Year C. 1st Sunday of Lent
March 4th, 2001
Lord of the Lake Lutheran Church
Web page http://lordofthelake.org
By The Rev. Jerry Morrissey, Esq., Pastor
E-mail pastor@southshore.com
Heavenly Father empower each of us here at Lord of the Lake Lutheran Church to know our identity as your children through our baptism. Amen.
Title: “Identity Crisis” Luke 4: 1-13
Jesus went into the wilderness prompted by the Holy Spirit, fasted and prayed for forty days, was tempted by the devil three times, and overcame each temptation after consulting Scripture.
At his baptism Jesus was revealed as God’s Son and given God’s Spirit. He now goes off alone, presumably to figure out what that all means and how he will conduct his life in fulfillment of it. From the three Scriptural quotes, Deuteronomy, 8:3; 6: 13, 16, Jesus gives in response to the temptations or challenges to his identity as the Son of God, we can conclude that Jesus was reflecting on God’s revealed word. These quotes come from the section of Deuteronomy where Israel is in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land and deal with their temptations to put too much stock in food and material things, to worship other gods, and to test God. The same temptations Israel gave into, Jesus overcame. By this scene Jesus is teaching how his followers are to overcome temptation by imitating him, that is, by consulting Scripture and thereby letting the Holy Spirit overcome the evil spirits. The Spirit’s presence becomes powerful when that Spirit is united with the Word. The Word puts into human language the otherwise unutterable and inexpressible interpretation of the Spirit. In Luke’s telling the story the physical surroundings of the desert recede in importance and are superceded by their spiritual and metaphorical meaning. Luke points out that it is when Jesus was alone with God that he was most tempted to misinterpret God’s will and adjust it to fit his present and human preferences. The devil himself tried, by misinterpreting a quote from Psalm 91, to get Jesus to do something wrong, while at the same time claiming divine inspiration for it! The Word without the Spirit or the Spirit without the Word is fertile ground for the devil. Jesus knew that better than anybody. These temptations made perfect sense as means to achieve his God-given goals. However, in the light of Scripture, they were wrong. This story shows that Jesus refused to achieve his legitimate Godly goals through illegitimate ungodly means.
In verse one, “into the desert”: The physical terrain is intended as a metaphor for a person’s innermost experience, especially a “place” of horror, loneliness and danger. The “desert” is life’s proving grounds where a person faces life and its challenges without supports, except, of course, for the support of the Spirit, should a person accept it.
“For forty days”: God’s people wandered through the desert for forty years. The Exodus experience is in the background of Jesus’ experience, only condensed and more intense. Forty days does not stand for a chronological number but for an indeterminate, yet measurable amount of time. Like the terrain, the timeframe is metaphorical.
“To be tempted”: The word used here means both “trial” and “test.” While the devil is trying to make Jesus fall out of his relationship with his Father and others, God is, at the same time, using the devil to “test” and strengthen Jesus” and, by implication, anyone’s faith and obedience.
Devil: Even “devil” is meant as a metaphor for evil. Evil, the “devil,” is not a person, but a spiritual reality which takes many forms of disguise, even the “voice” of God. When wrongly understood as God’s “voice,” the devil is never stronger or more dangerous.
In verse three, “command this stone to become bread”: It would be the rare human who had this temptation. Humans cannot change stones into bread, but Jesus was apparently aware that he indeed had such extraordinary power as God’s Son. And he was, humanly speaking, hungry. He hears an inner “voice” and must discern whether it is from God or the devil. It seems perfectly logical that if he has the power to magically transform stones into bread, why not? Is not the goal a good one? Shouldn’t he by-pass his humanity and use his divinity for his personal satisfaction?
One does not live by bread alone: according to Scripture, Deuteronomy 8:3, gives him God’s perspective as well as his strength. Jesus lets that awareness, that perspective, compare with his awareness of physical hunger and that awareness wins, for it reveals that there is more to life than food and, in the subsequent verses, clothing and being able-bodied. He chooses hunger over satisfaction and comfort, precisely because he is God’s Son. Remember Jesus had just been told he was the Son of God from the voice of God from heaven-now the Devil is challenging his identity, “If you are the son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” The devil does the same thing to us by challenging us whether or not we have been saved because of our baptism or forgiven by God because of confession and absolution.
