Sermon 2/25/07
Remember - Deuteronomy 26:1-11, Luke 4:1-13
(view lectionary notes for this text)
Today is the First Sunday in Lent, and as such, it is the Sunday that we read an account of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. At first read, this passage isn’t one that particularly moves me. I guess I don’t get what the big fuss is about. We see Jesus being tempted in the wilderness by the devil, and he seems to so effortlessly knock down anything that the devil pitches to him. The temptation is important to people, to us as people of faith, because it reminds us that Jesus is one of us, lived as one of us and was tempted like we are. We’re meant to be inspired and to try to follow Jesus’ example by refusing, likewise, to give in when we are tempted to stray from God’s course.
But when I read this passage, I think, “gosh, I think I could have avoided those temptations too!” It seems so easy to see through the motivations of the devil. It seems so clear that Jesus must and will refuse these shambles of offers of fame and glory and fortune. We all face temptations of many kinds in our lives, and some are easier to resist than others, to the point that we don’t really even find them tempting. For example, I don’t actually ever feel tempted to eat meat. When I tried to give up eggs and dairy for a year, I found it very difficult and was frequently tempted to ‘cheat’. But with meat, it was just never really a temptation. And I’ve never been tempted to use drugs, or to cheat on a test. I know these things may be tempting for some people, and I take that seriously. But these are things that don’t really tempt me, and so I can’t claim any great feat for ‘resisting the temptation’ of them. It hasn’t cost me any great stress or pain or trial to not do these things.
This is what I wonder about when we come to this temptation passage about Jesus. Was he really tempted here? Where is the temptation? What would have been appealing about this offer from the devil? Did this event really cost Jesus, or stress him, or push him, or bring him great pain? Was he teetering on the brink of giving in? I don’t immediately see it. I’m a bit skeptical. And yet, for the gospel writers, the passage is clearly important. It is recounted in all the gospels but John, though Mark does not give us the details that Matthew and Luke do. And it occurs early – it is one of the foundational events for Jesus’ ministry – occurring just after his baptism and just before he begins his public preaching and teaching. The position lends to the idea that this passage is important – we’re meant to see it as important. What am I missing?
I return to the question – does this event cost Jesus something, or stress him, or push him, or bring him pain? It must, for it to truly be a temptation for him. So how can we unravel this passage and learn from it? If we look at the things that the devil asks Jesus to do, we can see that the devil doesn’t ask Jesus to do anything that it is outside of his power to do already. The devil encourages Jesus to turn stones into bread for food. Well, we witness in the scriptures Jesus turning water into wine and Jesus feeding crowds of thousands. If he can do this, we can reason that he could easily make stones into bread. The devil tells Jesus that he will give Jesus glory and authority over the kingdoms of the world if Jesus worships the devil. But Jesus speaks occasionally of his knowledge that if God had chosen, Jesus could indeed be an earthly king with earthly kingdoms to rule – he wouldn’t need this power from the devil. And the devil tells Jesus to test God by throwing himself from the pinnacle of the temple, insisting angels would rescue him. But Jesus has just come from hearing God say directly at his baptism that Jesus was God’s beloved son, that God was well-pleased with him – he didn’t need to test God – he had already experienced God’s love for him in a direct way.
So these things, these temptations aren’t tempting because Jesus can’t do them with the devil’s help. The devil offers Jesus nothing that isn’t already in his power. They are tempting because they are easy, and they would directly benefit Jesus, no one else, and they wouldn’t cost Jesus in the way that the path Jesus is on will cost him. What the devil offers is what Jesus already has and already can do, but in a short-cut way that corrupts and twists. What the devil asks Jesus to do is to forget who he is, what he is called to do, whose child he is, what his purpose is. Jesus knows what he’s come for – but the devil is trying to convince him that he can get essentially the same things in a supposedly easier way. And that, I think, is the true temptation, the temptation that shows Jesus to be one of us, the temptation that Jesus withstands and calls us to withstand too.
I think that the biggest temptations we face are not temptations that would lead us to lie, or steal, or eat too much, or abuse substances, or cheat – though of course these things can all be tough temptations. I think the biggest temptation is the temptation to forget – to forget who we are, and what “who we are” means. It is easy to think more of what benefits us than what will help others. It is easier to be comfortable than to be challenged. It is easier to just glide along in life without really making an attempt to follow Jesus and live as he lived. To be “basically nice people” instead of being disciples – I think this is the biggest temptation we face. We’re tempted to forget that we’re beloved children of God, created uniquely, and created with a purpose, to love and to serve God and one another.
My paternal grandmother had a pet peeve with me when I was little. I was in the habit of saying, “I forgot” as an explanation for anything that I was supposed to do but didn’t get around to. She always told me that’s what it would say on my tombstone, “I forgot.” I think it frustrated her in part, of course, because she suspected I hadn’t actually forgotten, but also because forgetting just isn’t a good excuse. Forgetting isn’t responsible. Of course, sometimes forgetfulness becomes something out of our human control, a result of illness or injury. But the very reason we care about forgetfulness is because we know how critical memory is to our lives. It’s a personal issue and a societal issue too. A common fear when we look at the history of a people or culture or globe is that history will repeat itself – particularly that the mistakes of history will repeat. We fear, and rightly so, when we look through the pages of history, we fear that given enough time, enough distance, we will forget even the most significant events – forget what brought us to those situations, why we shouldn’t have let those things happen, how we could prevent them happening again. I’ve heard people comparing the war in Iraq to Vietnam, or comparing the genocide in Darfur to the genocide just a decade ago in Rwanda, or people cautioning lest something as horrific as the Holocaust be repeated ever again in any form.
In the Bible, we find this same problem of forgetting, and an emphasis on God calling people to remember. Exodus, the story of Moses leading the people Israel to freedom and to the Promised Land, begins with a Pharaoh arising who didn’t know or remember Joseph, the one who had gotten the Israelites into this relationship with Egypt to begin with. The Pharaoh didn’t know about Joseph or the God Joseph worshipped – the people had forgotten, and it was their forgetting that led them to the crisis events that shaped Exodus. Throughout the Old Testament in particular, we hear that new kings arise and new generations are born and each seems to forget what the last struggled so hard to learn. They turn away from God – they don’t remember what God has done for them, or how God loves them. Our Old Testament lesson today from Deuteronomy builds in for the people in the Promised Land a ritual of remembering. When the people come into the land, when the gather first fruits, they are to remember, and to share aloud their history. “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor.” They’re to tell the story of how God brought them out of slavery into the promised. They’re to remember, to tell the story, again and again, so that they never forget who they are, what God has done for them, and what they’re called to do in response.
Jesus is tempted – but he remembers who is. He is the one God sent to save God’s people – and Jesus can’t, won’t forget that. Jesus remembers always what he is meant to do. We are called to do likewise. When we celebrate Holy Communion, we are remembering. We remember the meal that Jesus shared with his friends, and remember the events of that week when Jesus gave up his own innocent life. But we especially remember our part in the story. We remember that we are the body of Christ in the world. We remember that we share together in the meal, and so share together in God’s love, and together in responsibility to be Christ’s body for others. We come to the table to remember. The biggest temptations we face are ones that ask us to be other than God created and called us to be. Come to the table, beloved child of God, and remember who you are.
Amen.