Tempted Not To Be

Matthew 4.1-11

Russ Dean, February 17, 2002

 

The Apostle Paul encouraged the church at Corinth, ANo testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone,@ (1 Cor. 10.13). Temptation is universal (all people). Ubiquitous (everywhere). Unique (individual). But temptation is not useless. Temptation is a proving ground for the grace of God.

Through the years temptation has been regarded as the work of the “dark side.” Like Geraldine, the character played by the late comedian, Flip Wilson, we abdicate our responsibility and cry “The devil made me do it.” But if evil can inject its venom into life’s tapestry through temptation, how much more can the pervasive and penetrating Love of God weave its healing threads into those same experiences?

The English word, Atempt@ means, Ato draw into a wrong or foolish course of action.@[1] (). Yet this is hardly the biblical definition. In the Greek, the word connotes a call or invitation to a good outcome. Peirazo means Ato make proof of, to test, to attempt.@ Its root denotes Aa trial or an experiment.@ (peira, #3984)

Each day is new. Each day has opportunity. Each day is truly open to decision. Mark’s Gospel says that when Jesus went into the wilderness to be tempted, he was there AWith the wild beasts.@ (Mark 1.13) In the world “where the wild things are” there are plenty of temptations, but perhaps the greatest temptation for Christians in a so-called “Christian culture,” is to be Tempted Not To Be. Not to be tempted. Not to be tested. Not to be tried. Elton Trueblood once said that you can live you whole life as an American Christian and never know if you really are Christian or not.

What about you? Do you only pray, “lead me not into temptation?”

1) Christ was tempted because he was human. In this “incarnation” is our hope. For some quasi-human, spirit-person, to walk through the valley of the shadow and come out unscathed would be no great help to us, would it? We expect the divine to defeat evil, but not one of us!? In his humanity Jesus was faced with three opportunities, and in his response to each, he showed us a better way.

ATurn these stones into bread,@ said the Tempter. How many hungry mouths could you feed if you could make all of the stones of Israel into bread? The real temptation is to believe that God has not already provided enough grain for the children of the earth. But there has always been plenty of bread. The shortage is in compassion, so Jesus refused to be an economic savior.

In the second place, the devil took Jesus to the temple: AGo up to the top of the steeple there, and jump down. When the angels save you, the watching world will believe.@ For those of us who love the church and are devoted to its cause, there is great temptation here. But there is no salvation in religion, or its miracles, so Jesus refused to be a messiah of miracles.

The final attempt on Jesus= integrity was the temptation to power. “Bow to me, and I will give you all of the kingdoms…” But God did not call the children of Israel, or the children of America, to be a light to the nations through their strength. There is only one power in the world, and in his refusal, again and again, he became “Lord” only of Love.[2]

Jesus knew that the answer to the world=s temptations was not by way of the spectacular, whether through economics, or religion, or politics… no, the answer was there in the palm of his hand. It was skin. Flesh. Blood and bone of a humanity that was willing to walk bravely through a gauntlet of bewildering beasts and come out on the other side holding tightly to the hand of God. Look at your hands. What do you see? Flesh! Flesh. Just like his.

Christ was tempted because he was human. Are you Tempted Not To Be?

2. Christ was tempted because of his baptism. It is not coincidental that this episode in the wilderness follows on the heels of his baptism. Baptism is still an ordination to service. Only when Jesus came out of these waters was his mission sealed. It was through his baptism, a visible commitment to an invisible kingdom, that he saw a sign and heard a voice. Baptism still has that power.

Hugh Ashcraft and Ryan Jackson, and all of us who bear the mark of the water, have been ABuried with Christ in the likeness of his death… and raised to walk in the newness of life.@ But the question is where? To walk where in new life? And the answer that Jesus’ life shows is that in our humanity, we are called to walk where he walked: through the deep, dark valley.[3] Into the heart of testing and trial. We have been called out of the darkness and into God’s wonderful light, but you can be sure that we have also been ordained in baptism to march right back into that darkness, spreading light as we go. God does not save us to sit in comfortable pews and sing favorite hymns, but to go back to the sad and lonely and dark places and to give away hope! God has not called us to comfort and status quo, but to revolution.

Christ was tempted because of his baptism. Are you Tempted Not To Be?

3. Christ was tempted because he was led there -- into temptation. Being led into temptation sounds like a word of weakness, and it can mean that. We are, sometimes, led by someone or something to someplace where we ought not be. But the greatest temptations in life are not those temptations to “sin,” but the temptations, as Christ faced, to do “good” for the wrong reason. Which will we choose? Bread, and miracle, and power, or service and sacrifice? We will not choose his way of service and sacrifice, unless, like him, accepting our own humanity and confirmed by our own baptism, we are led by the Spirit into that life of temptation: good for good. Which will we choose?

Christ was tempted because he was led there. Are you Tempted Not To Be?

Have you been tempted? Have you been tested? Have you really ever put your faith on the line to show that it matters to you? What about this church? Has Park Road Baptist Church been tried? Will we be?

As we move forward, it is our challenge as a church. Will we be comfortable where we are? Or will we dare to be led by the spirit into a wilderness of complicated questions and issues? Of challenges, not between good and bad, but between good and better. Or between better and best. Will we be led into this kind of temptation?

            My friend, Kyle Matthews, has written these powerful lyrics:

If we were not taught to teach,

If we were not sought to seek,

If we were not helped to help,

If we were not told to tell,

If [God has] not forgiven us

To let mercy live in us

So [God] could love through us once more

Then Lord, what in the world

Have you saved us for?

Kyle Matthews

Too many Christians in this world know exactly what they’re saved from. But, tell me Hugh and Ryan and Bill and Buck, and Sara and Marjorie……….. what has God really saved you for?

 

God forgive us when we pray “Lead us not into temptation,” when what we mean by that is just “O God, keep us safe and comfortable!”[4]

Clothed in your own flesh, and bathed in the water of Christ=s baptism, you are as prepared as he was to be led by the Spirit. Unless, of course, you are Tempted Not To Be.

            May it not be so. Amen![5]

 

 

 

PASTORAL PRAYER

 

Gracious and Loving God

        advocate and adversary,

               we need your presence

                       we need your peace

                               we need your touch of Grace.

 

As we walk this lonesome road which is called Lent

        cause us to reflect with sober judgement on

        our lives and their extravagance

               let us see images of children, dirty, hungry and afraid

               and let us see in them Christ, crying in their midst;

                       let us see images of people torn by the ravages of war

                       and let us see in them Christ, sharing their fears;

                               let us see beggars and the homeless wandering the streets aimlessly

                               and let us see in them Christ, with an outstretched hand;

                       let us see people torn by the hate and division of racial injustice

                       and let us see in them Christ, broken with humiliation and anger;

               let us see people who by disease, lifestyle, education and economic status

               are deemed outcast, by those of us in power;

        and let us see in them Christ, crying drops of blood

        for a people with ears, who refused to hear.

Forgive us O God when we do not see

        Forgive us more when we cannot.

O God, this Lenten Sunday let these reflections seep into our selves,

        deeper than the mind of our awareness,

               and into the depth of our very souls,

                       and from there may they spring up a well of life:

                               giving conscience to our thoughts,

                               giving compassion to our religion,

                               giving depth and meaning to our faith.

 

O God, this season of Lent as we contemplate and reflect and consider

        the actions of Jesus --

               our friend,

               our Lord,

               our Christ,

remind us that what we do

        and all that we fail to do

               to "the least" in our midst

        we have done

               and failed

                       of Him.

 

Lead us this day, into the wilderness of temptation

        that we might be tried and true,

                through Christ, Amen