Scripture: Luke 4:1-13; Matthew 6:16-18 Series: Lent
A Lenten sermon on Luke 4:1-13, the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. It opens by insisting that temptation is always tempting and always particular to the individual. It explores Jesus’ 40-day fast (noting fasting makes Jesus stronger, not weaker, and contrasting with how low blood sugar weakens us, illustrated by the preacher’s family and a study of a Pennsylvania judge’s pre-lunch sentencing), then uses Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor to interpret the three temptations as miracle, mystery, and authority. It closes by arguing that because temptation exposes our weakness, admitting it is an act of faith while denying it is a lack of faith.
Illustrations: low-blood-sugar-family, pennsylvania-judge-sentencing, grand-inquisitor-karamazov
February 18, 2024 First Attempt
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’ ” Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’ ” Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’ ” Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.“ Luke 4:1-13 NRSV
Very few people are tempted to eat rocks or to drink pond water. It’s not one of those temptations that often comes up. People aren’t often tempted to run through the woods blindfolded or to walk across I 35 An essential concept of temptation that we have to start with seems so obvious at first, but it bears repeating. Temptation is always tempting. We have to start there. Temptations don’t exist as this quality apart from the impact they make on our desire. A temptation is always tempting. If a temptation is not tempting to you, it is not a temptation to you. That, to you, part of the sentence matters just as much as any other. A temptation is tempting to you. Your temptation is tempting to you. It will not be, or it may not be tempting to your spouse or your child or your friend or your neighbor, but to you. What is tempting for one person is not tempting for the other. After the baptism of Jesus, he goes into the desert. He goes into the area south of Jerusalem, the Negev, the wilderness. People don’t live there. Even today, it is the most sparsely populated regions of the Holy Land. He goes and he fasts for 40 days and 40 nights. The number 40 is significant in the Old Testament for the days in which Noah and his family and the animals floated in the waters. Jesus fasts in the wilderness. I don’t know how many of you have fasted. Most of us have had to skip a meal before. That’s the closest reality of fasting for most of us. When you skip a meal or you have a later lunch than usual or a later meal than usual, your metabolic clock is telling you to eat, but you can’t eat for another two hours. This situation doesn’t put you in the best of moods. I guess some people might be different, but for many people in my family, we suffer from LBS when we don’t eat: low blood sugar. When we have low blood sugar, we do not respond to people in the same way. We lash out more. We blame others more. The littlest things cause great reactions. There was a study a few years ago that looked at a judge in Pennsylvania and his sentences. They didnt focus on the types of cases but the time of day when he ruled. Depending on the hour, his worst sentences were invariably delivered just before a lunch break. The lightest sentences were delivered just after lunch. If you’re going to deliver s some hard news to someone, it is better to do it after a meal than right before it because we humans don’t work that well on low blood sugar. When Jesus describes fasting in the Sermon on the Mount, he tells the people who gathered around the Mount to wash their face and anoint their head so that others don’t notice their discomfort. Hypocrites wear their fasting on their faces in order to receive pity from others. Jesus tells the people there that day to hide their fasting, hide their face. Jesus is different from us. This is true, and the fasting of Jesus is different from most of the fasting people do today because it’s centered around who God is. Jesus doesn’t get weaker by fasting. He becomes stronger. In his calorie restricted and weakened state. Jesus is truly prepared for the temptations of the devil. And so the devil comes with these three questions. In some ways, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s great novel, The Brother’s Karamazov, turns on these three questions. They are at the heart of the Grand Inquisitor poem. In the middle of the novel, the main character, Alyosha, a young monk, is visiting with his older brother, Ivan. Ivan has just explained to the young monk why he doesn’t believe in God. Ivan goes through stories of suffering he read in the newspaper, especially the suffering of children, the brutality of wicked parents and family members who have abused children. He recounts these stories and then he recites a poem to his brother. It is in prose and includes a plot and dialogue, but Ivan calls it a poem. The poem is about this hypothetical situation where Jesus returns amid the Spanish Inquisition and Jesus is taken and arrested by the Inquisition, not because they’re ignorant of who he is, but because the Grand Inquisitor knows precisely who he is and still thinks Jesus must die.
Thus you yourself, laid the foundation for the destruction of your own kingdom, and do not blame anyone else for it. It is this what was offered you? There are three powers, only three powers on earth, capable of conquering, and holding captive forever, the conscience of these feeble rebels, for their own happiness,— these powers are miracle, mystery, and authority. You rejected the first, the second, and the third, and gave yourself as an example of that, when the dread and spirit set you on a pinnacle of the temple, and said to you: “if you would know whether or not, you are the son of God, cast yourself down; it is written of him that the angels were will bear him up, and he will not fall or be hurt, and then you will know whether you are the son of God, and will prove what faith you have in your father. “But you heard and rejected the offer, and did not yield and did not throw yourself down. Oh, of course, in this, you acted proudly and magnificently, like God, but mankind, that weak, rebellious tribe,—are they gods?Page 255
The poem covers the rest of the temptations, but what is important for us to remember is that these are not three random moments of temptation. The three have great meaning: miracle, mystery, and authority.
The miracle was the bread, the authority the command of angels, the mystery the test about whether Jesus was the son of God.
Miracle, mystery, authority. We are tempted by things too good to be true. We are tempted by power. We are tempted by mystery when we test fate. We are all tempted by different things but all our temptations come back to one of these three things.
Culturally, temptation is split between food and sex. Temptations of these kinds fall under mystery and authority, thinking the rules don’t apply to us.
Temptation is sub-optimal. Temptation doesn’t fit into our life goals. When you plan out your year or career, rarely do you make space for temptation, right? When you made your New Year’s resolutions, I bet you didn’t resolve what you would be tempted by?
Because temptation is so particular, it makes it vulnerable to talk about them. If I tell you my temptation, I tell you my weakness.
We instinctively hide vulnerability. Sure, there are moments of performative vulnerability where we have calculated aspects of our life that we are willing to expose to the world.
Then there is the issue of judgement and a fear of judgment.
Even more to the point, they can be justified. You can rationalize it. You can deflect and place the blame elsewhere. It is an act faith to admit temptation, it takes a lack of faith to deny it.