TEMPTATION
The summer before I began high school, I
went on a high adventure trip with my scout troop to Philmont
Scout Reservation in New Mexico. One night early on in our
trek, my tent mate and I were startled from slumber by what
sounded like a bear, not just any bear, but what we were sure
had to be the biggest bear west of the Mississippi. Trembling in
our sleeping bags we listened for what seemed like hours to the
horrifying sound. “Huuuhhhh. Huuuhhhh. Huuuhhh.” We were
sure we were goners, that our short lives were going to end
right there. Hopefully the wild beast would see fit to leave a
shred or two of our scout shirts so that they could identify us
the next day. But the Lord heard our cries for deliverance
because some time during the night, the frightful sounds ended.
The bear had moved on. “Thank you God.” Well the next morning
as we sat around the campfire at breakfast, one of the scouts
turned to his tent mate and said, “Man, what’s wrong with you?
You kept me awake me awake all night with your snoring. You
sounded like some kind of bear.” Oh well, in a wilderness full
of wild animals, its hard to know just exactly what you’re
dealing with, hard to know just what to do.
Right after his baptism, we learn that Jesus had his own unique
wilderness experience. Not one with snoring bears, but real and
powerful, the point that marked the beginning of all that was to
come. “And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the
wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by
Satan and he was with the wild beasts. And the angels waited on
him.” Quite a contrast to the high drama of Matthew and Luke
where the tempter takes Jesus from the wilderness to the top of
the temple and finally the top of the world with the promise of
power over all things worldly! But here in Mark all we have is
Jesus, the devil, the angels and you and me looking on, drawn in
to hear, to see and to experience it all for ourselves. So,
what are we to make of it all? What does Jesus’
wilderness experience hold for us? What does his temptation
hold for you and me? As we walk the lonely wilderness with
Jesus, behold what God is doing for us and for the world.
Everything happens so suddenly. Forget the happy family
pictures around the font, the lingering in the narthex, and the
chicken dinner back at the house. For Jesus the movement is
continuous. One moment he is filled with the Spirit and in the
next and in the next the very same Spirit drives him into the
desert for a time of testing and temptation. The movement of
Jesus forty days in the wilderness surely recalls the forty
years of the exodus, when God’s people faced their own time of
testing and temptation.
Now
granted, it seems strange, even difficult for us to speak of
Jesus being tempted. A part of us wants to protect him. We
say, well, he wasn’t really tempted, at least not in the
way that we are. He only seemed to be tempted so that he
could give us an example of what resisting temptation is all
about. I remember experiencing the story of Jesus’ temptation
as a kid in Sunday school through the wonders of the flannel
graph. Like a brave warrior, Jesus fought of the devils
salvos. And when it was all over, when Jesus had finally run
the devil off once and for all, I imagined myself reaching a
state absolute perfection, of being a good boy so that I could
stand smiling right there at Jesus’ side, ready to fight the
good fight with him.
At the same
time, we tend to associate temptation with weakness, with a
lapse in character, that if you are a really good person then
you won’t ever face temptation and if you do, somehow you don’t
really have your act together. You’re weak. You lack
self-control. You’re not to be trusted. And none of us would
ever think of leveling such those kind of accusations at Jesus,
would we?
But if it’
all just a show, if Jesus only seemed to be tempted how real can
it be? If his temptation is only a divine sleight of hand trick
used to create an example for us, if Jesus pretends to have the
experience, then he really isn’t setting an example at all. Is
he? Likewise, the idea that temptation is the affliction only
of the weak is to deny a part of what it means to be human and
to steal the real impact of the story. People aren’t tempted to
do things they can’t or aren’t able to do, but what they can and
are able to do. As the story of human experience shows us time
and time again the stronger, the more able, the more
opportunities a person has at his or her disposal, the greater
the temptation. As a great preacher once noted, “You don’t have
a sea storm in a roadside puddle.” The temptation, the
struggle, the danger that Jesus encountered in the wilderness
was real, as real as it gets.
And if the
temptation is real, then surely it also deceiving, never the
kind of thing that seems completely evident. It might happen in
the movies, but you can be sure that never in real life has
someone ever been met by a big red guy with horns coming out of
his head who says, “Hello, my name is Satan and I’m here today
to tempt you.” Rather that one more often than not appears and
sounds like someone we know. Jesus didn’t say “Get behind me
Satan” to the first century equivalent of Jack Abramoff, but to
his close friend, Peter. Deception in the Bible is never an
offer to fall but to ascend. Remember what the tempter asked in
the Garden of Eden? It wasn’t “Do you want to be like Satan?”
