1st Sunday in Lent
Luke 4:1-13
"The Dragon"
4:1* ¶ And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit
2* for forty days in the wilderness, tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing in those days; and when they were ended, he was hungry.
3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”
4* And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’”
5 And the devil took him up, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time,
6* and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory; for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will.
7* If you, then, will worship me, it shall all be yours.”
8* And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’”
9 And he took him to Jerusalem, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here;
10* for it is written, ‘He will give his angels charge of you, to guard you,’
11 and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
12* And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’”
13* And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.
Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen
I would like to tell you a story this morning about a dragon.
"There was once a great and noble King whose land was terrorized by a crafty dragon. Like a massive bird of prey, the scaly beast delighted in ravaging villages with his fiery breath. Hapless victims ran from their burning homes, only to be snatched into the dragon’s jaws or talons. Those devoured instantly were deemed more fortunate than those carried back to the dragon’s lair to be devoured at his leisure. The King led his sons and knights in many valiant battles against the dragon.
Riding alone in the forest, one of the King’s sons heard his name purred low and soft. In the shadows of the ferns and trees, curled among the boulders, lay the dragon. The creature’s heavy-lidded eyes fastened on the prince, and the reptilian mouth stretched into a friendly smile.
"Don’t be alarmed," said the dragon, as gray wisps of smoke rose lazily from his nostrils.
"I am not what your father thinks."
"What are you, then?" asked the prince, warily drawing his sword as he pulled in the reins to keep his fearful horse from bolting.
"I am pleasure," said the dragon. "Ride on my back and you will experience more than you ever imagined. Come now. I have no harmful intentions. I seek a friend, someone to share flights with me. Have you never dreamed of flying? Never longed to soar in the clouds?"
Visions of soaring high above the forested hills drew the prince hesitantly from his horse. The dragon unfurled one great webbed wing to serve as a ramp to his ridged back. Between the spiny projections, the prince found a secure seat. Then the creature snapped his powerful wings twice and launched them into the sky. The prince’s apprehension melted into awe and exhilaration.
From then on, he met the dragon often, but secretly, for how could he tell his father, brothers or the knights that he had befriended the enemy? The prince felt separate from them all. Their concerns were no longer his concerns. Even when he wasn’t with the dragon, he spent less time with those he loved and more time alone.
The skin on the prince’s legs became calloused from gripping the ridged back of the dragon, and his hands grew rough and hardened. He began wearing gloves to hide the malady. After many nights of riding, he discovered scales growing on the backs of his hands as well. With dread he realized his fate were he to continue, and so he resolved to return no more to the dragon.
But, after a fortnight, he again sought out the dragon, having been tormented with desire. And so it transpired many times over. No matter what his determination, the prince eventually found himself pulled back, as if by the cords of an invisible web. Silently, patiently, the dragon always waited.
One cold, moonless night their excursion became a foray against a sleeping village. Torching the thatched roofs with fiery blasts from his nostrils, the dragon roared with delight when the terrified victims fled from their burning homes. Swooping in, the serpent belched again and flames engulfed a cluster of screaming villages. The prince closed his eyes tightly in an attempt to shut out the carnage.
In the pre-dawn hours, when the prince crept back from his dragon trysts, the road outside his father’s castle usually remained empty. But not tonight. Terrified refugees streamed into the protective walls of the castle. The prince attempted to slip through the crowd to close himself in his chambers, but some of the survivors stared and pointed toward him.
"He was there," one woman cried out, "I saw him on the back of the dragon." Others nodded their heads in angry agreement. Horrified, the prince saw that his father, the King, was in the courtyard holding a bleeding child in his arms. The King’s face mirrored the agony of his people as his eyes found the prince’s. The son fled, hoping to escape into the night, but the guards apprehended him as if he were a common thief. They brought him to the great hall where his father sat solemnly on the throne. The people on every side railed against the prince.
"Banish him!" he heard one of his own brothers angrily cry out.
"Burn him alive!" other voices shouted.
As the king rose from his throne, bloodstains from the wounded shone darkly on his royal robes. The crowd fell silent in expectation of his decree. The prince, who could not bear to look into his father’s face, stared at the flagstones of the floor.
"Take off your gloves and your tunic," the King commanded. The prince obeyed slowly, dreading to have his metamorphosis uncovered before the kingdom. Was his shame not already enough? He had hoped for a quick death without further humiliation. Sounds of revulsion rippled through the crowd at the sight of the prince’s thick, scaled skin and the ridge growing along his spine.
