1st Sunday in lent
Luke 4:1-13
"Temptation = Ease"
"And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit 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. The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread." And Jesus answered him, "It is written, ’Man shall not live by bread alone.’" And the devil took him up, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 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. If you, then, will worship me, it shall all be yours." And Jesus answered him, "It is written, ’You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’" 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; for it is written, ’He will give his angels charge of you, to guard you,’ and ’On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’" And Jesus answered him, "It is said, ’You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’" And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time." Luke 4:1-13, RSV.
Grace and Peace to you from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen
From Pastor Buchheim’s book, The Power of Darkness, comes the following: "The late Dr. Kent Knutson said "On the Saturday before Easter, I and my family got up early to visit my mother who lives in a small town in Iowa. She is 82 and in ill health. We expect she will die soon. In reality the Knutson family went to see her to say their good-byes. While we were visiting with her, we received the sad news that my sister’s son had a terminal illness.
Late that evening we returned to Minneapolis. It had been an emotional day for us. The next day was Easter. That was a great ’day for the entire Knutson family..Early on Monday morning we took our daughter to the bus so she could return to Luther College. At 1:00 the call came. The bus had overturned and some of the students were injured several had been killed. At first we thought it was our daughter who had been killed. But with in hours she was able to phone to assure us that she was all right.
Kent Knutson concluded this personal story with this insightful observation: "And that’s the way life really is."
Later on in the year, the church were Kent Knutson preached this message replayed the tape of these words, "And that’s the way life really is." These words rang home even deeper as the congregation knew as well as the whole ALC knew that Kent Knutsen was fighting for his life in a Rochester hospital a struggle which he was to loose in a few short months from an incurable illness he contracted while is Asia seeing how the ALC was establishing mission congregations.
"And that’s the way life really is."
Our gospel lesson speaks of the temptations of Jesus as he was tempted by the devil in the wilderness. This was no simple temptation, but a temptation which shook the very foundations of life. As one studies these temptations, one sees that they are really asking the Son of God, as Satan calls him, to take the easy way out, to take a shortcut in life. These trials sought to see what kind of person Jesus really was. What he was made of. Was he really the Son of God who would follow the Father’s plan, or, or would He give in and take the easy way, the less difficult way. As we look at the temptations, we will see how they are really on easy way out, and at the same time we will see how we tempt Jesus in our lives to help us to take the easy way, the less difficult way in life.
In the first temptation the devil asks Jesus to turn stone or stones into bread. As Jesus sits in the desert his stomach is empty for he hadn’t eaten for 40 days, his throat is parched and the devil approaches. Now he wasn’t the horned, red devil with a pitch fork we dream of, no he was more subtle, more inventive, he was the voice of reason, of rational thinking in Jesus life.
He maybe said, "You look like you are having a rough time. By the way, you’re the Son of God, why don’t you turn these stones into bread? Not just for yourself--but for all the starving people of the world. They need you. They need your power. Give them what they want and you’ll be their hero."
This doesn’t sound so diabolical, or does it? This doesn’t sound so wrong, or does it? Jesus was tempted to take the easy way to feed the masses, to be a hero, but this isn’t God’s way. God works in the natural order of things. We are to work and grow our our food. In the natural order, each person has a responsibility if able, to provide for his/her needs.. If someone is not able, then those who are able, can help, can provide from their blessings enough to help those who cannot provide.
"And that’s the way life really is.
Many times we tempt God to take the easy way, the short-cut for us in life. We ask for miracles instead of being willing to work, or try. Part of our nature tries to get something for nothing. If we cheat the system, we think that is great. If we somehow get ahead by tricking someone else or somehow cheating them, we declare it is a dog eat dog world and we can do anything to get ahead. We saw that in the corporate scandals these last few years. These men and women did everything they could to take the easy way out. To make their stocks look good so they could get more and more money.
But in reality, with hard work, with right accounting principles they could indeed get ahead.
"And that’s the way life really is.
