It has all the makings of a Hollywood
movie. There sits Jesus in the wilderness with his hair still wet from
his baptism. Still ringing in his ears are the words that came
when the dove lit on his shoulder; “this is my beloved son in whom I am
well pleased.” There, standing by the waters of the river, are the
people who saw that dove, wondering where did Jesus did go so quickly. What was going to happen? That seems
to be the sense that Matthew is creating in his book. Is Jesus going to
function with the regular equipment of a human being or is he going to
be souped up with special kryptonite powers? Those questions needed to be
answered before Jesus could successfully begin his ministry, so there
he is, alone in the desert, waiting to be examined. Just to make sure
that the tests are administered correctly and without bias, God does
not do the testing. God leaves that task to the devil, according to
Matthew.
I thought about that, and wondered
what is a contemporary image that might conjure up the gravity of the
situation. The first thing that hit me was the loneliness of the
desert. When I lived in Southern California, my herpetologist friend and I used to go into the desert to
the north of Palm Springs, or to the high desert near Hesperia to look
for snakes and lizards that Bob could use in his laboratory when he was
teaching biology to his students.
I loved the desert. It is, at first glance, as barren as a
moonscape. But as Bob revealed to me it hides a whole other world
of reality. There were microscopic plants almost everywhere, some of
them so small you needed a good magnifying glass to see them. There
were many types of cacti in their twisted beauty, bushes, and scrubby
trees like the Palo Verdi that need to be burned, usually by lightening
strikes, in order to release their seeds.
Of course there were rocks everywhere,
and dry wadis or small canyons that become raging torrents with the
smallest amount of rainfall. Every now and then, we would come upon a
fissure in the earth that emitted some water. There, in the barren
desert, would be a spectacular oasis. There would be tall grass,
usually some date palms, and often, spectacular lily-like flowers and
the insects and birds that are attracted to such surroundings. There were animals also; not the
common farm type, but snakes, rats, lizards and scorpions. But
it’s at nighttime that the desert comes alive with strange sounds that
made sleeping difficult for me. There were wild cats, coyotes and wild
pigs. What worried me was that some snake or rodent would crawl
into my warm sleeping bag. Then, when the sun came up, there were
flies- zillions of them. Somehow there in the middle of nowhere, they
would sense a warm body, fueled with blood, and they would descend in
alarming numbers. They never seemed to bite, they were just annoying,
mostly in their number and their brazen determination.
Jesus went into the wilderness for 40
days, says the story. It, too, was a barren area with even less
vegetation. The Israelis have a definition that is worthy of note here.
They say a wilderness is a barren wasteland that could be productive,
if there was water. A desert, on the other hand, is a wasteland that
even water will not redeem. Jesus was in the wilderness, but make no
mistake about it, finding enough food to live on and water to sustain
him would be a huge challenge. There, he was tested by the devil. I find it interesting that the New
Testament writers don’t even capitalize the word devil. That leads me
to think they were using a familiar term for evil. Definitions of the
word devil range all the way from the Supreme Being of evil to a person
who is evil, sinister and mischievous. It has always intrigued me that
very conservative Christian believers seem to be as interested in evil,
and the fact that the devil is a power of evil, as they are in the
goodness and God.
I don’t believe that we live in a
dualistic universe, where an evil power is pulling us in one direction,
and the power of goodness in another. We are not in a cosmic tug of
war. I happen to believe the term is a personification of evil,
which is basically selfishness. It is the depth and subtle
character of the challenges that Jesus faced which are important in
this story. The more I thought
about it, the more it seemed to me that the temptation of Jesus might
be something like the questions that were asked of me the day I was
questioned for ordination. In the tradition of which I was a part, the
session had two distinct parts. The first was, I was asked to present a
paper disclosing to the assembled clergy and lay delegates from sister
Churches, just what I believed. It was a theological document revealing
to all where I was at this important point in my faith journey.
Aside from a dry mouth and nervousness
that made one stand as a wooden presenter, that was the easy part. In
the next section, the assembled were told they could ask any question
they wished of the candidate. Predictably, you got questions that
reflected the biases of tof the room while they talked among themselves
and voted whether or not to recommend me to the local Church to proceed
with ordination. In a certain sense, Jesus was being questioned as if
he were to be ordained, albeit that the questions he faced were
ultimate questions.
Then I thought that meeting the tempter in the wilderness might be
something like meeting Donald Trump. Many of you know of him from his
TV show. He fits the bill of the tempter to me; slick, selfish,
wealthy, always surrounded by luxury, beautiful women and power- lots
and lots of power. And that’s what makes him intriguing.
Individuals love to be near people of power. It doesn’t matter whether
they are good people or not, just so long as they exude power. That is
why Trump is so popular. Here, it seems like he could be holding
an audition of “The Apprentice,” the television show in which he stars
as the arrogant, always right boss.
