Lectionary: Lent 1A
Texts:
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7; Psalm 32; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11
Forty Days
The gospel
reading for today highlights two of the most common features or practices
associated with the season of Lent. The first is the duration – forty days. The
second is the practice of fasting. There may be an allusion to a possible third
feature, the idea of a test or trial, that may be found in the reading that is
also associated with Lent.
Jesus, Moses, Israel
In Matthew’s
gospel, the temptation account is placed immediately before the Sermon on the
Mount. The forty days and nights parallel the time Moses spent on Mount Sinai.[1]
A possible related parallel is that Moses spent time in the wilderness of
Midian where he encountered God.[2]
As I have discussed before, Matthew portrays Jesus as a new Moses, and
therefore it is important to show these parallels between Moses and Jesus.
In addition,
however, Jesus is also shown to be the beginning of a new, perfect Israel. The
first Israel was forced to spend forty years in the wilderness after failing to
trust that God would lead them to possess the land promised to them.[3]
These forty years was a period of testing.[4]
In fact Jesus’ response to the first test comes directly from a passage in
Deuteronomy that describes Israel’s forty years of testing:
2 Remember the long way that the Lord your God has
led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing
you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his
commandments. 3 He humbled you by letting you
hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your
ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not
live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of
the Lord. (Deuteronomy 8:2-3, NRSVue)
In spite of
the great signs and wonders that God had performed to bring the Israelites out
of bondage, once faced with the wilderness the ancient Israelites failed to
trust God. They failed to trust that God would sustain them.[5]
They are recorded as having “tested the Lord”
when they accused God of bringing them into the wilderness to kill them with
thirst.[6]
And they failed to trust in God when Moses was long on Sinai, and they instead
turned to crafting a golden calf to lead them.[7]
Jesus Succeeds Where Others Failed
In Matthew
4, Jesus faces the same types of tests. He is first tested on whether or not he
will trust God to provide. He is next tested on whether to test God by
presuming on a taken-out-of-context scripture that promises God’s protection.
Jesus’ third and final test is who and what will lead his life. Where ancient
Israel failed these tests, Jesus succeeds and passes the test. In each case,
Jesus chooses to trust in what he knows is true about God. Jesus does not use
his own power to provide for himself. Jesus does not needlessly test God’s
words through reckless actions. And Jesus rejects the temptation of power and
control as a means of achieving his ends, and instead trusts in God’s schedule
and arrangements.
Through his
success in meeting these trials, Jesus shows that he is a fit representative of
a new community that will fulfill the promise and mission that was given to
Israel.
I need to
clarify here that this is not saying that Israel was replaced. The new
community is being formed out of Israel and Israel will always be a fundamental
part of the community, but its composition will become global and embrace all
of humanity. The Apostle Paul struggles with the question of “what happens with
Israel?” in his letter to the Romans.[8]
We will not get into that question this time, but we will turn to Paul and his
letter to the Romans now.
Jesus as the New Adam
Paul takes
the parallel with Jesus all the way back to Adam. Whereas the first
representative human failed to trust God and brought death to not just
humankind, but to all creation, Jesus’ trust in God, even to the cross, brings
redemption to all of creation.[9]
Not
surprisingly, Jesus’ wilderness trials parallel what Adam and Eve faced in the
Garden of Eden. The trials, the tests, the temptations involve:
1)
Sustenance
and food and who controls how it is given. Do I accept what is given and any
limits, or do I go beyond what is allowed? Do I seize (or miraculously create)
what is normally not available, because I can wield power?
2)
Trusting
God’s words or instead test them. Do we doubt the fences and guardrails that
God has fashioned? Do we seize upon some of God’s words and try to utilize them
for our own benefit or to use against others?
3)
“I
know better,” “I’ll do it my way,” vs. “I’ll trust God to do it God’s way in
God’s time.”
The Lure of Power Offered as Solution to Life
The common
theme across all three temptations is power and control. The temptations attempt
to appeal to some of the basic anxieties that arise from the precariousness and
uncertainties of life on planet Earth. The temptation offer power and control
as the solution to life’s uncertainties.
