March 1, 2020: Strength Revealed
March 1, 2020 Rev. Rhonda Blevins, DMIN
Strength Revealed
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 | Matthew 4:1-11
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
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Here we are on the first Sunday of Lent. The season of reflection. The time of year when we take inventory of our lives and hit the “reset” button to try to more intentionally align our lives in accordance with who God is calling us to become. One tradition during the 40 days of Lent is to fast . . . to “give something up” for Lent, like giving up meat on Fridays during Lent.
I heard about a Protestant guy named Sam who moved into a large Catholic neighborhood. On the first Friday of Lent, Sam went outside to grill up a big juicy filet mignon. Meanwhile, all of Sam’s neighbors were eating cold tuna fish for supper. This went on each Friday of Lent.
On the last Friday of Lent, the neighborhood men got together and decided that something had to be done about Sam. He was tempting them to eat meat each Friday of Lent, and they couldn’t take it anymore. They decided to try and convert Sam to Catholicism. They went over and talked to him. Sam, to their great delight, decided to join his neighbors and become Catholic.
They took him to church, and the priest sprinkled some water over him, and said:
“You were born a Baptist, you were raised a Baptist, and now you are a Catholic.”
The men were so relieved, now their biggest Lenten temptation was resolved.
The next year’s Lenten season rolled around. The first Friday of Lent came, and, just at supper time, when the neighborhood was settling down to their cold tuna fish dinner, the smell of filet mignon cooking on a grill came wafting into their homes. The neighborhood men could not believe their noses! WHAT WAS GOING ON? They called each other up and decided to meet over in Sam’s yard to see if he had forgotten it was the first Friday of Lent.
The group arrived just in time to see Sam standing over his grill with a small pitcher of water. He was sprinkling some water over his steak on the grill, saying:
“You were born a cow, you were raised a cow, and now you are a fish.”
On the first Sunday of Lent, the lectionary always brings us back to the wilderness temptations of Jesus and his 40 day fast—this year from the Gospel of Matthew. The tempter approached Jesus three times. . .three different ways.
· The first temptation was the most subtle: “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus hadn’t eaten for 40 days, and there was no one around. No one would ever have to know. Besides, if he could turn stones into bread, he could feed the world. Maybe he could even end hunger. People everywhere would follow him. “Tell these stones to become bread.”
· “No? Then throw yourself down off this temple.” Wow, now that would be spectacular. If he could do that, just think how amazed the people would be. People everywhere would follow him, and think of all the good he could do then! “Throw yourself down from this temple, Jesus, if you are the son of God.”
· “No? Then here from this mountaintop . . . all the kingdoms of this world can be yours if you will just worship me.” No one would have to know he had given his allegiance over to Satan. And all power, all control, all sovereignty would be his. He would want for nothing. People everywhere would follow him. “It’s all yours, just bow down and worship me.”
We also read the story of Adam and Eve and their great temptation. They could eat from any tree in the garden—any tree—except one. Then the serpent came along: “C’mon, you won’t die. God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God.”
A few years ago when my oldest son was about six, my family got home from church one Sunday and I asked him what he had learned in Sunday school. That day the children had studied the story of Adam and Eve in the garden. “There was a man and a woman in a garden,” my son proceeded to tell me. “And God told them not to eat from this one tree. Then the servant came along and got them to eat it,” he said, incredulous that they would disobey God like that. Of course, I grinned and said, “You mean the serpent got them to eat it, right?” “Oh no, it was the servant.”
Just like my six-year-old, most of us remain confused when it comes to the tempter. That’s the tempter’s game, you know? Temptation usually comes to us in disguise—in sneaky, subtle ways. So maybe we don’t murder those neighbors we don’t like, but we will certainly talk about them. Maybe we don’t set forest fires, but we use more than our share of the earth’s resources. Temptation is subtle, and we are masters at justifying our subtle trespasses against God and God’s creation. Evil never comes to us in red pajamas wielding a pitchfork. The most dangerous evil is attractive and coy.
Theologian Maryetta Anschutz says it like this: “Temptation comes to us in moments when we look at others and feel insecure about not having enough. Temptation comes in judgments we make about strangers or friends who make choices we do not understand. Temptation rules us, making us able to look away from those in need and to live our lives unaffected by poverty, hunger, and disease. Temptation rages in moments when we allow our temper to define our lives or when addiction to wealth, power, influence over others, vanity, or an inordinate need for control defines who we are. Temptation wins when we engage in the justification of little lies, small sins: a racist joke, a questionable business practice for the greater good, a criticism of a spouse or partner when he or she is not around . . . these are the faceless moments of evil that, while mundane, lurk in the recesses of our lives and our souls.”[1]
So we have two stories: Adam & Eve in the garden, and Jesus in the wilderness. Why did Adam & Eve yield to temptation, and how did Jesus resist it? How was he able to stand strong mentally, though physically he was the weakest he had ever been?
If you go back to the story, think about how he responded each time the tempter presented a new temptation. What did he say? He quoted scripture. He had so filled his mind with the word of God that when temptation came, he was able to pull out the word of God and wield it like a sword—defeating the tempter with Scripture.
I grew up Southern Baptist, and one of the things Southern Baptists do well is teach their children the Bible. One of the ways they teach children the Bible is through “sword drill” or “Bible drill”— pitting kids against one another in memorization of Bible verses. It’s called a “sword drill” because the Bible is likened to a sword, the symbolism taken from Ephesians 6:10-17:
Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the . . . full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground . . . stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
How do we remain strong in the face of temptation? We put on the full armor of God, with the only offensive tool being the “sword of the Spirit,” the word of God.
Jesus’ strength was revealed in this wilderness story—the strength that came from having on the full armor of God, wielding the sword of the Spirit, countering every attack the tempter threw at him.
That same strength can be ours.
The armor of God—truth, righteousness, peace, faith—this armor isn’t something you can buy from Amazon. You can’t go to Target and purchase the sword of the spirit. So where do you go to get this armor? Your prayer closet is one place. Among the poor and marginalized is another. Church is another. The spiritual discipline of gathering with the saints for worship, little by little, fills our minds with the stuff of God.
Jesus’ strength was revealed in the wilderness—the strength he gained through immersing himself, day in and day out, in the things of God. That’s what the season of Lent is about. It’s a time to push the reset button and better align our lives with God’s desire for us, and to fill our lives with the things of God. Philippians 4:8: “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” If you do that, temptation will lose its sway over you, and like Jesus, your strength will be revealed in the time of trial.
And one final word. Don’t forget what Paul Harvey called, “the rest of the story.” You caught the end of the story, right? The conclusion to Jesus’ wilderness temptations? Angels came and attended him. Yes, God took care of him in his time of need. And yes, God will take care of you.
[1] Maryetta Anschutz, Feasting on the Word, Year A, Volume 2.