Sermon 2/13/05
Promises, Promises - Matthew 4:1-11, Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7
(view lectionary notes for this text)
Every year when the Super Bowl rolls around, there’s a lot of buzz about the commercials – what will be the funniest, which spot cost the most money, which is the most successful. Another thing you might notice about the commercials is that they tend to make promises. Take a certain pill, and without dieting or exercising, you will soon be thin. Young men who drink certain beverages will soon find beautiful women wanting to meet them. Own the newest fastest car, and your family life will be more relaxing. Choose the product being advertised, and all sorts of good things will come your way. At least, that’s what the advertisements promise. And obviously, we buy in, literally and figuratively to the promises, or else advertisers would stop wasting so much money on commercials. So, despite our awareness that what the commercials say to us is not always the truth, we’re still willing to believe, somewhere, somehow, in the promises they offer. Why is that? What is it about human nature that lets us be so easily deceived, so easily taken in?
Today, we come upon two scripture passages that highlight the smoothest advertiser of biblical record, the most persuasive, the most manipulative, the one who doles out the most promises: that wily character, Satan himself. First, in the Old Testament, we read of Adam and Eve, how they started out, happy and living in the paradisaical Garden of Eden. Their only limitation: God has asked them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you do, God says, you will die. But soon, the serpent, who was “more crafty than any other wild animal” enters the scene. The serpent comes to Eve first, and asks her about what God has said to her. Eve quotes back to the snake what God had told her, but she adds her own little bit, insisting that God said they could not even touch the tree without dying. It’s like a game of telephone, where each time the phrase is repeated it becomes slightly more skewed from the original. The serpent says that despite what God has told them, Adam and Eve will not die if they eat the fruit. Indeed, their eyes will be opened, and they will be like God! So they eat the fruit, and their eyes were opened, and they were ashamed of their nakedness, and hid from God.
Our second lesson is a familiar text from the gospels, repeated with slight variations in Luke and Mark, besides this account from John. In this passage, we read of Jesus being driven into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit, only to be confronted by Satan. Satan gives Jesus three tests of sorts: first, he tempts a hungry Jesus, urging him to change the stones into bread. Jesus quotes scripture to Satan – it is the word of God that we are to live by, not bread only. So the devil takes him to the heights of the temple, and tells Jesus to throw him down. Turning Jesus’ tactics back on him, the devil quotes scripture at him, saying, “God will command the angels concerning you,” – but Jesus quotes a different text: Don’t put God to the test. Finally, the devil offers him all the kingdoms of the world, and the power and splendor that goes with them, if only Jesus would worship him. But Jesus sends him away, saying that one is to worship only God, and serve only God. The devil, unable to lure Jesus from the path of obedience, leaves, and angels come to wait upon Jesus.
In both our texts today, we deal with issues of temptation. Temptation is a good Lenten theme, as some of us struggle with temptations to indulge in whatever vice we’ve decided to give up for Lent. But the kind of temptation we’re dealing with in Lent is a deeper kind. Even so, what is so tempting in each of these passages is not as clear and transparent as you might think. In our lesson from Genesis, Adam and Eve are tempted to disobey God – but why? Is it that the fruit of the tree is so tempting? No doubt they had plenty of other good things to eat. It seems to be when the serpent tells Eve that she and Adam will be like God that she’s ready to take the plunge and try the fruit, which was suddenly a delight to her eyes. And what’s tempting for Jesus in the wilderness? Surely not the idea of changing stones into bread. No doubt he was hungry, but he had forty days of fasting to think about creating food for himself without caving in. Was Jesus tempted to worship the devil? How could he be, with the relationship that he had with God? Was he tempted to test God? Again, though we might be so tempted to test God for a clear sign, Jesus’ life seems to us full of clear signs of God’s presence. So how were these temptations for him? I think, rather, Jesus was tempted at this one last chance to choose a different path for himself. In this encounter, he’s about ready to get to work, teach, heal, reach out. If he wanted to, now is probably the last chance he has to back down and say to God, “choose someone else.”
