Sermon: A Fall, or Failure to Mature?

Lectionary: Lent 1(A)

Texts: Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7; Matthew 4:1-11

From Paradise to Chaos
Herrel, Edie Mae; 1975

A mother bakes a cake for her child’s – let’s call him Greg – birthday party. She tells Greg to leave the cake alone, and not pinch pieces away and eat them. Why? Is it because she doesn’t want him to have the cake? No, it’s for him, after all. But the time is not right. When the party takes place, that is the right time. But Greg is still quite young – let’s say he is 3 years old – and the wait is too much. He doesn’t yet comprehend the value of delayed gratification. His immaturity gets better of him; he tears a piece off the cake and eats it.

The story of The Fall as it is commonly known, at least within Christianity, can be interpreted in many ways. The most common and I would argue, the least interesting goes like this:

Adam and Eve are fresh-off the assembly-line, shiny, new, perfect, first human beings—sort of super humans. God tested these flawless creatures with this command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, just to see if they meant business and would obey God. But they failed the test, rebelled against God, and lost not only their own perfection but that of every other human being since.[1]

This is how most of Western Christianity has read and interpreted the text since at least Augustine (CE 354-430). If you’ve heard of the Doctrine of Original Sin, this is where it originates (pun sort of intended), even though the word sin never occurs in these texts.

Now recall that I said, “Western Christianity.” This is because the other large group of Christians, the Eastern Church, reads it differently.

Another angle, one often taken by Christians in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, is to read the Adam story as being not about a fall down from perfection, but a failure to grow up to godly wisdom and maturity.

Think of Adam and Eve not as perfect super humans but as young, naïve children, who were meant to grow into obedience, but were tricked into following a different path.[2]

Some of the earliest Christians read it quite differently from even these first two that I discussed. Just prior to Augustine, Ambrose taught that eating the “forbidden fruit” was “fortunate guilt.” It was because of this “blessed fault” that Christ was able to enter the world.[3] Now, when this interpretation is analyzed, it doesn’t take long to realize it is based on several pieces of faulty logic.

For the early Jews, the story is not about human disobedience.

The early Jewish focus is rather on the garden itself, the gaining of sexual knowledge (“and they knew they were naked”[4]) and the concurrent loss of immortality, and the regaining of the garden in the future.[5]

For the early Jews, the loss of immortality of a single individual was replaced by immortality of the community through reproduction and descendants.

For the later rabbis, contemporary with the early Christian period,

The idea of an edenic fall is a minority opinion. More popular are countervailing claims suggesting the everything, including death, was part of the divine plan.[6]

Why do I bring up these many interpretive variants? Some not Christian? Because interpretation and development of doctrine don’t happen in a vacuum. Development happens in conversation with the past and with contemporaries who hold divergent views. Sometimes it agrees and at other times it is a reaction against.  Understanding and knowing about them (hopefully) allows us to be better interpreters and more open to listening to other viewpoints, even when we ultimately disagree.

In addition to different theological interpretations, there are also different views about the historicity of these texts in Genesis. One view posits that the stories of the creation, fall, and exile are literal and historical facts. Another view is that while not everything should be viewed literally, it is still a factual accounting of history.

A third view sees these stories as myth. Now “myth” does not mean lies or falsehood. It does mean fiction. But as any good literature professor will tell you, oftentimes, good fiction can communicate truths better than bland facts.

I started in the “literally true” end of the spectrum. But now I read these early chapters of Genesis as mythology. These are texts that preserved early Hebrew traditions where they attempted to make sense out of their world. They were in conversation with other cultures and mythologies around them. They used familiar motifs and archetypes to create their own mythology of how the world began and how it ended up so fractured in so many ways.

