(Matthew 4: 1-11; Genesis 2: 15-17, 3: 1-7)
Apparently there’s a bumper sticker that reads, “Lead me not into temptation: I will find it myself!” If we live in this world, we are tempted everyday. From moment to moment we are bombarded with things we might do or not bother doing, items to purchase, people or objects to covet, shortcuts to take, behaviours or desires to indulge. We are very good at explaining to ourselves why it’s not so bad, or why this time will be different, or why this will be the last time.
I’d like to take a few seconds now for all of us to think about things that tempt us ... Thinking such things, even in church, is not a sin; thinking about such things proves that we are normal, that we are human. There is no way to avoid these wishes, wants and wonderings.
I will go on the record here to say that I do not believe in the Devil. Not the red-faced, goatee-wearing, double-horned, pointy-tailed, pitchfork-carrying demon of fire and sulphur. I think it’s an easy cop-out for us to blame the evils of the world, and in our lives, on the work of a supernatural being.
Within each of us, we have the lure of temptations, our fears and insecurities, our self-rationalizations. This is where our so-called devil comes from, and when we turn to Satan, the Lord Prince of Darkness, or whatever other titles the movies come up with, we deny the real source of our troubles. This is a little heavier than what I usually come up with, but personal accountability is something that needs to be emphasized in our day and age. Besides, I’m not finished yet; there is always a message of hope that emerges.
After forty days and forty nights of fasting, Jesus was famished. In this hunger, he found the devil offering the things he wanted most. And in finding the devil, Jesus found himself and he knew that God was there too.
For the longest time I used to think of God as a puppet master setting out every single little detail of my little farm boy existence. And I would wonder why God made me pull my brother’s hair, or throw that rock, or make my sister cry, or not practice my piano lessons. I would face an obviously a wrong thing to do, but because I did it anyway, it must have been because God made me.
I grew up with a God of power and might, where there was nothing that God couldn’t do. It’s in our hymns, it’s in the Bible, God is all knowing and all-powerful. So God surely has the power to cure cancer in someone I love, or prevent a traffic accident, or feed that homeless person, or stop a rape from happening. But when these tragedies happen anyway, despite our efforts to pray, live a good life, it makes God seem random and arbitrary. Cruel even.I hadn’t yet heard of the riddle that wondered if God could create a rock so big and heavy that even he couldn’t lift it? Many years later I actually came up with an answer to that question. It’s not that God couldn’t lift the rock, it’s just that she chooses not to.
God makes decisions to not interfere. So in not lifting that rock, God also accepts the consequences of that inaction. When tsunamis and hurricanes flood into towns, planes crash into skyscrapers, governments kill their own people, it takes infinitely great strength not to act. Especially knowing that she has the power and might to do such a thing, God suffers with us.
In the same fashion, Jesus decides not to use his power to influence the ways of the world. He’ll do things the hard way, as ordinary people would labour and toil. So he rejects the devil. Rocks were not meant to be bread. Gravity cannot be dismissed. The natural flow of leadership and governance can’t be cut short by a cosmic takeover.
God trusts us and our abilities and our wisdom and our faith. God knows full well that we will fall short, but that is how we learn. From the movie “Batman Begins”, Bruce Wayne’s father asks and answers the question, “Why do we keep falling? … So we might better learn how to pick ourselves up.”
Here again is the lesson; our life is up to us. Ever since Adam and Eve gained the knowledge of good and evil, we say that we’re fallen people. Sure, we blame the snake or the apple, but we’re the ones on the hook for our actions. We can never again say, “I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to do that”. Ignorance is no longer an excuse. We are fully aware of the moral consequences of our actions.
To face temptation means that we are alive, that we are called to use our judgment.
Why is it easier to believe that there is a devil inside each of us than it is to think that a spark of the holy divine might be there too? Can we not accept that God dwells within each and everyone of us? We all have the power to forgive and create, to love unconditionally, to work for peace, to be a miracle to someone else. That’s the hope and assurance.
Lead us into temptation and let us be grateful for the gift of free will and choice, let us choose justice, peace and abundant life. God’s grace and mercy be with us this, and every, day.
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