Title: Solitary Pain and Suffering
Text: Luke 4:1-13
Thesis: Pain and suffering is often solitary and always a spiritual experience.
This is the first in a Lenten Series: Knowing Christ through Pain and Suffering based on the words of the Apostle Paul who wrote, I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his suffering, becoming like him in his death and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection of the dead. Philippians 3:10-11
Introduction
One of my favorite cartoon clips is a Larsen Farside. In the cartoon, there is a dog in a fenced in yard. There is another dog, obviously delighted to be off the leash and out of the fenced in yard, who is riding by in the back seat of the family sedan. The window is rolled down and the dog in the car shouts to the poor dog left at home, penned up in the yard and says, “Hey, I’m going to the vet to get tutored.”
Sometimes we unwittingly are taken to places we would rather not go.
On January 14, 2002, Tony Dungy, then head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was fired following their loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Though he thought his coaching career was over, he was hired as head coach of the Indianapolis Colts. A year ago, almost to the day, Tony Dungy’s Colts defeated the Bears to win the Super Bowl on February 4, 2007.
But in 2005, the Dungy family was rocked by the suicide of their oldest son, James. James left no note – no explanation, no reasons, just mystery and devastating loss. (Michael W. Michelson Jr., “Gentle Warrior,” Today’s Christian, September/October 2007)
Sometimes we go to places we would rather not go.
I. Sometimes God leads us to places we would not go otherwise.
• Then Jesus full of the Holy Spirit left the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit to go out into the wilderness where the Devil tempted him… Luke 4:1-2
In Mark’s gospel the testing of Christ is squeezed into two verses but both of those verses give us a keener insight into the nature of His experience. Mark says the Holy Spirit “compelled” Jesus to go into the wilderness. The KJV uses the term “driveth” rather than the kinder gentler word “led.”
So the first image we need to have in mind is not that of a loving parent or grandparent taking the hand of a child and taking a walk down to Cold Stone Ice Cream for a ‘Hunka Chunka Burnin Fudge’ or the DQ for a Pecan Cluster Blizzard.
It is more like the word Jesus spoke to Peter when Peter insisted that he loved Jesus and would follow him. Jesus said, “The truth is, when you were young, you were able to do as you liked and go where ever you wanted. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and other will direct you and take you where you don’t want to go.” John 21:18
Certainly one very obvious implication that leaps from the text is that Jesus was led, if not strongly compelled, into a place of desolation where he was to have a wilderness experience. Without even taxing our imaginative power we can envision a wilderness as a desolate, barren and harsh environment.
In addition, the Mark 1 passage, I referred to earlier, adds another bit of information missing from the Matthew and Luke accounts. In addition to saying Jesus was driven into the wilderness, he adds that Jesus “was out among the wild animals.” Mark 1:13
So the wilderness experience for Jesus was one of solitary desolation in a barren, harsh, and dangerous environment.
John Krakauer wrote a best-selling non-fiction book in 1996. Perhaps you have heard of it or read it. Into the Wild is an attempt to explain what happened to Christopher McCandless, who came from a rather privileged background, but upon graduating from Emory University began a rather erratic journey the ended with his death.
He stopped communicating with his family, gave away his savings of $25,000, set out to travel, abandoned his car, and burned his wallet and the money in it. He eventually hitchhiked to Alaska where he set off down Stampede Trail with some rice, a rifle, a camera, some camping gear and a field guide to edible plants. Moose hunters found his body in August of 1992. It is surmised, that to fend off starvation the toxicity of some of the seeds he was eating contributed to his death.
There is the wilderness of John Muir who loved the remote and faraway areas and was one of the first modern preservationists. And there is the wilderness of Edward Abbey whose book Desert Solitaire has been likened to Thoreau’s Walden. But not every trek into the wilderness is about nature trails, scenic overlooks, rock climbing, wildflowers in bloom, and breathtaking sunrises and sunsets. The wilderness into which Jesus hiked was no friendly place. It was a place of severity and testing.
William Barclay describes the area into which Jesus walked as a place of devastation. It was an area thirty-five miles long and fifteen miles wide. It was a place of dusty hills, blistered and peeling limestone shelves, bare jagged rocks, high precipices, deep gullies, and radiating heat. (William Barclay, The Gospel of Luke, p. 38)
This wilderness was a place of desolation and isolation. Jesus was alone. It is not unusual for anyone to feel very much alone during a time of testing… particularly during times of pain and suffering.
II. Wilderness experiences may be places of testing.
• He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where the Devil tempted him for forty days. Luke 4:2
The wilderness was a place of spiritual pain and suffering for Jesus. His testing took the form of various temptations to act in ways that would compromise his devotion and obedience to God. Any test of our faith is a spiritual test… in the Old Testament story of Joseph we see that his pain and suffering ran the gamut of being rejected by his family, being falsely accused of a crime, and an unjust period of imprisonment.