What he said was, “Do you want to be like God?” In Matthew and
Luke’s gospel, the message that confronts Jesus is “If you
really are the Son of God.” Much to Jerry Falwell’s
disappointment perhaps, the modern notion that temptation equals
illicit sexual behavior is entirely foreign to the Bible.
That’s not to say it isn’t at the bottom of the page in the fine
print as one way among many that human beings can succumb. But
hey, let’s give Satan at least a little more credit than that.
He may be evil, but he’s not so stupid as to come with an offer
to ruin someone’s life.
No, if the
temptation Jesus faces is to use his divinity in a self-serving
way, then for us temptation has first and foremost to do with
the trying to be like God. I guess that looks a little
different for everyone, but it definitely has to do with the
idea that when it comes to living life we can go it alone, that
we’re accountable for our actions to no one but ourselves or on
the flip side, that somehow no one, not even God is more
responsible for what happens than us. Either way, we think and
act as though we’re the one in charge, as if we’re the ones
calling the shots.
When it comes
to temptation in my own life it’s definitely more of the latter
than the former. I guess I’ve always seen myself as the
responsible one whose main job in life was to make others happy,
to keep the peace, to hold things together when all hell breaks
loose. If no one else is willing, I’m more than willing. If
something needs to be done, there’s nothing I’d rather do than
take care of it myself. Maybe it’s a need to be liked, to feel
like I’m in control or because that’s what people expect of a
guy like me, I don’t know. And if God forbid, I ever do
something that upsets someone else, especially someone I love,
my anxiety goes through the roof. But living that way for as
long as I can remember, wandering in the wilderness of
insecurity and self-doubt has come at a significant price to
me. Last fall, I went in to see my doctor. After asking me a
battery of questions, he said, “Brian, it’s my professional
medical opinion that you are moderately to severely depressed.”
Wow! Although I’ve encouraged dozens of people before to seek
help for depression, I never imagined myself being in that boat
myself. Thanks to medication, therapy and love and prayers of
people who love me, I feel like I’ve come a long way since
then. By no means do I feel as though the struggle is over,
because believe you me, I still have a long way to go. There
still are days when that “overly responsible” tendency rears its
ugly head but by the grace of God, I find myself moving in a
very different direction today than I’ve ever have before.
So, how do we
overcome temptation in our lives? I read a story the
other day about St. Dunstan, who lived during the 10th
century. His symbol is a pair of tongs and it’s based on a
story about how the devil came to him one day to try and tempt
him. Instead of giving in, Dunstan grabbed the log tongs from
the fireplace and twisted the devil’s nose with them until he
ran away. It’s a nice story I guess, but the trouble is sooner
or later the devil, temptation, whatever you call it returns
again and again and again. The truth is there is no magic tool
that will allow us to overcome temptation once and for all!
It’s something we live with until the day we die.
But what we
are unable to do Jesus has already done for us. There in
the wilderness, with the water still dripping off of him, Jesus
struggles with the heavy burden contained in the words, “You are
my son the beloved. With you I am well pleased.” There Jesus
struggles and he alone overcomes temptation once and for all.
He sets us free from the need to play God in our lives, to be in
control, to be ultimately responsible for the happiness and well
being of others, for creating order out of chaos and for holding
it all together because when all is said and done that was never
our job to begin with.
What’s more,
when it comes to temptation, we never go it alone. There’s no
burden so heavy that Jesus can’t handle it, no wilderness so
desolate that he’s not right there with us, to walk with us, to
bear our burdens as long as it takes. And as we journey through
the wilderness, God gives us one another, a community to
struggle and wrestle with us, to help us when are weak, to stand
with us when we fail, to lift us up when we are broken, to speak
precious words of forgiveness as long as we need to hear it.
And just as Jesus’ days in the wilderness
came to an end, just as the children of Israel arrived in the
Promised Land, so can we rest assured that our days in the
wilderness are numbered too! For surely that day is coming when
free from the power of sin and temptation, free of every deathly
bond, we too will be welcomed home as God’s beloved in whom God
is well pleased. Amen.
