Worship > Sermon Archive

The Reverend James Derkits

February 10, 2008

Lent I
Genesis 2.15-17; 3:1-7
Matthew 4:1-11
Jesus and the Tempter

Welcome to Lent. Our journey has begun toward the cross andresurrection of Jesus. We begin this journey by recalling how much we need Jesus, because without him we quickly give in to the temptations to live a sinful life. Today in our collect, we call on "Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan," to "Come to us who are assaulted by many temptations…"

Genesis takes us back to where it all began. We recall the encounter with that first temptation in our creation story, when the crafty serpent spins God's words, convincing Eve, then Adam to move away from God and breaks the harmony with which God created the cosmos. Today's reading stops before the humorous finger-pointing-blame-game Adam and Eve play after God discovers them…that blame game we still tend to play to explain to ourselves why we are caught up in the systems of sin.

But while Adam and Eve, our ancestors, gave us one way of dealing with Temptation, Jesus comes along and reminds us of how we were created to be: not giving in to those sins, no matter how crafty our tempter may be.

Jesus has just been baptized and revealed as God's Son, then goes to the wilderness, when the tempter comes to him, and invites him to do things that in any other context we might expect Jesus to do… And to add to the complexity of Jesus' ethical dilemma, the tempter uses scripture to back his requests. I mean, these could all be considered very good things. If we looked at this from just the right angle, and maybe didn't assume, for now, that this figure Jesus encounters is evil, we might be able to see what he is doing as, well if not good, then pretty okay:

In our story the character comes to Jesus, after his baptism, and refers to him as the Son of God! Well, maybe he does want to be sure, so he invites him to turn stones in to loaves of bread so that he can feed the hungry…

Then, this figure quotes scripture, and invites him to rely on the protection of angels, or to let God save the fallen.

Finally, realizing that this truly is the Son of God, he ushers him to a place where he can see the world, and encourages him to begin his triumphant reign over all kingdoms.

So, Jesus passes up the invitation from a Bible quoter to feed the hungry, save the fallen, and reign over the world.

The problem, which Jesus sees of course, with the invitations from this character is that they are on his terms, not God's, and he is asking Jesus to serve himself or to be served, when we see from the rest of the Gospel that he came to serve, not to be served.

Jesus does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. What the devil is doing is called proof-texting. He takes a particular quote from scripture and uses it to support whatever his own idea is. We have all probably experienced this from someone, and it is likely we have done it ourselves. We need justification, so we take a quote out of the fuller context of the Biblical story, and focus so much on one little line, that we convince ourselves we are right, says so in the Bible. It's that simple.

But many of us quickly learn that the Bible can speak to us in a simple way, through childlike faith, but the rich story of the Bible is truly complex, and the Spirit helps us grow in our understanding over a lifetime.

Proof-texting seeks to short-cut that relationship with Scripture, like the tempter tried to short-cut Jesus reign over the kingdoms. Using scripture out of context to support our own ideas quickly becomes dangerous, it leads to abusing scripture, and can lead us to using bits of the Bible to perpetuate sin in the world. In more recent times, the tempter misled the Nazi Theologians supporting the extermination of Jews; American clergy and churchgoers who found "Biblical" justification for the evil institutions of slavery and segregation; and in South Africa, the Apartheid Theologians that again supported racist destruction of a society. These systems of separation of humanity, breaking up, making enemies out of fellow creatures are what the tempter offers to all of us. Opportunities for serving ourselves and deriving a false power over others, even the ability to rule over nations…but that is not what we were created for. That is not the example Jesus lives for us.

Desmond Tutu addressed the South African Council of Churches during Apartheid saying, "The Bible describes God as creating the Universe to be a cosmos and not a chaos, a Cosmos in which harmony, unity, order, fellowship, communion, peace and justice would reign and that this divine intention was disturbed by sin." …Those are powerful words to remember this first week of Lent. He is remembering that sin is the disruption to God's order. Sin is the falling away from God's loving order in the universe. Bishop Tutu resisted the temptation to make enemies, and saw even those who were oppressors in South Africa as his fellow creatures. He knew, and acted as if God loved them, too.

When we think of sin, it is easy to jump to a list of things we have done, or not done. And that can certainly be helpful, especially when we are starting on our Christian journey. But it is also the case that the tempter is crafty, and can spin things so that they seem to us, by ourselves to be good. The tempter did it with Adam and Eve, and tried it with Jesus. We can also be the tempter of ourselves, coming up with clever schemes to justify our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and actions toward others.

We were created "in the beginning" to be in harmony with the world and with humanity, and sin has gotten in the way of that. Yet, Jesus offers the new model to follow. He has come to undo that faux pas committed in the Garden, and he has come not only to set the example, but to give us his life so that we can live as he lived: Feeding others, lifting up the fallen, and helping God's Kingdom to come on earth…and all that for God, and all that through the cross, not taking the tempter's shortcuts.

Sin is a tricky thing. And preaching about it is not what enticed me into the priesthood. Fortunately, Jesus gives us a clear way out: through his cross and resurrection, through our baptism into his life, through his example and by hearing All of God's Word, not just the parts we want to use to justify our own motives.

Jesus came to serve, not to be served. The church is here to serve not to be served. Tutu also said "the very existence of the church is a denial of the artificial and ideological separation of people." Our very existence in the world tramples the tempter underfoot. Our existence is to be a sign of God's created harmony in the world, and we are all called to be reconcilers of all of God's people, as Jesus was a reconciler.

Welcome to Lent, and the journey to the cross and resurrection, through which our sin is overcome, by which we are free to be in Christ and Christ in us and Christ in all the other Creatures around us. We are not in this alone: Almighty God come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations, and let each one find you mighty to save. Amen.

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