Luke 4:1-13
“You Can be so Great!”
By: Ken Sauer, Pastor of East Ridge United Methodist Church, Chattanooga, TN
Lisa went for a long walk in the woods.
It had been an exhausting 6 months, and she needed time to think.
She had worked so hard on the campaign.
Ever since her party had told her, to her surprise, that they wanted her to be their candidate, she had been overwhelmed by the honor both of running for office and serving her people, her country, her world!
All her noble ideals had been smiling at her…
…beckoning her that she was now going to be able to achieve them.
Her one thought had been: “Get elected, and at last you’ll be able to change the world! To make things better. To turn things around.”
Then there were the last frantic days of the campaign.
Touring the area, shaking hands, making speeches, late-night sessions with the party workers, snatching a bit of sleep, too much coffee, more speeches, more handshakes.
And finally the election!!!
She still couldn’t believe it!
She had won by a landslide.
They had wanted her.
They had chosen her.
This was her day, and it was sweet!
But she needed space to think, reflect, work it all through.
Hence, the walk in the woods by herself.
She was shocked by what she discovered!!!
The ideals were still there—the dreams of service, of changing the world.
But what were these other voices?
“Now at last,” they whispered, “you’ve got a chance to make some real money. Lot’s of businesses will want you on their board, to lobby for them.
You can name your price.
This is just the first rung on the ladder,” said the voices.
“If you play your cards right, if you don’t make a fuss about too many things, and get to know the right people, you could be Governor, or even President!”
“You can have fame and popularity…
…press conferences and t-v appearances…”
What was happening?
Where were those voices coming from?
But there was more.
“Think what you could do now,” the voices whispered.
“That party activist you’ve never liked—you could get rid of him.
You’ve got power.
And you’ll have more.
The world is your chessboard.
Go ahead and play the game your way!”
This is a fictional story, of course, but it illustrates, a bit, how temptation works.
The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus was tempted in every possible way.
And these temptations were all ways of distorting His true vocation: the vocation to be a truly human being, to be God’s person, to be a servant to the world and to other people.
If there had been any doubt about Jesus being truly human, this dispels it…
…Jesus shared our flesh and blood.
From the human sense, Jesus was the descendant of Adam, as we all are, and He must now face not only what Adam faced but also the powers that had been unleashed through human rebellion and sin.
Long years of habitual rebellion against God has brought about a situation in which the world, the flesh and the devil had become used to twisting human beings into whatever shape they wanted!
Satan is the essence of everything that is against God.
If God loves us more than we can imagine; Satan hates us more than we can imagine…
…for the very sake that we are God’s beloved!
When we look in the Bible we see that it’s the devil who is behind human disease and suffering.
It is Satan who seduces Judas.
It is the devil whom we must fight.
It is the devil whose power is broken by the work of Christ.
It is the devil who is destined for final destruction.
Satan is the power which is against God!
God the Father was telling Jesus, in essence, “Take my love to men and women; love them till you die for them; save them by this unconquerable love even if You finish by hanging on a Cross!”
Satan was saying to Jesus, in essence, “Use Your power to blast men and women; obliterate your enemies; win the world by might and power and bloodshed.”
God said to Jesus, “Set up a reign of love.”
Satan said, “Set up a dictatorship of force.”
The three temptations we read about in our Scripture for this evening are plausible, attractive, and make, as we would say, a lot of sense.
God can’t want God’s beloved Son to be famished with hunger, can He?
If God wants Jesus to become sovereign over the world, then why not go for it the easy way?
Why not prove it by spectacular displays of power?
It’s kind of like the tempting song sung by Simon the Zealot in Jesus Christ Superstar,
“Christ, what more do you need to convince you
That you’ve made it, and you’re easily as strong
As the filth of Rome who rape our country,
And who’ve terrorized our people for so long…
…There must be over fifty thousand
Screaming love and more for you.
And everyone of fifty thousand
Would do whatever you asked them to.
Keep them yelling their devotion,
But add a touch of hate at Rome.
You will rise to the greatest power.
We will win ourselves a home.
You’ll get the power and the glory
For ever and ever and ever
You’ll get the power and the glory
For ever and ever and ever
Forever Amen!”
Imagine the temptation.
And it does seem plausible, attractive and very sensible indeed!
Why not go for the easy ride?
And that is what the world is whispering in our ears everyday is it not?
Go for the power.
Live for self.
Love is over-rated!
There sure are mighty echoes here of Adam and Eve in the Garden, with the serpent whispering plausible lies about God, God’s purposes and God’s commands.
A single command; a single temptation; a single devastating result!
The devil said to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
It was the temptation for Jesus to use His powers selfishly and for His own use, and that is precisely what Jesus NEVER did!!!
And there is also always this type of temptation for us as well.
God has given each of us a gift, and we can ask one of two questions.
We can ask: “What can I make for myself out of this gift?” or “What can I do for others with this gift?”
Our answer to this question has eternal consequences!!!
Notice how Jesus responds to the devil…
…not by trying to argue (arguing with temptation is often a way of playing with the idea until it becomes too attractive to resist), but by quoting Scripture.
And this is what we must do as well!
Do you know your Bible well enough to thwart the lies of the devil?
Do you spend time, each day in God’s Word?
Do you come to Bible study?
When you have a question, do you turn to God’s Word?
The Scripture passages Jesus uses come from the story of Israel in the wilderness.
Jesus is going to succeed where Israel failed!
Jesus is the True Light of the world which Israel was called to be.
Jesus, sees and knows that physical needs and wants are important, but loyalty to God is much, much more important!!!
Jesus is indeed the world’s TRUE LORD, but the path to that status, and the mode of it, is humble service, not devilish seeking after status and power!!!
When Jesus refused to go the way of the Tempter He was embracing the Way of the Cross!
The temptations that you and I face day by day and at critical moments of decision may be very different from those of Jesus, but they have exactly the same point.
They are not simply trying to entice us into committing this or that sin.
They are trying to distract us, to turn us aside from the path of servanthood to which we have been called!
God has costly but wondrously glorious plans for us, and the enemy will do everything possible to distract us and keep us from God’s good purposes!
Its important for us to learn to recognize the voices that whisper attractive lies, and to be able to distinguish them from the Voice of God!
Fighting temptation isn’t about self-hatred, or rejecting our God-given parts of our God-given humanity.
It is about celebrating God’s gift of full humanity and, like someone learning to play a musical instrument, discovering how to tune to and play it to its best potential.
You can be so great; I can be so great!
Our lives can be filled with such meaning!
We can really make a positive difference in this world!!!
In following Christ, we may not acquire power and prestige…
…but we are guaranteed true happiness, true fulfillment, which neither the world, nor the flesh, nor the devil can begin to imitate!!!
So, let’s keep our eyes on God, and trust God for everything!!!
Let’s remember our calling, to bring God’s Light into this world!
And may we be enabled to say a firm “no” to the voices that try and lure us back into the darkness--into the misery!
