Temptation
is testing. There are some famous points in the Bible that deal with
temptation, the most obvious being Adam and Eve in the Garden. Now what’s
interesting is that in Luke, right before this reading we have this week, Luke
lists the genealogy of Jesus, and it ends with Adam. How did Adam deal with
temptation? He failed, decided he knew better than God, and was expelled from
paradise. Jesus, who is sometimes termed “the new Adam,” is not going to fail,
and through this victory, humanity is going to be redeemed.
The
obvious parallel to Jesus being tested for forty days is the Israelites being
tested and punished for 40 years in the wilderness. So wilderness would be the
next key symbol. And this is consistent with the comparison between Jesus and
Moses that is a feature of Luke. Moses’ leadership was tested in the
wilderness; Jesus’s fitness to be the true Messiah will be tested. Here the wilderness is where you can not only
meet God but meet Satan. John lived and preached in the wilderness. So the
wilderness is a place of trial—and temptation.
All
3 synoptic gospels record this temptation—it is found in Matthew 4:1-1, Mark
1:12-13, and even Hebrews 4:15. In the gospel stories, the temptations all
occur at the start of Jesus’ public ministry, which makes sense. You wouldn’t
sell a prototype aircraft unless there had been testing to make sure it is safe
and performs according to expectation. What makes Luke’s account different?
Luke begins and ends the action of his gospel in the Temple, and that is also
where Jesus’ temptations ends up, after Satan whisks him away to the top of the
Temple. There are no angels ministering to Jesus here. Also Luke does not have
Jesus taken up to a mountain to see all the kingdoms—in Luke, mountains are where
one meets God, not Satan.
So
why were each of these things so tempting? A temptation only works if it is
something we would actually be able to do. Jesus COULD turn stones into bread.
Jesus COULD have seized power as an earthly ruler—and in fact, that’s what many
of his disciples, including possibly Judas, expected him to do—and they were
gravely disappointed when he refused the role of political revolutionary
against Rome. Jesus COULD have done tricks with the expectation that God would
save him from harm.
Those
three temptations the devil is going to present Jesus with are three
alternative histories or paths, shortcuts which would appear to be capable of
being used to achieve great good. Feeding the hungry by making loaves of bread
pop up out of the stones scattered about? Having God’s son exercise political
power and drive out all oppressors with their false gods? Having God prove
himself? Wouldn’t all of these things be amazing?
But
these are not what God has planned. God’s kingdom on earth will be established
through different means—not according to what WE would want, but by
establishing that “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Jesus
turns aside each temptation with scripture, including the temptation drawn from
today’s psalm, and even the devil quotes scripture in a great game of Biblical
one-upmanship. Jesus’s source is Deuteronomy. In response to the temptation of
bread, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 8:3—“He humbled
you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither
you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the
Lord.”
In response to the temptation of
political power in exchange for worshipping the devil, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy
6:13—“The Lord your God you shall
fear; him you shall serve, and by his name alone you shall swear.”
In response to
the temptation to test God, the devil quotes today’s Psalm, 91:11-12, the very
words that ancient Jews inscribed on magic amulets used by people in danger,
particularly pregnant women—“For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they
will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” Jesus
responds with Deuteronomy 6:16—“Do not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah.” This refers to the incident in Exodus 17
where the people murmured against God, and God had Moses make water flow by
striking a rock with his staff.
The devil gives up temporarily here, but not for good. As we enter Lent, we have to remember that temptation is all around, and seduces by offering the easy way, the shortcut. It’s not the big things that usually tempt us—it’s the little ones. We are tempted most when we rationalize taking a shortcut as a way to make things easier for ourselves, even if others would be hurt. All it costs us is a little piece of our integrity. All it costs us is deciding that we know better what is good for us in the short-term versus sacrificing now for the sake of the long-term. Lent calls us to trust God to be God—and to know that God is with us through trials and temptations. Deliver us from shortcuts; save us from the time of testing.
(This was first published on Episcopal Cafe's Speaking to the Soul for February 14, 2016.)
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