IF ONLY…THEN…

SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 4:1-13

Let us pray. O God, we come to explore what your Word may have to say to us today. Bless us with open hearts and minds, ready to receive what you may have to offer us. Still our restless spirits so that we may be centered in your Spirit and drawn into your life-giving Word. All this we ask in the name of the one who humbly walked this human life and sacrificed himself that we might live life more abundantly. Amen.

We have just entered the season of Lent. This is a 40-day period beginning with Ash Wednesday and ending with Palm Sunday. It is a time that symbolically corresponds to Jesus’ forty days spent in the wilderness. This wilderness period was one that symbolically mirrors Moses’ own retreat to Mt. Sinai to receive his call to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. The Israelites then made a 40-year journey through the desert into the Promised Land. Many prophets and religious leaders went to the desert to fast and pray seeking call, direction, strength and sustenance for their spiritual lives and ministries. So, it is fitting that Jesus, following his baptism, and full of the Holy Spirit, is led into the desert to prepare himself to live into his call to be the Son of God and to bring God’s love and saving grace to the world.

What does it mean for Jesus, following his baptism, to now be called “the Son of God?” How does he understand himself and this new identity? This time in the wilderness spent fasting, praying, in self-examination, and reflection are to help him figure this out. Temptation helps Jesus figure it out.

What’s most fascinating about this story, and what we as readers almost miss, is that in being tempted by the devil that Jesus more clearly names and claims his identity as the Son of God. Temptation, personified as the devil in the story, does not lead him away from who he is or what he is called to do, but rather leads him to confirm his identity as the Son of God. Oddly enough, the devil doesn’t lead him astray, but draws him ever closer to God.

“IF you are the Son of God, then turn this stone into a loaf of bread. IF you fall down and worship me, then I will give you all the kingdoms of the world and authority over them. IF you are the Son of God, then throw yourself down from this high place and God will send God’s angels to protect you and bear you up lest you dash your foot against a stone.”

In the first instance, Jesus, tired and famished from fasting, is being tempted to use his power not only to relieve his own suffering, but the suffering of the multitudes. If you are the Son of God, then you can prove your power by turning stones into bread. Heaven knows there is no shortage of stones in Israel. Nor was or is there a shortage of hungry people. “Wouldn’t it be just like the Son of God to feed the multitudes, providing bread for the world in a miraculous way?” The temptation is real, as feeding the hungry is always a good thing. But, here he is not being asked to feed the hungry as an act of compassion, an expression of God’s abundant provision for God’s people. Rather, Jesus is being asked to use his power and influence inappropriately to prove to the one who doesn’t know him, the one doesn’t have faith in him, that he is the Son of God. The temptation, for Jesus, is to doubt himself and his true identity. The temptation is to doubt in God’s ability to provide for all his needs and the needs of God’s chosen. The temptation is to doubt that God is steadfast and ever-present, and to believe that God will abandon him or us to starve in the wilderness. But Jesus doesn’t cave in the face of this taunting. He remembers how God provided manna for the Israelites in their forty years of wandering in the wilderness. Calmly, collectively he responds with a well-known quote from the Hebrew Scriptures, “One does not live by bread alone,” leaving his tempter to finish the word in his own mind. (Deuteronomy 8:3)

The second temptation is equally real for Jesus. If Jesus will fall down and worship him, and then he will have all that he is seeking, the kingdoms of the world. “Isn’t that what Jesus, the Son of God, is after – trying to establish the kingdom of God on earth? And couldn’t he do it more quickly if all the ‘earthly kingdoms’ were his?” The temptation here is to doubt that he is the Son of God. The temptation is to believe that the Son of God cannot build the kingdom of God on earth without resorting to coercive power and means. And therefore, he must bow down before evil, and resort to lording power over, rather than empowering God’s people to live, as God would desire. The end does not justify the means, and Jesus sees right through his tempter. Again he responds with an authoritative word from Hebrew Scripture, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” (Deuteronomy 6:13)