I think it is the same for us. Like Adam and Eve, like Jesus, we may be somewhat lured by surface temptations. Maybe we’re tempted to cheat on what we’ve given up for Lent, but even if we fail to keep up our sacrifice, what’s at stake? A little disappointment with ourselves? Fear that God will be disappointed with us? I think the things in life that are much more tempting to us are things like those Eve encountered, like Jesus encountered, events and situations where much more is at stake for us than 40 days without chocolate. It is much more tempting, isn’t it, to want to “be like God” like Adam and Eve did? And like Jesus, it is tempting to want to give up the path to which we are called for an easier path that the world labels as appealing. It is tempting for us to want to play God and judge who is right and who is wrong, who is welcome and who is excluded. It is tempting to want the quickest way to the best rewards the world can offer – to be drawn in like views of a commercial. Perhaps we don’t expect all the kingdoms of the world, but we could be tempted into forgetting what’s important so that we can keep busy keeping up with the Joneses. These are the temptations that I think should worry us, as they were stumbling blocks for Adam and Eve, and offers by which those of us who are less than Christ-like might be intrigued.
So we have to be on guard. If a snake started talking to us, I think we might suspect something is up. And if the devil, complete with horns, and pitchfork appeared to us, perhaps we’d know to be prepared. But I doubt that evil tempts us in quite this way, does it? That would be too easy. Instead, our temptations are delivered the world around us, from acquaintances, friends, family, loved ones, and from our own brilliant minds. It’s tricky. In a way, it can be said that the devil doesn’t do anything but speak truth in both of these texts we read today. When the serpent tells Eve that she and Adam will not die if they eat from the tree of knowledge, he is right, isn’t he? We wonder: didn’t God say they would die if they ate of it? But they ate, and did not die, as the serpent told them it would be. Who was telling the truth and who was lying here? The devil, or God? We can ask similar questions about the devil’s encounter with Jesus in the wilderness. What did the devil say that was not true? What lies were told? After all, he quoted scripture that is still in our bible – is the scripture he quoted less accurate or less important than what Jesus quoted? What would have been the big deal for Jesus to turn stones into bread? He turned water into wine, and multiplied fish and loaves, and made bread and wine take on the meaning of his own body and blood. What was so different here? We know that Satan represents what is wrong and evil and a bad choice, but how sad is it if we can’t quite even put our finger on what makes the devil’s words wrong and God’s words right?
In the end, what God has in store for Jesus and what the devil seems to offer to Jesus aren’t that different from one another, just as what Satan disguised as the serpent tells Eve and what God tells Eve are deceptively similar. The devil offers Jesus power and rule of kingdoms, but this is already what Jesus has as God’s child, even if it is not in the way that the devil imagines. The serpent offers to Adam and Eve knowledge and open eyes – this is what God gives them, even though what they see is much different than what the serpent led them to believe. So how are we to tell the difference? If both God and Satan are making the same promises to us – how can we tell whose voice is whose? I think of two stones: diamonds, and cubic zirconium. They look pretty similar, if you’re not looking carefully enough. But one stone is highly valuable, while another is thought of as a cheap imitation. That’s what we have to do with our temptations: remember that one path is worthwhile, and the other will only offer a cheap imitation of the life that we can have with God. Telling them apart – that’s probably easier than we think, even if we don’t like the answer. I’ve generally found in my own life, that God’s voice, God’s promises, God’s path – these things usually involve doing something that I don’t want to do, don’t feel prepared to do, don’t like doing, am afraid to do, am reluctant to do, something that is harder, requires me to give, to risk, to go against the flow, to work with people I don’t like – but ultimately fills my life in a way nothing else can. Following the alternative path – the imitation path - is usually easier – requires less thought. Has more immediate rewards. Let’s you shut others out. And ultimately, leaves that empty feeling in the pit of your stomach. That feeling that your life is missing something essential. That feeling that despite having money, or possessions, or security, or whatever else you bargained for – you’re still coming up short – still unsatisfied.
Today, we are offered tempting promises. Both God and the forces of evil promise to give us more than we can imagine. Both promise us a full, abundant life. But only one deal can live up to our expectations. Only one path can satisfy the deepest longings of our heart. Which path will you choose?
Amen.