The text of Genesis as we have them today wasn’t finalized until well after the return from Babylonian exile. This is important because Genesis 2 and 3, in addition to a mythological tale of Hebrew origins, it is also an allegory of the historical journey that Israel has taken. The creation of man from dust can be seen as paralleling the creation of Israel out of slavery. The first humans were placed into a paradise garden; the Israelites were led to a paradise-like land, “a land flowing with milk and honey.” The first humans were given a command to follow; the Israelites were given commandments to follow. Life and perpetual habitation of the land given to them would follow obedience. Conversely, disobedience led to death and exile for both parties of the allegory. God gives warnings to both the first humans and to Israel the consequences of disobedience.[7] The mythology of Genesis is written by returnees from the Babylonian exile, looking back at their history and diagnosing what went so wrong.

Lending more strength to the argument that Genesis 2 and 3 are stories about Israel is the different word for God used in chapter 1. In Genesis 1, the word for God is Elohim, a general, cosmic deity. But when we get to Genesis 2:8, the words used are Yahweh Elohim, naming a deity who is specific to the Israelites.[8]

This is where we revisit the theological interpretation of naïve children who are faced with a choice to obey God or do their own thing. Did God want them to remain naïve? I don’t think so. Proverbs chapter 1 begins with the following words on the purpose of this collection:

To know wisdom and reproof, to understand discerning maxims.

To accept the reproof of insight, righteousness, justice, and uprightness.

To give shrewdness to the simple, to a lad, knowledge and cunning.

Let the wise man hear and gain learning, and the discerning acquire designs.

To understand proverbs and adages, the words of the wise and their riddles.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Wisdom and reproof dolts despise.[9]

During the Babylonian exile, the prophet Ezekiel wrote about returning to obedience, not because of commands written in stone, but because they would be internalized. One such text reads:

²⁶ A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷ I will put my spirit within you and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. ²⁸ Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. [10]

The writer of Hebrews writes about maturing in faith:

You need milk, not solid food, ¹³ for everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of righteousness. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.[11]

There is no shortcut to maturity. There is no shortcut to genuine knowledge and wisdom. The problem with Adam and Eve in the garden was not that they desired these things, but they took a supposed shortcut that was offered to them.

And here is where Jesus’ wilderness temptation (our gospel reading) becomes relevant. Jesus too, was offered shortcuts to achieve what he was destined to do. But to take the shortcut would have prevented him from reaching his goals. The journey itself – the learning that happens, the struggles that must be overcome – are just as important, and perhaps even more than the destination. The writer of Hebrews wrote, “Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested,”[12] and “Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.”[13] The writer also (in chapter 4) describes how Israel failed to grow and mature because of their disobedience.

Shortcuts appeal to our own vanity, comfort, and power. These are the things to avoid and give up (in the spirit of Lent).

Rather, we should not shy away from the hard work necessary to gain Christ’s wisdom and knowledge. Paul writes in Philippians what this means:

³ Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. ⁴ Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others. ⁵ Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

⁶ who, though he existed in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be grasped,
⁷ but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
assuming human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a human,
⁸ he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
⁹ Therefore God exalted him even more highly
and gave him the name
that is above every other name,
¹⁰ so that at the name given to Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹ and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.[14]

Amen.

References

Alter, R. (2019). The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.

Bartlett, D. L., & Brown Taylor, B. (2010). Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 2. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.

Enns, P., & Byas, J. (2019). Genesis for Normal People: A Guide to the Most Controversial, Misunderstood, and Abused Book of the Bible. The Bible for Normal People.

Hamilton, V. P. (1990). New International Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis 1-17. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

Levine, A.-J., & Brettler, M. Z. (2020). The Bible With and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories Differently. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Van de Laar, J. (2026, February 12). Falling Down, or Growing Up? Retrieved from Sacredise Your LIfe!: https://sacredise.substack.com/p/revolutionary-blessedness

William B. Eerdmans. (2003). Eerdman's Commentary on the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans.

 

 

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[1] Around page 37, Kindle edition. (Enns & Byas, 2019)

[2] Ibid.

[3] Around page 128, Kindle edition. (Levine & Brettler, 2020)

[4] Around page 113. Ibid.

[5] Around page 123. Ibid.

[6] Around page 129, Ibid.

[7] Around page 36, Kindle edition. (Enns & Byas, 2019)

[8] Genesis 1:1-2:7 and Genesis 2:8ff are two separate creation accounts. The first one, the more cosmic one, and the later one, could be read as Jewish reaction to Babylonian creation mythology. The second is based on older Hebrew traditions, still probably influenced by surrounding societies, but more distinctly Israelite.

[9] Proverbs 1:2-7. (Alter, 2019)

[10] Ezekiel 36:26-28. (NRSVue)

[11] Hebrews 5:12b-14. (NRSVue)

[12] Hebrews 2:18. (NRSVue)

[13] Hebrews 5:8. (NRSVue)

[14] Philippians 2:3-11. (NRSVue)

Sermon: Giving Up Empire

Lectionary: Lent 1(C)

Texts: Romans 10:5-13; Luke 4:1-13

The Heart of Empire

Jesus Carried up to a
Pinnacle of the Temple
(Tissot, James, 1836-1902)

“Jesus is Lord.”

For any of us to say that is noncontroversial. We could yell that in public, and aside from some strange looks directed our way, I doubt anyone would take much notice or care that much. That alone shows how, at least in our society, despite differences in beliefs and opinions, the presence of Christianity is a cultural norm.

Now imagine the city of Rome at the height of the Roman empire. The villas of the nobles and wealthy line the narrow streets winding about the hills on which the city is built. There are images and statuary to the gods at every corner. Approaching an entry to one villa, you see an image of Janus in the entry while at the boundaries to either neighbor, you see icons of Terminus. Inside you might encounter shrines dedicated to the many lares and parentes honoring the household’s ancestors. As you move farther into the house, you come to the kitchen where carvings and icons of panes and penates keep watch of the pantry and the kitchen and dining area.

 In public life the major gods of the Romans were venerated and temples to them can be found on the grounds of the city. The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, The Temple of Saturn, the Temple of Hercules Victor, the Pantheon which venerated all gods, and so on.

And then there was the imperial cult of the emperor, where a deceased emperor could be elevated to godhood. The new emperor was then described as “son of god”. There were isolated instances where the living emperor would style himself as a god, but this was not always the case.

Directly related to the gods was the concept of paterfamilias (father of family) and the household codes. There are several places in the New Testament where we see the use of household codes in the text. We can see this in Ephesians, Colossians, and 1 Peter. It is based on the concept of paterfamilias where a father rules over the household. It can be traced back to Aristotle where he describes the ideal structure of the state, in Politics, book 1. Here Aristotle appeals to “the natural order” of things to describe how the right to rule descends from the gods to the king to the fathers over his household, which consists of his wife, children, servants and slaves.

The structure and stability of the state is directly attributable to how each paterfamilias governs and rules over his assigned domain. Venerating and appeasing all of the gods, especially the household gods, was a critical aspect of maintaining one’s household.

In this setting, Caesar was the paterfamilias of the entire empire, both political and religious. And because of how households were viewed as part of the hierarchy of the state, Caesar was also the ultimate lord of the household.

Christians in the Heart of Empire

To declare “Jesus is Lord” was an act of treason. It was effectively declaring that Ceasar is not lord. It was a seditious declaration. It was seen as striking at the very pillars that established the security and stability of the state. Abandoning the gods of house and state was risking angering them and inviting catastrophe to both domestic and national affairs.

When Paul writes to the Romans that they are to “confess with your mouth the Jesus is Lord,” all of what I just described is implied. Paul is exhorting the Romans to change their allegiance from Caesar and the empire to Jesus and his beloved community. This allegiance to and belonging to the community of Christ is what Paul means when he writes, “For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’” This is the meaning of salvation. In Paul’s mind, salvation is not about a future event where the saved are taken to heaven. It is about entrance into a new community and embracing a new way of living with new allegiance, priorities, and values.

For the Christians in Rome who made the decision to baptized and declared that Jesus is Lord, it meant their participation in public life, their welcome in public spaces, their social lives and livelihoods were impacted. Their declaration was not merely words but a literal rejection of the empire and exit from their former ways of living. So, entry into a new community was vital for their survival. That Christian community provided a necessary lifeline where Christians could continue to survive and live.

I’ve mentioned in prior sermons that contrary to popular imagination, early Christians probably did not face systematic, empire-wide persecution, though many conservative Christian historians disagree.[1] One could imagine how the populace of Rome might blame Christians, due to their abandonment of traditional gods, for the conflagration of the city during the reign of Nero. Regardless, the ostracization from social and economic life and exclusion from participation in public life would have been difficult enough and would have necessitated finding support in an alternate community.

When we read about the early Christians and their decision to follow Jesus Christ, we need to understand what that meant. We need to know that its significance and impact went far beyond merely joining a church and leaving much of the rest of their lives unchanged.

Jesus Tested in the Wilderness

We jump over to Jesus and the wilderness temptation. After baptism, in the Lucan version, he was “led by the Spirit in[to] the wilderness, where for forty days he was tested by the devil.”

The first test Jesus faces is where the devil suggests that Jesus meet his need for food (after all, he had fasted for forty days) by turning stones into bread. In the second test, the devil takes him up high (Luke doesn’t specify where) where Jesus is shown all the kingdoms of the world and is offered dominion over them for the cost of worshiping the one offering it, the devil. And for the third and final test, Jesus is taken to the pinnacle of the temple and the devil suggest the Jesus throw himself off the pinnacle because there is a text in Psalms promising protection from physical harm.

In each case, Jesus counters the devil’s test quoting from scripture, specifically from the text of Deuteronomy. It needs to be noted that in the third test, the devil used scripture as part of the test, but it was not a proper use of it. This should be reminder that because someone quotes texts from the Bible, that by itself is not sufficient evidence for an argument. When a text is quoted, we need to evaluate if it is being quoted properly, in all its relevant contexts.

What about these tests that Jesus faced and what might it symbolize? One commentary reads, referencing Chrysostom, a church father from the fourth century,

The tests might also suggest to the Hellenistic auditor the threefold category of vice: love of pleasure, love of possession, and love of glory.[2]

Now, there is nothing wrong with enjoyment and pleasure, of having possessions, or experiencing success and even receiving adulation for accomplishments. But we should not fall in love with any of these things. When we do, they become our own household gods that we end up having to constantly appease by striving for more and more of them.

Another commentary on these three tests suggests,

In these dialogues Jesus rejects three methods of inaugurating the kingdom of God: (1) use of extraordinary power to provide bread, (2) military dreams of world empire, and (3) a sudden appearance in the temple…

The Messiah is God’s servant, and the Sermon on the Plain (6:20–49) is Jesus’ alternative Messianism, the demand for active merciful love toward the poor and hungry.[3]

In these three tests Jesus rejects methods of empire to build and hold power. Jesus rejects manipulation of his powers, Jesus rejects the use of military and political might, and Jesus rejects self-aggrandizement and religious manipulation.

Jesus gave up and rejected the way of empire to bring about change in the world. Instead, he inaugurated a different community with values and priorities opposing the world’s.

Following Jesus, Rejecting Empire

When we claim that Jesus is Lord, we should be following his way, and that includes giving up empire and rejecting the methods used by the world to acquire, maintain, and control power. If we say that Jesus is Lord, then like our ancient forebearers of the faith in Rome, we should be saying that our allegiance is not to any nation or leader of this world, but to Christ alone.

The fact that, at least in this current society that we are in, we face no hardship for saying, “Jesus is Lord,” says one of two things. Either our society is so much like God’s kingdom already, or the church and Christians have become nearly indistinguishable from the world. Since I’m sure all of us can agree that it is not the former, we can say that it is closer to the latter.

