Grace and Peace to you from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
I'm not good at going from print to understanding. I like things simple. Recently, I discovered a series of books that's helped me alot. They put things in such simple language anyone can understand. We couldn't understand the Internet, so we got "Internet for Dummies", which comes in a bright yellow cover. We wanted to get our financial lives in order, so we got "Financial Planning for Dummies". There's "Dating for Dummies", "Weight Lifting and Aerobics for Dummies". There's a "for dummies" manual for almost everything. But I noticed that they don't have one on spiritual growth. So now, I'm writing one myself, "Spiritual Growth for Dummies".
To begin with, your spiritual strength won't grow if it’s never tested. . That is the first principle of spiritual growth. In today's Gospel, we see Jesus out in the wilderness being tempted by the Devil. Please notice that St. Luke says explicitly that Jesus was led by the Spirit out into the wilderness. When St. Mark writes of these events, he says the Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness - as though Jesus had really mixed feelings about going there. Wouldn't you feel ambivalent about a 40 day vacation in a place where you had no bed, no blankets, no fast food restaurants – and no restaurants at all? Simply to survive in such a setting is a test. You learn how dependent you are on God when you are out there.
When I was in seminary, six of my classmates decided to fast from worship Ash Wednesday and for the next seven days. We as seminary community, had Holy Communion every Wednesday at 11:30am. They talked about the ordeal and why they'd done it at a dinner we gave for them after their week of testing. After 2 days, all of them grew faint, had trouble sleeping, and all their waking thoughts were about food, and fantasies of food. They said that prayer and their mutual commitment were the only things that got them through.
Now, you may think they were foolish. I confess I did. But I also admired their strength of character and their willingness to take on temptation. They all said they learned a great deal about the meaning food plays in their lives. They learned what it meant to be obsessed by anxious thoughts. They learned to appreciate the easy availability of food in this country, and their thoughts were drawn to the poor in India and Africa who daily subsist on 1,500 calories or less. Their hearts were more thankful; they realized how dependent they were on God - and they felt a strong sense of gratitude to God.
Their tempting was self-imposed just like Jesus' was, but it was also a faith-building event in their lives, just as it was in the life of Jesus.
Because our creeds confess that Jesus is both God and human, we sometimes, I fear, fail to understand that he had struggles with his faith too. Here we see him immediately after his baptism, which served as his ordination or commissioning into ministry. God claims him as his Son, reveals himself to him and, through the Spirit, and gives him a ministry and mission. God said to Jesus, "O.K for 30 years I've been schooling you through scripture and rabbis - teachers, the best that Israel has to offer, but now I'm going to send you to finishing school. You will face your toughest teacher - the Devil, my adversary. He is the one who wouldn't submit to my power, or my love, or my grace. He will tempt you as only he can."
The way the Gospel presents it, it seems as though Jesus was in the wilderness for 39 days and on the 40th the temptations began. That's not it at all. The temptations ran throughout the 40 days, relentlessly day and night. The Devil was in Jesus' conscious awareness all day, every day, just as he is in ours.
Jesus wondered - What shall I do with my life? What does God want me to be and to do? Given his gifts, Jesus could have been ruler of the earth. He could have become the Messiah that Peter, Barabbas, all the zealots, and the people of Israel wanted. He could have organized an army to lead them to liberation from their Roman overlords, and lead them farther to take Rome's place as masters of the universe.
And he was tempted to do that. It was an option - a viable option for him. But Jesus realized that the way of power and despotism rule would require bloodshed and violence - and he had come to show the people of Israel, us, and all of history that the way of love is the highest way. It is God's way. Sir John Dalberg said at the turn of the century,' "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely". Jesus' mission was not to bring in the perfect political state, the utopia of all utopias. Jesus' mission was to reveal the depth and compassion of God. Jesus was to reveal the saving power, the healing power of love. Love heals. And absolute love, like the kind God has for us in Christ, heals, cleanses, and purifies absolutely.
Finally Jesus is taken to the pinnacle of the temple for his last and worst temptation. What is going on here? The Devil says, "Since you are God's Son, throw yourself down. Do something extraordinary for the crowd, a parlor trick that will convince them of your identity as God's chosen one."
Reading between the lines, we have to understand that Jesus was tempted throughout his whole ministry to let his miracles serve as credentials and affidavits of his identity and authority as the Christ, the Savior. St. Luke has the Devil quoting scripture to him, but couldn't it well be that those scriptures were already in his head?
Jesus could have used his authority and power as God's Son to overwhelm and to astound, but that wasn't' his purpose for coming, for being born, for coming as God's true Word in the world.
No!
Jesus' purpose was to show the depth of God's love for us, and to reveal the true nature of God. God will hold nothing back to reach and save us. God will go to any length to communicate the profundity of his passion for us. God said to Jesus, "Show them son how much I love them through your life and deeds - even if they kill you for it, even if they crucify you".
And that is exactly what Jesus did.
We’ve all been obsessed with the Olympics this past week, haven’t we? There is spectacle, drama, raw emotion, struggle, triumph and glory. Quite an intoxicating cocktail isn’t it? The pressure on these athletes to do the superhuman thing is immense. Many are tempted to use steroids or other performance enhancing drugs. A few do succumb. It is heartbreaking to see them throw away years and years of training and single-minded commitment. But all of us can understand why they would be tempted.
This year’s Olympics were overcast because a young man from Georgia, one of the former Soviet Republics, was killed as he luge sled threw him off at a corner into a steel pole – killing him instantly. It shouldn’t have happened. The pole should have been behind a cushioned, protective barricade.
It is just one example of the competition going too far. During the women’s downhill, skier after skier, wiped out at the very end of the course. When a mound of snow, built intentionally high threw them up into the air at 80 miles an hour. Most of the men in the men’s figure skating contest refused to put a quadruple jump into their programs, even though the judges intentionally tempted them to doing so by rewarding the trick with additional precious points.
What is wrong with this picture? It reminds me of the Biblical story of the Tower of Bable. Humans built a tower to reach up to God. It is always a human temptation to be unwilling to accept our creaturelessness, our limitedness, or non-God, non-divine status. The English Poet wrote a beautiful epic poem called Paradise Lost, where the man character, Satan, an angel of God refuses to accept his non-Divine Status and leads a rebellion against God. “Better to rule in Hell than to be a servant in Heaven”, Milton’s Devil says.
That’s way Jesus is always saying No to the Devil when he tempts him. He hurls scripture at the Devil but his answer to the Devil’s temptation to be un-Godlike is always NO. I will not rebel against the one who made me. I do not need wealth, power, prestige, fame or celebrity. I know what it means to be Godlike – it means to serve, to love.
It sounds strange when we say it that way. Temptation isn’t for the weak-willed. It isn’t for dummies either. Maybe I’ll change the title of my book and call it “Spiritual Growth for the Strong, the Brave, and the Committed”. Because that’s what those who take on the Devil have to be. Amen.
Who We Are