowly - small scale or large scale, but its purpose is always the same: to wreak havoc; to fracture the harmony; to create disdain for the true God.

Many people don’t believe in the power of evil, and they blame God for all the bad things that happen.  But the New Testament is clear. There is an Evil One at work in the world, and its goal is to inflict as much chaos as it can, on every front.  Evil would undermine the moral foundation of civilization, but even more significant, evil works to undermine your faith in the one true loving God. 

A primary target of the Evil One is the human heart and soul.  Over the centuries many people have described this experience in many different, yet remarkably similar, ways.

Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud referred to these inner impulses of the flesh as the Ego and Superego - the ID. Freud also talks about a "death instinct," a cauldron of rage deep that lives within all of us.  He observed that in all humans there is a foolish inclination toward death, to tear down ourselves and those around us. We have foolish impulses that are ultimately and often subtly self-destructive. These temptations towards death come from deep within. He said we are willing to do all sorts of stupid things to ourselves and people around us, and these impulses are fed by the "death instinct."

Not long after Freud came psychoanalyst Carl Jung and he describe these similar instincts in some different ways calling them our "Shadow Side," an inclination toward evil.

The great 20th century theologian C.S. Lewis describes this power and experience in his book SURPRISED BY JOY, when he writes:  "Inside of me is a zoo of lusts, a bedlam of ambition, a nursery of fears, a harem of fondled hatred. Their name is legion.”

In one of the most powerful chapters in all of the New Testament, Romans 7, Paul describes poignantly a personal experience with which we are all familiar.  He describes his wrestling with evil this way: "My own behavior baffles me.  For I find myself not doing what I really want to do, but doing what I really loathe… I often find I have the will to do good, but not the power.  That is, I do not accomplish the good I set out to do, and the evil I don't really want to do I find I am always doing…. it is an agonizing situation, and who… can set me free from the clutches of my own sinful nature?"  (Phillips)

All of these people, as well as you and me, are wrestling with defining the experience of being over taken by something that does not work for good, but works for chaos, estrangement, and dehumanization.

This power of evil attacks us in our weaknesses.  Satan knows where we are vulnerable, and always attacks you and me at our weakest most vulnerable points.

Your weak spot may be the use of alcohol or drugs to reduce your anxiety and tension. ..

Maybe your weak spot is a need for instant gratification…

Maybe your vulnerability is an inordinate fear of failure…. or the need to succeed…

Maybe your weak spot is the need to be liked and you cannot tolerate rejection… 

Maybe your vulnerability is to need to feel important or be in control…

Maybe your weak spot is feeling inferior… 

Maybe your vulnerability is that you are afraid that you will be forgotten…

Maybe your weak spot is your fear of failure…

Maybe your vulnerability is feeling unusually guilty about everything…

Maybe your weak spot is that you find it hard to let go of things…

Maybe your vulnerability is to not confront but avoid…

The point is we all have our Achilles heal. You have your Achilles heal, and I have mine.  We have those places where we are vulnerable, and the Evil One seeks out those weak spots in us and uses them in some way to throw us into chaos; to create conflict and estrangement, as best it can, individually and as a community. 

The power of evil never quits. Our scripture for this morning says that the Evil One looks for an "opportune time."  Evil is always at work: morning, noon and night.  It is always at work sneaking around your life and every part of your life, whether you are five, fifteen, forty-five or ninety-five looking for that "opportune time."  The evil one never sleeps; never rests; never even takes a nap but is constantly on the prowl.  

Satan tempted Jesus with three huge temptations, but, I believe, it was essentially one temptation with three faces.  The single temptation was to be a messiah other than a crucified messiah.  Each temptation was an enticement to be other than a crucified messiah - and each one was very appealing: a bread messiah; a political messiah; or a wonder-working messiah.  These would all come in very handy in our kind of world.   Why did Satan wish for Jesus to be something other messiah than a crucified messiah?   Because Satan knew he could corrupt those others.  Satan knew he could turn and twist those things for his purposes.  But the one thing Satan could not corrupt was a messiah who gave himself totally to the world in love; a messiah who was willing to die for the cause and purpose of love; a messiah who would take the worst that could be thrown at him and not be jaded by it; a messiah who could look his enemies in the eye and say "Father, forgive them."   Satan knew he could not ever overcome that, so right from the beginning of Jesus' ministry he tried to throw him off track, undermine his ministry, distract him at where he thought Jesus was vulnerable and make Jesus lose sight of his mission to be a crucified messiah who forgives sins; reconciling God and humanity.

One of the things I enjoy doing at our place in the mountains is split wood for the fireplace.  For really big logs I have a steel wedge that I drive into the wood with a mall that eventually splits the log into pieces.  One day as I was splitting wood it occurred to me that is exactly what the Evil One does. The Evil One desires, more than anything, to drive wedges that separate and split apart; that break up the integrity of the whole.  Sometimes when I use the wedge, the log splits cleanly and violently. It's easy.   But other times it's all I can do to barely make a few cracks in the log. But all that does is make me work harder yet, with greater resolve towards my goal of splitting that log apart  The Evil One prowls around like a lion, stalking and waiting and watching for the "opportune time" and the appropriate weakness to split apart…

-          split me apart from myself; fracture me in some way so am no longer a whole person: attacks me where I am the weakest so that I lose confidence; lose hope; lose a sense of purpose; get stuck in a self-destructive rut feeding my passions and base desires; using the wedge of my self-deluded rationalizations that prevent me from facing the reality of my sins; convincing me that the pursuit of anything, but God, is the best way.

-          split us apart; so we no longer function as friends or as a community; fracturing the trust that is the cement of all relationships; causing me to hang onto the grudge and to not ask for or not offer forgiveness; convincing me that hanging on to my hurt is more important than restoring our relationship; using the wedge of false pride; arrogance and fear to prevent reconciliation.

-          split the world apart in a million ways surrendering to the idea that war and violence is the only way to solve international problems; become convinced that our side is always right;  using the wedge of racial, religious, gender, political, ethnic, national and economic prejudice to keep nations and peoples in conflict.

-          split me, us and the world apart from God.  The Evil One's ultimate goal is to drive faith in a loving God out of the world.  The Evil One will not rest until faith in a loving gracious God no longer can be found on the earth. 

The second point of the story is that Jesus resisted the temptation to be a messiah other than a crucified one.  All along his journey to the cross he could have departed from his mission, lost his focus and surrendered to be a messiah other than a crucified one.  We saw that temptation reach a crescendo as he prayed in Gethsemane, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me."

When you get right down to the bottom line, it is the very same temptation we face as followers of the crucified messiah.  We face the temptation every day to make Jesus into some other kind of messiah than the one that he is.  We follow Jesus alright, but the Jesus we sometimes follow we recreate in our own image, and he can end up scarcely resembling the Jesus of the New Testament.  We would much rather have a savior that magically solves all our problems; allows us to self indulge without conscience; and to always be right, even when I am wrong. (political messiah; bread messiah; wonder working messiah) 

God knew that the only messiah that could save the whole world was a messiah able to transform the sinful human heart, and the only power in the universe that can do that is a love the likes of which the world has never seen; the likes of which not even Satan can corrupt.

This is the messiah we name Lord and Savior. This is the messiah we receive into our hearts. This is the messiah we follow.  He leads with his cross, and because of his resurrection we can resist the temptation to make him into a savior in our own making; resist the temptation to capitulate to the Evil One; resist the temptation to not take up our cross and follow.