In verse seven, “if you worship me”: Jesus knew he was to conquer the world, but did not know how. By political domination, stronger than Rome? The means to achieve that would involve military might and political tactics. But his kingdom was not of this world and the means to establish it would not be worldly means. Even though it would make his task easier by compromising with the devil and worshipping him, giving in to him, just once, he overcame the temptation to even momentary idolatry, by consulting Scripture again. That awareness of God’s supremacy kept Jesus from a course of action that would violate God’s unique standing in his scale of values. Even his mission from God was not so important that he would violate God to achieve it. His calling to mind of Scripture gave him just the perspective and power he needed to avoid the slippery slope of compromise.
“Him alone shall you serve”: Deuteronomy 6:13. He would not give to the devil something that belongs to God alone. The devil’s promise was a lie anyway. He could not deliver on his promise because the world was not his to give, only to give up. His dominion was temporary and delusional. Jesus’ goal was indeed the crown of glory, but the means to it, the “how,” was through the cross of humiliation. Jesus would rather humble himself than embarrass God by worshiping the devil even once. He would not use illegitimate means to achieve legitimate ends. He would not compromise with evil no matter what the pay-off. He would not misuse his power. Once again God’s Word gives him perspective and strength.
In verse nine, “throw yourself down from here”: Jesus was tempted to misuse his miraculous powers to show off and to wow people into following him, to prove his divinity as the Son of God, to perform spectacular, if pointless, feats to compel belief.
In verses ten and eleven: Jesus knew Psalm 91, which the devil now quotes. The devil is beating Jesus to the punch. He has learned his procedure for overcoming temptation, so he will quote Scripture, too, out of context and out of Scripture’s perspective. He assures Jesus of God’s angelic protection, so he can jump off a cliff and God will keep him from harm. After all, didn’t he promise as much? Jesus rejects the view that he has some special protection from earthly laws because he is God’s Son and refuses to test God to prove a point.
In verse twelve, “you shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test”: Jesus counter-quotes the devil and trumps him, checkmates him. In doing so he gives us the basic principle of interpreting Scripture. The best commentary on any verse of Scripture is the rest of Scripture. If a particular interpretation contradicts the whole of revelation, the rest of revelation, then it is wrong. The devil was wrong. It was not just a matter of two opinions or interpretations. It was a matter of right and wrong. Just because a person can quote Scripture or any other authoritative source does not automatically make the interpretation right. Jesus will not test God. He trusts him. He needs no spectacular proof for himself and no proof by miracle will compel belief. A miracle, to the unbeliever, only produces the need for more miracles.
In verse thirteen, “he departed from him for a time”: “Time” translates the Greek kairos, which means “opportune time.” The point is that Jesus, like all humans, was tempted throughout his life at “opportune moments,” not just these three times at the beginning of his ministry. These temptations are presented as the “typical” ones or types of testing Jesus underwent throughout his earthly life.
These scenes of the three temptations of Jesus are condensed versions of what Jesus struggled with throughout his earthly life. He was human, like us, in all things but sin. So, Jesus was tempted, but did not succumb to temptation. While what is described as happening in the first scene- the desert, the forty days, the physical hunger- may well have really occurred- the second scene is hardly factual. There is no physical height that gives one a panoramic view of “all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant.” Moreover, the physical trip from the Jordan desert to the parapet of the Temple would have required Jesus to physically leave the desert, wherever it might have been. Given these incongruities, it is safe to conclude that this story is more metaphorical than factual. It is meant more to teach profound lessons than to report physical facts.
This story answers the question every Christian has: How do I deal with temptations to sin? The answer is given three times: consult Scripture. Now, Jesus had no printed Bible that he carried with him. There were no such Bibles in those days. He carried God’s Word in his mind. Every scene in all four gospels reveals Jesus as having God’s Word in the forefront of his mind and applying that word in every situation. Jesus did not, however, go around quoting Scripture from memory by chapter and verse. There were no chapters and verses in those days. Scripture was not categorized by chapter and verse until the Protestant Bible was printed in 1557.
Jesus mulled over in his mind the Word of God he heard in the synagogue each Sabbath. In those days people memorized Scripture not to quote human adversaries to prove they were right about something, except for the Pharisees and religious zealots who still do today, but to apply God ‘s Word to situations when and where the Adversary, the devil, tempted them to go in another direction. Jesus would have been rather typical of the truly pious people- like Simeon, Anna, Mary, Joseph, Zechariah, Elizabeth and presumably many others- who really lived their religion. Luke mentions that they too were “filled with the Holy Spirit.”
