February 13, 2005 Matthew 4:1-11
When You Can Resist Everything but Temptation
With all of the wonderful upscale restaurants within ten miles of here, places where the famous hang out, the views are splendid, the food exotic, I am a but chagrined to admit a recently discovered “guilty pleasure” which we indulged in on our trip across country last summer, sometimes more than once a day – and that is the Cracker Barrel! We have been known to get up on a Saturday and drive all the way to Frederick just to have breakfast at one. It’s comfort food raised to the highest level, as if your mother, grandmother and aunts all conspired to produce the menu, which to me is a long listing of temptations that are hard to avoid, and ending with the hardest one of all, apple pie!
It reminds me of the time a restaurant famous for its pies sent me some coupons, giving a dollar off a pie each month fr a year, with the headline, "One temptation after another."
Now I have to admit that aside from the possible consequences to my waistline and cholesterol levels, this is not a very serious temptation, at least for me. I suppose if you are diabetic or have a heart condition, it might be serious. But we need to understand the difference between significant temptations and those that aren't worth worrying about. I recall the story of the man who won half a million dollars in the lottery, and after six months was flat broke. When asked what happened he allowed that he had blown a couple hundred grand on liquor, women, and horses. "The rest," he said, "I spent foolishly."
So it's all relative. If we equate temptation with so-called vices, then we miss the point. I'm a non-smoking, decaffeinated tee-totaller, who can't dance worth beans. In other words, not much fun to be around. Those aren't my temptations. And comfort food is probably not the worst one, either. If you want to know what temptation really is, then consider the account of Jesus wrestling in the wilderness with Satan, the story that traditionally begins the Lenten season.
Jesus has just come out of the Jordan, where he's been baptized by John and heard a voice from heaven, telling him "You are my child - with you I am well pleased!" And so he goes on retreat to struggle with what that means. He moves from the question of identity to the question of vocation, from the "who" to the "how". He contends with Satan -- not a horned creature with a pitchfork and red suit, lord of the underworld as pictured by Dante -- but with the possibilities that lie before him as a person incarnating God's presence and heralding God's realm. He is so gifted, and he can use these gifts for good or evil. And therein lies the temptation!
He can turn stone into bread. He's hungry. The world is hungry. Why not go for the quick fix? Why not bypass the hard work of changing hearts so that they will share the food that is already there with those in need?
He can wow the world with magic. Just jump off the cliff and dare the powers of the universe to bring him down gently. God needs him. God won't let anything happen to him. And think of the crowd he'll draw, the following he'll attract.
He can be given power -- all the kingdoms of the world. Isn't that his goal? To bring the whole earth to the worship of God? All he has to do is strike a bargain, change his ultimate loyalty. It would sure be a lot easier than preaching to them, and loving them, and dying on a cross, a lot quicker and less painful.
He's the Son of God, God's designated point man on earth. He's got a mission, a task ahead of him. One that will require a lot of hard work and struggle. And he's offered an easy way out.
Of course he refuses. In the story he turns the devil away by quoting scripture. This must have taught the devil something, because later Jesus says that even Satan can quote scripture for his own purposes. So I don't see this as an example of a good tactic so much as a way of saying: The tradition in which Jesus stands, represented by the scriptures, is not one which takes the easy way out, not one that gives in to temptations, and so neither will Jesus take the easy way out nor give in to temptations.
And so as a result of this encounter in the wilderness, this time of soul-searching, of temptation, Jesus not only knows who he is, he knows what he must do: he must go down from the mountain and begin the slow, hard, but ultimately fruitful work of changing the world, of healing, of teaching, of loving, of winning hearts and lives, not merely to his name, but to a way of life.
But this is not his last temptation. At the end of his earthly ministry, he prays in the Garden of Gethsemane, sweating blood over what must happen next, agonizing over whether there is a way to avoid the cross. Judas offers a way out: why not take on the Roman oppressors by force, bring the kingdom in on the blade of a sword? Love looks so weak in such circumstances, the presence of God so impotent. How many cheeks do you have to turn? How many second miles can you walk? How many enemies do you have the strength to love?
These, you see, are the really big temptations: to detour from your chosen path, to go for the quick fix, to avoid the cost, the pain, the hard work, to become something or someone other than who you were created or called to be.
It's far more serious than a bit of over-indulgence at Cracker Barrel!
Now none of this is to say that temptation is necessarily a bad thing. Walter Bagehot, in his 1863 biography of Sir George Cornewall Lewis, wrote, "It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations."
What does he mean by that? My first thought is that life would be pretty dull if there were no temptations, if it was all G-rated. My deeper thought is that temptations are simply part of being human. We all live on "Temptation Island" and there's no escape! Just as Jesus faced them, so must we. And they are not just an annoyance or a threat. Temptations are actually a very valuable part of being human, and it is not good to be without them. As I said, it's also impossible!
Of course, every Sunday we pray as Jesus taught his followers: "Lead us not into temptation..." If it really is not good to be without them, why would we pray that way?