What I want to emphasize most of all is the devious and deliberately
nasty nature of the confrontations with Jesus. The first one has to do
with hunger. It is quite natural to assume that this test came
late in the forty-day stay. The Bible says, after Jesus was hungry, so
he must have been there some time. The tempter said to him, “If
you are the Son of God" That’s more than a test, it’s a
dare! If you are the Son of God, prove it to me. Turn these
stones into loaves of bread. Now, if you were hungry, that would
sound very enticing. That
is exactly how many people act in our society. If you are a Christian,
how come life isn’t going any better for you than for those who don’t
believe? Jesus replied "humans shall not live by bread alone, but by
every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." Don’t pick and
choose what you want to accept about God, accept the entire message.
Only then will you know peace, contentment, love, and total
forgiveness. God works within the natural laws of the created system.
God does not perform magic.
I can hear Trump right now, hearing that answer-"You're Fired!"
Foiled in his first attempt, the
tempter asked a second question: "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself
down from this pinnacle, because I have heard that God’s Angels will
take care of you. Here is a dare for God to provide special protection
to Jesus, and for that matter to all of his followers. Jesus looked at him and said "it is
written, you shall not tempt the Lord your God." He is saying,
don’t you understand, believing in God does not protect you from the
frailties of life. People of faith get sick. People of faith get
divorced. People of faith get injured or go bankrupt, and people of
faith die when they do things that defy the laws of nature. Don’t tempt God to suspend the laws of
gravity to save you. Think how catastrophic that would be for the
rest of the world! I mean, you could draw a crowd by
saying "I am going to jump off of the climbing tree in Loggers Park,
because I believe God will save me." So, you jump, and in the
process prove how gravity works. You’ve got to use your head and live
within the universal laws that God created. And you cannot blame God when a child runs
in front of an automobile and is killed. The law is good, but the law
states that a vehicle weighing so much and traveling at a certain rate
requires so many feet to stop. If you get in front of the car within
that distance, you will be hit. But that is nothing compared to the
catastrophe that would take place if God suspended the laws of motion
to save the child. The world would cease to be. The laws are good. You
and I must learn to live within the laws.
On hearing the answer of Jesus, Mr.
Trump, who doesn’t understand anything that he does not control shouts,
"You’re fired!" Who wants to follow a person who doesn’t transcend the
actions of other humans?
Lastly, Trump took Jesus to the top of
a high mountain and said, look at that empire- there is the casino in
Atlantic City, and there are the Trump Towers on New York's Fifth Avenue plus the new huge tower in Chicago; there
is my office building, and down there is the estate in Florida. If you
fall down and worship me as the great American Real Estate guru- a
noted and powerful personality in social circles, I will give you all
of that. Jesus answered, "Get out of here, it
is written you shall serve the Lord God and Him only. Mr. Trump, YOU
are fired!" The scripture passage ends, “then the tempter left
him, and behold angels came and ministered to him.” I take that to
mean, he was found, and his faithful friends, overjoyed at his being
alive, took care of his needs. And shortly, he was able to go and begin
his ministry in Nazareth.
It’s another dramatic New Testament
story to illustrate the fact that Jesus passed all of the requirements
and was well qualified to be the leader.
Here we have seen the tempter
suggesting to Jesus that if God is not able to do better for his son,
then maybe that son should look for another Lord to follow. In every
instance Jesus rebuked the suggestions, no matter how tempting they
might have seemed, and countered with words that honoured God. The
message for us to grasp this Lent is; if Jesus could withstand all that
transpired in the wilderness, then he would have the ability to face
whatever was thrown at him by the religious authorities- even
crucifixion.
There are two points that I want to
make beyond this obvious message. The first is to beware of those who
claim they know the mind of God. If there is one dangerous commodity in
the world of religion, it is those who cannot tell God’s will from
their own. That is a true statement, whether we are talking about
groups in Iraq, Afghanistan, India, Africa, the United States or Canada. When religious people take
enforcement as a necessary step to have others conform to their
thoughts, they have bowed to the tempter. When fellowship is cut off
and differing view holders are shunned, Jesus has been shunted aside
for Caesar. Like the tempter in this story, the piously arrogant use
the most beguiling of arguments and insinuations to make their point.
Jesus countered by being loyal to God and God’s ways. Such a decision
results in fanatics fleeing.
The second observation I would make is
this is a story about us. The Son of man refused to practice magic,
even when sorely tempted. He refused to seek God’s special
protection. or seek the path of power. We ought to take careful
note. There are times when we are tempted to believe that we deserve
bigger and better things than we have, and there is a whole world out
there trying to convince us of that fact. There are times when something snaps in
our brain, and we wonder, if I am a child of God, shouldn’t it be going
better for me? Shouldn’t I be smarter, healthier, wealthier than
I am? Let’s face it,
there are times when we truly feel that our understanding of God is
superior to everyone else’s, and we are tempted to tell him or her so.
We come face to face with experiences when we tell ourselves "I don’t
want to have anything to do with other believers because they refuse to
agree with me." From this
story, you know what to say when such ideas creep in- get awa,y you
tempter. I’d rather be just the way I am and in God’s care, than have
all the things you are suggesting.
If you are able to do that, two
wonderful things will happen to you. The first is that all the angels
in the Church or the community will minister to you, and you will know
you have made the correct decision. Then, most important of all, you
will hear another voice in
your head, more clear and more soothing than the first, “This is my
beloved child in whom I am well pleased.”