We need to change how we read these texts. We need to acknowledge that we are part of the empire, comfortably living in it and enjoying its benefits and privileges. We need to read scripture as being written to warn us. We are the rich ruler asking Jesus how we can get into his kingdom. We are the ones that are being asked to give up everything to follow Jesus. We are the ones who look at Jesus yet longingly look back to what we are being asked to leave behind. We are the camel trying to go through the eye of a needle.[4]

The beloved community of Jesus is composed of those who are presently poor, hungry, weeping, reviled and rejected.[5] It is not enough to merely pay lip service to helping the poor and hungry. It is not enough to merely speak words of comfort to those who are weeping. It is not enough to merely stand with the reviled and the rejected.

We need to find ways to be in solidarity with them. To be in solidarity with them means finding ways to create a community where they are valued and respected as full members and citizens.

Salvation Begins Here

When Paul wrote about salvation to the Christians in Rome, he meant (quote from Romans Disarmed: Resisting Empire, Demanding Justice) –

… an end to the imperial rule of death. It meant resurrection, and it meant life: life for those who were enslaved, life for those who were hungry, life for the poor who were naked, life for those who were dying because of the economic and political violence of the empire…

Unless we are willing to name the injustice of sexual abuse, economic oppression, human trafficking…, the exclusion of the stranger, we have no way of understanding either the word of hope that the gospel brought into these situations of pain or the radical nature of Paul’s language in Romans…

Paul wasn’t talking about sin or injustice in general. He was naming the experiences to whom he wrote, those who lived, Rome in the middle of the first century CE…

It is only when we share in the suffering of these people that we truly understand the need for repentance, that we truly understand the sins for which we must ask forgiveness.[6]

During this Lenten season, I encourage each of us to find ways to give up empire, resist it, and demand justice. I encourage you to take to heart what it means to declare that Jesus is Lord. I encourage you to find ways to move your allegiance from entities of this world to the kingdom of God. God is never on the side of the aggressor and oppressor. I encourage each of us to find ways to join together with the suffering people in our world.

Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven, for that is how their ancestors treated the prophets. (Luke 6:22-23 NRSVue)

In the name of God who is our Parent,

In the name of God who is our Sibling,

In the name of God who unites us in Love, Amen.

References

Aristotle. (2025, March 8). Aristotle, Politics, Book 1, section 1253b. Retrieved from Aristotle, Politics: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0058%3Abook%3D1%3Asection%3D1253b

Bartlett, D. L., & Taylor, B. B. (2009). Feasting on the Word: Year C, Volume 2 (Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary). Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.

Dunn, J. D., & Rogerson, J. W. (2003). Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Johnson, L. T. (2013). Reading Romans: A Literary and Theological Commentary (Reading the New Testament). Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys.

Keesmat, S. C., & Walsh, B. J. (2019). Romans Disarmed: Resisting Empire, Demanding Justice. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press.

Kirk, J. D. (2022). Romans for Normal People. Perkiomenville, PA: The Bible for Normal People.

Talbert, C. H. (2012). Reading Luke: A Literary and Theological Commentary on the Third Gospel (Reading the New Testament). Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys.

Wikipedia. (2025, March 8). The Myth of Persecution. Retrieved from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Myth_of_Persecution

Wright, N. (2023). Romans for Everyone, Part 2: Chapters 9-16, 20th Anniversary Edition. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.

 

 

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[1] Candida Moss’s book The Myth of Persecution, summarized in (Wikipedia, 2025)

[2] From Dio Chrysostom, Orations 4.84 referenced in (Talbert, 2012).

[3] (Dunn & Rogerson, 2003)

[4] Luke 18:18-25.

[5] Luke 6:20-22.

[6] (Keesmat & Walsh, 2019)

Sermon: Letting Go

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.

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[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.