Park United Methodist Church

Matthew 4:1-11

 

Reflection: All The Kingdoms of the World

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Temptation is a funny thing.  It is far sneakier than we think it is.  It is the slippery slope.  The first tiny thing seems so easy, and no one will notice.  It is not a big deal.  No one starts out stealing lots of money, or doing hard drugs, or cheating on a spouse overnight.  It is the little things that happen first.  Rationalizing a phone call you don’t tell anyone about, “borrowing” 20$ from the office slush fund that you forget to pay back, taking that pill your friend gave you for your back ache…again and again.

 

Some Bible translations call it temptation, but the actual translation for the word, as William Barclay tells us, is testing.  He goes on to explain that it is the same word used when Abraham is asked to bring Isaac to be sacrificed - to test his faith.  A test to see if his faith was enough to lead in what was coming next.  The temptations can start with just a little look or linger.  A small cheat, something little missing, a “white” lie that doesn’t hurt anyone.  

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That is the problem with temptation.  It asks us to stretch our normal boundary a little bit in a way that would be easy and usually hardly noticeable.  Would anyone notice if I had an extra dessert, didn’t run, took an extra supply from the office closet, borrowed a few bucks until the end of the week?  Usually, we can even rationalize our way out of it.  The person did not want their change back, so I just took their change.  The person would have given me the money if I asked for it anyway.  I am only__________.  

 

When Jesus is driven into the wilderness for his time of testing, notice that he goes alone.  Some of our greatest testing is not when we are surrounded by other Christians who will help us, but when we are alone.  Also, notice this is right after the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus.  Just put a pin in that for a minute.

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What were these tests?  Jesus was given these amazing gifts by the Holy Spirit.  In this time in the wilderness, he was discerning his next steps, and the path was being laid out for him.  Yet, I wonder if he could have heard or understood if he was not in the wilderness?  There is something about going out alone, in the quiet, in the places without distractions that helps us hear God. That is why many of the monastics go off by themselves to meditate.

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I was listening to the podcast Wonderology by Christianity Today called “Synapse and the Soul,” and it had a gentleman named Carlos Whitaker on it.  He spent seven Screen Free weeks - 40 days and studied what it did to his memory and his relationships as well as his brain in general.  He talked about the first three weeks being in a monastic setting by himself and in silence.  Just emptying himself of all the sound, the busy, the grabbing to see, to play, to be in the middle of.  It is so easy for us to distract ourselves from God, to ignore God, to be too “busy” for God. He describes the incredible transformation that occurred within him when he finally slowed down to listen.

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We need the silence at times.  Jesus is driven into the silence.  He discovers his gifts, and then he is tempted by his gifts, just as we all are.  Do we use them for ourselves or for the community?  Do we exploit them to get us more, get us out of trouble, give us our every dream, or do we use them to help others, and make our community, our world, and each other better?  We see that temptation right at the beginning - you are hungry, turn the rocks into loaves.  That would only serve him, though, and that is not what his gifts are being called to do.  Jesus knows that and responds in kind.

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Then, Jesus’s next temptation is to throw himself from the peak of the temple to be caught by the angels.  That seems to be a direct appeal to the ego.  We all have ego issues, don’t we?  We want to be loved.  We want someone to care and to take care of us.  We want to be needed.  It is one of the things that those of us in the helper professions need to check ourselves constantly - are we doing this because it is best for the client or because we like to feel like we were needed and did a “good job”.  If Jesus threw himself down, he would be saved, but what would that prove - God loved him?  He already knew that; he needed to learn how to say no.  To be able to know that so deep in his soul that no one could shake it, he would not have to feed his ego for no one.  Jesus didn’t need to be needed.

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The final temptation came.  This is the first time I caught this, that the opposer tested Jesus by offering him all the Kingdoms of the world…I thought about how he can offer something he doesn’t own, unless he does!   The Kingdoms of the world get so wrapped up in power and control, in ownership, in who is in and who is out that Satan owns them, sometimes more so in certain time periods than others.  That is how Satan can offer it up.  Yet Jesus denies that, too.  It is not the way God’s kingdom is supposed to work - ever.  He came to bring a new Kingdom, one not based on the old systems. biases, power plays, and control.  Not one where people are policed, controlled, and arrested by Roman soldiers for merely existing.  

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Jesus had to be tested for himself before he could do the work before him that God intended.  He had to hold steady and true.  It wasn’t the last time Satan showed up, but it laid the foundation for Jesus on how to face the test.  The silence needed, the deep listening to the Spirit, and how to say no.  Where to get the strength to say no, even when a yes sounded perfectly reasonable.

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Now back to that pin.  When we are being tested, sometimes we get so confused and turned around that we don’t realize how bad it is.   Sometimes we struggle, sometimes we talk ourselves into bad choices.  Yet, if we spend time in the silence without the distractions, and then in community with those we can share our struggles, our wrestling with the soul, our low points, we have community to help us through.  We have others who have vowed not to use their gifts for their own good, but for the good of the whole, who will walk with us and help us discern when we are making a really bad choice.  Who can help us see when what we are doing is failing the test!  Jesus spent time alone in prayer and together with the community so that he could listen.  

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 In a world that is shouting for our attention, where do you find your own wilderness - that quiet space where you can actually hear God’s voice over your own justifications?   How often do you take that time?   Jesus was tempted to prove his worth by jumping from the temple.  When we feel the urge to be “right” or “needed,”  are we serving God’s Kingdom, or are we just feeding our ego?  How do you know when you are doing that?  What keeps you in check?