March 5, 2017
Lent 1A

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.”
Matthew 4:1-11

“Although four of the five Sundays in Lent in the year of Matthew are inexplicably made up of passages from John’s gospel, Lent 1 draws us to Matthew’s vivid portrayal of Jesus’ temptation that sets the stage for much of what is to come in this gospel as well as the season of Lent. While the temptation of Jesus is referenced in Mark briefly, the scene is considerably fleshed out in Luke and Matthew, suggesting a common source that each redacted to suit larger narrative purposes. Matthew, for instance, portrays Jesus as fasting as a righteous Jew should. He also has a different ordering of the Tempter’s trials, placing the temptation to worship Satan as the culminating episode in the scene, one that calls for Jesus not just to reject the specific temptation, but the Tempter himself.

Taken together, the three rejected temptations not only demonstrate that Jesus is righteous according to the law but also prove his identity as God’s divine and beloved son. Indeed, Satan’s temptations get immediately to the core question of Jesus’ identity, calling into question his relationship with God by beginning with the provocative, “If you are the Son of God….” This relationship, announced just verses early at his baptism, is now confirmed through Jesus’ unswerving trust in God. Individually, each temptation invites Jesus to turn away from trust in God in a different way. In the first, the devil invites Jesus to prove his sonship through a display of power; that is, by establishing his validity and worth through his own abilities. In the second, the temptation is to test God’s fidelity. In the third — more an out-and-out bribe than temptation — Jesus is promised all the power and glory the earth can offer if he will give his allegiance and devotion to the Tempter. In each case, Jesus rejects the temptation and lodges his identity, future, and fortunes on God’s character and trustworthiness.”  (David Lose, Temptation, seduction, betrayal…, March 13, 2011)

So, what are Jesus’ temptations and what can we learn from them? As they are presented in the Gospel text, they revolve around the interrelated dynamics of: I need!; I can!; and I get! In terms of “I need!”, are our wants really the things we need? Jesus may have appeared to want one thing, but the only thing he needed to keep from falling to temptation was G-d’s Word. Lent allows us to focus on determining what we want, and what we need. In terms of “I can!”, there are a lot of things in this life that we can do. But just because we CAN do something doesn’t mean that we should. And what we learn through life is that in many instances, the things that we “ARE FREE TO DO” are not necessarily the things that we should do. We can gamble our money away, shout “fire” in a movie theater, or ignore our neighbors. We have that freedom. But what is it that G-d wants us to do? That is what Lent allows us to focus our energies – to determine what we can do, and what we should do. Finally, in terms of “I get!”, the devil tells Jesus that if he worships him, then Jesus “gets” it all. We often make decisions in our lives based on the axiom “What is in it for me?” – “What do I get?” This is the ultimate definition of sin – turning in on ourselves focusing in only on what meets our own needs. But life is not about gathering, hoarding and getting – but on focusing on the blessings that come from G-d. That is what Lent allows us to focus on – appreciating that we can’t always get what we want, but that Jesus gives us all that we need.

Pastor Dave