Maybe we need to be more like the frog in the following:
" A modern parable tells of two frogs that fell into a vat of cream. One frog gave up trying to get out and sank into the cream and died.
The other thrashed about keeping his long legs paddling in the cream. Gradually the frog began to feel solid footing. The frog kept kicking until he had good traction and leaped from the container. He had churned the cream into solid butter."
One frog took the easy way and died. The other took the more difficult road of hard work because he was able life.
"And that’s the way life really is.
The next temptation was even more subtle but at the same time even more dangerous. The devil was offering Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, if Jesus would worship the devil.
The devil might of said the following: "Although, you know, you really need to be king of more than just this little country. I know, how about my giving you the whole world. You can be king of everyone. It’s the easiest way." Again that word easy. if Jesus was king of the world there would be no war, there would be peace, there would be even distribution of wealth, harmony among the nations, sounds good right?
Wrong!!! For this all human would give up free will which God created. We would not be free to worship or not worship God. We would not be free to believe or not believe. And if Jesus worshiped the devil, then we would be forced to do the same.
We tempt God to do this very temptation for us. We use God so that He might control our world blessing us with all blessing of health and wealth. And when we believe that God is especially blessing us, then we feel superior to others saying in a sense that our control of God is better than theirs.
When in fact, we aren’t controlling God at all. We are being controlled by our own false beliefs of God.
Let me illustrate:
"A TV interview had two people with incurable cancer who were already dead when the interview was aired. During one part a man asked a woman: "What’s the first thing you are going to do when you get to heaven?"
Young woman answered: "I’m going to ask God why he put me through so much trouble and then I am going to punch him in the nose!!"
This view of God sees God in control of each life and that somehow God is responsible for all the good as well as all the bad that happens in this world. Since this young woman didn’t have the health and wealth she thought God owed her, she became angry with God because she couldn’t control God.
She did not realize that
"And that’s the way life really is.
Our faith and believe in God does not immune us from all the bad things of this world. Our faith in god gives us the courage to endure.
Remember Paul as he says in II Corinthians 12: 7
"And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated." RSV.
Paul had his throne in the flesh and God did not remove it but gave Paul the courage to endure.
"And that’s the way life really is.
The final temptation was even more subtle, but the most dangerous for the devil asked Jesus to short-cut the work of faith and prove to everyone that He is the Christ.
The devil might of said, "You know I’ve been thinking it’s easy to convince the rabble, but the most important people to reach are the pharisees and members of the Sanhedrin. You will have to grab their attention, plus those among the rabble who are skeptics.. I’ve got it!! In the middle of their temple prayers after you make sure you have a good audience inside as well as outside by advertising before hand, then you float down from the highest point of the temple. No one could follow that; act. After your perfect, safe, landing, they would believe anything you said "
Sounds good doesn’t it? No one would have any reason to disbelieve in Jesus. No one who doubt or question authority or their own belief in Jesus.
If God wanted His kingdom to come in that way, why did He recruit the twelve and send them out to talk about Jesus;? God intended His kingdom to come through human beings, spreading the word, the word proclaimed and the word witnessed. God wanted each person to believe, to trust in, to surrender their will to Jesus because they wanted too, not because they have to.
"And that’s the way life really is.
God wanted willing followers, not ones dazzled by some magic tricks. The miracles Jesus did were done out of compassion and out of a sense of trying to convince people where His authority came from, not to spell bound them by magic tricks.
The devil was saying to Jesus, "If you really are God, you’ll eliminate the necessity for faith and trust."
But God wants us to believe in Him because we want to because, we have felt his forgiving power, his strength, his compassion, his all encompassing grace, not his magic tricks.
"And that’s the way life really is.
The three temptations of the devil wanted Jesus to turn life upside down instead of doing things in God’s orderly fashion.
These temptations were the easy way out and sometimes you and I want that too.
But live is not easy, live is difficult, we need to believe, we need to trust in God through His son Jesus Christ.
"And that’s the way life really is.
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale
