Romans 5:12-19 12Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned—13sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. 14Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come. 15But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. 16And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. 17If, because of the one man’s trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. 18Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. 19For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
Matthew 4:1-11 1Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. 3The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4But Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘One does not live by bread alone,but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” 5Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’and ‘On their hands they will bear you up,so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” 7Jesus said to him, “Again it is written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; 9and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God,and serve only him.’” 11Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
Romans 5:12-19 and Matthew 4:1-11
03/05/2017 – Saginaw First UMC
Rev. Amy Terhune
Lent I: “I’m Going to Make Him An Offer He Can’t Refuse”
“Harry Houdini (1874-1926) was an expert at sleight of hand, a skeptic when it came to the spiritualists and other psychic phonies of his day, but he was best known for his ability to escape from what seemed to be impossible situations. Straitjackets, chains, ropes, jail cells, handcuffs — he managed to escape from one situation after another in full view of his audience.
“What did him in, however, was the blow he never saw coming. While reclining on a couch backstage after a performance he was asked by a couple of college students if he could withstand a punch to the stomach. When he answered that he could, one of the students surprised him by actually punching him. The blow caught him off guard, and seem to have ruptured an already aggravated appendix. Houdini died a week later.
“The blow you never see coming is the one that can be the most dangerous. [2 ¶s from “Hit Me with Your Best Shot”by Frank Ramirez,
And I think that might have been true for Jesus as well. Here he was, coming up out of the water of his baptism, hearing the voice of God name him “my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased”. The Holy Spirit flooded his senses, touched his innermost heart, and called him out to a time of spiritual discernment and wandering in the wilderness. Perhaps he believed that like the children of Israel following Moses, this was his moment to receive God’s commands and turn himself over to God’s shaping. But as he obediently gave himself over to the Holy Spirit, he suddenly discovers another voice vying for his attention.
Now you can call that voice whatever you want. Matthew, Mark and Luke call it the devil, and they all report that Jesus was tempted in the wilderness. But Jesus never says, “The devil made me do it.” In a sense, its kind of a strange story. Three of the four gospel writers tell it, but no one, save the devil himself, was around to witness the event. How do the authors know what happened? Did Jesus report it to his disciples at some later point? That’s certainly possible. Maybe in trying to teach his followers about the perils of temptation, he reported his own experiences. In his commentary and discussion on this text, Dr. R. Alan Culpepper notes that, unlike Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the gospel of John does not record a time when Jesus spent 40 days and nights in the wilderness facing temptation, but he does note several points in the narrative when Jesus faced remarkable similar “temptations” issued from his own would-be followers. To feed everyone in John 6, to put on a show in John 7, and to take the easy road in John 12. And all the gospel writers note that there were several points when the crowds or the leadership asked Jesus for “a sign” that would prove he was who he said he was. Jesus faced temptation over and over and over again. They came from the devil. They came from others—even friends. Perhaps they came from Jesus own inner thoughts and dialogue. You might like to think that Jesus would put off all such thoughts, but they had to occur to him. I mean, he’s not stupid.
Way back in 1972, Marlon Brando portrayed Mafia boss Don Corleone in The Godfather. In one scene, Johnny Fontane comes to his Godfather very upset. He wants a part in a movie that would revive his career, but the head of the studio won’t give him a shot. Corleone’s response is famous: “Johnny, I want you to eat. I want you to rest a while. And in a month from now, this Hollywood big-shot is gonna give you what you want. I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse”. The offer was comply or die. In this morning’s text, Satan’s offer isn’t all that different. Hey Jesus. Eat, rest a while, and I’ll take care of things for you—feed the people, make you a star, save the world. But Jesus has learned to lean only on God as a father. Scripture tells us that he was tempted, genuinely tempted, just as we are. But he resisted.
History seems to suggest that Jesus learned to recognize when God was at work in something, and when it was nothing but his own ego. But even so, that wilderness excursion was the blow he didn’t see coming. The blow he had to come to grips with before ministry could move forward.
Frank Ramirez writes, “The fact is that there is never a perfect time for any of us to face the temptations of this world. We're never ready. As another Lent begins, let us make no mistake: We will be tempted — and it will never be the right time. We will be tempted to do things according to the way of the world, for a good cause, and it will be easy to ignore the means so we can achieve what we imagine are the goals of God.
“This first Sunday in Lent reminds us of how vulnerable we can become to sin, how tempting it can be to cut corners and choose the easy road, and why the best landmark in the wilderness is a cross. For Jesus, the greatest temptation was power — to become the thing he was meant to be — the ruler of the world — by his own power. He is, after all, the Son of God, but what does that mean? [2 ¶s from “Hit Me with Your Best Shot”by Frank Ramirez,
At his baptism, Jesus heard words that were echoed again last week in the story of the transfiguration. Jesus hears God tell him, “You are my son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” But as Jesus finds himself alone in the wilderness, a tempting voice whispers to him, “IF you are the son of God…” Did you hear that? IF…you are the Son of God. You know what that voice is attempting to do, don’t you? It’s trying to stoke up a tiny little doubt—something to make Jesus question who he is.
If you’re the son of God, turn this stone into bread. It was tempting because he’d been out there for forty days and he was hungry. He had a journey in front of him that would be long and fraught with peril. He was going to have to do a lot of walking, a lot of preaching, a lot of crowd control—it’s physically demanding work. And everyone knows that we need to eat, sleep, and drink plenty of water in order to keep our bodies in good working order. All he had to do was turn a few stones into some rolls. It’s not like he’s going to do this all the time. It’s not that big of deal, really. At least, that’s what the voice of temptation is telling him.
