January 17, 2010 Sermon

Temptation
Matthew 4:1-11

We fail. Jesus did not. Temptation tests us. We fail the test early and often. Jesus faced the test of temptation. He passed, and because he did we have freedom from the consequences of our failure. This may seem like an obscure theological point but our lives hang in the balance of it. We fail. Jesus did not. Praise God!

Our son Dan left for college a couple of days before his Christmas break ended. His roommate had invited him to visit his family in Cleveland. We drove down and stood around in the kitchen for a few minutes before I had to get back in the car for the return home. Mike, Dan's roommate, asked, “So Mr. Riggins, how's the flock?” I replied with my standard line these days: we had a tough year with the economy but we had a good Christmas and things are looking up. “What are you preaching about this week?” he wanted to know. Temptation, I told him. “Do we pass?” he asked.

His question surprised me. I had already decided to preach about the test aspect of temptation and here this college student asks me about precisely that while standing in a kitchen in Cleveland. I had also already decided how to answer the question. We do not pass the temptation test. Jesus did, though, and because he did God gives us a pass. Jesus passed the temptation test throughout his life, but the critical moment of testing happened in the passage we just read. Jesus has just accepted baptism. He has just been anointed, set apart for ministry, announced as the Christ to the world. He has just received a ritual cleansing to prepare him to do the Father's work. Now, Matthew tells us, the Holy Spirit leads Jesus out into the wilderness “to be tempted by the devil.” He faces a test, a severe test.

First, Jesus enters the wilderness. To our American ears wilderness can sound savage and remote, yet lush and filled with life. As a boy I read book after book about the wilderness. I devoured The Light in the Forest, The Last of the Mohicans, My Side of the Mountain, and a whole series my Grandma Riggins had of syrupy biographies of American heroes like Davy Crockett, Andrew Jackson and Daniel Boone. The wilderness fascinated me. I wanted someday to test myself against it, to go out with nothing more than a tinderbox and the clothes on my back and survive. (Well, I also wanted a flashlight, an air mattress, and quick access to an adult who could drive me home if things got too scary.) But the wilderness Jesus enters in Matthew is one of the harshest deserts on the planet. The Negev has virtually no surface water. Precious little life exists. And Jesus starts his visit there with a 40-day fast.

His human body terribly weakened, Jesus faces his real test. Somehow or another the devil, whom Matthew names “the tempter”, comes and says, “If you are the Son of God command these stones to turn into loaves of bread.” Mere days before, as Jesus climbed up out of the waters of the River Jordan a voice had broken over him with heavenly thunder, proclaiming, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” How precious those waters must seem to Jesus now! How thirsty and hungry his ordeal has made him. How tempting it must be to use his powers to supply his belly. Yet he answers the tempter, “It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” But the deeper point of this first temptation is pride. “If you are the Son of God,” the devil begins—or, “Prove it! Show me! Show the world your greatness!”—or, “Compete with the Father! Show him you can take care of yourself, that you won't stand for this shabby treatment!”

Jesus uses scripture to reply to this first temptation, but not just any scripture. “One does not live by bread alone...” comes from an earlier wilderness experience. It comes from the Exodus, when all Israel wandered through the desert for the not-so-coincidental total of forty years before entering the Promised Land. Along the way they stopped at Mt. Sinai, where Moses received the law of God. After communicating that law to the people, Moses adds that their wanderings through the desert have been a test to reveal “what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep the commandments.” Jesus understands that the devil is really tempting him to be disobedient, to do his own thing, to rely on his own power and not God's. But he passes this first test by reminding the devil that his life depends on hearing and obeying the word of God.

The devil immediately shifts gears. After trying to tempt Jesus' pride he tests his sense of security. “Does God really love you?” he asks during the dramatic vision of standing on top of the temple. He urges Jesus to throw himself down—just to see what would happen. And the devil, a fast learner, uses scripture to press his case. Psalm 91 does say that God would send angels to protect the faithful. But the faithful would not test God in the first place. The faithful would already believe in God's protection. They would not require proof of it. Jesus, secure in his position as the Beloved Son of God, turns back to scripture yet again with a quote from Deuteronomy: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” Now the devil has failed twice, despite using two of the most potent human temptations, pride and insecurity. But the devil still has one card to play, and it is the ace of spades: the temptation to power.

The tempter shows Jesus all the earth and promises that he will have power over all its kingdoms. All he must do in return is give one little ole' thing: worship to the devil. Do not minimize the potency of the temptation to power. This temptation drives politicians, athletes, and jealous lovers. The power to make other people do our will might be the most terrible temptation of all. Jesus shared our human nature, so he felt the gravitational pull of power. Yet to resist it he quoted scripture one last time: “Worship the Lord your God only, and serve only him.” The temptation to power is the temptation to worship ourselves instead of God. Apparently it drives even the devil. Jesus saw through this and renounced the deal. Jesus passed his test.

Last week we studied Jesus' baptism. This week we examine his temptation in the wilderness. These two episodes happen just before he starts his public ministry. There is a reason for this. His baptism and his temptation prepare Jesus to do his work. Because he passed the test of temptation Jesus has shown his ability to do what he must do. He must go to the cross. He must die a sacrificial death in order to fulfill the will of God. He must embody the love of God. He must pay for sins he did not commit so those who did (us among them) will respond to his love with love in return. Had he not died as the sinless Lamb of God the whole plan of God would not have come to fruition. But Jesus did pass the test. He did resist all temptation. He did not sin. When we believe in him, though we sin, by grace God accepts us.

Preachers usually use this passage to encourage “the flock” to resist temptation. Resisting temptation is part of the Christian life. Jesus, the Apostle Paul and James all urge this on believers in various parts of the New Testament. But the real point of the temptation of Christ is that he passed the test. He passed the test. Because he did, we can hope through him to have eternal life in his presence. He did not sin. He died for our sins. When we believe in him and confess our sins God forgives us.

Following Hurricane Katrina the thousands marooned in New Orleans became increasingly enraged as the days passed without rescue, or even delivery of the most basic human needs of food and above all, water. We see it again today in Haiti. Maybe you remember the news footage of crowds in New Orleans smashing store windows and stealing the food or clothing inside. (Of course, human nature being what it is, people also used the crisis as an excuse to steal televisions, jewelry and whatever else they could get their hands on.) How easy it was to condemn them as we watched from the safety of our homes. Which of us, when desperate, would resist the temptation to take what we must have, especially if by so doing we can feed our families? One man's story stands out. He took food from a grocery but left a signed note on the cash register. He detailed what he had taken, with the price for each item. He added his telephone number and address, and promised to pay the store back when the system made it possible for him to get access to cash. Weeks later the store owner contacted him. His entire stock had either been stolen or had rotted in the steamy Gulf Coast heat. He was going out of business. Someday the insurance company might repay him for his losses, or not, at that time he could not say. But he thanked this one man and told him, “I don't want your money.”

Even the best of us will, when wandering in the wilderness, give in to temptation. Most of us do not have the integrity to leave a note detailing our transgression. But God already knows it. Jesus has already paid the price for our sins, for our giving in to temptation. As the Bible tells us, “When we confess our sins God is faithful and just, and will forgive.” Jesus has already taken care of the bill. He has died in our place. God does not want our money. God does not want us to pay. God loves us so much he died for us.

By all means, try not to give in to temptation. But when you do, fear not. Leave a note. Confess your sin. Pray to God. Tell God what God already knows: how you have failed again to obey. But ask for forgiveness and it shall be yours. Jesus has passed the test. Because he has, we can live. We can live with peace in our hearts here and now, and we can live eternally with him. Rejoice!