(Matthew 4:1-11)
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. 3The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’“ 5Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’“ 7Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’“ 8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; 9and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’“ 11Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
If ...
+ In nomine Domini. Amen.
I cannot think of a better Gospel Reading with which to begin Lent than the one we just heard.
If we think of this season at all with the sense of direction, repentance, the giving of self to others, following the cross of Jesus … there is no better, no more appropriate story to lead us into Lent than the one where we follow Jesus as he is led into the wilderness “by the Spirit” by God’s whispering.
We can imagine the quiet voice of God saying to Jesus, “Before we begin, before you go out into the world, let us together find the center, let us find the direction, let us find the purpose, let us go away where we can find time away from the crowds and the marketplaces and the ever present marching of the Roman Army and be together.”
It’s quite a different understanding of what we usually call The Temptation of Jesus in the Wilderness, isn’t it? But, that is precisely the image painted in Matthew’s telling of the Story: Jesus goes into the wilderness with God, to be with God, to talk with God, to reason, to pray, to think, to ponder, to plan, to find the Purpose … and all of it in the face of diablos the Evil One, the Devil, the force of the world that is against God. Jesus is led there by the whispering of God to meet the opposition, face on.
So often we reduce this reading for ourselves as a lesson about facing temptations in our private morals … Jesus went into the wilderness to be tempted, therefore this Lent I shall swear off swearing, or eating chocolate, or triple-mocha-lattés, or some such trivia.
But that is not the story here, the story here is not focused on the small world of little things. And there is an immoral-ness itself about reducing Lent to that, because it neglect the deeper, weightier, more profound matters.
You see, if, in Lent, we give up a little thing that really doesn’t matter to us, and neglect the heavy, real problems of the world and our part in those problems, our connection to those problems, perhaps even our guilt in making those problems … if we neglect that in the season of Lent, then not only have we missed the whole point, we have given in to the Tempter itself, for this is precisely what Temptation is … “lose 10 pounds so you can feel good about yourself, but give up worrying about how to end the war” … “thrust yourself into personal prayer, but no longer care about the poverty of your neighbor you try to ignore as you drive by and see him or her or them standing at the light waiting to cross a busy street” … “find ways to take care of your own soul, your own inner-self, and do not think another thought about the carelessness of structures and organisms who tramp on the needs of the already oppressed or hand out a shiny new penny instead of the depth of caring and compassion and help that is needed.”
The Tempter has it’s way when we take Lent so lightly, as if it really doesn’t teach us anything.
In the Wilderness, the Greek word here as Matthew writes the tale is eremos (we find the word “hermit” from that word … it means “the desert” “a place of loneliness”) … in the Place of Loneliness, Jesus spends 40 days and 40 nights, the holy number, the sacred measuring of time, he fasts, he ponders, he talks with God, he meets himself in the Place of Loneliness, he finds himself, he hears the mission calling to him, he listens to the Holy Voice ever whispering, “follow me, love me, love others, heal the world.”
And at the end, the Tempter who has been there in the shadows, behind the rocks, in the dry wind that blows night and day … the Tempter comes when Jesus is weakest, and it too whispers, but with a different seduction, “If …”
It’s all in that “If …” It’s where the Tempter’s power lies, in the lie that is “If …”
Can you hear it? Can you hear it and listen to how it comes to you as well?
“If … If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread.”
“If … If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from this pinnacle of the Temple in Jerusalem.”
“If … If you will fall down, if you will prostrate yourself at my feet and worship me, I will give you the world.”
“If …”
What is he being asked? Take the food option, here, do a trick, make bread out of what it cannot be. Take the slick option, gain followers for yourself by some stunts and tricks. Take the military option … achieve dominion by force.
“If … If you will do these things, you can have it all, it will all be yours.”
What’s the real question? Do you want to do the will of God and say no to other gods, or not? That’s what is at stake.
Lent is where we, if we want to follow Jesus, take the risk of going into the Place of Loneliness with God, to meet ourselves and confront the things we have done and the things we have left undone, where we find conversations with the Tempter, the one whose voice is seductive … whose gifts are held out to us with the hope that we will take them instead of the gift of life, whose gems are held before our eyes with the hope that we will be blinded by their false beauty and ignore the true beauty of creation and all its creature, whose lies are whispered into our ears with the hope that we will follow other gods and give up our dedication to peace and justice and love.
It’s risky business, and if we go there, the temptation is always that we might find diablos more to our liking, at least in the short run, we might find the temptations so juicy, at least at first bite, we might find the words so filling, at least in the beginning.
But, armed with the presence of Spirit, we can go there, and deeply learn what is our calling, how to see the face of Jesus in our neighbor, and follow him and his cross into the world and therein find exactly who we are and what we are called to be as children of God. The angels will surround us and minister to us and give us strength and we will emerge to be a people of faith and hope and love.
Deo Gratia
The Rev. Benjamin Larzelere III