A key theme of this first Sunday of Lent is temptation. In the biblical languages, the verb “tempt” is more or less interchangeable with “put to the test.” A temptation is a test or time of trial during which we are confronted with the choice either to turn away from or reaffirm our loyalty and obedience to God.
The early Church Fathers saw the Temptation of Christ in the Wilderness as the reversal of the original Temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, a theme taken up in the seventeenth century by John Milton in his poems Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. While I certainly don’t want to dismiss that line of interpretation, a close reading of today’s Gospel suggests instead the reversal of the temptations of Israel during its forty years in the wilderness. Rebuffing the devil’s temptations, Jesus quotes three texts from the Book of Deuteronomy, each of which alludes to Israel’s desert wanderings.
The first temptation is: “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” Jesus responds: “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone’.” Here he’s quoting Deuteronomy 8:2-3, which reads in full as follows:
[Moses said to the people] And you shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments, or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but that man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.
The reference to the manna alludes to Israel in the wilderness longing for the fleshpots of Egypt, and murmuring against Moses and Aaron on account of hunger. The temptation then was to give up and return to Egypt – to seek food at the cost of turning away from the Lord. And before the miraculous appearance of the manna, the bread from heaven, the Israelites were prepared to do just that.
Likewise, the devil’s suggestion that Jesus turn a stone into bread is a temptation to use his power as the Son of God in his own interests, to provide food for himself apart from trust in his Father’s plan. But where Israel was tested and found wanting, Jesus is tested and overcomes the temptation.
This use of food as an enticement to disobedience suggests why fasting and abstinence are basic Christian disciplines, especially during Lent. When we go without food for a time we have the opportunity to practice resisting temptation and to enact the words of Scripture: “Man shall not live by bread alone.”
In the second temptation, the devil shows Jesus all the world’s kingdoms, and makes him the offer: “If you, then, will worship me, it shall all be yours.” Jesus responds by quoting Deuteronomy 6:13: “It is written: ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve’.”
In this part of Deuteronomy, Moses is warning the Israelites of the temptations they will face to worship other gods when they enter into the Promised Land. The devil’s temptation of Jesus, then, is to receive world dominion in return for worshiping him. But our Lord’s response makes clear that God is the sole ruler of the world; and that he alone is to be worshiped and served.
This second temptation is thus an enticement to false worship, putting someone or something else in God’s place. The best antidote is true worship, putting God first. And for Christians, being faithful and regular in the Church’s Sunday worship is how we begin to put into practice the command of Scripture: “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.”
The third temptation is more subtle, and requires a bit more unpacking. The devil takes Jesus up to the pinnacle of the temple and urges him to throw himself down, so that the angels will catch him according to the words of the psalm. In response, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:16: “You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” The actual text of Deuteronomy reads: “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah.”
The reference here is to Exodus 17, where the Israelites arrive in a place where there is no water. They find fault with Moses and demand, “Give us water to drink.” When Moses asks, “Why do you put the Lord to the proof?” they grumble all the more at Moses: “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us and our cattle and our children with thirst?” When Moses cries to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me” the Lord directs him to strike the rock at Horeb; water gushes out, and the people drink. And Moses calls the place Massah and Meribah because of the fault-finding of the children of Israel, and because they put the Lord to the proof by asking, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
Instead of trusting God not to let them die of thirst, the sin of the Israelites was to make their loyalty to God contingent upon having their demands met on their own terms. Otherwise they were prepared to stone Moses and go their own way in search of water. Likewise, by throwing himself off the Temple pinnacle to force God to send his angels to catch him, Jesus would have committed the same sin – of trying to dictate the terms of his relationship with God, rather than obediently doing his Father’s will.
Understood in this way, this third temptation is very real and very common. It’s the temptation to make our faith and obedience contingent upon God’s fulfillment of some expectation that we may have of him. It’s the temptation to want to serve God on our own terms – not literally by throwing ourselves off a high building so that God’s angels will be forced to catch us, but in hundreds of more subtle ways.
Think of all the bargains we’re tempted to make with God – promising our devoted service if he will only grant us some favor such a saving a loved one from terminal illness; or threatening to forsake him if he doesn’t meet some other demand we’ve made of him. I’ve known people who’ve done this – stopped coming to church because God disappointed their expectations that he would protect them from all harm, tragedy, and loss in this life.
The virtue by which we resist this temptation is simply the willingness to love, serve, and follow God no matter what – without preconditions. In this way we put into practice the words of Jesus: “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”
The Letter to the Hebrews describes the risen and ascended Christ as a great high priest who is able to sympathize with our weakness, having been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. Elsewhere, the same letter affirms: “For because he himself has suffered and been tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.”
By resisting temptation successfully on our behalf, our Lord has made it possible for those united to him likewise to resist temptation. And when we find ourselves being tempted to turn away from God like Israel in the wilderness, we need only call upon Jesus to strengthen us in the way of loyalty and faithfulness.
No comments:
Post a Comment