Deliver Us from Evil

Robert E. Hall
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

February 21, 2010

Text: Luke 4: 1-13

You do not have to believe in a physical devil in order to experience the seductive power of forces which very truly do woo us away from our destinies, or lead us into becoming persons we would not like to have as friends! Temptations come to everyone; and because they do, writers through the ages have personified it----including biblical writers.

Evil is real, not illusory. Thus we keep on praying, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”---and we do so because we are vulnerable to it. (See The Screwtape Letters by C.S Lewis for a rollicking good time on this subject)

There are three versions of the temptations in the wilderness, in Matthew, Mark and Luke. Luke’s is the most elaborate. No one was there but Jesus and the Tempter, it seems, so is just may be that these accounts came from Jesus’ own description of his great struggle with the One who would capture his soul.

By the way, if you have ever spent a great deal of time alone, or if you have ever fasted for a period of time, you may experience the Holy Spirit, of course, but also have to wrestle with the Dark Side within yourself as well. This is what makes these stories so poignant for us.

Two truths to be laid down to begin with:

Fred Craddock wrote that “this is to say that a real temptation is an offer not to fall but to rise. The Tempter in Eden did not ask, “Do you wish to be as the Devil?’ but ‘Do you wish to be as God?’ There is nothing here of debauchery; no self-respecting devil would approach a person with offers of personal, domestic or social ruin. That is in the small print at the bottom of the temptation.” Whatever else we may believe about the Tempter, we must appreciate its subtlety, its craftiness. No head-on temptations for the best and the brightest: the Tempter does a sneak attack.

And we do not do justice if we “have trouble believing that Jesus was really tempted…..Temptation is an indication of strength, not of weakness. We are not tempted to do what we cannot do but what is within our power. The greater the strength, the greater the temptation. How fierce must have been Jesus’ battle! And very real; this is no cartoon with pitchforks, red suits and horns. Temptation is so deceptively attractive.” (Craddock, page 56)

Temptation “was probably no surprise to Jesus, nor should it be to us: good news always has its enemies. Love generously and hatred will pull on boots and helmet; speak truthfully and falsehood begins to charm its auditors; live simply and extravagance sets up a carnival across the street; serve faithfully and self interest renews its seduction of human pride.” (F Craddock, Luke, page 54)

Remember that God said to Jesus at his baptism: “You are my son, my beloved.” So the Great Deceiver (Trickster), finding Jesus in the wilderness (where God had led him), reminds him of God’s great favor on him. Such a thrilling experience.

 “If you are the son of God, command these stones to become bread.”

This is an attractive option. There are lots of hungry people, and there are lots of stones. Jesus is compassionate. Think about it: if you could turn stones to bread so that people could be fed, would you not be tempted to do so?

I would imagine Jesus, because of his love for suffering people agonized over such an option. But he remembered a passage from Deuteronomy, “Mortals do not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” He wanted human beings to live, to survive, but no just to survive, but to live for something greater than survival.

Later, he did multiply loaves and fishes and feed people. This concern for peoples’ real bodily needs was a part of his ministry.

But he would not be a magician. He would not be that kind of Messiah. This was not what God had called him to be. What he did do was raise up a people whose hearts would be changed from stone to flesh so that they would be moved to feed the hungry, or to open doors of opportunity so that they could grow or make their own food.

Then the Great Liar tells Jesus that all the earth has been “delivered over to him---the evil one----” and that, if Jesus would bend the knee to him, he, Satan, would let him sit at his right hand: he could be Great Deceiver’s prime minister.

Jesus is being tempted to believe that God has given up on the earth---that the evil powers of this world are in control.

Jesus, having grown up in a world dominated by oppression and humiliation, of great and arbitrary cruelty, would certainly be tempted to believe this. Just as we are. There is certainly enough evidence that the powers of destruction, revenge and exploitation, selfishness and self worship in all its forms----that we human creatures are capable of making a bad end to things, finally. Threats to human survival or planetary survival are real and we seem radically unable to support efforts to save ourselves, short-sighted and impatient that we are. Cynical people have decided a long time ago to grab what they can and the devil take the hindmost!

