- Hebrews 4:15

Prayer of Preparation

O Lord, may your Spirit keep us from falling into temptation as we listen for your Word and prepare to receive our daily bread. Amen.

The Message

I would have to say that over the years I have grown to appreciate certain aspects of country western music. Though I would have to admit I am not totally in the fan column, I would have to say that I have discovered a few nuggets of wisdom about the human condition listening to country western music, listening to disappointment, heartbreak, unfilled dreams, broken promises, anger, and guilt. Friends have told me that there is a gold mine of theological riches in this kind of music. In fact, one of those treasures is the song by Bobby Bare entitled “Dropkick Me Jesus, Through the Goal Posts of Life,” stating how we can make it through life with Jesus giving us the boot.

Garth Brooks, of course, is another star of country western music. The other day I came across his song “I’ve Got Friends in Low Places.” Maybe you know it. I won’t repeat the lyrics, but the song did capture my imagination, especially on this First Sunday of Lent, for if the season of Lent means anything at all, it means knowing that we have a friend in low places, a friend who has “been there and done that” for us, a friend who knows our problems and pain, who “bears our sin and grief,” who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:14).

Now, all of this has been on my mind as we move into this holy time. Our passage from Mark’s Gospel moves very quickly into the story of Jesus’ temptation. Here, in the opening chapter, we catch a glimpse of the beginnings of Jesus’ ministry. In seven short verses, we see the following movement:

Jesus’ Baptism – where God says “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased”; it is a time of confirmation. We then move to…

Temptation – Immediately, Marks says, following his baptism Jesus is driven into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan for forty days and forty nights.

First Sermon – And then following the time of testing we hear Jesus’ first sermon: a short crowd pleaser of two sentences! “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God has come near, repent, and believe in the good news” (Mark 1:14-15). Notice…

The Movement:

Baptism – Confirmation
Temptation
First Sermon

Typically, on the first Sunday of Lent, this is where we begin, with Jesus in the wilderness: baptized, confirmed, and then tempted. What a way to begin your ministry!

Scriptural Allusions

It reminds us of another story in Scripture: the story of Israel in the wilderness – Israel, chosen by God, in bondage in Egypt, led by God into the desert, wandering for forty years, dealing with times of testing, temptation, and trial, moving into freedom (See the Book of Exodus).

In the early church, this parallel with Israel’s history was important. It was important because it reminded the early Christians that Jesus’ time in the wilderness was a time of self-examination, a time of preparing for the journey to come, a time for coming to grips with the evil that would be certainly be encountered.

The parallel with Israel’s story is important, but it also reminds us of another story: the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden, tempted by the serpent. We really cannot understand Jesus’ temptation unless we understand the first temptation, unless we see in Adam and Eve how we all are prone to mess up, to miss the mark of God’s intentions for our lives, to fall into temptation.

The story of Adam and Eve in Genesis is none other than the story of Andy and Peggy, and John and Sue, and Jane and Frank. It’s the story of what happens when we fall from innocence, when we start to make decisions independently of God, when we fail to listen to God, when we make decisions out of fear or pride, selfishness or jealously, hatred or revenge, speaking foolishly, blaming others. When we make these decisions, we begin to recognize there are consequences to what we say or do. Typically, someone pays; someone gets hurt.

According to the Scriptures, this is what sin is.

Sin is a refusal to listen to God.

Sin is a failure to listen to God – whether that’s the sin of moral disobedience, or intellectual pride, or spiritual despair; sin is a refusal to trust God with our lives.

The Temptation

That’s what Jesus’ temptation is about: In Jesus’ baptism and temptation, we find One who completely trusts God with his life.

Now, I share that insight because what I find interesting in our passage this morning is that Mark doesn’t tell us how Jesus was tempted. He simply tells us that once Jesus was baptized, the Spirit immediately drove him into the wilderness and that in the wilderness he was tempted and tested by Satan for forty days (1:12-13). That’s it! That’s all it says.

That’s very different than what we read in Matthew and Luke, where Satan tempts Jesus in three specific ways. What were they?

Satan’s first temptation to Jesus: the temptation to be relevant, to be a social hero, to solve everyone’s problems and to meet everyone’s needs by turning stones into bread. Very tempting…

Second temptation: the temptation to be popular, to be a religious super star, to do the spectacular, to please the crowds, to be liked by all. Tempting…

Satan’s third temptation: the temptation to be powerful, to be in control, to take charge, to subdue and rule all the nations. All the kingdoms of the world in Jesus’ hands! Tempting… (See Matthew 4:1-11, Luke 4:1-13; see also Henri J. M. Nouwen’s, In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership (New York: Crossroad, 1989).

That’s how Matthew and Luke tell the story.

