These
verses we just read are often called the Temptation of Jesus. Think about that word “temptation”. Have you ever tried to define it? Have you ever thought about what it is that
makes temptation so hard to resist?
To
me, a “temptation” is when we have the chance to do something that when we
really want to do, but which we know is wrong.
That can happen in a lot of ways.
They don’t all necessarily have to do with sin. After we’re done here, I’m going to go have
coffee with you and I’m going to be tempted to eat something I know I should
not eat. I won’t be sinning if I eat it,
but I will be eating something that’s not particularly good for me and will
cause me to gain weight.
That’s
one kind of temptation. But there are
lots of others. We can be tempted to be
lazy, to not do things we know we should do because those things would take
effort or work and we just don’t feel like doing that. We can be tempted to be selfish, to keep
things for ourselves rather than sharing them.
There
are lots of other ways we can be tempted.
The point is, though, that the things that tempt us look very attractive
to us at the time. Temptations attack us
at our weakest points. Temptations lead
us to focus on short-term pleasure rather than long-term satisfaction.
Look
at the things Jesus was tempted to do in our reading for today. Turn stones into bread. Jesus had been fasting for forty days. He was very hungry, obviously. Bread, or any kind of food for that matter,
would’ve been really welcome. It
would’ve given Jesus a lot of pleasure, in the short-term, to have something to
eat. But Jesus did not fast for forty
days because he could not afford food.
He fasted to prepare himself for the start of his ministry. He fasted to get ready for what was coming
next in his life. Cheating on that,
turning stones into bread, would’ve destroyed the whole purpose of why he had
fasted in the first place.
Throw
yourself down from the temple. The
angels will protect you. That would’ve
been a really cool thing for Jesus to do, you know? Think how awesome that would be to throw
yourself down from the temple and land gracefully without a bruise or even a
scratch. Everybody would’ve seen
it. Word would’ve spread instantly. Think of all the people who would’ve come to
believe in Jesus as the Son of God, just like that. No need to go around and work miracles. No need to preach. No need to think up parables. This one act would’ve been all Jesus needed
to make thousands of people believe in him.
It
would’ve given Jesus a lot of pleasure, in the short term, to have that
happen. But Jesus knew that was not the
way it was supposed to be. He also knew
that people who came to believe in him that way would not be true
believers. They would not understand who
he was or why he had come or how they should live their lives. They would’ve just come to believe because of
the spectacle. And that was not the kind
of followers Jesus wanted. Jesus did not
want people who just believed in him because he was powerful or because he was
a celebrity. He wanted people who were
willing to serve others as Jesus served them.
He wanted people who would follow him all the way, even when that way
led to the cross.
You
can have control over all the world.
That must’ve been the hardest one of all. Because if Jesus could control the whole
world, think of all the good he could do.
He could cure all diseases. He
could feed all the hungry. He could stop
all injustice. The world would be
good. It would be right. It would be as it should be. It had to be very tempting to Jesus to do
that. It would’ve given Jesus a lot of
pleasure, in the short-term, to be able to make that happen.
But to do that, Jesus would’ve had to worship
Satan. In other words, to do that, Jesus
would’ve had to give up being who he was, the Son of God.
And
that, really, is the point. When we give
in to the temptation to sin--and I’m not talking about eating an extra cookie
or something, I’m talking about serious sin--when we give in to the tempation
to sin, we’re giving up being who we are.
You
and I are God’s children. As I’ve said
before, there’s nothing we can do to make God stop loving us. But when we give in to the temptation to sin,
when we commit serious sins as Jesus was tempted to do, we are no longer acting
like God’s children, just as Jesus would not have been acting like the Son of
God if he had given in to Satan.
The
thing is, of course, that we are not Jesus.
We are fallen, sinful people. As
Paul said, each person is a sinner. Each
of us has times when we do not act like God’s children.
That’s
why this time of year is so important.
Because this is Lent. This is the
time we confess our sins to God and ask for God’s forgiveness. When we do that--when we’re serious about it
and do it--we receive God’s forgiveness.
And then, even though we have not acted like God’s children, we can
claim to be God’s children again. Not
because we deserve to make that claim, but because God forgives us and purifies
us and allows us to call ourselves God’s children even when we don’t deserve to
be.
Temptations
are hard to resist. Sometimes we cannot
do it. But if we ask for God’s
forgiveness, God will give that forgiveness to us. So let’s ask for God’s forgiveness. And lets again be able to call ourselves
God’s children.
No comments:
Post a Comment