But Jesus refuses this offer, too. The God in whom he lives and moves and has his being has not given up on the world he has made. In spite of everything, God is still steadfastly loving his good creation. And is working for its salvation and redemption. This God alone is worthy of our worship.

Frederick Buechner: to love God is to stand with God, to stand by God’s side, to take the best that God has planted in humans and to foster it toward maturity. There is loneliness at the top. God desires our friendship, our company, our cooperation, our work, our contributions to the redeeming process.

The devil is not in control. This really is our Father-God’s world.

One of the reasons we keep coming here is to gain the strength to live as if this is so. Even and especially in the hard times, when all the foundations are shaking. We huddle together so that no one of us gets lost; and we are sent forth stronger for having been connected with others. Because Jesus said no, we, who gain our identity and purpose from his life, do the same. He will be a certain kind of servant leader toward wholeness and peace, and so will we.

The devil is getting desperate now. Like a dream-vision out of The Christmas Carol, the Great Deceiver takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and tempts him to jump off, to do a kind of Evil Knievel stunt, and thus impress everyone with the way God swoops down and saves him. Surely this kind of Messiah would be able to command the respect of everyone.

Let’s see: Jesus in a bubble; Jesus not subject to the same laws of nature as we are, to the same risks: this is what Jesus is tempted to do. Who would not jump at this! We live in mortal fear of something bad happening to us much of the time. If Jesus could stay safe from any dangers, just think how long he could live and how many people would come to follow him and be made wise by his teaching?

Ernest Campbell wrote: “The glory of Jesus lies in the fact that he lived one particular life under one particular set of circumstances….To make of him a drop-in God who had it made from the start, [one who] knew that he had it made, is to rob the incarnation of its reality and power. We have a friend in Jesus because, like us, he had to ‘make do’ with limitations that are common to us all.” (Campbell’s Notebook, Volume III, No. 1, page 6)

We mainstream Christians are almost panicky with regard to effectiveness and productivity. A few spectacular tricks, with lights and smoke and professional productions might just do the trick, get people to pay attention to us again!

Or can we simply teach and preach that, if you follow Jesus, all of our struggles will be over, all of our pain and suffering; and we will get everything in this world we have ever though we deserved?

But the question we should ask is: Are we in love with Jesus? Do we know the incarnate God? Are we focused on the practice of the love of God and are we truly loving our neighbors in deeds of justice and mercy? God will not be asking us, “How many people showed up to your parade?” God will be asking us if we have visited those in prison, brought food to the hungry, clothed the naked,  healed those who were sick, and told the bewildered and wandering people where God’s love can be found: in Jesus Christ!.

Jesus gave us a different version of mature leadership. It is the ability and the willingness to be led where we would rather not go: downward, toward the neighbors in ditches. This is the way to fulfill our destiny, the destiny which we have been given in Jesus Christ.

“Knowing God’s heart means consistently, radically and very concretely to announce that God is love and only love.”

What Jesus knew and wants us to know is that we are loved, that there is no reason to be afraid. For in love God created our inmost self (Psalm 139) We have to be something like mystics to be followers of Jesus today. “A mystic is a person whose identity is deeply rooted in God’s love.” (Last quotes from Henri Nouwen)

This is what Jesus was tempted to deny and forget in his wilderness days.

Are we so tempted? Can we believe that we are armed with God’s word of unconditional love as the best gift we have to offer?

Can we believe that servant love is the way of God’s future for the world; not revenge or self-centeredness?

In what ways do we wrestle with the Tempter in the many idolatries of our time? “Worship yourself, or wealth, or safety, or escape, or violent retaliation, or hatred, or brutality,----and find your life? Can we see that we do not find a peace which will last through these so-called gods?

God through Jesus, in the Holy Spirit, through the community gathered in Word and Table, and through prayer, is with us in our wilderness times, and will give the power to see it through. We will not be abandoned, but richly accompanied by the Holy Spirit. This is the Good News preserved for us in the story of Jesus’ wilderness temptations. In invite you to open your hearts and minds to this Spirit in this Lenten season.