In Mark’s Gospel, though, we don’t get a list of temptations. Instead, we have a list of questions, wondering “What did Satan tempt Jesus to do?” To abandon what his family had taught him? To reject his past? To reject his people? To look the other way and not get involved when the broken and needy would come to him? To give up or quit before getting started? To take the easy way and not the cross-way? What did Satan say to him? What did he test Jesus to do, or not to do?

Reflections on Temptation

Several years ago in our church a group of us studied C. S. Lewis’ famous book The Screwtape Letters. Perhaps you have read it. It’s the story of how Screwtape, one of the Devil’s leading demons, trains a young demon by the name of Wormwood in the art of deception and temptation. Screwtape advises Wormword of how people are won over to the ways of the world rather than the ways of Christ – that once you can get a person to make the world an end and faith a means, “you have almost won [over] your man, and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end he is pursuing. Provided that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes, and crusades matter more to him than prayers and sacraments and love, he is ours.”

Let me ask you: how would you complete the following sentence?

I am most tempted when _______________.

Complete the sentence.

I am most tempted to disobey Christ when I _____________.
I am most tempted to be prideful when I ________________.
I am most tempted to fall into despair when I ____________.

Or, when we pray The Lord’s Prayer in a few minutes, when we prepare to come and receive the Bread and Cup, what comes to your mind when will we pray?

And lead us not into temptation…

What temptation? What temptation do you face?

A wise man told me once: “Andy, you are tempted not at the point of your weakness but at the point of your strength.”

It’s our strength that can suddenly become our greatest weakness, because it’s our strength that, in the words of Martin Luther, can be used for purposes other than God’s purposes.

All the good with which God has blessed our lives can be placed on the auction block to highest bidder, or to people who may not have our best interest at heart. Our sense of justice can become self-righteous. Our keen intellect can become prideful. Our wanting to care can become manipulating.

Make sense? I have come to realize (the hard way!) that if we are truly alive to God, if we truly want to use our gifts to fulfill God’s purposes, we need to prepare ourselves to be tempted: it will happen. We will be tempted to use our gifts for purposes other than God’s purposes.

Let me put it another way: the idea that we can live happily ever after once we have made a commitment to Christ, or have been baptized, with no testing, or temptation, or trial – well, that’s a temptation the ole Devil would like everyone to believe!

What our passage says is once you begin to follow Jesus, once you receive God’s Spirit your problems may just be starting! There will be forces at work that will try to knock you off course!

The season of Lent is about coming to grips with this fundamental truth: temptation is real. But it is also about coming to grips with the truth that there are not only “principalities and powers” that would “threaten to undo us” (in the words of Martin Luther), but that there is also a Power in this world that would save us and empower us, even through temptation, to become greater and stronger than we would ever imagine. (See Martin Luther’s famous hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”).

The Power to Overcome

That’s what we believe as Christians. We believe that Christ is not only with us, but also beside us and in us, to lead us and guide us, to strengthen us and grace us with love and courage.

Jesus is the like that woman in the stands who raises the poster that reads – Christ has sent you a message: “I will lead through the struggles of your life.” True!

It’s similar to what Jesus tells the disciples in the Gospel of John, where he says “I will not leave you alone. I am coming to you” (14:18). Christ is always with us.

It’s similar to another beautiful passage in the Letter to the Hebrews. In Hebrews, Jesus is given the title of High Priest; it is the High Priest who enters the holy of holies and offers sacrifices to God on behalf of the people (4:14-510). The only exception in Hebrews, though, is that this High Priest does not sacrifice animals. Rather, this High Priest becomes the sacrifice. In fact, this High Priest becomes the very Lamb who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

He knows all about us. He has been where we have been; and he has seen what we have seen. He has endured what we must endure. There is nothing we have experienced that he hasn’t experienced. He’s been to the high places and low places of life. He’s been and done that!

That’s the word sent to help us and remind us that

…we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect was tempted, as we are, yet without sin. So let us with confidence approach the throne of grace, that me might receive mercy, and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:15-16).

That’s the revelation! There is Someone who has been to all those places, who has gone through the testing, yet come out the other side – cleaner, purer, stronger. There is Someone who knows our temptation but who now gives us strength to face it, that we may not be less than who God truly created us to be, that we may not be tempted to choose those things of which we are not proud, or for which we may fall into despair.

We have a Friend who’s been there, in low places, that we may live in true freedom.

In fact, it’s because our Friend has been there that we can now draw near here to the very throne of grace itself as friends – through the Sacrament of Holy Communion – receiving mercy and forgiveness, finding grace to help us in our time of need.

That’s the gift we have been given! It’s been given to strengthen us and renew us for the journey! It’s been given to us in our time of need. Amen.