Scripture: Luke 4:1-11; Romans 10:8-13 Series: Lent
True temptation is always a conflict between rival goods, and Jesus’ refusal of bread, worldly kingship, and miraculous spectacle reveals that he saves not as a secular king or magician but as the crucified Lord in whom there is no distinction, so that all who confess him are already loved and saved.
Illustrations: faulkner-heart-in-conflict, casablanca-rick-ilsa, galadriel-ring-of-power, chocolate-cake-lenten-fast, eddie-izzard-cake-or-death, superman-laser-toast
March 9, 2025
No Distinction
Romans 10:8-13
Luke 4:1-11
“But what does it say? “The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”” Romans 10:8-13 NRSV
“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.’ ”” Luke 4:1-11 NRSV
Any story with internal conflict is about temptation. Temptation is another name for internal conflict: the desire to do things the things that you know you shouldn’t do. Temptation is always tempting. A temptation that is not tempting to you is not a temptation. This always needs to be said because sometimes, culturally, there are ideas of what a temptation is, but each of us individually have our own temptations.
What is also central in this and any talk of temptation is that in order for there to be a good that you seek, any good, there will be a rival good competing with it. This is what temptation looks like. True temptations are goods, they’re just disordered in some way. They’re not quite right. I’m going to talk about the temptations of Jesus, but again, temptation marks internal conflict, so temptations are found in most good stories and movies. William Faulkner even said that it is “the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat.”
One way to think about temptations is to look at stories. The temptation is not always straightforward because a straightforward temptation is a bad story.
In Casablanca, the Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman movie filmed and set in World War II, both Rick and Ilsa are tempted. They have a history together. His love for Ilsa is good. It is not a bad thing. He’s tempted to run away with her and ignore the world falling apart around him. Love is a good thing. Love is not a bad thing. The situation is that there’s more important things going on than these two forme loved birds fleeing Casabanca. That’s why it’s compelling. It’s these two rival goods.
In the first Lord of the Rings movie, the great elf, Galadriel, played by Cate Blanchet, is offered the ring of power and has this incredibly dramatic moment where she says
I do not deny that my heart has greatly desired this. In place of a dark lord, you would have a queen. Not dark but beautiful and terrible as the dawn! Treacherous as the sea. Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair!
She could have been really good done great things with that but what talking is pointing out with her is that it’s the power will corrupt you even if you want to do good by it, it will be destructive.
Even when we get more salacious with more common understandings of temptation, love is good. God created it. God offered it to us. Because it is good, it can be disordered, it can be transformed into a destructive act. That doesn’t mean love itself is not good. Love is not tainted by the fact that it can be abused. There is temptation because there are rival goods at work. Let’s get a little more concrete.
Maybe you’re giving up chocolate for Lent. If the person next to you is eating a chocolate cake and you want to have a bite of it, you want the chocolate because it tastes good, right? And it’s good for food to taste good. We want our food to taste good, to be desirable. It’s not bad that it’s good. It tempts us because we are trying to take part in a lenten fast, to show that our desire for things does not control us. That doesn’t mean the desires for those things are bad. It is because they are good that it is a challenge.
It is easy to avoid bad stuff. This needs to be said. It is not tempting. The comedian Eddie Izzard, has a bit about how the Spanish Inquisition wouldn’t have worked with the Church of England. It would end up like, Cake or Death.
Someone is arrested by the inquisition: Cake or Death? Cake please. Right, here you go.
I think we’d all choose cake. if you’re choosing between, you know, ice cream Sunday and the bowl of rocks to eat, I think we’re going to choose the ice cream Sunday. There’s no conflict there. There’s no temptation.
A temptation is between two goods. Things that are good but, for whatever reason, are destructive, these are not always easy to see at first, which gets us to Jesus in the desert.
In the gospel of Luke, Jesus goes into the wilderness, the desert after the baptism. He goes into the desert and is tempted. He’s tempted by power. He’s tempted by authority. He’s tempted by praise. All three of these temptations point out how Jesus is not the God we expect him to be. Even today, the temptations narratives clarify who Jesus is for us and for the world and how Jesus saves. Here we see how Jesus was offered a way to save the world in this manner of worldly power and he said no.
Command the stone to become a loaf of bread. use your power to sustain yourself. Material power does not give us life. Jesus rejects alchemy. Jesus rejects turning one thing into another. Jesus rejects using his divine power for himself. That’s the temptation. We need to think about it.
With Superman, imagine Superman using his laser vision to like heat up a piece of toast. Jesus wouldn’t do that. He’s not Superman, but still, Jesus doesn’t use his authority as God for himself. He’s already starving. He hasn’t eaten for 40 days. A 40 day fast is going on and he passes on bread because he came not for himself, not even in the little things.
The next temptation is authority. Jesus is taken up to see all the kingdoms of the inhabited world. This gets to another temptation: wouldn’t it be great if Jesus were king of the world, but like actual king, so all the presidents and kings and rulers and sultans, they just explicitly follow Jesus. Don’t you think the world would be a better place? Do you know who doesn’t think that? Jesus. Jesus doesn’t think that, because he could have done it, he could have been worldly king of the world then, and he didn’t. It’s tempting. It’s tempting for us today. We look around the world and see all the brokenness in this world and think, “Gosh, Jesus, couldn’t you just take over and fix it all and then we wouldn’t be so broken?” This is why it is tempting. It would be good if all the pain was healed by divine fiat, but it would also be a different kind of God. It would not be the kind of god obedient to the point of death on the cross. He could not have been killed by Caesar if he had forced Caesar to obey him.
Finally, Jesus is taken to the top of the temple. The devil says,
“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.’ ””
The devil quotes two scriptures here. It is always good to remember that quoting the Bible doesn’t make you a Christian; even the devil does it. But getting back to the temptation itself, Jesus has authority over the heavenly forces powers, but he does not use that power for himself. He’s tempted to have this ostentatious miracle that could not be denied, but he withholds.
I want us to read the temptation narratives this day, not just thinking about the temptations that we face, which is important. It’s important to admit that we face temptations and the temptations we actually face in our life are between good things, not between a good thing and a bad thing.
As well, I think we should read it as if we are tempted to see Jesus in these ways. We are tempted to see Jesus as a secular king. We are tempted to see Jesus as a magician. We are tempted to see Jesus as the general of the angels, but that is not who Jesus sees himself.
We need to see Jesus as he sees himself, and this is what we see in the gospels. The son of God obedient to the father even to the point of death, death on a cross, who reconciles all distinctions through his power.
If you confess, as Paul says, with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that got raised him from the dead, you will be saved. You will not be saved by king Jesus, who turns stones into bread. You will not be saved by king Jesus, who all the countries bow down to and give authority to. You will not be saved by King Jesus, whom the angels do his bidding everywhere.
No, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Will we seek something extra from God beyond what God offered to us? Already we are being tempted. We need to slow down in the Season of Lent.
As well, we need to remember that we are not alone. God has not left us alone in this. God has called us as a church, as a people. God has called you. You are loved now. You may be tempted to think that you’re not, but you are. You’re loved by God now. You may be tempted to think that you’re not good enough. You look at the world and think about how you’re not good enough, but you’re wrong. You are loved now. You don’t need to turn stones of bread. You don’t need to command the authority of angels, and God doesn’t either. God doesn’t need to listen to the devil in order to show you love. You are already loved. Receive it, and when you face temptation in this world, be able to admit it and be humble. Confess. God heals and God saves through confession. Confess to God, confess to your friends. let it go. You don’t need to be controlled by your body, by your desires, by any of it. You are free. Jesus has shown us the way. Jesus has offered us the path.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.