The third and last temptation is again equally real, but hardly very appealing. “If you are the Son of God, then throw yourself off this pinnacle of the temple and God’s angels will save you.” This temptation is, of course, to instantly prove to the world in a dramatic and instantaneous way that Jesus is the Son of God and immediately win people’s affections and loyalties. I can just imagine just how tempting that might be in Jesus’ mind. Rather than having to travel all over Israel with a bunch of dim-witted disciples, Jesus could cut through all that mess by demonstrating his divine powers to the world in one fell swoop. Can’t you hear it now, “It’s a bird, it’s a plane…” Yet, in spite of how tempting that prospect might have been, Jesus discovers the Son of God is not intended to come into the world to conquer and rule over God’s people, but instead, to journey alongside them and to offer his undying love and forgiveness, loving them so much that he is willing to sacrifice his own life for them. It is the Son of God’s self-giving love, abundant grace and persuasive power that helps usher in the kingdom of God on earth. His response is decisive. Quoting from Deuteronomy, he says, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”

Jesus endured temptations – temptations that were real and subtler than the story at first glance reveals. Behind each one is the ultimate temptation to forget who is and who he is called to be as the Son of God. If Jesus had not named and claimed his true identity as the Son of God, an identity conferred on him in baptism, he might have acted in ways that strayed from the image in which God created him. The temptation Jesus faced confirmed in him his baptismal identity and his calling as the Son of God.

Through Jesus the nature of God’s self is revealed for all of us. Through him we see a God of compassion, love, and abundantly self-giving. We see a God who is trustworthy and trusting of God’s creation. We see a God who is persuasive, not coercive, who leads us in paths of righteousness, but doesn’t push us to go there. We see a God who cares to journey alongside us in our common human experience. We see a God who is willing to share in all our joys and all of our sorrows, in our faithfulness and in our sinfulness, in our times of faith and doubt.

In this season of Lent we are called to a time of reflection. But so often our reflection gets stuck in daydreams about future possibilities or regrets of the past. Musing about this, a colleague of mine said, “As human beings we are often caught in these games of ‘If only…then…’ If only I had received that promotion, then I would feel better about myself; if only I had disciplined my child differently, then maybe she would have had a better life; if only I had listened to my friends, then I would not have married this person; if only I could control my eating and my stress, then I would not have gained all that weight or suffered a heart attack; if only I had more money, then I could go to a different school and I could have a different career path; if only I could have more power and control, then I would be free to make different decisions about my life; if only I could get my co-workers to buy into this idea, then the future of my company, agency would be secure and flourish; if only I could…then…” You fill in the blanks about what might say to yourself, in your heart and mind, as you reflect about your life.

It is human nature to reflect on where we’ve been on our life’s journey. It is human nature to reflect on the choices and decisions we’ve made, some of which have brought great joy and fulfillment for others and us. And other choices and decisions may bring regret, as we all have to come to terms with and grieve lost possibilities and opportunities. Yet, all too often we get stuck there and stop taking risks or making other opportunities happen.

By the same token, it is human nature to dream about possibilities for the future. It is human nature to contemplate decisions on our future and how we might make it better. Yet, sometimes we get caught up in believing that we need to resort to coercive power and control to overcome limitation. We all must struggle to accept our own limitations, as well as to discern how to balance power and control. Of course, on an ultimate level we might want to relinquish the illusion that we have power and control. To be human means to honestly face our limitations and recognize that we are not God.

Jesus was tempted by if…then… questions. And yet, interestingly enough, it was those temptations that led him to name and claim who he was as God created him to be. When faced with temptation, Jesus affirmed his baptismal blessing as God’s beloved, and that confirmed in him his true identity as the Son of God.

Could it be, that in our own struggle with the subtle and not so subtle temptations of the world, that we might be better able to resist getting stuck in constant ruminating about all the “If only…then…” statements if we too named and claimed our true identity as the beloved sons and daughters of God, and disciples of Christ? Might we in this Lenten season spend more time and reflection on what it means for us to be Christ’s disciples, laying claim to the gifts we have already been given, and opening ourselves to listening for God’s call directing us to how we are to live in discipleship. May it be so. Amen.

Sermon preached by Reverend Jane Anderson at First Congregational United Church of Christ, Appleton, Wisconsin on February 25, 2007.