Fred Craddock shares this story;
“I began my ministry in Appalachia. The majority of the
congregation served could not read and write. I appointed myself, while I was
there, economic adviser. These people
lived in what the government called a ‘Pocket of Poverty.’ Very small incomes.
They got those little checks, those measly little checks, and invariably spent
part of it buying flowers, or whatnots to hang on the wall, or baubles of some
sort. I would argue with those people. I’d say, ‘Look, why should roses and
petunias cover the ground when you could plant potatoes and onions and feed
your kids?’ So impractical. So impractical, the little trinkets on the wall,
and those beads, and there’s a man with a little thing hanging down from his
bib overalls on his chain. It cost him three dollars - It’s nothing, it’s a
trinket.
One day I
was fussing at Miss Glover. She didn’t have the money, and there she was with
some little something; you couldn’t eat it, you couldn’t play with it, you
couldn’t do anything but look at it. And I said, ‘Miss Glover, it’s a waste.
You can’t afford that!’ She looked at me and said, ‘Brother Craddock,
everybody’s got to have some pretties.’ Now you would say it another way, but
if your understanding of human nature is the being who traces the course of the
stars, thinks the thoughts of God after God, understands the Pleiades, sings,
dances, writes poetry and music, then she’s right for you too. Everybody’s got
to have some pretties. Once in a while, pretty rare I must admit, I would have
a phrase or a line in one of my sermon, and I noticed the people repeating
them. I’d go down to the store and somebody would say a line from my sermon.
And in conversation, maybe months later, somebody would be saying that line.
Why? Because that was the one true thing that I said? It wasn’t because it was
true. It was the way it sounded. It was true, but it was the way it
sounded.
I remember
what Miss Glover said; ‘Everybody’s got to have some pretties.’ That’s not
decoration; that’s not embroidery; that is a fundamental human need. T.S. Eliot
said of poetry, ‘Poetry is not simply the assertation of something being true,
but the making of that truth more real for all of us.’[1]
Today’s Gospel is about making the truth more real for all
of us. What is that Truth? Jesus is
fully human. Today’s Gospel points to Christ’s humanity but in that humanity Christ’s
divinity is also affirmed.
“On this first Sunday in Lent, we follow Jesus into the
wilderness, and watch as the Son of God confronts the fullness of his
humanity. As Matthew's Gospel describes him, Jesus is
"famished" after forty days of fasting. Physically, he's at the end
of his strength. Socially, he's alone and friendless. Spiritually,
he is struggling to hang onto his identity as the glow of his baptism recedes
into a hazy, pre-wilderness past. And it’s in this state of
vulnerability that the tempter comes, ready to pull Jesus away from his
belovedness, and his vocation.”[2]
We often hear of Jesus being human, and we will speak of it,
but, more times than not, it is like, well Jesus is human, but not too human.
But here we have Jesus doing something that is very human and very traditional.
He is going into the desert to fast and pray. There are various kinds of
wilderness fasts practiced by many diverse ancient cultures, including the
Hebrew, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Aborigine, and the North and South American
Indian. This is not something out of the ordinary for a deeply spiritual
person of Jesus’ time or any time really.
So, what does this human Jesus looks like. Well he has just been baptized in the river
Jordan where he saw the spirit of God descend like a dove and come upon him and
he heard “a voice from the heaven’s say This is my beloved son in whom I am
well pleased.” (Mathew 3:17) Then the Spirit leads him out into the desert for
a time of discernment… to be tested by the devil the direct translation reads. He fasts and prays for a long time, this is
literally what the forty days and forty nights means…he is tired, he is hungry,
he is open to something, anything, this is a very human show me the way kind of
moment…
And so, the tester shows up, “As Matthew tells the story,
the devil comes to Jesus in the guise of a brilliant interrogator. ‘Can
you be like God?’ is the savvy question he posed to Adam and Eve in the lushness
of the first garden. ‘Can you take hold of a higher wisdom, a keener
knowledge, a more divine humanity?’
