Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the
wilderness to be tested by the devil. (Matthew 4:1)
It’s
a powerful and transcendent story in our gospel lesson for Lent 1, Year A in
the RCL (Matthew 4: 1-11). The Spirit leads Jesus out into the dessert so he
can duke it out with the devil. That’s a pretty rotten thing for the Spirit to
have done if you ask me, but nobody’s asking. I will say, however, that being
an alcoholic, temptation is a subject with which I am rather familiar. In my
misspent youth I gave in to it all the time.
As
I reflect, I realize I never used booze to drown my sorrows. If I was sorrowful
for anything—like being out of work for example—I usually put my party pants
away and gave all my attention to fixing the problem. If I had to contend five
days a week with a classroom full of truculent middle schoolers whom I
suspected of being future residents of some house of correction, I approached
my work in a sober and conscientious manner. But when payday came around, watch
out! I’d spend like a frat boy with his daddy’s credit card. Pretty much every
dumb thing I ever did I did when I thought I had the world by the boxer shorts.
That’s a dangerous time.
The
story we have in Matthew’s gospel comes at just such a fragile moment. Jesus is
doing great. He’s just been baptized. You have to think he must be feeling
pretty peachy about this. He’s been praised by the John the Baptist, the rockstar
prophet on the scene, the Holy Spirit has descended on him like a dove, and the
voice of God has called him “Beloved” and declared he’s well pleased with
Jesus. What more could you ask for?
But
before Jesus has a chance to get a swelled head over all this, God’s Spirit
drives him out into the desert for a little retreat where he can think about
what’s happened and maybe decide where he needs to go from that point on.
That’s actually a really good idea. If any of us have had a particularly
blessed or successful moment, it might behoove us to take a break and have some
prayer time. Unfortunately, when you’re all by yourself with nobody around,
nothing much to do, and you’re starting to go hungry, some weird thoughts can
start running through your head. The devil (whether you believe in a Satanic
figure or just your sinful nature) likes to attack when you’re feeling
super-duper or when you’re feeling alone and lost[i].
So,
here’s Jesus alone and hungry. What does the devil do? He says, “Turn these
stones into bread.” Now Jesus may be hungry, but he isn’t starving. He’s not
about to die. He doesn’t need to eat a rock. But what we want and what we
really need are often different things, aren’t they? We may pray “give us this
day our daily bread,” but we really are hoping to get an extra loaf or two to
put away just in case a famine breaks out or something. A little may be good,
but more would be better. However much we have, it never seems to be
enough. Even if you own a multi-national corporation, you’ll feel you have to
merge and acquire another multi-national corporation. You won’t believe
the Talmudic wisdom that says he is wealthy who is content with what he has.
You’ll curve in on yourself, horde, and neglect acts of charity. The fear of
privation will tempt you further away from God.
Then
there’s the temptation to doubt. Throw yourself off the pinnacle of the temple
and hope God will catch you? No freakin’ way! Don’t take the leap. Don’t trust
in God. In fact, don’t trust anybody or anything. Rely only on yourself.
Make yourself the god of your life. That’s basically what the serpent tempted
Eve with in the First Lesson for Lent 1[ii]. Our original sin is our
desire to be like God and control it all ourselves without obedience or trust.
And,
of course, there’s the temptation to ambition. Make a deal with the devil for
prestige, privilege, and power. Hang with the cool kids. Have everyone look up
to you. There’s really nothing wrong with being respected and honored or
achieving your life’s goals. The temptation comes when you want that
acknowledgement so badly that you’re willing to compromise your values. Or, if
you don’t get the position of power or prestige, you can be tempted to
self-loathing or bitter envy of the ones who have achieved it. Either way,
you’re luring yourself into something pretty miserable. You can think of those guys who hung out with
Jeffery Epstein because they wanted to be with the power players. Or just think
about how we all post our highlight reels on social media. Aren’t we just
showing off our status?
Yup.
There are lots of things which coax us away from being the whole and loving
people God wants us to be. The good news is we don’t have to be ashamed of
being human. Jesus was there too. Jesus understands it all. He knew the highs
and the lows and the temptations which come with both. I don’t feel he’s
calling us to place of shame. He’s calling us to repentance, to a change of
mind. He’s calling us to beat the devils of doubt, embarrassment, covetousness,
and self-reliance, and just lean on his phenomenal grace.
I
hope this Lenten season finds you well and warm, my friend. I always appreciate
you for taking time to read my blog. Drop me a comment and stay well.
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