The king strode toward his son, and the prince steeled himself, fully expecting a back handed blow even though he had never been struck so by his father.
Instead, his father embraced him and wept as he held him tightly. In shocked disbelief, the prince buried his face against his father’s shoulder.
"Do you wish to be freed from the dragon, my son?"
The prince answered in despair, "I wished it many times, but there is no hope for me."
"Not alone," said the King. "You cannot win against the dragon alone."
"Father, I am no longer your son. I am half beast," sobbed the prince.
But his father replied, "My blood runs in your veins. My nobility has always been stamped deep within your soul."
With his face still hidden tearfully in his father’s embrace, the prince heard the King instruct the crowd, "The dragon is crafty. Some fall victim to his wiles and some to his violence. There will be mercy for all who wish to be freed. Who else among you has ridden the dragon?"
The prince lifted his head to see someone emerge from the crowd. To his amazement, he recognized an older brother, one who had been lauded throughout the kingdom for his onslaughts against the dragon in battle and for his many good deeds. Others came, some weeping, others hanging their heads in shame.
The King embraced them all.
"This is our most powerful weapon against the dragon," he announced. "Truth. No more hidden flights. Alone we cannot resist him."1
Temptations are all around us. Temptations affect everyone, no one is immune.
In the Dragon story many people were tempted by pleasure. They were tempted and they gave in. What the pleasure was we don’t know, but we do know it made the people come back again and again. It changed them. The son had to hide the changes in his body from his father. He wore gloves, he wore a long tunic. He hides in the shadows. He is afraid to let anyone see him for then they will know that he was taking part in the Dragon, pleasure.
Even Jesus went through a period of temptation as our text says:
for forty days in the wilderness, tempted by the devil
Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by the devil. He was let into the wilderness by the Spirit, which we assume is the Holy Spirit, and tempted by the devil. Why was Jesus tempted? I would guess so that He understood our temptations even better.
Jesus was tempted three times. Once to turn rocks into bread. Another to worship the devil and the third to throw himself off the top of the temple. These temptation was designed by the devil to take Jesus’ mind off the course set by the Father. All temptations were to cause Jesus to loose focus.
The devil tried to force Jesus to focus on something else than His journey to Jerusalem and the cross. The devil was making Jesus think about something other than what the Father wanted Him to do.
And isn’t that what temptation is for us today? Doing other than what we would know that God wanted us to do?
We know what is right and what is wrong, but sometimes we give in to the Dragon of pleasure.
It is like the boy in the following:
The boy was standing near an open box of peanut cookies.
"Now then, my lad," said the grocer as he approached the lad.
"What are you up to?"
"Nothing," replied the boy :
’Nothing?"
"Well it looks to me as if you were trying to take a cookie?"
"You’re wrong, mister. I’m trying not to."
I’m trying not to. Isn’t that who we are. People trying not to. Trying not to turn our focus away from God and his ways.
It is difficult trying not to, but we have help.
We learned from the temptation story and the story of the dragon that we cannot fight temptation alone. Jesus drew upon the word of God as His support. During the time of his wilderness temptation, Jesus proved once and for all that the Word of God hidden deeply in the heart and mind is the best defense against sin.
And it is for us. The word of God as spoken through the Bible and through fellow believers is the best help we can have. The king in our Dragon story knew the only way to fight the dragon was for them to fight it together. So with us and our fights with our dragons. We can fight the Dragon pleasure better with the word of God spoken in our hearts and to our hearts by another.
A closing quote from Dietrick Bonhoeffer from his book "Life Together" says it best:
" God has willed that we should seek and find His living Word in the witness of a brother, in the mouth of a man. Therefore, the Christian needs another Christian who speaks God’s Word to him/her. He needs him again and again when he becomes uncertain and discouraged, for by himself he cannot help himself without belying their truth. He needs his brother man as a bearer and proclaimer of the divine word of salvation. He needs his brother solely because of Jesus Christ. The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother, his own heart is uncertain, his brother’s is sure."
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale February 19, 2007
1 from Laugh & Lift Daily Issue for Feb 20, 2006
The Dragon
(By Melinda Reinicke, Parables for Personal Growth, [San Diego, CA: Recovery Publications, Inc., 1993], pp. 5-9.)
