Hilton Head Island, SC – Feb. 17, 2013
The Chapel Without Walls
Mark 1:1-13; Luke 4:1-13
A Sermon by John M. Miller
Text – And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. – Luke 4:13 (RSV)
Today is the first Sunday in Lent. Lent is the ecclesiastical “season” which goes from Ash Wednesday, which was last Wednesday, through Easter. During this time I will be preaching a series of sermons with the overall title of The Messiah Who Answers Questions. Today we are looking at The Answer to Temptation. Then, in turn, we will examine the answers to Our Greatest Need, to Exclusivity, to Being an Outsider, to Religious Excess, to Perverting God’s Kingdom, and finally, on Easter, the Answer to Death.
All of us are continually faced with questions as we journey through life. Some of them are very mundane: Shall I have dessert tonight, or not? What television program should I watch, if any? Shall I take a brisk walk, or sit in my chair and vegetate? But other questions are much more important, and the answers to those questions greatly affect how we live our lives. Those are the types of answers we need, especially when we are very uncertain of what the answers might be.
Today we are looking at the general topic of temptation, and how we can become the best equipped to deal with it. We see it presented in the temptation of Jesus before he began his public ministry. In seeing how he dealt with his own temptations, we can understand how we can better deal with whatever temptations may come our way.
In all three of the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), we are told that the devil came and tempted Jesus before he had even begun his public ministry. Up to that time, Jesus presumably had been working as a carpenter. Or at least that is what Mark tells us was Jesus’ occupation. Luke says that Jesus was about thirty when he began preaching and teaching. So for almost twenty years or so, from the time Jesus was twelve, when he made his appearance in the temple in Jerusalem described in Luke 2, until he was thirty, he was trying to decide specifically what God wanted him to do. When Jesus concluded God wanted him to start proclaiming the kingdom of God, it was precisely at that pivotal moment that Satan came to present three major temptations before him.
Many of you will know this, but some will not. Besides, it is worth repeating anyway. Scholars say the first Gospel written was Mark, the second was Matthew, the third Luke, and the fourth John. Presumably Mark got his information about Jesus from Peter, whoever wrote Matthew got his information from Mark and elsewhere, and Luke got his information from the Gospels of Mark and Matthew, and a lost Gospel which scholars call “Q.”
Regarding the temptation narrative, Mark addresses it in only 2 verses: “The Spirit immediately drove (Jesus) out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to him” (Mark 1:12-13). That’s all it says. But both Matthew and Luke devote thirteen verses to explain many details of the temptation. Curiously, or perhaps not so curiously, Luke says almost verbatim what Matthew says, although not in the same order. This is why the first three Gospels are called Synoptic Gospels. They follow the same basic synopsis, or time sequence. Typically, John says nothing at all about a temptation of Jesus in the desert.
Where did this temptation occur? If you stand on the ruins of ancient Jericho in the Jordan River valley, and look west, there is a narrow canyon which cuts sharply down into the bedrock of the Judean Desert. It is called Wadi Kelt. Up on the north side of the canyon wall, just before it ends at the Jordan Valley, a very old Greek Orthodox monastery is built into the limestone caves near the top of the canyon. It is located there because tradition says that is where Jesus was when he experienced his temptation. Of course no one can be certain, but a persuasive tradition declares that Jesus was up there, in those caves, or down in the desert valley, or as the Bible calls it, “the wilderness.” It is very easy to imagine that if Jesus was somewhere near the mouth of Wadi Kelt when he spent forty days by himself, with very little food or water, it is also easy to imagine that spiritually he would have gone through many temptations. It is so hot and dry there most of the year that it would be a very inhospitable and scary place. And because the traditional site for the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist is only a few miles away to the southeast, it is very plausible that somewhere in Wadi Kelt, to the west of the ancient city of Jericho, may have been the actual site for the temptation.
In both Matthew and Luke, there are three specific temptations, and they are virtually identical in each of these Gospels. Both state that before Satan appeared, Jesus had eaten nothing for forty days. (“Forty,” by the way, doesn’t necessarily literally mean forty; it just means a long time.) Each Gospel dryly notes that after not eating for a long time, Jesus was hungry. I mean no disrespect by this, but --- “Duh!” Of course he was hungry! He was no doubt ravenous.
First, a parenthesis. Fasting is an ancient religious practice. Jews do it in conjunction with their most important holidays, especially Yom Kippur. Muslims fast in the holy month of Ramadan. Catholics fast during Lent. It is believed that it brings the individual closer to God.
It is highly doubtful Jesus ate absolutely nothing for forty days. He would starve to death in less time than that if he ate no food at all. But he likely intentionally ate very little, and what he did eat would have been very meager; it was whatever he could find to eat in the desert, which would be very little.
Personally, I have never fasted. But I have read that for those who do fast, especially if they eat little over a prolonged period, eventually they naturally feel very light-headed. And that may be a major factor in why they fast. In their altered state, they may feel themselves to have a closer connection to God. Was it under those conditions that Jesus began to feel instead that he was being tempted by the devil? You can decide that for yourself.
It is not surprising what the first temptation was. Satan said to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” Jesus was famished, and wanting to eat some solid nourishment would readily enter his mind. Wadi Kelt, as every part of the Judean Wilderness, is littered with thousands of stones of varying sizes, millions of stones. Many of them look like loaves of bread. “Command this stone to become bread.”
Would it be so bad if Jesus did that? Why not? He was hungry! He literally was starving! If he had the divine power to turn a stone into bread, which many Christians automatically believe he did have, why shouldn’t he? But he answered the devil, quoting Deuteronomy 8:3, “Man shall not live by bread alone.” Food is important, it is even imperative for survival. Nevertheless, it is the spiritual food which comes from God that is much more important. Jesus knew he would soon have all the food he needed, now that his period of fasting was completed. Yet in this, as in all things, he needed to keep his eyes fixed on God.
