Tempted?

Lent 1, Year A, 2011

Text: Genesis 2: 15-17; 3: 1-7; Romans 5: 12-19; Matthew 4: 1-11.

Let us bow our heads in prayer –
God of integrity, you drive us into the desert to search out your truth. Give us clarity to know what is right, courage to reject what we know is not, and help to abandon the false innocence of failing to choose at all. Amen.
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Temptations are something that we experience constantly in our lives on a day by day basis. Some of course are small and if we get caught up in these we sometimes justify them shrugging them off with little thought. We think we might just park in the restricted space because there aren’t any other parks around and what I’m going to do will only take a few moments, and I’m sure a disabled person won’t come along during that time. Other temptations however are large and if we open ourselves to these sorts of temptations they can lead us into the very darkest places of denial within. Perhaps you have experienced or are experiencing something like that in your own life. I don’t know if any of you have been following the story about the celebratory Charlie Sheen recently or saw the interview with him on 20/20 this week. I caught a few moments of that interview after the Lenten Study on Thursday night, while I was actually writing this sermon. I don’t want to put a judgement value on his beliefs because those are his personal ideas. I actually found myself agreeing with many things he said, however, I couldn’t help but think how some of the temptations of addiction that he has opened himself to, like drugs for example, has lead to many aspects of his life spiralling out of control. In many ways I think that interview was inappropriate to have on TV because Charlie Sheen is clearly a very sick man with serious addictions.

The thing that all temptations have in common, be they small or large, is that they are all illusions, and all illusions have no substance to them.

Imagine for a moment that you are in an empty room and that in the middle of that room is hanging a light bulb off a cord which is filling the room with light. I want you do imagine for a moment that that light is the presence and love of God and that it’s all around you filling every corner of the room. Now take a piece of paper and hold it up to the light. Behind that piece of paper forms a shadow. When people are involved in evil, which is the result of following through with a temptation, they are in a sense behind that piece of paper, that obstacle or temptation. They can’t see that the rest of the room is full of light. All they can see is the shadow that they are trapped within. Take away the piece of paper, the obstacle or temptation, and they see that what they have been involved in was only an illusion. It has no substance or truth about it.

Even the personification of evil as the temper or the devil or satan, or whatever you want to call it, is an illusion. The very nature of who God is doesn’t allow for the creation of evil because God is truth and truth doesn’t allow for the existence of evil within it. God doesn’t allow any corner of the room full of light to be in darkness! The devil in our Gospel story today is as much an illusion as the temptations that are put before Jesus.

While I realise that people sometimes have personal experiences of the personification of evil in their own lives, and that those experiences are very real to them, ultimately those experiences are still illusions. All evil has to be an illusion by its very nature.

The danger of the personification of evil, ‘the devil made me do it’ type scenario, is that we can blame something outside of ourselves and not take personal responsibility for something we are in fact responsible for, which is exactly what illusions want us to do.

It’s interesting that this passage about the temptation of Jesus comes just after Jesus’ baptism and just before he begins his public ministry. The scripture seems to suggest that Jesus had to come to grips with his baptism and confront its deeper meaning before he could face the next part of his journey into ministry.

It’s also interesting that in our passage Jesus is lead into the wildness to be temped by the devil by none other than God’s Spirit. Shock, horror, God wanted Jesus to confront evil. God wanted Jesus to confront his fears and find Truth. As human beings we all at one time or another have wilderness experiences in our lives where we question and for a time can feel lost. They are experiences that can lead us into the darkest of places. Many people are lost in these experiences for years, some even for a lifetime. However, if we allow ourselves like Jesus to be lead into these experiences by God’s Spirit, and allow ourselves to cast off the illusions that these experiences open ourselves to we will find Truth, and this is what this passage is telling us.

Jesus is confronted with three temptations in our Gospel story which deal with the deep truths of who we are as human beings.

The first temptation that Jesus is confronted with is the illusion of turning stones into bread. In other words the illusion of the body or the physical world. Many people are tempted into believing that the physical is all that there is. They believe that they are merely bodies, and because they see themselves as being merely bodies they see themselves as separate to God, creation and other people around them. The result of this separation is that they live lives trapped in fear. Jesus says however, “One does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”. In other words the physical is not all that there is. It is the word of God that is behind everything physical that gives it meaning and life.

The second temptation that Jesus is confronted with is the illusion that we can put God to the test. In other words the illusion that our own egos are greater than God. With the belief in separation comes the belief that it is ‘me’ that is the most important thing, and that out of fear I must protect myself against the world, and even against God. After the devil takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple he tells him to jump, telling him to put God to the test, Jesus says however, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Jesus is telling us it is not us who has things in control, but God. If we believe we can manipulate things we are sadly mistaken.

The third temptation that Jesus is confronted with is the illusion of power. In other words the illusion that we are special. With the illusions of the physical and the ego comes the illusion that we can dominate and find fulfilment within this. Power is of course a substitute for love. We need to hold on to power when we feel we or life is out of control. Jesus says in response to this, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” It is only in God that you will find fulfilment Jesus is telling us.

Like Jesus it is only when we truly face ourselves and come to grips with the illusions that are in our lives that we can be truly free. And it is only in those things in which we are free that we can fulfil our baptism and bring life to others as we minister to them. It is only Truth that brings life.

So what are the temptations that are facing you at the moment in your own life? What illusions are you holding onto that are keeping you from seeing the truth? As you journey this Lent are you prepared to be lead by God’s Spirit in confronting those things, or are you going to continue to wander aimlessly in the wilderness? Amen.