Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted
by the devil.
Matthew 4:1-11
We know very little about Jesus’ life up to this point. Let's do a quick review. We
know that an angel appeared to a young girl of Nazareth, Mary, a little over
2,000 years ago announcing that God was making a move that he had been
promising for centuries – to send a Savior. He chose the young virgin, Mary of
Nazareth, to be the mother of the Son of God and she was to give him the name,
Jesus.
We know that when the time came for his birth, Mary and her
husband Joseph, were in the town of Bethlehem to register for a Roman census.
We know that at the time of his birth, there was some kind of celestial event
that attracted visitors from the East who believed that it signaled the birth
of a new king. It could have been a literal star or a meteor or an unusual
alignment of celestial bodies. (It is worth noting that ancient Chinese
astronomy records indicate there was a star-like object hovering over the
Middle East for several days about the time Jesus was born.)
We know these visitors from the East triggered panic in the
mind of Herod, a petty local king installed by the Roman Emperor to govern the
Jews. Paranoid about losing power, Herod ordered the deaths of every infant in
Bethlehem in hopes of killing the new king that the foreign visitors were
looking for!
We know that that Joseph and Mary were tipped off about
Herod’s monstrous plans in a dream and escaped to Egypt where they lived until
news of Herod’s death. (You all remember that Jesus spent some of his early
years in Egypt as a refugee, don’t you?) After Herod was dead and the coast was
clear, Mary, Joseph and Jesus moved back to Israel to spend his growing up
years in Nazareth.
We know that Mary and Joseph took the child Jesus to
Jerusalem every year to celebrate the Passover. On one of those trips, when
Jesus was twelve years old, they got separated from one another and it was not
realized until they were on their way home. Traveling in a caravan, one parent
thought he was with the other. When it was obvious that he had been left
behind, they went back to Jerusalem and searched frantically through the
crowded city until they found him. They found him in the Temple, engaged in a discussion
with the religious teachers there. After that, we know that he went home with
his parents and lived there till he was about thirty years old.
We know that when he was about thirty years old, he left
home having been drawn by the preaching of his cousin, John, known as the
Baptizer. After hearing John preach, we know that Jesus submitted to John’s
baptism. On coming up out of the water after his baptism, we know that Jesus
heard a voice from heaven saying “This is my beloved Son whom I love.”
We know that this experience was life-changing for Jesus.
Overwhelmed by what those words from heaven might mean, Jesus left there and
went on a forty-day retreat to reflect on those words and discern what they
might mean for his life. While on retreat, the devil presented several tempting
options in contrast to what Jesus came to know as God’s plan for him. Having
resisted the devil’s tempting options, Jesus comes out of his retreat, hears
that John had been arrested and decides to launch his ministry. This is where
we are on the time line in the gospel today. Sadly, the story ends with what
Jesus rejected, rather than the conclusion he came to at the end of his
discernment period in the desert.
Before we consider what Jesus came to understand as
his mission from God, it might be a good idea to understand what he
rejected – what the devil proposed to him that it might be when Jesus was
discerning God’s will in the desert. In a nutshell, the devil
proposed all the solutions that he is still proposing in the world today. The
devil, then and now, proposes external fixes. Jesus, then and
now, proposes an internal fix. The devil says the path to
happiness is through changing things, while Jesus
says that the path to happiness is though people changing.
Jesus was not called to change things. He was called to change people. He knew
that when people change, things change!
Let me give you some examples. (1) The devil suggested to
Jesus that he could get a lot of followers if he would just turn rocks into
bread. Jesus said “no” because he knew that there is already enough resources
to feed the poor. What is needed is not “magic bread,” but people changing
their attitudes toward the poor. (2) The devil suggested to Jesus that he could
get lots of followers if he would just suspend the laws of nature and jump from
high buildings and land unharmed with the help of angels. Jesus said “no”
because he knew if people would just open their eyes, they would see that life
as it is already a miracle. We don’t need dramatic stunts and cheap miracles.
All we need is for people to look at life differently. (3) The devil suggested
that Jesus could get ahead if he would only worship the devil and his power, if
he would just start calling evil good and good evil. Jesus said “no” because he
knew that that was a trick too many people had already fallen for with
disastrous results. He knew that people could see the truth if they would just
open their eyes and look at reality squarely, instead of closing them in denial
and telling themselves that it was the truth.
My friends, the third temptation that Jesus faced was to
call evil, good. In our own day, we are severely tempted, in many clever and
seductive ways, to do the same – to trick ourselves into calling obvious evil,
good! We are falling for lies in an alarming rate! We are becoming
infamous around the world for falling for this third temptation, for falling
for convincing lies!
Sadly, as I said before, the temptation story today ends
with the direction Jesus rejected as he was discerning his ministry, not
what he chose and the direction of his ministry! In short, he rejected
exterior changes (changing things) and chose interior change (changing the way
we think and the way we see things). In the Greek text, Jesus says, “Metanoiete!”
Open your eyes and change the way you think! Open your eyes and change the way
you look at things! If you do, you will see that the kingdom of God is
at hand! It is not in some far- off heaven, but right here in front of us. It
is indeed “at hand!”
Change the way you think, change the way you look at things
and you will see the answer! Your old way of thinking, your old way of looking
at things is what is making you miserable and experience the absence of God! I
believe this with all my heart. I believe it as a teaching handed to us by
Christ, certainly, but I also believe it from experience!
When I was a junior in college, I was bashful, backward and
scared of life. I always thought that life was something that happened to you
and all I could do was to accept whatever happened. I was miserable and I
blamed everybody I could. It was only when I changed the way I was thinking and
got out of the back seat of my life and got behind the wheel that my life took a
dramatic turn for the better. The world did not have to change! I had to change!
I had to learn, basically, that “There was no rescue party out looking for me.”
Instead of looking out there for a rescue party, I had to start looking within
myself for that rescue party!
Our job is not simply to change things around us - to just
rearrange the furniture so to speak! Our job is much harder! Our job is to
change our minds! That, my friends, is the real solution to many of our social
problems – coming to a new way of thinking, a new way of seeing and acting,
that results from a converted heart! The bottom line today is this -
if people would only change their thinking and their outlooks, live in truth rather than in lies, they could change our world!”
