“Temptation” - February 14, 2016

Luke 4:1-13

          To prepare this sermon, I went through a whole bunch of books on my shelf – books about prayer life and spirituality – and checked the indices for the word “temptation”.  I struck out time and time again.

          The only place I found any direct reference was in a book that was written as a satire.  Published in 1965, How to Become a Bishop without Being Religious is one of the most cynical books ever published for the faith-based market.  In a chapter on church administration it has a subsection entitled “The pallid sins of nice people” and I’m going to go out on a limb and share the writer’s advice to a young clergyman about his congregation.

“It is true that not many of them are spectacular sinners.  Their transgressions tend to be petty, unimaginative, and thoroughly middle-class.  But they are sinners all the same, and while they pretend that they are not, they know it.

Very few of your good people pursue sin in the form of wine, women, and song.  This is because such pursuit is inconvenient, time-consuming and expensive.  Most of all it reduces one’s effectiveness as a money maker.  And the average middle-class white Protestant much prefers building his bank account and collecting status symbols to indulging himself in the so-called pleasures of the flesh.”[1]

It’s funny, but it’s not funny.  The sins that tempt us are connected to who we are and to what we value most highly.  Let me expand on that.

          Nobody is tempted by something that is beyond their ability.  It doesn’t matter how angry you are with the scam artist on the other end of the phone, you cannot reach through the phone itself and hit them upside the head, and so the temptation to physical violence just isn’t there.  If you do not work with other people’s money, you will not be tempted to embezzle.  If you do not hold political office, you will not be tempted to accept bribes.  When the devil presented Jesus with temptations, the Bible says he prefaced his propositions, “If you are the Son of God…” [Luke 4:3, 4:9].  It’s almost as if he was challenging Jesus to prove his identity. 

          That’s a temptation that comes to everyone: prove what you can do by doing it, even if it’s wrong.  Just because something is possible doesn’t mean it’s right.  At the start of life, we have the ability to choose the characteristics that an embryo will embody and to implant only those that fit a set list of requirements.  Medical ethics generally reject that practice, and rightly so.  In the middle of life, there are hormones and steroids that can turn a good athlete into an exceptional athlete.  That is not fair to others, and often destroys other aspects of the body in the course of getting a temporary competitive edge.  But it can be done.  At the end of life, there is the possibility to maintain a body artificially well beyond the point when the people who have loved someone sense that the soul is ready to go.  If you want, it can be done.

          Sometimes you can do something less obviously wrong, but to do it still violates who you are in your deepest self.  The devil approached Jesus when Jesus was engaged in a long period of prayer and fasting.  On the surface, he suggested to him that he pay attention to his reasonable, regular human needs, like eating when you are hungry.

“The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.’” [Luke 4:3]

There was more to it, though.  Jesus knew that his calling to be in communion with his heavenly Father was even more important, and without that it didn’t matter what the rest of his situation was like.

“Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “One does not live by bread alone.”’” [Luke 4:4]

Many people are tempted to address their physical wants at the expense of their spiritual integrity.  Someone traveling far from home for a long time will be tempted to break their marriage vows.  That is a given.  Truck drivers and diplomats and airline workers all face that.  That’s one of the good reasons that people wear wedding rings.  It is an announcement to the world at large, “Hey, this one is taken,” and also a reminder to the person wearing it that they are not just a truck driver or an ambassador or an airline attendant.  They are also a spouse, and possibly a parent.

            Temptation can also take forms where it uses even the best sense of who you are and twist it around.  There’s the temptation that Jesus faced when

“the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, ‘To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is written,
“Worship the Lord your God,
   and serve only him.”’” [Luke 4:5-8]

Jesus is known, after all as “King of Kings and Lord of Lords”.  For him to rule over all things and assume authority over nations and peoples would be totally justified in a way that it is not justified for anybody else.  The devil’s offer is to make it all easy to bring that into effect.  All Jesus has to do is to replace God with a lesser (far lesser) being.  Imagine how much better the world would be if Jesus’ rule were in effect everywhere: no more injustice, no more exploitation, no more abusing the system or other people; the good guys always winning and the bad guys always losing; everything ending happily ever after.  Imagine: no Taliban, no ISIS, no legislators monkeying with budgets for their own ends, no falsely inflated prices on medicines.  The only catch?  Leave God out of it. 

Remember God?  That’s the one who makes us more than puppets.  That’s the one who gives us choice so that we can do the right thing freely instead of under compunction. 

            We often want to force God’s hand, in fact, and to make God do what we want instead of freely doing what he asks of us.  That was the third of the temptations that Luke tells us that Jesus faced down in the wilderness. 

“Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written,
“He will command his angels concerning you,
   to protect you”, 
and
“On their hands they will bear you up,
   so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.”’
Jesus answered him, ‘It is said, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”’”  [Luke 4:9-12]

In the end, the real answer to temptation is not to outwit the devil.  The answer is to trust God instead, no matter what.

            I suspect that the reason I could find very little written about temptation is that it is simply part of being human, like having internal organs or growing from childhood into maturity.  Jesus faced down all of this directly, and still it was not over.

“When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.” [Luke 4:13]

The amazing thing is that Jesus not only passed the test in the desert, he kept on passing the test throughout his life.  The great news is that he knows what we go through, not just theoretically but from the actual experience, and it means that we have someone who is merciful and helpful to us in every way.

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”  [Hebrews 4:15-16]

So when temptations come, as they will, we are not alone, and we know what to do.

“Have we trials and temptations?

Is there trouble anywhere?

We should never be discouraged;

Take it to the Lord in prayer.

Can we find a friend so faithful

Who will all our sorrows share?

Jesus knows our every weakness;

Take it to the Lord in prayer.”

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[1] Charles Merrill Smith, How to Become a Bishop without Being Religious (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1965), 54.