1 Lent A March 1, 2020
Gen 2:4b-9,15-17,25-3:7
Ps.51:1-13
Rom. 5:12 -21 Matt. 4:1-11
If Jesus did not write any of the New Testament, can you even imagine someone who was close enough to Jesus to be able to write about the event of his temptation. The temptation of Jesus is a Gospel oral tradition and it was used by the church to teach lessons and give insights about living.
This event is full of the symbols of the biblical salvation story. We might explore some of those teaching symbols which are embedded in this as we look for insights to inspire us during Lent.
Let us consider the sweeping corporate identities relating to Adam and Christ and the return to Eden. Let us ponder the anatomy of the experience of temptation. And finally let us consider a contrast of the devil and angels.
The Bible is divided upon into two corporate personalities. Humanity is said to be in Adam and we are given an invitation to be in Christ. Does this mean that an actual man Adam sinned therefore making us all sinners? Doesn't seem fair. No, this is a teaching metaphor of a collective identity. As human beings we all share in the very same human situation with all of its possible variety. We are together in the human dilemma. Adam means both a man in the creation story but also the collective humanity. The Garden of Eden Story is the story of the fact that we are often in the state of being naïve and vulnerable to be tricked and doing things that we are not ready for. The Garden of Eden story is a story of insights about how we became moral beings, knowing good and evil. Adam and Eve did not have the moral intelligence and muscles to resist the trickster serpent. It doesn't seem fair but the free conditions of our world often find us as naïve and vulnerable to be tricked into doing things about which we cannot fully perceive the consequences of. So in Adam as human beings, we find ourselves in need of hero to rescue us in our situation. Jesus is the given hero. When he returns to the Garden to relive the Adamic event, the Garden has become a deserted wilderness filled with wild beasts. The serpent is now confronted in the person of the devil. Jesus had just heard the heavenly voice declare him at his baptism to be God's beloved Son, and then the Spirit drove him into the wilderness and required of him a 40 day fast. If one fasts for 40 days and survives, the portals of one's interior life becomes open to every sort of hallucinatory manifestation. Jesus was open to the words of the devil, "So Jesus, you've just had the baptismal announcement that your God's special Son, we'll see about that. You know what I did to Adam and Eve and I've lots more tricks for you." Humanity needed a hero who could be tempted in all ways and more and resist, and so be the beginning of a new humanity. And so we have the invitation to be "in Christ" and have eternal life.
What insights can we understand about the human test of temptation from the temptations which faced Jesus?
The temptations of Jesus show us that the key ingredient of temptation is to force mistiming in our lives. Did God want Adam and Eve to eat of the Tree of Life? Did God want humanity to know how to be moral and know good and evil in responsible ways? Yes, but on the divine schedule when it was appropriate and they were ready.
Is food good? Is safety good? Is the esteem of friends and society good? All of these are good things but they are wrong if partaken of at the wrong time. The same Jesus who provided bread for thousands was not able to confect bread for himself even as a mirage in his temptation stupor. Why? Because as God's child, he was on God's time schedule. There will be bread in its time but not as some trick in a dream-like state.
Is safety good? Like falling from a high place and being rescued? Yes indeed. Jesus would fall into the hands of the Romans and be put to death on the cross and be rescued by a resurrection announced by an angel, but only in God's time. Such a temptation was against God's timing. Such a temptation tried to make Jesus a biblical literalist. "Jesus, the Psalmist said you can jump from a high place and the angels will catch you. So go ahead and jump. You're the Son of God. You can overcome gravity with angels spotting you." This includes the common temptation to treat poetry as literal science. The bane of religion today is literalism, fundamentalism. How much human cruelty has been promoted because people who believe they are religious, treat poetry as science and use it to harm others. Let us keep our poetry and our common sense lives in proper function. We can be both poets and scientists. Let us not be wrong in our timing to interpret in a literal or a figurative way.
What insights can we understand about the human test of temptation from the temptations which faced Jesus?
The temptations of Jesus show us that the key ingredient of temptation is to force mistiming in our lives. Did God want Adam and Eve to eat of the Tree of Life? Did God want humanity to know how to be moral and know good and evil in responsible ways? Yes, but on the divine schedule when it was appropriate and they were ready.