That is true for all of us at all times. Our devotion to God must be uppermost in our minds and hearts. Have you ever been tempted to refrain from doing something you knew you should do, but didn’t want to do, and instead you did something you wanted to do and probably should not have done? Maybe you knew you should help someone in need, but to do that would be unpleasant or time-consuming or possibly unproductive, so you engaged in a pleasurable activity and let your responsibility slip away. Sometimes it is very hard to do what we know God wants, and very easy to do what we know we want. But Jesus tells us, by means of his first temptation, that we must put God’s will ahead of our own will. All of us are often tempted to put our own desires ahead of God’s designs for us, but we must succumb to being dependent on God rather than trying to become independent from God. The answer to temptation is not to give in to it. Rather it is to stay connected to God.
The second temptation by Satan was a very wily one. Luke says the devil showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, but doesn’t explain how Satan did that. Matthew says Satan took Jesus to a very high mountain so that he could get a good look at all these kingdoms. Either way, in this mentally and spiritually altered state, Jesus could easily sense the nature of this temptation. So the devil said, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory; for it has been delivered to me, and I will give it you. If you, then, will worship me, it shall all be yours.” As weakened as he was, however, Jesus did not fall for the demonic offer. He quoted Deuteronomy 6:13: “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.” Besides, Satan, whatever made you think you have the authority to give anyone power over all the nations of the world? Only God has that authority! And He shall keep the power unto Himself! He alone is God! Once again, Jesus deflected temptation by looking to God.
Sometimes we are all tempted to make more of ourselves and our abilities than is perhaps either wise or prudent. We overreach ourselves, supposing we, and only we, can accomplish certain things which we know need to be done. We insert ourselves into other people’s business, making their lives by our insertion more difficult than they already are. As a result of our pride, we may be inclined to bite off more than we can chew. It is a common human failing.
In the old Broadway musical Damn Yankees, a baseball fan named Joe Hardy traded his soul to the devil for the opportunity to lead the Washington Senators (back when there was a team known as the Senators) to defeat the New York Yankees for the American League title. Joe’s temptation was like that which faces many people. It’s all for the good of the cause, right? Use you skills for what seems like a good purpose. Go out and defeat the Yankees! Who could find fault with that? Surely no sensible person! But the answer to temptation is not to give in to it, and to stay connected to God.
The third temptation of Jesus was the most subtle, and therefore the most dangerous. The devil Jesus took Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem. We suppose that would be the highest location on the temple building itself, rather like the place on the Mormon temple in Salt Lake City where the statue of the angel Moroni stands. In Jerusalem, however, the actual temple building was constructed on a platform which was greatly enlarged centuries later by Herod the Great, the king who ruled at the time Jesus was born. The platform is about 800 yards long and 400 yards wide. What is known as “the pinnacle of the temple” is the southeast corner of the Temple Mount. A wall, about six feet high, goes all along the edge of the platform. At the southeast corner, it is a drop of about 100 to 150 feet straight down to the Kidron Valley below.
Satan said to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here; for it is written, ‘He will give his angels charge of you, to guard you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” It is from these purported statements of the Prince of Darkness that the oft-used expression originates, “The devil can quote scripture for his own purposes.” Specifically he was quoting Psalm 91, verses 11 and 12. I might add parenthetically that you or I also can twist holy writ to support our own cockamamie ideas. It happens all the time, if we are as well versed on the Bible as Satan presumably was. Maybe he became familiar with everything in the holy book because it gave him demonic pleasure to see all the places where he appeared in the lengthy biblical narrative.
But that is not the main theme of the third temptation. What Satan was trying to do was to tempt Jesus to force God to use His power in what God would consider to be a fraudulent usage. Satan wanted Jesus merely to wow the people rather than to woo and win them.
It is a common temptation of religious professionals to use powers of persuasion which rely on how they say something rather than on the basis of what they say. Many people are impressed more by the sizzle than by the steak, to apply an old metaphor, and therefore the religious personage may depend more on his or her personality than the nature of the actual message being conveyed. Satan knew that, but Jesus was not going to succumb. So he told the devil, “It is said, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God,’” quoting Deuteronomy 6:16. The answer to temptation is not to give in to it, and to stay connected to God.
However, there is a complication in this last scriptural quote by Jesus. It can be understood in two ways. Was Jesus implying that he, Jesus, was “the Lord your God” who should not be tempted, or was he saying that no one, including he himself, should tempt God to use His powers in an unacceptable manner? I think Jesus meant the latter notion. To throw himself off the pinnacle of the temple and thus coerce God into miraculously saving him would be an unworthy motive. This is not an issue of “What Would Jesus Do?” It is rather “What Would God Have Us Do?” And what He would have us do is not to yield to temptation.
Some of you may still be wondering if the whole episode of the temptation of Jesus at the beginning of his public ministry actually happened in reality, whatever those words might mean, or did it occur only in the mind of Jesus. You will have to decide that for yourself. Either way, we are meant to understand that as physically depleted as Jesus may have been by a forty-day fast, he still managed to keep his focus on God. Of all the people who ever lived, he always did that better than anyone else. Nevertheless, we too must keep our focus always on God. Should we fail to do so, we are much more likely to surrender to whatever comes along to tempt us.
What is the answer to temptation? It is always to look first to God, not to others, and especially not to ourselves. None of us is sufficient in ourselves to withstand the temptations we shall inevitably face. But when we know God is there to assist us, we, like Jesus, will get through it, however taxing it is. Thanks be to God.