First Sunday in Lent

 

Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. [BCP 218]

Jesus was “led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan.” Isn’t that strange? Don’t we pray, asking God to “lead us not into temptation”? So here we find Jesus being “led” by God’s Spirit “to be tempted.”

I suppose in many ways the Spirit was leading Jesus into the wilderness in his day just as that same Spirit led Israel from bondage in Egypt, through the Sea, and into the wilderness, not so much to “be” tempted, but where they were tempted. Tempted to do what, though? I suppose individuals were tempted to misbehave the way people are in every community, in every generation, in every way. I have no doubt there were the barroom brawls, accusations of theft, lusting after whatever lustables they could see. 

They saw the glory of God demonstrated in a bunch of disasters that befell the Egyptians (plagues of frog, flies, locusts, bloody waters, and the deaths of first-borns); they saw the sea opened up so they could cross over on dry land from one side to another; they saw the mighty Egyptian army (with all their horses and chariots) destroyed when the sea returned to normal (slamming the door on the pursuers); they saw the pillar of fire by night and pillar of smoke by day leading them on and on. But when asked to believe, when asked to trust, when asked to move forward, when asked to enter the land of promise, the people dug in their heels and said, “Heck no, we won’t go!”

That had to be discouraging for God. They cried for food, God gave them Manna, and they complained. They begged for meat, God sent quail, and they complained. They got thirsty, God gave them water from a rock, and they complained. We can’t really blame them, of course. If there is one thing people are good at, it’s complaining. Endless complaining.

Moses goes into the mountain, talks with God, brings back God’s great gift: Torah (the Law), and how do the people respond? “Eh, we missed you; figured you’d died, so Aaron made a wonderful golden calf for us to worship. He gave us Gold; you brought us a memo. Thanks, but no thanks!”

We could go on and on, but it is obvious that even if the people weren’t “tempted” as such, the wilderness was a place of pain and suffering. We can’t blame them. These weren’t leaders; these were slaves. These weren’t the elite; these were the bottom of the barrel. These weren’t the high and mighty, but low and stinky. For centuries, they and their ancestors took their orders and knew their place in the world. The wilderness was all new for them. The only temptation they faced was to go back – to go back to the lives they knew so well. At least in Egypt they knew they had food. Sure, it was scraps and leftovers, but still, it was food.

Jesus was baptized in the river. As he got back onto his feet, he saw the Spirit descend, like a dove, and heard a voice cry out, “You are my beloved son; in you I am well pleased.”

With his baptism, Jesus was freed from slavery. What? Jesus wasn’t a slave. He was the son of a carpenter or a village handyman. Yet, might he not have been a slave anyway? There are many kinds of slavery. One can be a slave to their past. I know people who can’t get past hurts that took place decades ago. They embrace those painful memories like golden calves. They find their life’s meaning in those memories, so they hang onto them, and worship them, for those things give them their value.

One can be a slave to what others think. They worry they will be thought less of if they tell people what they think. They find their value defined by what others think, as if a person who has a moment’s insight into your life could possibly know you better than yourself. But they haven’t the courage to leave those opinions behind. They are trapped in a desert, surrounded by the fiery serpents that corrupt them.

We don’t know to what Jesus may have been a slave. Perhaps he was tempted to ignore God’s call and continue fixing tables, chairs, and cribs. Perhaps he was tempted to stay home and take care of his family once his father had died – cultural expectations; honor your father and mother; all that guff. 

Whatever the temptation, Jesus broke free. He went through the waters of baptism on his way to a new life. A pillar of fire drew him down to the Jordan, to John, and from there, into the wilderness. He was led, by some accounts. He was driven into the wilderness, by other accounts. Interesting. Sometimes I go where I’m led. Other times I need to be driven. Don’t believe me? Ask my wife!

Jesus was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan. Satan. The Adversary. Not the red suit, pitchfork, and horn-sprouting-head devil of our collective imaginations. No, Satan is simply the Prosecuting Attorney of the State of Bliss whose job is to bring cases to court for trial. I often think the temptation stories in Matthew, Luke, and (initially) Mark aren’t temptations for Jesus to do magic with rocks, rule the world, or spend time with a new and improved deity. I think the temptation is to accept a plea deal. Despite being innocent, “Just plead guilty and life will go better for you and everyone.”

That’s a temptation we all face. To take a short-cut. To cut corners, to cheat just a little. Those temptations didn’t stop after Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness. Do our temptations end after our forty days of Lent? Ha! I wish!

“Lord, come quickly,” we pray. You know our weaknesses. You know our soft spots, our sore spots, our excuses, and our ability to rationalize all our misdoings and lay the blame on others. “If only they … if only this … if only that …”

“Let each one find YOU mighty to save …” That’s the point, of course. It is God who calls. It is God who rescues. It is God who restores people and relationships. It is God who heals our souls, salves our wounds, and saves us (leading us out of our own personal and/or corporate Egypts). 

This First Sunday IN Lent is our base camp. As the Spirit led Jesus, so the Spirit leads us now. The temptation may be to see this as another Sunday, another week, another Season of Lent. We pray the Spirit will break the shackles of such thinking and drive us (if we won’t be led) into a wilderness that will impel us to depend ever more closely on the God who calls, the God who provides, the God who ministers to each as they have need.

Amen.