Joseph’s experience was not unlike that of the 1999 conviction of Timothy Masters for the murder of Peggy Hettrick, which they now say was a weak and circumstantial case in which prosecutors withheld vital evidence that would have weakened their case. CNN reporter Eliot McLaughlin wrote a piece titled Convicted by Doodles, Master is Freed by DNA. I suspect Timothy Masters felt like he was all alone and isolated during his 9 years of unjust imprisonment. (Eliot McLaughlin, CNN.Com/Crime, January 25, 2008)
The pain and suffering of the Apostle Paul described in II Corinthians 11 and his reference to his thorn in his flesh in II Corinthians 12 are expressions of a man who was having a wilderness experience. For Jesus it was an assault on his spiritual will. For you and me, pain, suffering, and times of trial may take other forms. In any event – Jesus had to face the onslaught of a Satanic attack alone, and we often find ourselves very much alone in dealing with the challenges in life. So…
A. Where does the testing of our character and faith originate?
First of all, God does not tempt or test people to see if they will sin.
• God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else either. James 1:13
Second, Temptation may originate within us.
• Temptation comes from within… from the lure of our own evil desires. James 1:14
We laughed with TV character Flip Wilson and his act Geraldine as he helped make the statement "The devil made me do it" more popular. When I do things my wife does not approve of, it is fun to say, "The devil made me do it." It is convenient to have someone to blame for our misdeeds. But does the devil really cause our actions, or do we do what we do, because it is what we want to do?
Third, Satan may be the agent of temptation or testing from without.
• Be careful, watch out for attacks from the Devil, your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour. I Peter 5:8
Fourth, God allows and limits temptation and testing.
• Remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience. God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you cannot stand up against it… and show you a way out so you will not give in to it. I Corinthians 10:13
In our text today, Satan is the one responsible for the extended assault on the spiritual will of Jesus Christ. Our text also gives us insight in the specific nature of Christ’s testing.
B. What does temptation and testing look like?
The nature of the Christ temptation has striking a parallel in scripture. We find a framework from which to work in I John 2:15-17:
• Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. The world and its desires pass away, but he who does the will of God lives forever. I John 2:15-17
All temptation falls into one of three categories:
• To Do: The Lust of the Flesh – Turn a stone into bread, Luke 4:3
• To Have: The Lust of the Eyes – Possess the kingdoms of the world, Luke 4:5-8
• To Be: The Pride of Life – Be the Son of God, Luke 4:9-12
(As an interesting aside you might like to do a comparison study of these texts with the story of the temptation of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3 and the fall of Satan in Isaiah 14:12ff.)
In the first temptation to turn a stone into bread, Jesus deals with the satisfaction of a legitimate craving… hunger. The question before Jesus is, will I satisfy my hunger at the urging of Satan? Or will I live in humble dependence upon God. There is more to life and living than bread. The gratification of any urge, yen, craving, longing, or even legitimate need was more important than humbly trusting God for his needs. It would have been the ultimate expression of doing whatever needed doing in order to gratify his own desires.
In the second temptation to possess all the kingdoms of the world, Satan proposed a shortcut so Jesus could possess all the kingdoms of the world. All he had to do was compromise and practice a little idolatry by worshiping Satan. He could have all the kingdoms of the world without going to the cross. Jesus told Satan that he would not compromise his devotion to God for anyone or anything. It would have been the ultimate act of claiming and having it all. More than one person has compromised his or her principles when opportunity knocks.
The third temptation was sensational in nature… Satan suggested that Jesus should seize center stage and come into his kingdom with a sensational leap from the tallest spire of the temple, forcing God it unleash his angels to catch him and thus declaring himself the Son of God. It would have been the ultimate expression of the pride of life. Who among us would not wish that God would just send in his angels and sweep us up and away from the disaster of our lives?
We, like Jesus, often feel like we are all alone out there in the wilderness doing battle with pain, suffering, temptation, and the trials of life.
Nancy Kennedy writing in Today’s Christian Woman blog wrote of her loneliness. “Every since my husband, Barry, first underwent open heart and quadruple bypass surgery 15 months ago, I’ve been in this waiting room – or one just like it more times than I can count on one hand, waiting for him to come out of the operating room. In little more than a year’s time, my vocabulary has increased to include words and phrases such as aneurysm, atrial fib, and EP study with ablation. They all mean I have to put on a cheery face, kiss Barry good-by, and promise I won’t worry about him or forget to eat lunch and lock the garage door at night while he is in the hospital again… it has been a terrible, no good, very bad year – one of the worst in our 32 years together. But we thank God for the good days and the bad, because God has held us both securely in his grip. And I praise God for it.” (Nancy Kennedy, “Walk with Me,” a Today’s Christian Woman blog, 12-5-07)
Despite how we might feel, we are not alone.
III. We may experience solitary pain and suffering, but we are never alone.
We, like Jesus, have the presence of God within us.
A. The Holy Spirit empowers us.
• And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit… was led by the Spirit to go into the wilderness. Luke 4:1
• Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power… Luke 4:14
Not only do we have God’s presence within us, God is present in other ways as well.
