Responding to Temptation
Lent 1
March 6, 2022
Fr. Tim Nunez
Years ago I would walk our dog around the block almost every evening. On the other side of our block was a house where they had three Pomeranians. If you don’t know what a Pomeranian is, imagine a 5-to-7-pound dust mop that barks nonstop.
That house had a chain link fence in its back yard. As we’d come into view, those Pomeranians would start barking. That’s understating it. They would come unglued, eyes bulging, all three of them barking as though the very existence of the planet depended on them.
As we’d cross in front of the house, they’d run around to the other side so they could continue their serenade and bark like that well after we’d gone far enough that the next house blocked us from view.
One day I decided to play a trick on them. As we came into view they began their madness. We passed in front of their house and sure enough they ran around to continue the madness. Then I turned and took a few steps back the other way. They immediately ran back to the other side, I turned again and jogged a few steps until the next house blocked us from view.
From then on, I did that every time. And they’d fall for that temptation every time. Isn’t that how temptation works?
Temptation acknowledges two sources of sin. One of course is internal, the way we are wired with our appetites and desires, much of those rooted in our natural tendencies toward survival and preservation. But there is also an external factor. We can be provoked by all manner of people and circumstances.
In one sense we could look at how easily I provoked those Pomeranians, and how easily they’d fall for it every time. There is a lesson for us in that we should not be so easily provoked. Or, I have to be honest with myself and recognize that their barking tempted me to tease them, awakened that internal tendency. I’d fall for that every time. (I’m sure they’ve gotten over it.)
Why did Luke include this account in his Gospel? (Matthew has a full account as well. Mark just mentions he was tempted and John doesn’t include it at all.) The only possible source for it was Jesus himself, and Luke had to get it from his disciples. That leads me to think that Jesus must have told them about it as he was preparing them for their ministry, for the task of representing him and sharing the Good News, after he was gone.
Jesus knew they’d face the same hardships he faced, including ridicule, shunning, persecutions and indifference. And they would face temptations. Jesus was led – Mark says driven – by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil also known as Satan. Jesus was engaged in this battle from the start. His disciples would engage it, too, and so must we.
Jesus is in effect stepping into, fulfilling, the confrontation Job had with Satan, a story that is older than we know. (Read Job 2:1-6, page 417 in the pew Bibles.) It raises a most difficult question. Why does God allow Satan to afflict people, especially good people? Do you see the challenge? Even asking that question – which we are free to do – tempts us to judge God. Job refuses to do that, although his wife tells him to, “Curse God and die.” Job refuses to do that, although he does want to know why. Don’t we all? God’s response, “Where were you when I formed the world and everything in it?” is essentially, “Who are you to question me?” That’s a whole other sermon, which I’m happy to preach, but for now let’s focus on its ancient witness to our old enemy, and how Jesus faces him for us.
How many temptations did Jesus face in the wilderness? If you said three, you weren’t listening carefully. It says he was tempted for forty days before Satan wrapped it up with those three. What were those temptations about? That isn’t so important. We each have our own particular set of weaknesses and buttons that can be pushed. We might share some but this struggle unfolds uniquely for each of us. We are all wired differently and we are all at different points in our own journeys through life.
The three Luke does list each pound the same point home. When he challenges Jesus to turn stones into bread, it isn’t merely about a famished man’s desire for food. Recall that Israel, unlike beautiful Lake Wales, is mostly rocks. I’m sure we could find some rocks outside if we looked hard enough, but if you look outside of any window in Israel that’s mostly what you’d see. Jesus could end world hunger, or better yet, all human suffering with a word.
The problem is that would only meet our temporal needs when what people really need is, well, let me share with you the full verse, Deuteronomy 8:3, “He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”
When he shows him all the kingdoms of the world, the temptation is to end war, end strife, end injustice, end cruelty. But the cost would be worshipping Satan, which would of course violate that first commandment, “I am the Lord your God and you shall have no other gods before me.”
For the third temptation, of testing God’s faithfulness and Jesus’ faith in him, Satan actually quotes a couple of verses from Psalm 91, using scripture to try and trip Jesus up. It all really comes down to my will be done vs. Thy will be done. And that is the issue, following God or following anyone or anything else.
God allowed Satan to tempt Jesus those 40 days and all the way through to the cross. These same three temptations are always there. He could have opened the most abundant food bank ever. He could have opened the first medical clinic. He could have overthrown Rome with a word. Instead, he remained obedient to his Father’s will until he said from the cross, “I thirst,” and “Forgive them Father, they know not what they do.”
A great deal of our focus in Lent is about working on ourselves, with Jesus’ help and in the power of the Holy Spirit. That is important and each of us in an ongoing project.
Do not discount or neglect the presence of the evil one, that external source of temptation, that embodiment of evil in Satan is very real and, as Peter wrote, prowling around like a lion looking for someone to devour. We’ve all got serious work to do, and we can easily look at all the awful cruelty and evil in this world to remind us he is always at it, always at us.
So be aware, be warned. Don’t let him find a foothold in your pain. Don’t let him find a foothold in your anger. Don't let him find a foothold in your weariness. Don’t let him needle in on your resentments and envy. Don’t let him prey upon your unmet needs or your frustrations and disappointments. Don’t listen to his lies that God isn’t there or doesn’t care or won’t be there for you. Don’t let him drive a wedge between you and God, or between you and the people God has placed in your life.
And always remember: The battle is won. Satan has been overthrown. Do not despair. Cling to Jesus, listen carefully for God’s direction, study his Word and always, always, always pray, “Thy will be done.”
AMEN