The first Sunday in Lent is always the temptations.
We tend to look at this Gospel reading as Jesus being tempted
and we being tempted too
Jesus didn’t fall for the temptations; he didn’t sin.
But we do.
The typical response is then:
Gird up your loins and enter the fight
in resisting temptations
- however, the worst temptations are the most subtle.
Few of us are tempted to commit notorious sins
but it’s the little ones that get us into the most spiritual trouble
that steer us bit by bit towards hell.
So then our response to the Gospel becomes the exclamation:
Help! We’re doomed. We can’t measure up to Jesus
and the standard he set.
To that, I say good.
That’s not the idea – to measure up to Jesus’ standard.
That would make for an interesting sort of competitive morality.
Salvation is not about that.
Salvation has to do with a Savior who has passed the test.
That’s what this Gospel story is about.
It tells us about the worthiness and readiness of our Savior.
Now we should note that when Jesus went into the desert,
his learning and preparation was already complete.
We don’t hear anything about Jesus between the ages of 12 and 30.
But this was undoubtedly the serious learning and preparation time for him.
When Jesus came to Jordan it was to initiate his active ministry,
to declare his readiness to undertake saving the world.
Do you see that?
Everything Jesus did from then on out was always very intentional
and directly related to his mission.
It all fit together as a piece:
the 3 years of active ministry in self-offering of teaching and healing
which would have such a huge impact,
and then the ultimate self offering of his life
in death on the cross.
Jesus came to Jordan prepared to set into motion his active work
and its inevitable conclusion.
So as soon as Jesus presented himself in public at the Jordan,
the Spirit then led him out into the wilderness.
And so Jesus spends 40 days fasting and praying
in the barren landscape of the desert,
and then - afterwards - the devil shows up with the temptations.
Now, it seems to me that this episode with the devil
could be likened to taking an exam,
like the bar exams or medical boards or the GOE’s for the clergy,
only to a much more ultimate degree.
To elucidate, we clergy spend three plus years in seminary,
and then must spend a week taking comprehensive exams
in seven areas of study: theology, Bible, canon law, liturgics,
pastoral practice, ethics, multicultural studies.
During our senior year in seminary we take these exams.
We usually spend a whole quarter or more in special preparation
gathering together all that we’ve learned,
being tutored in weak areas.
10 to 12 weeks or more to review and study up
Jesus only took 40 days.
Then Jesus was tested.
One can see a parallel here between this testing and Job.
In both cases the devil has an interesting role,
actually as an agent of God sent to find out
if, in one case,
Job is as faithful and righteous as he outwardly seems.
So, what is Jesus being tested for?
Well, we could say his authenticity.
Is he authentic?
Is he truly who he appears to be? God’s Son.
Does he walk the talk?
Just right before in the Gospel account at the Jordan River
the heavens were opened and the Spirit descended upon Jesus,
and the Voice had said,
“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
So let’s test his authenticity as Son of God.
“If you are the Son of God,
command these stones to become loaves of bread.”
Well, later Jesus would not change the form from stone to bread;
he would actually create bread and feed the multitudes
to take care of an immediate pastoral need.
But human beings do not live by physical sustenance only
as though we could manage to sustain our lives on our own.
No, every breath we take is a gift from God, provided by God
God sustains creation moment by moment.
We are blind to how immediate and how intimate God in the act of creating is.
We are oblivious to this glorious and incredible miracle.
And how did God create in the beginning?
By speaking the Word.
One does not live by bread alone
but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God,
continuously creating and sustaining us.
We live by the creative word of God.
Jesus knew this to the core of his being, what we are so blind to.
Jesus knew this to the core of his being
and this is how he lived.
If you are the Son of God, indeed!
Jesus was living in full conscious union with his Father.
“I in the Father, and the Father in me,” he said.
“I and the Father are one.”
#2 “If you are the Son of God,
throw yourself down from pinnacle of the temple
so that Psalm 91 can be fulfilled:
“He will give his angels charge over you…
…lest you dash your foot against a stone.”
But Jesus sees clearly that this would be to test out God
to see if God is really there to come and preserve him, or not.
But Jesus does not act this way - as though God might not be with him.
To test God’s presence is to doubt God’s presence.
Jesus had a consciousness
that was utterly integrated with the Divine Presence,
and he didn’t doubt that.
Well, the devil has one more challenge to try.
He gives Jesus the chance to buy into the messiah-ship of ruling all the nations.
The devil claims that these are all under his authority
to give to whom he pleases.
But the devil is a liar
And Jesus comes announcing
that it is the Kingdom of Heaven that is at hand,
not the kingdoms found on political maps,
the Kingdom of Heaven, something entirely different.
When you get right down to it and examine the test questions,
there’s no contest.
And so Jesus, having passed his exams with more than flying colors,
comes in the strength of the Spirit
and (reading what comes next in the Gospel)
he begins his preaching with this message:
“Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”
Repent – a good Lenten occupation.
Repent of our lack of trust and faith
that misses seeing, that is blind to seeing
the Presence of God our Creator in our midst.
So for us, knowing that we haven’t enough for a passing grade
we are ever more aware of our need for a Savior.
And as I said on Ash Wednesday,
repentance is too important for God to leave it all up to us.
It is the Holy Spirit at work in us leading us to repentance.
One might imagine that the degree to which one feels impelled to repentance
is actually a measure of how much God love us
and sends the Spirit to work in us.
Repentance – it’s too important to be left entirely up to us
So the Spirit works in us organically and systemically
generating the repentance.
So let us cooperate with the process of God’s repenting us
by engaging in the Lenten discipline
of prayer, study and action,
by really making a good, heart-felt Lent,
as a way to show appreciation for the Savior who gave us his all.
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