Scholars tell us this is probably not exactly what Jesus said, not a very good translation. The Jesus Seminar folks put it this way: "Please don't subject us to test after test." And Neil Douglas-Klotz, in his little book “PRAYERS OF THE COSMOS: Meditations on the Aramaic Words of Jesus", translates the phrase as
"Don't let surface things delude us,
but free us from what holds us back."
In other words, help us stay on target, help us know what's important. I like the way the New Zealand Prayer Book puts it, in the version we use at our evening service: "In times of temptation and test, strengthen us."
So temptation is a part of life, and I contend a very valuable part of life.
First, temptation shows us what kind of person we are. Ask yourself this: What would you do if you knew for certain you could get away with it? If you knew there would be no consequences -- you wouldn't go to jail, or burn in hell, or have to tell anyone -- what would you do? Leave something off your tax return? Sneak into the theater? Carry out some secret fantasy? What short-cut would you take? There are a lot of possibilities that come to mind, and a lot of them aren't even illegal or considered immoral or necessarily bad things for that matter. For example, what happens when you come into a bit of money you didn’t expect, a year-end bonus, a surprise inheritance from some long-lost relative? It’s a test -- do you spend it on self-indulgence? Do you give it away? Do you buy things for the kids? Save it? None of this is really bad, but it's all possible, and how you spend it will say something about yourself, show you what kind of person you are.
Secondly, the temptations we face show us what our strengths are. The tests often come at the point of our greatest gifts and abilities, not our weaknesses. Satan attacks head on. Those with great power will face great enticements. You don't have to think very hard to come up with examples of this in the news. But in your own life, where are you tempted? If you have a strong faith you may be tempted to self-righteousness. If you have a great voice, you may be tempted to use it to make money more than as an instrument for singing of peace and justice and God's glory. If you make friends easily, are empathetic, you may be tempted to use people for self-gratification rather than love them with compassion. If you have a great mind, a gift for logic, you may be tempted to overcome people with your unassailable opinions, or to find a way to beat the system. If I were a literalist I would say it is your strengths that Satan covets, so your temptations may give you a real good clue as to what those are! And the greater your temptations, the greater your gifts. Take it as a compliment! You're in good company.
And third, dealing with temptation shows us what we may become, what possibilities for growth God has in store for us. As Peter Gomes says "temptation is not simply the devil's recreation, it is also for the faithful a school for the soul. Perhaps in this age of physical exercise and the cult of the health club, we should say that temptation is the gym of the soul, and the faithful take its benefits: dexterity, agility, strength, endurance, and the developing confidence of one who is now more and more able to give the devil a run for his money." In other words, it is not just trite to say that we grow from adversity. We learn when we have to make choices, when we are forced to deal with things. That's what human freedom is about, and why God's desire for us can only be achieved in the context of choices, struggle, trial and temptation – and that’s been the case ever since that mythical first temptation involving Adam and Eve in a Garden! We can grow up and become fully human only when we face the consequences of freedom. We don't get there by merely being puppets or following some predetermined course with no forks in the road, no beguiling detours.
I think Bagehot was right: "It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations." They show us who we are. They remind us of our strengths. They help us become what we are meant to become. And so they are not always evil, even if the one who presents them is often pictured as the devil. Maybe some of those temptations are actually gifts of a wise and loving God!
It might just be my imagination, but I could swear that while it often rains on my day off, the weather is usually pretty nice on the day I need to write my sermon, whichever day that turns out to be! It can be pretty hard, being confined in front of a computer screen, when I can look out and see blue sky or gorgeous fall color or flowers bursting forth. And it’s quite a temptation!
Or is it? Is it a temptation, or more like an invitation? Would God create something so beautiful and inviting and alluring as a beautiful day only for a trap? Would God present this only to draw me away from my chosen task? Could such a day be the devil's work?
Might it be that we can be tempted not just by evil, but by goodness, by beauty, by that which is pure and wonderful and worth celebrating? Does God not invite us into the creation, to indulge our senses and sensibilities, to immerse ourselves in the delights of being alive? For when you know who you are, when you are aware of your strengths, when you get your regular workout in the gym of the soul, then surely you are able to receive with gladness the invitations that life sends, and make the right choices.
In the end, the real temptation for me is Jesus himself! His goodness, his compassion, his radical inclusivity, his very human struggles, his alternative vision of life, his living in this world as if it were also the realm of God.....this man is hard to resist! And in him, God tempts us and invites us into life in all its fulness.
O God,
you know me better than I know myself.
You know my human yearnings and my hungers.
I confess that I want what others have and more.
I want to be liked more than respected.
I want my own way, even when others get in it.
Lead me beyond all this, beyond temptation.
And if I must be tempted, tempt me with yourself.
Let me feel your forgiveness and know your healing presence.
Let me be tempted to love and to give,
to share what I am and what I have
and what I hope to be;
through Jesus Christ whom I need as Savior,
whom I would follow as Lord. Amen.
