“

Luke 4:1-11, The Rev. Dr. Robert G. Walker,  LENT  I, Year C, February 21, 2010                      

Get the picture.  Lucy and Charlie Brown, “Peanuts” characters, are standing somewhere in a torrential rain storm with their little rain coats and rain hats on.  Lucy says, “It’s raining so hard that I’m afraid the whole world will be flooded again like it was in the Bible.”  Charlie Brown says to her, “Don’t worry.  It says in Genesis that God will not flood the world again.  That’s why we have a rainbow in the sky, as part of God’s promise.”  Lucy says, “That makes me feel so very comfortable.”  And Charlie Brown says, “Sound theology has a way of doing that.”  And Schultz’s comic strip character was right on target.  Today’s Gospel from St. Luke leads us into a theological place that is very comforting.

You’re familiar with the story.  It’s the narrative about Jesus’ being tempted by the devil  in the wilderness for forty days and forty nights.  I think a good way for us to look at this narrative, and its counterpart in the Gospel of Matthew, is to see it as a picture.  We have a painting in our home that my great-grandfather painted.  It’s a scene that he remembered from his youth in Norway, and we cherish it.   But the painting, the picture, is not the place.  It represents the place; it reminds us of the place; but it’s not the place.  That’s a way for us to view the Temptation of Jesus.  The events happened, but not necessarily as either Gospel writer described.  For instance, there is no place in all of Israel, or anywhere else, for that matter, where all the kingdoms of the world can be viewed.  That’s an example of what I mean.  Christ’s temptation was no less real because of that little technicality, but it probably didn’t happen the way the accounts reflect.  And the two accounts differ.  Luke’s account has Satan tempting Jesus throughout the whole forty days.  Matthew’s version has Jesus fasting for that period, so that Jesus was famished at the end of the time, and then Satan begins his tempting offers.  I like Matthew’s account better, but today we have Luke.  See the picture.

Jesus’ going into the wilderness and fasting and praying for forty days was probably not intended to be a time of testing --- at least, not on Jesus’ part.  But let’s not forget that He was fully human as well as being fully divine.  Temptation comes to all humans.  His being divine, though, added another measure to the mix, because He was tempted to take short cuts that would have hurried up the coming of the Kingdom of God.  The shortcuts, though, would also have been a prostitution of the powers that Jesus had.

Jesus was out there in the wilderness, and He had to be famished from the lack of food.  I think Satan always tries to take advantage of our weakness of the moment, and this time was certainly no different.  An immediate solution to a personal problem would have been to use the powers --- the divine powers --- that Jesus had and turn a stone into a loaf of bread.  Eat the bread, and then deal with the devil.  But no;  turning stones into bread would have been a heavenly solution to a broader earthly problem, the problem of hunger in the world, a problem that’s still with us.  That would have been a short cut.  It also would have gone against what Jesus believed and said, that human beings don’t just live by the food in their stomachs.  No, the word of God has something to say about that.

Maybe it wasn’t Satan that was testing Jesus.  Maybe it was His humanity confronting His divinity, and that could really test Jesus in ways that another being could not.  After all, He DID have the divine powers.  He COULD take shortcuts.  What would have been so wrong about turning stones into bread, so that all the people everywhere would have something to eat.  After all, hadn’t God provided manna from heaven for the Israelites as they wandered in the wilderness?  And the Kingdom of God is going to come in its fullness sometime.  Why not then?  Why have people go through all that life on a daily basis would hold, and then at some unknown point have it all set aside anyway, because the Kingdom was coming?  Just speed it up.  And who said that Satan had all that power anyway, and that it could be doled out as he might choose?  God’s in charge of everything, so a nod of the head and a crossing of the fingers really wouldn’t matter in the long run.

The idea of going ahead and claiming all political power in the whole world would certainly put Jesus in a position to usher in the anticipated coming Kingdom of God.  But that would have been a shortcut, and Jesus reminded Himself (and Satan?) that we are to worship God alonee COULD take shortcuts.He

, and a nod of the head wouldn’t change that.

People can be so blasé about things, and sometimes especially religion.  Why not shake them up with some magic?  Jumping off of the pinnacle of the Temple in Jerusalem and being caught before He hit the ground would surely catch people’s attention.  They would be fascinated by all the different things He could do if He really put His mind to it, and then people would be brought “on board” in the issues of faith.  But Jesus again reminded Himself that God should not be tested, and He knew that He and the Father were one.  His temptations, even if they originated with Him rather than another being called Satan, was a tempting of God, and that would not be.

So, Jesus resisted these temptations.  He refused to take shortcuts.  He refused to do what God the Father would not do.  And in His resisting these temptations, He was empowered to resist another and much more crucial one.

Lent is a season that points us toward a cross on a hill outside of Jerusalem, and an empty tomb.  That cross meant that you and I have been given the promise of salvation, because Jesus took our sins with Him to die with Him on that cross.  But before He was so cruelly crucified, He spent time in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane.  One of His prayers was, “Father, let this cup be removed from Me.  Nevertheless, not My will, but Thine, be done.”

That was a powerful temptation, to walk out of the Garden and away from what He knew then would be happening.  To avoid all of the pain and the suffering and the humiliation, He could have walked away.  But He didn’t!!!  He had resisted temptation early on in His ministry, and that gave Him the courage and the strength to resist temptation toward the end of His earthly ministry.  Because of that strength and that courage, you and I have a Godly promise.  That’s the promise of grace and forgiveness.  That’s the promise that we call the Good News of the Gospel.  That’s the message of salvation that we are encouraged to proclaim and to share.  That promise makes me feel so comfortable.  As Charlie Brown said, “Sound theology has a way of doing that.”

But being comfortable in our faith isn’t enough.  As Dr. Leon Spencer reminded us two weeks ago, there are things to do that our faith leads us to.  We can’t forget all of those who hunger and thirst, especially those in Haiti at this time, and others around the world at all times.  We can’t forget those who are not covered by insurance in our own country.  We can’t forget those who are threatened or discriminated against or actually physically abused because of their skin color or their sexual orientation.  We can’t forget those who have discounted or ignored the promise that we have received in the Gospel, the promise that makes us feel comfortable in the first place.  The Gospel impels concern.  We are limited only by our imaginations as to where our concern takes us.  Kathy Hykes led us in a series about “Radical Hospitality” in Adult Forum.  Bishop Curry has emphasized again and again his hope for radical hospitality to be exercised in the diocese.

Since Christ died for us, we ask what we can do for others.  We reach out in loving response to the gift that has been given to us, and we care.  That’s where the Good News of the coming Easter takes us.  And we are thankful.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.