February 25, 2007,   The First Sunday in Lent, All Souls' Episcopal Church     

    In the gospel lesson for last Sunday, we were told of the event which the church calls the Transfiguration.  We were told that the disciples, Peter, James, and John saw a glimpse of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We also were told that Moses and Elijah appeared with our Lord Jesus upon that holy mountain.  As Christians, we believe our Lord Jesus to be the fulfillment of the law and the prophets, and so Moses, the great giver of the law, and Elijah, the greatest of the prophets, appeared with our Lord and then vanished so that the disciples were left with Jesus alone.  We should also note that Moses, who led his people out of slavery in Egypt and brought them into the wilderness, prayed and fasted for forty days and forty nights in that very wilderness.  Elijah also fasted and prayed for forty days and nights many years later at the same location.  In today’s gospel reading, we are told that Jesus likewise embarked upon a similar forty day prayerful fast in the wilderness of Judea.

     The first point I would like to make about all this is that there is a difference between testing and tempting.  Events often test us.  People sometimes test us by trying our patience.  We are tested almost all the time.  Day after day, our faith is put to the test.  When someone is testing you, they are looking to see whether you are going to act with consistency and integrity.  They are trying to establish whether you just talk the talk or actually walk the walk.  But, when someone tempts you, they are actively trying to get you to fail and fall.  This is the sort of trial our Lord endured during His forty days of fasting and prayer.

      The second point I would like you to consider is that this period of tempting occurred just as our Lord was about to begin His public ministry.  He had been baptized by John and had received words of benediction from His Heavenly Father as the Holy Ghost descended upon Him.  This moment of great spiritual affirmation and blessing is then immediately followed by the temptations in the wilderness.  I would suggest that this often is the way temptation works. As long as we are merely coasting along, not making any spiritual progress and not really growing in our faith, we seem to be left alone.  But, just when we begin to grow and move forward and progress in our spiritual walk, we often find ourselves being tempted more strenuously than before. This is true of almost any great venture and of every new beginning. 

      My third point is to have us focus upon the particular temptations with which our Lord Jesus was presented.  The first temptation of turning stones to bread was an appeal to the flesh.  Our Lord was weak from fasting.  The devil appeals to what he perceives to be this weakened flesh.  God’s ancient people grumbled, complained, and actually cursed God during their wilderness pilgrimage to the Promised Land because of a lack of bread.  They were famished and they gave in to their fears and to the demands of their flesh.  Our Lord did not give in, but declares: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God.”  The second temptation was an appeal to avarice and the lust for power.  When Moses left the people of Israel in the wilderness in order to go to the Holy Mountain where he received the commandments, the people felt isolated and bereft of power.  They wanted safety and security, and so they resorted to idolatry, worshiping a golden idol.  The devil tells our Lord Jesus to worship him, and promises to give Him all the kingdoms of the world if He does so.  But, our Lord declares that worship belongs to God and God alone.  The devil then tempts Jesus to put God Himself to the test by leaping from the pinnacle of the Temple.  One can almost hear the devil whispering to our Lord, telling him, if God has sent you to do His will, then nothing will happen to you until you fulfill that mission.  So, go ahead and jump.  Either everything you believe in is false, in which case you’ll want to die anyway, or else you will be protected by the angels and you’ll know absolutely that you are God’s Son and that you’re doing the right thing.  You’ll have confirmation.  But, our Lord declares, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”

       The three temptations represent a progression of sorts.  The first is an appeal to the flesh.  The second is an appeal to the spirit.  Both temptations amount to the same thing.  They are an attempt to have our Lord Jesus use divine power to serve worldly ends.  Rather than using the things of this world in service to God, the devil would have our Lord use God for the service of the world.  This is always a temptation with which religious people must struggle.  It is to place the second great commandment – to love our neighbors – ahead of the first great command – which is to love God.  We are told that the second command is like unto the first.  In other words, our love for one another must be a reflection of our love for God.  To reverse this order, and make our love for God reflective of our love for one another is to reduce God to an allegory, merely the mirror image of our worldly desires.

       The third temptation is the most insidious.  Instead of putting ourselves to the test so that we may follow God with pure minds and single hearts, we put God to the test.  In essence, this would have put our Lord Jesus at odds with His Heavenly Father.  Our Lord Jesus rebukes the devil, and the tempter departs from Him …  but just for a time, as the Gospel tells us.  We need to remember that last part.  Just because we succeed at overcoming temptation does not mean we have conquered it for good.  Jesus does not give in to this last temptation.  He will not put His Heavenly Father to some test.  No, instead, He will walk in faith.