“Will I have
enough?” is a question of basic needs and sustenance. But the history of human
civilizations and societies, from ancient times to now, show that for many
people, the answer to the question is always, “No.” The fear of losing what one
already has, however little or much, leads to ever more amassing of wealth. The
desire to have more respects no wealth boundaries. From the destitute to the
ultra-wealthy, more is a common refrain. The desire to obtain goods
through unethical and even illicit means is a temptation for all, but perhaps
even more so for those who have the power and the means to get away with it.
One need not look too far from modern businesses to see many who have succumbed
to this temptation. And what’s more, unless the offense is egregious, society tacitly
gives its approval. The end goal, if it could be achieved, is for a person to
be able to be completely self-reliant.
“Will I be
safe?” is another question about basic needs. We all long for security,
predictability, and comfort in this life. But as natural disasters, wars, gun
violence, and so much more take place day after day, there is no such thing as
a guarantee of safety in this life. For many people there is little they can do
to improve the odds of keeping safe. For others, perhaps many of us here, we do
have some means to attempt to improve our security. We might upgrade to better
locks. Purchase an alarm system and security cameras. Some may choose to arm
themselves. We could include in this arena of security the desire to live
forever. The end goal of ultimate security is eternal life that is crafted
based on my personal preferences.
“Do I have
any significance?” is a question of identity, meaning, and purpose. One way to
secure a semblance of identity and purpose is to achieve a degree of power. Those
who have power are not ignored. They have the means to get things done, and
that means others will come knocking on the door and asking for favors. With enough
power, a person can do pretty much anything that they want. So the pursuit of
power, much like the pursuit of wealth, becomes an endless one. There is never
enough power. One can always have a little bit more. The goal of ultimate power
is to answer to no one, to craft a world in which everything and everyone
caters to my interests.
Avoiding the Lure
Jesus
rejects the offer of each of these temptations. He rejects the temptation to
provide for himself. He rejects the temptation to use his position and power to
demand security and protection of his life. And finally, Jesus rejects the
temptation to fashion his identity, meaning, and purpose based on power over the
world. Jesus rejects the identity and purpose of a Messiah formed around the
world’s expectations of what a Messiah should be.
The desires
for adequate sustenance, reasonable security, and for identity, meaning, and
purpose are legitimate. After all, in the Lord’s Prayer we pray, “Give us today
our daily bread.”[10]
Jesus addresses the problem of worrying by saying, “Therefore I tell you, do
not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or
about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body
more than clothing? … But seek first the kingdom of God and
his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”[11]
As for identity and purpose, Jesus tells us that we are salt and light
representing God to the world.[12]
Letting Go
What if this
Lent we really attempt to trust what Jesus has revealed about God and God’s
care for us? What if we give up our desire to control our lives (and that often
leads to controlling others as well)? What if we let go of the pursuit of material
security and prosperity that the world assures us we need? What if we let go of
worrying about our safety and future? What if we let go of trying to conform our
identity and purpose to the expectations of the world?
Jesus
trusted in God to provide for his provisions and his well-being. Jesus had
heard God already declare that he was God’s son, and he held on to that
identity.
This Lenten
season, let us take time to reflect on how we might be pursuing desires that
are not of God, and instead redirect our desires to be in alignment with what
God wants for us, our families, our churches, and our communities.
Resist the
temptations to cling to empty promises of prosperity, security, and power to
fulfill our desires. Instead, let them go and find in Christ all that we need
for this life and the life to come.
[1]
Exodus 24:18.
[2]
Exodus 3.
[3]
Numbers 14:33, 34.
[4]
Deuteronomy 8:2, 3.
[5]
Exodus 16.
[6]
Exodus 17.
[7]
Exodus 32.
[8]
Romans 9-11.
[9]
Romans 8:19-23.
[10]
Matthew 6:11.
[11]
Matthew 6:25, 33.
[12]
Matthew 5:13-16.
