Saint Michael’s Church
Serving God and Bishop’s Stortford
Sermon 21st February 2010
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St Michael's Church 21st February 2010 LENT 1 8.00am and 10.00am Rev'd Toby Marchand |
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THE TEMPTATION.
I can’t resist re-telling you my favourite Lent joke. You heard it a while ago but you may have forgotten it or some of you may have missed it, it goes like this.
This man went in to a pub.
He ordered three beers all at once.
He said to the Landlord the other two pints were for this two brothers, one each. They lived in Australia and America. The three brothers had made a pact some time ago, that every night they would each drink three pints of beer wherever they were and remember their brothers.
This happened every night for several months.
Then one night the man came in to the pub looking very sad. “Just two pints tonight, please”, he said.
The Landlord didn’t like to say anything, but he noticed how sad the man was looking.
This went on for a whole week. Eventually the Landlord felt he ought to say something to console him.
So the next night when the man ordered “Just two pints please” he said: “I am really sorry about your brother”.
“What do you mean?” said the man.
“I realise one of your brothers must have died” he said, “Is it the one in Australia or the one in America?”
“There is nothing wrong with either of my brothers” he said.
“Then why are you so sad?”
“I’m sad for me” he said. “I’ve given up beer for Lent”.
Now a word about the Gospel this morning. The first Sunday of Lent generally finds us thinking about the Temptation of Jesus in the wilderness.
The Mediterranean world in which Jesus lived had a deeply rooted belief in spirits, who exist in numbers too huge to count and whose major pastime is interfering capriciously in daily human life. Individual Mediterranean cultures like the Italian or the Spanish relied on a broad range of amulets, formulas and other symbols to ward off attacks from spirits.
In that world the colour blue was believed to be an especially powerful protection against spirits. People coloured their window frames blue or wore blue ribbons or clothes precisely for that reason. Others wore specific charms, and amulets which were thought to impede attacks.
Now when the voice from heaven identified Jesus at his Baptism as “my Son, the beloved, in whom I am well pleased” all the spirits heard this compliment. Everyone would know what would happen next in Jesus’ life. Spirits will test him to determine whether the compliment is indeed true, and just in case it might be true, the spirits will try to make Jesus do something displeasing to God.
It’s no surprise then when that the very next scene in Jesus’ life that Luke presents is the “the temptation”. Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit. He was led by the good spirit in to the wilderness, the normal habitat of spirits, where he did battle with an evil spirit, the devil.
Before we go any further let me make two points. The first: this is the most sacred of stories, for it can only have come from Jesus himself. No-one was with him in those forty days. He must have told this to his disciples when it was over. He must have shared with them the innermost secrets of what was going on in his mind. What a privilege to be let in on that secret....for them and for us!!
The second: even at this time Jesus must have been conscious of quite exceptional powers. The whole point of the temptations is that they could only have come to a man who could do astonishing things. It is no temptation to US to turn stones into bread, or leap from the Temple battlements, for the simple reason that it is impossible for us to do such things. These temptations would only have come to a man whose powers were unique and who had to decide how to use them. That is the key to understanding what was happening here. Jesus was being tempted to MISUSE his power, to do something displeasing to God.
Jesus was not automatically obedient. By that I don't mean that he was sometimes disobedient, a troublesome boy or a wayward youth, or a rebellious man. What I mean is he was not born obedient...he was not incapable of disobedience..he learned
obedience the hard way. The Epistle to the Hebrews says "he learned obedience by the things that he suffered". It means that the child Jesus did not automatically know that fire burns, he had to find out, he probably burnt his fingers on Mary's fire at home. It means he did not know how many loaves and fishes the lad was carrying in his basket when he wanted to feed the 5,000. He was limited in his knowledge just as we are.
The point I am stressing is that Our Lord on earth was truly human. There was nothing
'phoney" about his manhood,~ nothing unreal. He did not know from the outset that he was going to be crucified. He did not know that he was the Messiah, he did not know that he was God incarnate.
All this he CAME TO KNOW.
He learned it as time went on.
Now you may want to say "No I disagree. Jesus was God: my whole faith rests on Jesus being God in human form" I accept that absolutely.
But I accept further that he came to know that.
He learned obedience by the things that he suffered.
What was happening in the Temptation in the desert was a growing understanding of who he was, and of how he should organize his response to God the Father. After his Baptism he came to know that he was truly God as well as truly man.
And THIS IS THE IMPORTANT POINT: He did not use that divine side of his nature to escape the sufferings of our life. He did not turn the stones in to bread to feed his hunger or to satisfy the poor; he did not assume political power to force through God's new plan for society: he did not jump off the Temple roof to astound and capture his audience: he did not call in legions of angels at the arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane: he did not come down from the cross.
Jesus did not fall back on his divinity in his life: he laid it aside, and never, never, touched it, even when he came to know that it was there in his personality.
He didn't touch it because he wanted to live his life under the conditions that you and I have to live our lives, drawing only on the resources of God, which are open to us all.
That was the trial of his temptation, and that was the success that he achieved in the desert. And because of it, it is true to say that we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without Sinning.
And because he offered up a life full of obedience to the will of God, at every possible turn, because he never gave in to the desire to do things his way, without reference to his Father’s will, because he was obedient even to the death of the cross he has become our saviour. No-one else has ever done, or ever could do, that for us
So finally what does that mean for us? Here we are in the midst of this confusing world, seeking a base for organizing our lives, wanting to follow our Lord Jesus, ready, I hope, to learn from him….what does it mean? What can we learn for today?
Surely we learn the true meaning of the word Temptation. In the long run temptation is not about possibly giving in to things that are “naughty but nice”. That’s far too narrow a view. That reduces temptation to the level of “things that are illegal, immoral or fattening”.
No the real temptation is to act without depending on God. To live our lives in our own strength. To ignore the word of God as irrelevant. Notice when Jesus was wrestling with his future he faced the Devil each time with a reference to God’s word.
It is all there.
God has revealed his will to us. Our temptation is to think that we know better; that we can do without him, or that He does not care and has left us to sink or swim on our own.
We are tempted to say that it doesn’t really matter whether you pray or not, whether you come to worship or not, whether you give time to God or not……we are strong, we can work it out.
But we can’t!!
We haven’t even the ghost of a chance of working life out on our own. We can only do it through God, through matching our wills to His, as Jesus did.
So as Lent gets well and truly under way let’s face the temptation that we have uncovered this morning, and find ourselves referring more and more things and more and more time to God who loves us…..with, thank the heavens, an inexhaustible love.
Toby Marchand
Office Address:
Saint Michael’s Church
Windhill
Bishops Stortford
Hertfordshire
CM23 2ND