Triple Threat

How many of you remember your first day at school, or your first day at a new job? You usually get some kind of orientation, don’t you. At that new job, maybe you spent the morning in the human resources signing benefits papers and getting company policies explained to you, maybe you get led around, were introduced to fellow workers and shown where the cafeteria was.... And at school, what did you get? Pretty much the same, right? You get introduced to people and places, maybe the professor hands out the syllabus or the teacher explains her grading policies. Everybody wants you to succeed. Failure costs too much, whether it’s an employer dealing with turnover or a school trying to keep its academic standards up.

Except, of course, in the Marines. Actually, in all the armed services, but the Marine Corps prides itself on being the toughest. Not that I ever went through it, mind you, but books like Leon Uris’ Battle Cry or W.E.B. Griffin’s Semper Fi don’t leave too much to the imagination. You get dropped right in it from your very first day. Part of the point is to wash out the ones who won’t make it right away, so that nobody wastes their time, neither you nor your drill sergeant. It’s a tough service that asks a lot of its people, and it’s better to wash out at the beginning than to wait until you’re actually in combat before you find out you can’t handle the pressure. It helps if you know how tough it's going to be before you sign up.

Fortunately, Jesus was properly equipped, because that’s more or less what happened to him. The minute the official induction ceremony was over, Jesus got dumped right in at the deep end of the pool.

In the passage immediately prior to the one we just read, Jesus had been baptized in the Jordan river by his cousin John the Baptizer. Matthew, Mark and Luke all tell the story in pretty much the same way, but John’s gospel adds something extra. (Remember that the John who wrote the gospel is not the same person as the John who baptized Jesus.) The Baptizer was beheaded by King Herod long before the Apostle sat down to write his memoirs. But anyway, John the Apostle quotes John the Baptist as saying, “I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water ... that he might be revealed to Israel.... I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.” [Jn 1:31,34] That’s when Peter’s brother Andrew first met Jesus, along with Philip and Peter and Nathaniel, and John reports that they all go off north to Galilee to begin the ministry of teaching and healing that occupies their next three years.

But Matthew, Mark, and Luke all tell of an interval between Jesus’ baptism and the beginning of his ministry. They all tell of a time of testing in the wilderness.

Just a couple of weeks ago I preached on that familiar passage from the Lord’s prayer, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Or as a more contemporary translation puts it, “do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one." [Mt 6:13] Jesus didn’t get a positive answer to that prayer, did he? Or at least not to the first part. The part about not being led into the time of trial was answered in the negative. All three Gospels tell us that it was the Holy Spirit who led Jesus into the wilderness. This was not an adventure, an opportunity to strut his stuff for the great examiner. And Jesus did not relish the rough road ahead any more than we do. In fact, I think it’s very interesting that Jesus’ ministry begins with a time of very tough testing, and ends with an even tougher one, that terrible night in the garden of Gethsemane when he asked his Father to “remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.” [Lk 22:42] Twice during that same night he told the disciples to pray “that [they might] not come into the time of trial.” [Lk 22:40,46]

As we look at this passage it’s important for us to remember that these were real temptations. The things that Satan was offering to Jesus were things he may very well have really wanted, and what's more they were things that he actually had a right to. What is important for us to remember is that temptation rarely comes dressed in ugly clothes.

There’s a wonderful story about a baker watching a little boy hovering next to a shelf filled with fresh-baked cookies. “Now then, young man,” said the baker as he approached the boy, “What are you up to?” “Nothing,” replied the boy: “Nothing.” “Well, it looks to me like you were trying to take a cookie.” “You’re wrong, mister,” said the boy. “I’m trying not to!” It’s only temptation if it’s hard to say no.