Is food good? Is safety good? Is the esteem of friends and society good? All of these are good things but they are wrong if partaken of at the wrong time. The same Jesus who provided bread for thousands was not able to confect bread for himself even as a mirage in his temptation stupor. Why? Because as God's child, he was on God's time schedule. There will be bread in its time but not as some trick in a dream-like state.
Is safety good? Like falling from a high place and being rescued? Yes indeed. Jesus would fall into the hands of the Romans and be put to death on the cross and be rescued by a resurrection announced by an angel, but only in God's time. Such a temptation was against God's timing. Such a temptation tried to make Jesus a biblical literalist. "Jesus, the Psalmist said you can jump from a high place and the angels will catch you. So go ahead and jump. You're the Son of God. You can overcome gravity with angels spotting you." This includes the common temptation to treat poetry as literal science. The bane of religion today is literalism, fundamentalism. How much human cruelty has been promoted because people who believe they are religious, treat poetry as science and use it to harm others. Let us keep our poetry and our common sense lives in proper function. We can be both poets and scientists. Let us not be wrong in our timing to interpret in a literal or a figurative way.
Another mistiming in our lives has to do with how and when we appropriate personal esteem. The anchor of personal esteem is to know that God declares us to be a beloved child of God. Yes, it is good to receive appropriate affirmation from our family and peers. It is very nice to be appreciated. But one of the most sought after drugs in the world is the drug of excessive fame. Each of us has the temptation to narcissism. "If one person likes me, then it is even better if millions adore me." John Lennon got in big trouble when he stated that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. The temptation of Jesus involved the ultimate Faustian bargain. Remember Faust sold his soul to Mephistopheles for fame. A person can feed the narcissistic aspect of one's personality and make the Faustian bargain for fame and adoration. One can literally deny the esteem of being God's child and becomes the devil's deputy in order to feed the endless need for adoration. This temptation to trade the esteem of being God's child for the wrong kind of fame was resisted by Jesus. And as we know, Jesus became famous because of death and resurrection and not because he became a political demigod or Caesar serving the devil. God's Messiah had a completely different schedule. Don't mistime how to get the esteem and the fame of one's life. Jesus showed us the way to esteem and fame. It involved God's will, God's timing for the fostering of our true worth to ourselves and others.
Lastly, we are told that the devil was "diabolos." And we are also told that Jesus was ministered to by angels. Diabolos literally means to "throw apart," or divide. It is the opposite of symbol, which means to "throw together." Devil and demons and are those inner constituents, parasites on one's inner formation, and they integrate every horrible things that has happened and manifest as an inward accusing liar and they won't let you sew together your inner world with the event in your exterior world with what might be call peace. We are vulnerable to inner forces which want to throw us apart and keep us from honoring our birthrights as children of God. The ministering angels can be the messengers of uniting the symbolic order of one's inner life in congruence with one's external life. The angelic is how we message our inner life to the outer world in the ways that are peaceful and in God's good timing. When we have the sense of honoring God's timing in our lives, we sense the ministry of the angels.
As we begin Lent, let us remember that Jesus was tempted. So will we. We will be tempted to mistime things in our life experience. When and how to gratify desire. We will tempted to be literal when we're supposed to be poetic. And we can be tempted to want the wrong kind of recognition.
In our trials and ordeals, let us remember our birthright as children of God. This is the basis of our esteem as people. Let us be mindful about the timing of what we do in our lives. The way that we resist temptation is to pray, "Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.....and in God's good time." We know that we are in Adam in our human vulnerability; let us also know that we are in Christ, as we are led by our hero to learn God's timing for our lives. Let us ride on the coattails of Jesus to find good timing in our lives.
With God's grace and following Jesus, our hero, we will find God's time for our lives and resist temptation. Amen.
As we begin Lent, let us remember that Jesus was tempted. So will we. We will be tempted to mistime things in our life experience. When and how to gratify desire. We will tempted to be literal when we're supposed to be poetic. And we can be tempted to want the wrong kind of recognition.
In our trials and ordeals, let us remember our birthright as children of God. This is the basis of our esteem as people. Let us be mindful about the timing of what we do in our lives. The way that we resist temptation is to pray, "Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.....and in God's good time." We know that we are in Adam in our human vulnerability; let us also know that we are in Christ, as we are led by our hero to learn God's timing for our lives. Let us ride on the coattails of Jesus to find good timing in our lives.
With God's grace and following Jesus, our hero, we will find God's time for our lives and resist temptation. Amen.
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