Matt 4:1-11

Many years ago, when I was a seminarian in Korea, one of the professors told a story in his class that I still remember.  He was one of the leading theologians in Christian Ethics.   One night, after giving a lecture at an interfaith gathering, he had to carpool on his way back home.  He happened to be sitting in the back between two nuns.   The one on his right was probably on her 20’s.  She was beautiful and very friendly.  And the one on his left was about 60 years old and she was very unfriendly.  

At one point, the car had to drive through a hilly and winding road.  Every time the car made a turn, the passenger’s body swayed from side to side.  And soon, this professor said, he found himself praying.  Every time his body leaned to left side, he prayed; “Oh, Lord, lead us not into temptation.” 

And every time his body leaned to right side, he prayed; “Father, Thy will be done.”  Ah…, temptation!  Oscar Wilde once said, “I can resist everything – except temptation!”

Our story from Matthew this morning is the classic New Testament account of temptation.  Of course, the Old Testament classic is the story of the serpent and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  As the lesson has it, Jesus is “led by the Spirit” into the wilderness where he encounters the devil. 

Immediately, modern readers have a problem.  We try to picture the scene – no problem with the rocks and shrubs of the desert, no problem with Jesus, but what to do with the devil?  My son, Jonathan’s first Halloween custom was that little guy in the red outfit with horns and a pitchfork tail.  Scary?  Not really.  On the contrary, he was so cute.  One of our neighbors said, “Mom, you have to come out and see this little devil.  He’s so cute!”  

Well, what I want to say is this: the biblical picture of devil is not definitive at all.  The New Testament sometimes speaks of the devil with human analogies: he is a “ruler” (John 12:31), a “murderer” (John 8:44), “the evil one” (John 17:15), the “enemy” (Matthew 12:39).   But we also find animal images – a roaring lion (I Peter 5:8), a serpent (Revelation 12:17), a dragon (Revelation 12:9).  So how do we form our picture?

As one writer has noted, “Part of our problem with the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness is just this inability to picture the devil as anything that is all that terrifying.  Someone once wrote that this was perhaps his greatest triumph in our time: that no one believes in him.”

Modern people, especially the intellectuals, are uncomfortable with the personification of evil.  Some people don’t believe in Satan at all; they prefer to say that Satan is just a metaphor for the nature of evil within us all.  It may well be true that folks are less willing to believe in one supernatural source of evil than in generations past, but the fact that evil exists is beyond question.  How can we explain the New Town shooting rampage?  How can we talk about 9/11 or Ausbitz without talking about evil?  Why is it that some decent people, some of them Bible-reading, church-going Christians, can become vicious beasts when they confront Jews or Muslims or blacks or gays or lesbians?  Why do otherwise compassionate human beings stand aside and let fellow human beings suffer from the brutality of others?  The answer is that there is EVIL out there that is beyond the action or inaction of individuals. 

So, when we talk about temptation, we are not talking about ice-cream or chocolate.  We are talking about the systematic or structural evil in our world.  I know many of us, especially our Catholic friends, give up some things during Lent.  We cut out chocolate, lay off the red meat, maybe we stop drinking alcohol for forty days; all to declare ourselves better prepared for the resurrection.  But, honestly speaking, it looks more like a diet rather than a spiritual discipline.

Seriously, if you want to give up something during the Lent, I suggest something like these: How about giving up grumbling?  Instead, “In everything give thanks.”  GIVE UP looking at other people’s worst points.  Instead, concentrate on their BEST points for a change.  GIVE UP your hatred of anyone or anything!  Instead, learn the discipline of love.  GIVE UP your worries and anxieties!  Instead, trust God with them.  GIVE UP TV one evening a week!  Instead, sit around and have a family devotion.  GIVE UP buying anything but essentials for yourself!  Instead, give the money to God.  The money you would spend on the luxuries could help someone meet their basic needs.  We are called to be stewards of God’s bounty, not consumers.

Last Wednesday, I talked about a book, The Irrational Season, by Madeleine L’Engle.   In this book, Madeleine writes: I no longer make lists of “small things to give up.  Because, it occurred to me that if what I was giving up was something bad, it should be given up once and for all, and not just for forty days and forty nights.  So, today, I want to take a more positive approach to Lenten discipline.  I am thinking more about what I should TAKE ON, rather than what I should GIVE UP.  I am thinking about new possibilities rather than about old habits. 

So, I am going to suggest something that may sound contradictory to the teaching of our Lord.  In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus warned about public piety: “Beware of practicing your piety before others. . . ”  I am going to humbly suggest that, this year, you be VERY public with your piety and think about what you can take on rather than what you can give up.   Take on the challenge of letting the people know that your relationship with the Lord and the church is important to you.  Let your friends know that you take the name DISCIPLE seriously.  Let your neighbors know that you think it is important to them as well, and be intentional about sharing your faith not only coming to the church to worship, but also going out to the world to fulfill our calling. 

Regardless of our theology of evil, it is true that we all experience evil just as the Bible describes it.  Evil comes to us in a very personal way.  It also comes with a very systematic way, as well.

The evil from which we ought to be crying for deliverance is the temptation to dehumanize our brothers and sisters – we do it all the time.   The tendency in the modern world is to treat human beings as something less than the image of God.  The World Methodist Social Affirmation declares that the violation of human dignity based on race, class, age, sex, nation, or faith is sin.   It is EVIL to dehumanize people, and ALL of us need deliverance from that temptation.  

Evil is not just the absence of good, but the definite, cunning force that is arrayed against the will of God.  There is at work in the world another will, an evil will, a will that resists and struggles against the will of God.  We might WISH to blame all that is wrong in this world on SYSTEMIC evil, but my brothers and sisters in Christ, we are not without responsibility.

As we begin our Lenten pilgrimage, this unique period during which we are called to self-examination, we can note that the temptations we encounter are not new.  Indeed, they are common to us all.  I am intrigued at the way Jesus avoided giving in to great temptations.  Scripture!  After each of the temptations was offered, he quoted scripture.  Perhaps that should not be surprising.  After all, spiritual maturity only comes when we have a deep relationship with the God of all the universe whom we meet and learn from in the pages of the Book.  

Do you do enough Bible study?  Do you have a regular time of private devotion to immerse yourself in the Word?  I hope so…, because spiritual maturity that allows us to see ourselves and all around us as God sees, does not just happen.   So, during this season of Lent, that period of the church year that calls us to a rigid self-examination, I pray that each of you can develop habits of devotion and reading the Bible.  Take on responsibilities of Christians rather than give something up.  I also pray that each of you can confess that “O Lord, forgive me for my failures.  Forgive me for my sins.”    Then each of you also can hear the gentle voice of Jesus Christ, saying “Come to me, all who are burdened down [with the temptations of your own].   Come… and I will give you rest.   Amen!