Loading...In the wilderness fast Jesus endures following his baptism, he confronts the three tempting enemies of faithful service to God. These three have been around as long as life. The world, the flesh, and the devil in the beguiling voice of the tempter assail Jesus in his time of emptiness.
Their promise is to fill him. In reality they hold only empty darkness and despair. They assail us too, so we do well to contemplate these three moments of temptation and seek a way to flee from them.
Temptation of the flesh comes first. A fast of forty days in a rocky and barren place leaves Jesus vulnerable to hunger’s claims. The tempter makes an outlandish proposition: “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” So much hangs on the “If” in that moment. Today we might hear this invitation differently:
“Take care of yourself first. You know you are worth it!”
The passage of the centuries may have changed the terms of the temptation of the flesh, but the effect remains the same. Each experience of emptiness or lack arouses the notion that some solution, some rectifying action must restore us to our rightful vigor.
When young, it might be beauty or popularity or the amorphous “cool” that now is called “chill” we long to have.
In maturity, it might take form as a quest for security or certainty. Late in our journey it might come as a desire for just a little more time. However formed, the flesh longs for what seems innocent enough.
Jesus reminds us, though, that there is more than bread, more than looks, more than security or longevity. That “more,” often invisible, may lead the flesh to hard places and difficult times. Therein, though, lies the way Jesus calls us to walk, a way marked with a cross, a way that does not often grant us an easy way out.
Temptation of the world follows. “If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” Another “If.” The tempter shows the opposite of the rugged and barren wilderness. Strong cities and kingdoms, adoring multitudes, grandeur and fame lie just within reach. All it takes is a plan, a campaign, an appeal to the fleshly needs of all those people of the world. Jesus just needs to join forces with the tempter, give worship to him, and the entire world will be his oyster. After all, Jesus came to save the world. What more efficient way could ever be found than this one. He could simply order everyone to be saved.
Again, the passage of time has shaped the world’s temptation in varying ways. But it always takes the form of seizing the moment, taking charge, and boldly changing the way peoples and societies function.
Just meditate on the ambition that drove the founders of Facebook and the unintended consequences of the bold actions they took to connect people. And remember how often, even in small things, you have conceived of just the right way others could organize themselves to solve problems or set church, club, or town on the absolute right course.
If only they would listen to me, it would all come right!
Jesus sees immediately that such vanity really amounts to a worship of himself, not the tempter.
So he responds, again with Scripture, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”
And so must we respond, we who have received the call to follow, not lead, as our Lord precedes us along the way of the cross.
The final temptation entices everything: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”
Here the tempter drops all pretense. The real object of temptation all along has been God! “Test God!” The tempter wants to see if God will indeed honor the Son. This is too much for Jesus, so he replies, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”
In these distant times this last temptation comes in various forms. The creaturely ones dare God to stop them from raping the earth itself.
The mortal ones rebel and defy God when death strikes.
The proud of mind and body parade themselves as owners of insight and wisdom, power and judgment, those gifts and graces that have never belonged to creatures, but only to the Creator.
And so we say, “If you are God, you won’t let my children suffer. If you are God, you will not take from me what I know I deserve. If you are God, you will bring assurance to my doubting heart so that I can go on with certainty that you are real and that you will be with me to the end.”
In those and thousands of other ways people tempt God, demanding the very proof that faith cannot give. As we follow the way of the cross, this beyond all else will be our cross. All we can do is carry and walk in silence before our God.
As I close, I offer you another portion of Scripture to help you along your way this Lent. It comes from the closing portions of the Lord’s Prayer, which reads, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
It sounds as if we are asking God to refrain from something that God might do. That just isn’t the case. God does not set up tests for us to pass, as if our performance will determine whether we live in God’s good graces. That’s the way we function, but God is not like that.
God’s mercies have no bounds and do not await our good behavior.
God’s grace gives to us generously before we have a chance to ask or respond.
So, I think the meaning of that petition should enter our minds and hearts this way: “You never lead us into temptation, and you always deliver us from evil.”
Just think that as you say the familiar words, “Lead us not”.... And as we continue the prayer the very next words will remind us that the world, the flesh, and the devil do not have the last word, but another threesome does: “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen”