B. God’s messengers preserve and protect us.
• He was there 40 days, being tempted by Satan. He was out among the wild animals, and angels took care of him. Mark 1:12-13
In the book of I Kings there are several stories about a prophet named Elijah. On two occasions, fleeing for his life because the infamous King Ahab and his Queen, Jezebel were hoping do him in, God preserved, protected, and provided for him. In I Kings 17 he was fed by ravens that God had commanded to bring him food. In I Kings 19, he plopped down under a solitary broom tree and prayed to die.
• And as he was sleeping, an angel touched him and told him, “Get up and eat!” He looked around and saw some bread baked on hot stones and a jar of water. I Kings 19:5-6
Angelology is a category of theology that we hear little about… in fact we likely ignore it because angels and the activity of angels feels so subjective when we really like to see, feel, and understand things objectively. However, the fact that many of us religiously tuned in to watch Touched By An Angel is one indicator that we are somewhat fascinated by the subject.
There is not shortage of references to angels as messenger of God in the bible. In the story of Daniel in the lions den, Daniel said:
• “My God sent his angel to shut the mouths of the lions so they would not hurt me.” Daniel 6:33
Paul wrote in Acts:
• “Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me and said, ‘Don’t be afraid…’” Acts 27:23
In the Letter to the Hebrews, we are instructed:
• “Angels are servants. They are spirits sent from God to care for those who will receive salvation.” Hebrews 1:14
• “Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it.” Hebrews 13:2
In addition to the presence of the Holy Spirit and messengers sent to us from God, we have God’s Word to sustain us.
Slide 14
C. God’s Word sustains us. Luke 4:4, 8, and 12
When Jesus was dealing with each challenge to his faith and character, he responded to Satan by quoting scripture:
• Jesus said, “The scripture say, ‘People need more than bread for life.’” Luke 4:4
• Jesus said, “The scripture says, ‘You must worship the Lord you God; serve only him.’” Luke 4:8
• Jesus said, “The scriptures also say, ‘Do not test the Lord your God.’” Luke 4:12
The message to us and all of God’s people, who are going through times of pain and suffering, is woven throughout Scripture: God says, “I will never leave you; I will never forsake you.” And we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.” Hebrews 13:5-6
The text ends with an insightful truth.
IV. We should not be surprised when we experience the trials and tests of life.
• When the Devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him until the next opportunity came. Luke 4:13
A. Sometimes the greatest tests of our faith come when things are going well.
I don’t know what constitutes an opportune time… it seems that our greatest testing can come when things are going well. You may find yourself on the mountaintop and wham. Along comes something that knocks the wind out of you.
When Jesus went into the wilderness it was just following his baptism in John 3. The heavens opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in the form of a dove. And then he heard God the Father affirm him with the words, “You are my beloved Son, and I am fully pleased with you.” Luke 3:21-22 So from mountain top baptism experience, he descended into the wilderness of testing.
B. Sometimes the greatest test of our faith come when things are not going well.
It was after 40 days of depravation that Satan came to Jesus. Satan waited until Jesus was at his lowest point. The text says that Jesus was tempted for forty days. He ate nothing all that time and was very hungry. Then the Devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, change this stone into bread.” Luke 4:3
I have been feeling a bit uncomfortable for a week or so… I had a toothache. So when I became really miserable, I went to the dentist. The dentist took x-rays, poked around, ran some tests, and said, “There is nothing wrong with your tooth. Maybe you need to see your doctor.”
The next day I woke up with an earache. Earaches are miserable. Now I had a toothache and an earache. So I called the doctor and made an appointment to see him on Friday afternoon. The first question he asked me was, “Do you have trouble with your sinuses?” And I said, “Yes I do, off and on.”
Trials and testing are like a chronic condition. Pain and suffering in any form is marked by reoccurrences. It is an on and off again experience and it is on when our immune system is weak.
We are susceptible to trials when we are strong because we are overconfident and don’t see it coming. We are susceptible when we are weak because our spiritual immune system is run down.
Conclusion:
Sir James Matthew Barrie wrote Peter Pan in 1904… early in the story Peter Pan explains to Wendy who he is and where he came from. He tells her he ran away the day he was born because he heard his parents talking about all the things he would do when he was a man. So he went to the land of the fairies so he would never have to grow up.
The little boy in us wants to go the way of the mountaintop. Belden Lane wrote, “The way of the mountain is the way of ecstasy, prophetic insight, the white-hot coals of inspiration, the long-distance vision that the towering peak affords. Here the spirit is given flight. It longs to soar…
Peter Pan did not want to grow up. He did not want to live in the real world we know. “By contrast, the way of the soul is the descent into the vale of the desert, the cave, the labyrinth. The wilderness draws us into the depths of the earthly and the ordinary, into the dark night, into the desolation that is dreadful but anchors us in the place where we are given new life.” (Belden C. Lane, The Solace of Fierce Landscapes, P. 41)
Tony Dungy knows what it is to be swept to the mountaintop… and Tony Dungy knows what it is to be taken to the barren wilderness of indescribable sadness.
Perhaps it is only when we have been alone in a wilderness experience that we, like Christ, also experience the presence, protection, and sustenance of God, his angels, and his Word.
