An Open Table where Love knows no borders

Temptation – the glory of being human

A sermon by Jude Waldron on Matthew 4:1-11

Our readings today tell us essentially what it means to be human. To be human means that there is a possibility of knowing both the good and bad of life. To be human is to be hungry. To be human is to be tempted.

Let me reverse that idea, as we consider Jesus’ testing. To be tempted is to be human.

This story has many overlays for me as I read it, and I can’t help but feel a little removed and uncomfortable with the Jesus I know through other people’s interpretations of this story. According to the way I have heard this told in the past, Jesus is strong, Jesus can fire rounds of scripture from the hip, Jesus is the unbeatable Son of God and completely victorious over the Devil, Jesus is able to fast for forty days and not salivate at the prospect of food. I don’t like this Jesus very much because the implication then is that as a follower of Jesus I should be unbeatable, untemptable, a walking concordance and, the worst test of all, not get hungry.

It’s not helpful to know that the Son of God is able to withstand temptation – that’s what a son of God should be able to do. A human, however, able to withstand the temptations put before Jesus, tells us something completely different. God, truly incarnate, struggles with issues that we struggle with every day. Jesus, fully human, feels the pull of human needs and desires, and yet chooses to walk the way of the cross. This wouldn’t be a test if Jesus didn’t have the capacity to sin. We assume that Jesus couldn’t sin, because he didn’t, but in order for this to be a real test, a real temptation, there has to be a possibility that Jesus could have given in.

We could do well to read the passage looking for Jesus’ humanity – his hunger, his long period of struggle, his need for ministering angels, and then maybe consider his great miracle of resistance. It also indicates to us that if the son of God can be tempted, then maybe temptation isn’t necessarily an evil thing to experience. Don’t get me wrong – sin is sin, and it’s not a good thing to give in. But temptation may be the thing that reveals conflict within one’s self about our loyalties. It tells us that we have retained the dignity of our humanity – the power to choose between good and evil. If we are never tempted, we are either evil fiends without a conscience (automatically acting out evil), or robotic, superficial Polyannas (never seeing evil). Those of us who wrestle with temptation are experiencing the fruit of Eve’s inquiry – the knowledge of good and evil, and the trial of conscious choice. Jesus, fully God and fully human, feels temptation as he is asked ultimately where his allegiance lies: will he choose the cross?

One of the first temptations Jesus is given seems to be about food. Now, this is something that pushes my buttons. Anyone who has struggled with weight-related issues can tell you that the food has almost nothing to do with the reasons we consume. One of the biggest cop-outs that someone like me can use is to give food a moral quality: some foods are “bad, tempting foods”, some are “good, boring foods”. In actuality, all food is a gift from God and therefore all food is good – except for anchovies…

Food such as a stone which is potentially bread, is suddenly given meaning and therefore power which is irresistible. Apparently, it’s nothing to do with the values we attribute to food, but it’s the food itself which draws and taunts and tempts by its attractive presentation or smell. Most advertising for food we see involves references to temptation. Bad food! Suddenly chocolate is the agent of Satan! A perfectly harmless stone develops a persona as a tempting piece of bread begging to be brought forth from it’s hiding place. It’s the equivalent of saying “the devil made me do it”, and we relinquish our power to choose. We personify objects and we objectify ourselves – no control, no choice, just a plaything.

Of course, the society that we live in is consistently doing exactly the same, personifying objects and objectifying people. We are deaf to Jesus’ warning that “we don’t live on bread alone”, we don’t live just on things and stuff, and that our quest for turning the inanimate objects of our lives into something meaningful, something satisfying, is futile. Satan’s suggestion looks so practical, so “bottom-line”, but it’s really a taunt about Jesus proving himself. “If you are really powerful, feed yourself, aquire things, get something for nothing, consume.”

The second temptation is interesting, because Satan has a go at fighting fire with fire. Sometimes we can assume that a good knowledge of the Bible will solve just about everything. I know that I have been given this story in the past as an example of how knowing scripture will mean that you don’t get tempted. This is wrong on two counts – Jesus was actually tempted (he used scripture to back up his choices for the good) and even Satan uses scripture for evil.