Today we have the benefit of having the Bible handy in order to consult it, read it, pray with it. The point is not that we look up passages to get specific directions to follow in case of temptation or questions or conundrums. The point is that we read Scripture in order to be in conscious contact with God, to be connected to and in the company of his Spirit. It is God’s spirit that enlivens the word and dispels temptation, not our shouting his words at the devil or anyone else. It is true that in one scene Jesus did spar with the devil in what might be described as a very brief “scriptural argument.” However, in the other two scenes there was no sparring, only a definitive answer given by Jesus to the devil: no. Yet, the “sparring” scene is extremely important because it teaches that the best interpretation of any verse of Scripture is the rest of Scripture. It is not really true that even the devil can quote Scripture. The devil might misquote Scripture, but he cannot really understand it. Others who quote Scripture out of context or to justify a wrong action or attitude such as justifying slavery or beating wives or establishing a new Christian denomination on the basis of a verse or two are much more imitating the devil than imitating Jesus. If God is faithful, consistent within himself, and if Scripture reveals God, then any interpretation of any verse of Scripture that contradicts another verse or other verses is clearly wrong. The interpretation is wrong, not necessarily the citation unless, of course, it is itself a mistranslation.
We cannot get this ability to overcome temptation overnight. We need to develop a discipline and follow a daily diet of absorbing God’s Word. Otherwise, it will not be fresh in our minds, able to be called up in an instant. When the devil is working on our lower brains to get us to do something that is inconsistent with our humanity, a humanity Jesus has revealed to us by his life, we cannot say, “Wait a minute. I have to look this up in Scripture.” So, like Jesus, we need to begin, or begin again, by seeing our lives as a ministry, as having a divine purpose to fulfill, and by being humble enough to realize that God is not going to work magic for us just because we are well-intentioned. He is not going to suspend human and earthly laws- like changing non-foodstuffs into food, letting us conquer anything by cheating or letting us live dangerously without consequence. Thus, the fundamental temptation is to define God on our terms, that is, idolatry.
Transcend vs. Suspend: Jesus refused to use his power for his own personal advantage. He was subject to the laws of human existence and would not suspend them or violate them to satisfy his own needs. He shows us how to transcend our human state not by bypassing it but by using it to grow beyond where we presently are. He would stay human at all times. However, that did not prevent him from multiplying bread in order to feed others. He would use his power for others. That was consistent with his identity and mission. This helps the Church he founded to avoid the temptation of becoming merely another social agency. Certainly, the Church is to feed the hungry and all that implies regarding clothing, housing, healing, nursing, etc. That responsibility is there, but the greater one is to be obedient to God’s Word. To reduce the Church to social services, good and necessary as they are, is to give in to the devil and adopt a more limited definition of herself than God would like. Each Christian must overcome the temptation to think that God ‘s promise to provide for us means that he will always work a miracle, that it will be automatic and magical, and that it does not require any action on our part. God is the canoe owner and driver, but we still have to row if we are to get to his and our goal
Religion vs. Politics: Jesus refused to cast his mission in worldly political terms. He would not use power or force to accomplish his goals, no matter how worthy and wise they be. This helps the Church to avoid the same temptation. It is well known that there is too much politics and politicking in the Church. But the Church’s purpose is the same as Jesus. So should be her methods. She is not about world domination or worldly the Lord would say “lordly” domination of others. She must never use unjust means to achieve just ends and so beware of the pitfalls of bureaucracy, demagoguery, authoritarianism, paternalism, etc. Every Christian must avoid compromising with evil, no matter how good the cause.
Grace vs. Miracles: Jesus refused to work miracles for show, for proof, for self-aggrandizement. He helps the Church to keep the miraculous, the bizarre, the super-terrestrial in perspective. Miracles do not produce faith, only the need for more miracles. The Church is more than the arena of miracles, though she is that. She must keep her sights on the natural as well as the supernatural. Her mission is lived in the world, addressed to the world, even if it is not of the world. She is to be counter-cultural, yes, but not anti-cultural. She is not to deny, denigrate or discount the human. After all, Christ became human to show us how to be human. No Christian must expect to be freed from the limitations of the human conditions of earthly life. Jesus wasn’t. There should be no confusion between trust and foolhardy behavior that tries to control God and limit his freedom.
Grace vs. Effort: If God does not work miracles for us upon demand, he does give us his presence, that is, his grace, the power to work miracles as he defines miracle. He gives us the power to transcend our present limitation, not by suspending the laws of nature, but by giving us the example, the human example, of Jesus to imitate. The effort required is not superhuman. Yet it is divinely energized, daily, moment-by-moment even, by eating the bread of God’s Word. Thus, we are fortified even for failure, rather than mortified by it. Amen.
