Lent 1 (Year C)

17-2-2013

Pastor Lester Priebbenow

Tackling Temptation

Luke 4:1-13

1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread."
4 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'People do not live on bread alone.'"
5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours."
8 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.' "
9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written: "'He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; 11 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'"
12 Jesus answered, "It is said: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.' " 13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

Most people in our society probably don't think of temptation as such a big deal.

Temptation is used all the time in advertising to make us believe that products - from insurance to take away foods - are desirable for us to have. In fact, being tempted is often glamorized in the media as a very desirable, even pleasurable thing. Temptation adds excitement and suspense to the many television quiz shows.

So why is temptation such a big deal for Christians? When the Bible talks about temptation it is a big deal! It is important enough for Jesus to teach us to include in our daily prayers, "Lead us not into temptation." It is important because, when God talks about temptation, he isn't just talking about the temptation to buy, or eat, or win, but to sin. He's talking about God's children being tempted to willingly accept or tolerate attitudes or behaviours other than those given by God in his Word. He's talking about things serious enough to undermine and destroy our eternal relationship with God.

As a child of God, whenever I choose to give in to temptation I also choose to reject or neglect the will of God in favour of my own will, or that of the devil. I choose to take God off his rightful spot as Lord of my life and put something else there; myself or the devil. I choose to align myself with the very thing that separates mankind from our gracious God; i.e. sin. I choose not to take seriously what my Saviour Jesus Christ came to do for me in his living, dying and rising again. I choose not to listen to the Word of God but the voice of the devil who wants to destroy my relationship with God, now and eternally.

That is why Jesus chose, very early in his earthly ministry, to tackle the devil and this issue of temptation head on. He came to identify himself with every kind of temptation common to humankind and to show his victory over both the temptation and the tempter himself. In the wilderness conflict, Jesus allows himself to enter into the three types of temptation – from 'the unholy trinity' of the devil, the world and the sinful self. Jesus' temptation first highlights the temptations that come to us from the desires of our human nature.

Now we know that Jesus had no 'sinful self', but he did agree to share our human nature, its sin, its desires and its temptations. Hebrews 4 reminds us that he was 'tempted in every way, just as we are'. Some of our temptations come from the desires of our naturally sinful hearts. Some desires of the human nature are God-given and are there to fulfil basic human needs, like hunger or the need for intimacy. Those God-given, good human desires, however, can also fall into the wrong hands and lead us astray.
Hunger, for example, is good when it reminds us that our body needs to be fed. Sometimes, however, hunger leads people to steal. Sometimes it leads to greed and gluttony. In the case of Jesus, hunger could have led him to elevate his need for daily bread above his need for obedience to the Word of God. After fasting for 40 days, the devil reminded him that, as God's Son, he had the power to turn any one of the many desert stones into bread; and he could have easily done so!

Both Jesus and the devil know that our human nature can also lead us into sin; how easily we elevate our 'daily bread' desires above our obedience to his Word; and how easily we allow the devil to spiritualize the temptation to fulfil those desires, even using Scripture as his proof. We can say, "I've prayed about this," or "I believe God is telling me...," when God's Word says we are acting against God's will.

In the desert Jesus accepted the temptation to give in to the desire of his human nature and then resisted it on our behalf, saying, "It is written: 'People do not live on bread alone."

Jesus' temptation highlights the temptations that come to us from the second member of the 'unholy trinity' – the world. Luke writes: The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours." In effect he was saying to Jesus, "You're doing this the hard way; going to a cross to redeem the world. I can show you an easier way. It's all yours for the asking – in exchange for 'a bit' of allegiance.

The temptation to 'worldliness' – to live by the ways of the world and to live for things in the world - is a huge temptation for us. Right at the heart of this temptation is the worship of a different ruler, one whom Bible calls 'the prince of this world' – Satan himself. He pretends he owns it and likes us to think it can be ours if only we fall for his story.

How easily we can also get things upside down; thinking someone other than God owns the world and our lives; giving our allegiance to the things of this world; calling world's opinions 'right' and God's values 'wrong'. Worldliness dethrones God as the rightful owner of everything and bows in worship to 'the prince of this world'. We find the world, its ways and its things hard to resist, but thankfully Jesus resisted it our behalf, saying, "It is written, 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'"
Jesus' temptation also highlights the temptations that come to us from the third member of that 'unholy trinity' – the devil himself. St. Peter writes that the devil "prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (with temptation). He has many tricks and clever reasoning to turn our desires into sin. He whispers in our ear and uses phrases such as, "just a little bit won't hurt you; just this one time; you deserve it; everybody else is doing it; it can't hurt you; they did it to you first; get with the times; or, you're too busy for that."

In Jesus' case it was, "Come on, show us what you're made of. Show everyone you're the Son of God. Jump off the temple spire and then call on the angels to come and usher you to safety. That will not only prove you are God's Son, but also that the Scriptures are true. It's got to be worth it. You could really do with the publicity right now."

But Jesus knew it wasn't God's will. So he resisted, saying, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.' St. Peter also advises we who are in Christ, "resist him, standing firm in the faith" (1 Peter 5:9). We can't do that alone, but Jesus did it for us.

What are we to do with all this? Sometimes we may be tempted to think something like this, "Jesus forgives me for all my sins, so I don't have to work too hard at resisting temptation." Or, at the other end of the scale, we may be tempted to work really hard – by ourselves – to rid our lives of every temptation so that we don't fall into sin. In doing so, we will be constantly annoyed at the loopholes that the devil, the world and our sinful flesh can find to make us fall into sin.

There is a better way! Remember Jesus as the conqueror of temptation; in the desert, in his life, in his death, in his resurrection and forever. Remember that Jesus was tempted in every way like we are and did not sin, so now we can approach his throne of grace to help us in our every need (Hebrews 4). Remember that Jesus gave his victory over temptation to us in baptism, to carry with us into our life, our death, our resurrection and forever. Remember, he promises that we are "more than conquerors through Christ who loved us," – conquerors of everything, including temptation.

Jesus gives us every reason to stand firm in the face of temptation. To be wary, watchful, and well-armed with spiritual armour, especially 'the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.' In Jesus, the Holy Spirit gives us the power to stand firm where the devil, the world or our human nature might otherwise lead us to fall. Now, "in him", "with him" and "for him" we can also confidently tackle temptation and win.