But Jesus knows his religious history. He remembers the story of his people, how they wandered in the desert for forty years. How they complained that Moses had led them out into the wilderness to die of hunger. How God sent manna every day. They couldn’t keep it overnight or it turned to maggots. They had to collect it one day at a time. In this way, God weaned them away from the slave mentality that hoarded out of fear. God taught them to trust, day by day. God taught them to rely on God alone, and in so doing, God taught them freedom in place of enslavement. Jesus has heard the story since his manger days. But now he must internalize it, take ownership of it, let it become his own story. The temptation is to take care of himself—to pull himself up by his bootstraps. But he sees through the guise. That kind of life—one of total self-reliance—is not only arrogant, but it’s a form of slavery. Jesus sees it for what it is: a slippery slope whereby the need to take care of oneself soon forces one into a life of fetters and fears that would compel him to rank self first and others second. That’s not the way he wants to live. He can’t model freedom unless he lets go and places himself in the loving hands of his Father. He wants a firm reliance on God. He knows he’s going to need it. He will not give into fear for how tomorrow is going to work itself out. He will not wonder about how he’s going to meet his own needs. He wants to freedom to love the other wholly and completely. He can’t do that if he’s worried about himself. And so he chooses to trust.
Mind you, Jesus is not suggesting that we abdicate all responsibility. He took on enormous responsibility when he accepted the call of God on his life. But he was very clear about what his responsibilities were, and chief among them was not to take care of everything, but to be faithful. You will be hard pressed to find any place in scripture where Jesus takes credit for his own successes. He always points back to God. God gave him the gifts and God used him to do good in the world.
The second temptation he faced was to throw himself off the pinnacle of the temple and let the angels save him. This time, Satan throws Scripture back in Jesus face. So one lives by the word that comes from the mouth of God, eh, Jesus? Well, the word of God also says, “He will command his angels concerning you,” and “On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” What’s the temptation here? To put on a show, of course. To make the crowds below oooh and aaah. To capture their attention and draw their gaze. The problem? Show isn’t substance. Entertainment isn’t eternal truth. Dazzling does not lead to discipleship.
We’re flawed, friends. Every last one of us. And we need to look deep and dig deep. We need to examine our lives in the light of God. Our souls need God’s serious and dire attention—not a song and dance. Entertainment isn’t going to cut it. We need the truth of God, but make no mistake, it cuts deep.
Jesus’ final temptation was to worship Satan in exchange for power over the world. The temptation here is to cut a deal to expedite his goals—to take the easy road; to compromise integrity; to allow the ends to justify the means. Brett Blair has called this the temptation to take the crown without the cross. And Jesus is tempted. At the price of a little bit of lip service, think of all the suffering that could have been avoided—the martyrdom of thousands of Christians in the following centuries; the wars, oppression and genocide that dot the landscape of human history. But Christ doesn’t bite. He chooses to suffer. He asks us to do the same.
Temptations are very real. To be sure, we may not face the same specific temptations that Jesus did. I can’t turn stones into bread. I’ll never hear a little voice offering to let me rule the world in exchange for lip service. And I wouldn’t dream of jumping off the roof of the church building to prove God’s providence. All I would prove is that existence of gravity. But I do face the temptation to put myself first, to entertain, to compromise my allegiance for the sake of advancement. And all of these really come down to the basics: to forget or ignore who I am.
Maybe this will sound familiar to you. If I’m a child of God, why don’t I feel like one? Anybody ever whispered that to themselves in a moment of grief, heartache, disease, distress? I have. I remember when I was confirmed, the church gave me a book entitled, “If God loves me, why can’t I get my locker open?” It’s basically the same idea. I’m not exactly sure where it comes from, but all of us struggle sometimes with the notion that if God loves us, life wouldn’t throw us curve balls. But that simply isn’t so. Even Jesus was not spared of suffering and grief.
John M. Braaten writes, “…sometimes we don't feel much like a beloved member of God's family. And the implication is that if you don't feel like one, then maybe you're not one. Maybe you are not really a precious, beloved child of God.
“One of the saddest conditions a person can face in life is amnesia, when one doesn't know who they are… Knowing your identity, who you are and whose you are, is essential to your wholeness as God's child and to your awareness of what God wants you to do with your life. Doing something wrong, something bad, is not nearly as great a threat as losing track of who you are and forgetting that you belong to the family of God… This amnesia is far more insidious than any impulse to disobey the commandments. [2 ¶s adapted heavily from “Our Christian I.D.”by John M. Braaten,
Or how about this terrible temptation, "If I’m a child of God, then why don't I act like one?" I know there are times when I don't act like one. How about you? Why do I have the thoughts I sometimes have? Why do I do the things I sometimes do? And why don't I seem to be getting much better in this area of temptation or that? Why do I always struggle with pride, greed, lust, envy, addiction, laziness, anger? How can I be a Christian if I don't live as a Christian should live? I struggle with that all the time. I preach grace for you, but I have a terribly difficult time extending it to myself. Maybe you understand.
“There’s a congregational church in Chicago, about ten blocks from the Loop, where one can see a most amazing picture. Without being labeled as such, it's a picture of Jesus. At least, it looks like Jesus. Long hair. Beard. He is seated on a rock….alone….staring straight ahead….overlooking a valley. But the disconcerting thing about the picture is that while his face looks normal, his skull doesn't. It's as if a portion of his skull has been peeled back, allowing you to see underlying brain tissue…. whole strands of it….interlocking, overlapping and almost moving. But as you watch it….and as your eyes become accustomed to the light surrounding it….you realize that what you are looking at is not brain tissue at all, but fingers—dozens of fingers. All of them grabbing and pulling at the mind of Jesus. And what is the picture called? "The Temptation." That's what the picture is called. Which didn't mean much until a friend said (concerning the attraction of temptation):"Sometimes it feels as if someone is messing with my head." [from “Till a More Opportune Time” by William A. Ritter,