Lent
I, 2010
It’s the first Sunday of Lent, so you
knew it was coming—the story of Jesus’ temptation in the Wilderness.
It’s such a familiar story that it
almost speaks for itself.
However, not unsurprisingly, I have a
few things to say about it….
First of all—it is interesting to note
that it is the Spirit that leads Jesus to the Wilderness for his temptation.
The Spirit leads him there. One of the gospels that didn’t make it into our New
Testament says it more vividly: “The Spirit of God took Jesus by the hair of
his head and carried him to the wilderness….”
Pretty brutal. So it might just be
that it is the Spirit of God that takes us into Wilderness times. Though we
pray, “lead us not into temptation”, perhaps the Spirit does.
NOT to ‘test us’, I don’t think. I’ve
never bought into the theory that God sets up ‘tests’ and ‘trials’ to see what
we’re made of. That just doesn’t make sense. But perhaps the Wilderness Times
are times we should recognize that we are not alone—that God is with us and will
‘deliver us from evil’ if we choose to be delivered.
The temptations themselves deserve a
little pondering—the nature of them is interesting and perhaps informative.
First, since Jesus has not eaten for
40 days, Luke tells us ‘he was famished’. That might be understatement! So, the
initial temptation is to satisfy his basic human needs by turning rocks into
bread.
Surely we can all understand that.
Each of us—all of us—must find ways to satisfy our needs. But Jesus refuses to
defy the laws of nature merely to eat. “There is more than bread to living,” he
tells the Enemy. I’m not sure, but there is a message there for us. We seem to
be transforming and destroying the planet so we can have ‘what we want’
whenever we ‘want’ it. The laws of nature don’t seem able to convince us not to
satisfy our longings far beyond what are basic needs.
Then Satan offers him the Kingdoms of
all the world if Jesus will only worship him. Satan is appealing to human
‘ambition’. And since Jesus came, after all, to ‘save the world’, wouldn’t just
simply ‘taking over’ do the trick?
“Ambition” may be the temptation that
is most seductive to people in our culture. Aren’t we all told we can ‘succeed’
if we only work hard enough or try hard enough or study hard enough? Aren’t we
told that from the cradle?
And who among us could be blamed if we
took a ‘shortcut’ here or there? Found an easier way? Or were clever enough to
succeed without all the hard work? Would that be such a problem? Who could that
hurt?
Jesus chose the higher path. He
rejected ‘ambition’ and chose faithfulness and commitment instead. He really
‘took the road less traveled’ as I look around at how people ‘get ahead’ and
succumb to the temptation of their ambitions.
The final “tempering” is a challenge
to Jesus’ pride and ‘hubris’.
(I used the word ‘tempering’ instead
of ‘temptation’ because that is what this story; it seems to me, is really
about. Metal is made stronger by heating it and cooling it rapidly over and
again—we “temper” metal to make it strong. What if the ‘temptations’, which
come from the same root word, are not ‘tests’ at all, but experienced,
accompanied by the Spirit, to make us stronger by teaching us our weaknesses?)
That’s why the temptation to jump from
the top of the Temple
is so terribly seductive—it challenges Jesus…and us…to DENY OUR WEAKNESSES and
our vulnerabilities.
“Hubris”—the kind of ‘pride’ that
blinds people to their own frailties—is one of the greatest ‘temptations’ of
our time.
How often have we watched public
figures or celebrities or powerful people or sports heroes go on TV and give
‘explanations’ of their weaknesses and brokenness without giving an “apology”
at all?
I know I find myself making excuses
and explaining how I ‘really didn’t’ do or say or mean what I most definitely
did or said or meant. If you’re anything like me, you might just be able
to think of some times you’ve been in that position as well.
The old saying is “Pride comes before
a Fall”.
In the case of ‘hubris’, “Pride comes
along to explain away a Fall….”
So, it is a good thing that year after
year on the first Sunday of Lent we must hear of Jesus’ ‘temptations’. Lent
gives us a chance to reflect upon and ponder our frailties, our brokenness, our
weakness, our failures…and to take responsibility for them and ‘fess
up to God and ourselves and those we have pained.
That’s a good thing—to be reminded
clearly, in a way we can’t avoid—that we are weak and broken and fragile
creatures…and that, in fact, it is when we acknowledge that—as painful as it
is—we can know God loves us anyway and always and without limit…just the way we
truly are….
That’s a good way to begin Lent, I
believe….