‘God will give instructions to the angels about you,’
‘They will catch you as you fall and you won’t so much as stub your toe on the rocks below.’”

He misquotes, failing to talk about how God promises to uphold the faithful, and inviting Jesus to test God, to be unfaithful. Satan quotes the text as though this were some guarantee. I know I’ve held onto similar texts as an insurance policy. Scripture can be skewed to mean what we want it to mean. We attach a certain value to it that isn’t inspired by God and yet call it God’s Word. Satan uses this text to judge Jesus’ commitment or belief or integrity. I’ve seen scripture used to judge others. It’s evil.

Henri Nouwen describes this temptation as the desire to be “spectacular”. It’s the immature, childish “Look at me! Look at me!” that craves attention and credit and praise. This was not just an attempt to see whether or not God would come to his servant’s aid. This was an action designed to prove to everyone else how much of God’s power was on tap – how much of God’s attention one had – how much one could manipulate and bend God’s will. It’s the manipulative cry to the parent “if you really loved me, you’d do what I ask”. According to Satan, being the Son of God meant having God wrapped around your little finger, instead of the true nature of God’s children: open and obedient and eager to do God’s will. Being spectacular isn’t just a temptation in our world – it’s a requirement. Being the best, the most dazzling, the most sensational, the newest, brightest thing – we become objects to be admired, and people around us become objects to manipulate. How much harder is the way of the cross – the mundane, the determined, persistent, constant, humble road. It’s not so easy to travel when you realize you can’t go by limousine.

Through these two temptations so far, Satan has been saying “if you are the Son of God”, “if you are the Son of God”. At base level, Satan is attacking Jesus’ sense of identity, and he couldn’t have picked a better time. Jesus has just been baptized and received affirmation from God, the spirit descending on him like a dove, and God saying “you are my beloved son”. Those waters of Jordan may have felt a long way away and an age ago after this time in the wilderness. The adrenaline rush has gone, the loneliness of the desert and the physical toll may have messed with the mind a bit. Is Jesus sure of God’s blessing? It would be great to just test it a bit. A party trick with the stones or a life-threatening stunt could be the way to do it. Who am I again?

Jesus resists, and in the last temptation, Satan gives up that line of thought. If Jesus is the son of God, well and good, but does he really want it to stay that way? Could he be persuaded to jump ship, switch teams, change allegiances? The way Matthew has set up this exchange shows that this is the ultimate meaning of the temptation for him. The question of allegiance is at the crux of this whole test – will Jesus give Satan credit in order to aquire the power of all the kingdoms of the world? Or will he let go of the lust for power, submit it to the one who owns the whole world, and steadily accept the cross? Ultimately, I believe the cross is what this exchange is about. Jesus has further temptations throughout his ministry, not the least of which is the one that causes him to sweat blood – the desire to avoid pain, humiliation and death, the desire the obey the taunt “if you are the messiah, come down off that cross”. For all the times he says “no” to the temptations, there is a greater, over-arching “yes” that holds him steady and lifts his head to a bigger vision of God’s great redemption. A love for God and a love for the world is a greater love in Jesus than the love of profile or the love of power. “Worship the Lord your God, and only the Lord your God.” This test in the desert lays the groundwork for any further temptations. Jesus has established the basis of his ministry: an allegiance to God that will not allow for consumerism, attention-seeking or power-plays. A bigger “yes”, that drives the smaller “nos”.

Our forty days is upon us. We are throwing ourselves into the wilderness, and giving up that which holds us, so that we may be fully equipped to walk the road with Jesus. It’s difficult to always be choosing for every action we have – therefore we have habits (bad or good) which mean that we have already made the choice for us, before the situation arrives. Lent is a time to re-program our habits, to maintain the power to choose.

The word “tempt” is not about enticing us to sin, but to “test” us. What we call temptation is not meant to make us sin; it is meant to enable us to conquer sin. It is not meant to weaken us, it is meant to make us emerge stronger and finer and purer from the ordeal. Temptation is not the penalty of being human, temptation is the glory of being human. We look to Jesus, who challenges the idolatry of consumption, egotism and trading-off of values, and we use this time for rehearsing our small “nos” as we concentrate on our big “yes” to God – and God’s big “yes” to us, the gift of Jesus.

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