I had an impossible task. After having preached Ash Wednesday, I needed to have another sermon ready to go for Sunday. And then to make matters more complicated, I was heading to Northern Virginia to witness one of my friends and classmate, Kevin, be ordained a transitional deacon. There were also several others who I knew and admired in the ordinands, so this was a party I wanted to attend. And I did not want to have to carry my laptop with me or do any work whatsoever while visiting with my friends. Fortunately, the First Sunday in Lent is always the story of Jesus being tempted in the desert, and I have preached on this topic before. Also, I ran across a great story in one of my commentary sources that I knew would be a winner. So, God presented a sane way forward for me to write this sermon on the Thursday before Sunday. And I could travel unencumbered by a laptop. Excellent!
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As I was preparing for this sermon and doing some reading about our Gospel passage, I came upon this wonderful story that I think captures some key points in what Luke wants us to hear about Jesus.
This story was one shared by Lori Hale, who is a professor and a theologian at a Lutheran university in Minnesota. Her almost four year-old son had attended the children’s liturgy at their church on the First Sunday in Lent. The teacher had focused on this text from Luke in the lesson plan for the morning. Her son asked: “Mom, what do you know about the devil?”
Now…we’re talking about a religion professor and one who has done deep theological dives into the nature of good and evil…temptation…and all those hard, heady questions about why do bad things happen to good people. And so she answered her son in her best professor mom way:
“What do you know about the devil?”
Her son began to break down the text for her.
“Well…he spoke to Jesus.”
Ahhh, good, she thought. He was listening.
“And the devil was mean…”
Professor Hale’s mind immediately went into the academic realm of deciphering that connection between being “mean” and being “evil.” But before she could get too far along, her son gave her an example of what he meant. He leaned in close to his mom, and dropped his voice to a loud whisper…
“If we were at a store, and you and Dad were in one aisle, and I was in another aisle, and”…he dropped his voice down to emphasize the secrecy of this tense moment“ and there was candy . . .” He paused for dramatic effect. “The devil would say, ‘You should take some!’”
Now Professor Hale was satisfied that her young son had mastered the temptation part of the lesson. And she was curious to see if he had picked up on anything else. So she prompted him a little bit.
“Honey, if we were at a store, and Dad and I were in one aisle, and you were in another aisle, and there was candy, and the devil said, ‘You should take some!’ What would you say back to the devil?”
The child’s face lit up in a sweet grin. “Oh! I would say thank you!”
OK. So the good professor’s son didn’t give the answer she would have wanted. And yet his answer was so truthful and honest. And if we are being truthful and honest…we’d probably do the same thing.
What she was HOPING to hear…and what Luke would like for us to hear…is that Jesus said “Yes” to God and “No” to the world. Or “No” to all those things that exist in our world that are those bright, shiny objects that say: wouldn’t you be happier if you’d just….fill-in-the-blank…indulge in some vice, seek power over others, live as if you are the only thing that matters on planet earth. As our presiding bishop likes to say, “The opposite of love is not hate; it’s self-centeredness.”
Self-centeredness is what pulls us apart from one another. It makes us deaf to each other. I can’t care what’s happening to you if I’m only staring into a mirror and talking to myself…and listening to myself give me only the answers I want to hear.
What is striking to me about Jesus’ ability to say No to all of what the tempter lays before him is that all of his answers are drawn from texts in the Book of Deuteronomy.
The devil says, “You’re famished, Jesus. Turn these stones into bread.”
Jesus pulls from the eighth chapter of Deuteronomy to say, “One does not eat by bread alone.”
The devil comes back at him with ruling over all things, amassing wealth and empires. Jesus turns to chapter six of Deuteronomy: “Worship the Lord your God and serve only him.”
The devil tries one more time…and even attempts to play Jesus’ scripture quoting game by using the words of Psalm 91 to get him to hurl himself from the pinnacle of the Temple. Instead, Jesus answers him with some more verses from Deuteronomy Chapter 6.
The significance of Jesus quoting from Deuteronomy is that the fifth book of the Jewish Torah is Moses’ words to all the people of Israel.
The parts that Jesus turns to in Deuteronomy are the chapters in which Moses is…again…calling on the people of Israel to stand by one of their most sacred sayings: the Shema:
“Hear O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”(Deut.6:4-5)
In Deuteronomy…Moses implores Israel to be obedient to God…remember the One who has been with the people from the very beginning of time. Jewish midrash suggests that ‘“you must love the Lord” means that we do God’s commandments out of love. To do them “with all our heart” challenges us to do it with both our good and evil inclinations’ (Midrash,39).
In Jesus’ testing by the tempter…he shows that he has mastered any evil inclination that might have been lingering in his human heart. And thus, demonstrates for us that it is possible to say “No thanks,” instead of “Oh thank you!” temptation. It’s not easy, and so that’s why we start each service of Lent with the reciting of the Decalogue and begin with the confession of sin, to help us as we journey with Jesus toward the cross.
I wondered as I thought about this passage about that conversation Jesus was having with Moses and Elijah at the time of the transfiguration on the mountain top. We read these bits of Scripture out of order…and in fact…the transfiguration happens a little later than this moment of temptation in the desert.
But it made me think that maybe Moses was not only giving Jesus a pep talk for the next part of his mission, but also giving him confirmation that if he continues to abide by the teachings he quoted so readily and truthfully…he has what he needs to face the challenges of Jerusalem.
Perhaps we should take that in for ourselves.
With regular prayer and especially during this season of Lent…the reminders of the basics as found in the Decalogue…we can begin to fix our hearts, our minds, and our strength on the One source of all our being. With that energy filling up our souls, we can face the devils, the demons, and the powers and principalities that are looking for that “opportune time” to cut us down…distract us…and derail us from living in peace and love with one another.
In the name of God…F/S/HS.