Now he comes to the exhausted Son of God with a shrewd
inversion of those primordial questions: ‘Can you be fully human? Can you
abdicate power? Exercise restraint? Work in obscurity? Can
you bear the vulnerability of what it means to be weak and mortal and human?’”[3]
“For the first time now, we see Jesus in action, in a kind
of single combat with the enemy. He is not quite alone, however, for we are
told that the test takes place under the orders of the Holy spirit, and at the
end angels emerge from the shadows and look after him. The single combat is
clearly won by Jesus, effortlessly matching with the quotations from
Deuteronomy (8:3; 6:16; 6:13) to each of the Tester’s suggestions; and notice
the devil also quotes scripture (Psalm 91:11, 12). It is a well-crafted story;
like all the best stories it comes in three parts, and circles around the
question whether or not Jesus is the Son of God. We already know that he is, of
course, on the best possible evidence, so what we learn here is the Kind of Son
of God that he is: one who does not do selfish magic, who does not put God to the
test, and who worships nothing that is not God.”[4]
But the fact that Jesus passes this test, I must emphasize,
the kind of Son of God Jesus is, is human.
He is tested by things we can be tested by any day. If I we are engaging
in a fast and I know I can just go get some bread and make a midday
sandwich…there is the temptation. I know
I can. I know I can get bread, or crackers, or candy anytime I want. The choice is do we give into temptation or
do we stay on our spiritual path.
Ok that’s easy but what about this test to jump. And let
Angels catch you? You ever see kids jump off a porch hoping their wish to fly
might come true? Even as adults we
sometimes take these leaps or at least are tempted by them. I know many people who have jumped into
things that they had know clue about, often with the false notion I can always
depend on so and so or such and such to support me.
You all know I do some fun things with glass. But I did not
run out and buy a big kiln and see what happens knowing if I fail, I can always
sell the kiln. I mean it is tempting to jump right in but instead I took a
simpler steadier path. I started with a small kit for a microwave kiln. I took
classes watched instructional videos and I am still learning and am hesitant to
invest in expensive equipment till I am sure I know what I am doing.
But this is not the same as being taken to the top of the
temple and being told to jump. Or is it?
I mean Jesus does eventually make it to the temple but not before gathering
followers and teaching all over the countryside. In Mathew there are some 20
chapters before Jesus’ ministry rides into Jerusalem. I may be over simplifying
but this is how this Gospel is touching me today.
Of course, the final temptation…to rule the whole world, is
a temptation that none of us will ever see. Though Jesus has turned down the
temptation, eventually, as Christianity has spread, as Jesus teachings spread, in
this way Jesus kin-dom covered the earth and we know it covers both heaven and
earth. But what is the parallel to us?
How is this temptation human?
Perhaps if we look at this way…Jesus is being offered
something fantastic all he has to do is compromise his morals. Just a simple act,
that takes no effort, would only last a moment and bam, it’s over and he has
the world at his feet.
Has anyone been watching the documentary McMillion’s? It’s
all about people who were given a winning ticket to the McMillion’s game. They
just had to claim it with a unique story and pay a percentage back. They just
have to give up a little bit of what was morally right and the prize would be
huge and it was.
How many times as human are we asked to compromise our
values. We say to ourselves just this once. No one will know the difference and
no one gets hurt. It is a very simple temptation. But as Mark’s gospel says; “For
what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole
world, and lose his own soul?” One simple
compromise can make the next one easier. All in all, a very human temptation.
One Commentator put it this way; “I have to confess that
until fairly recently, I didn't see what the big deal is with the devil's
taunts. Jesus is starving, after all. Who cares if he zaps a rock
or two into bread? God is supposed to be Jesus' protector after all,
an omnipotent commander of legions of angels. Why is it sinful for a son
to call on the protection of his father? Jesus is the rightful ruler of
all the earth's kingdoms, after all. What’s wrong with him receiving the
worship that's his due?
These days, I read the story differently. The
devil doesn’t come to make Jesus do something ‘bad.’ He comes to
make Jesus do what seems entirely reasonable and good — but for all the
wrong reasons. The test is a test of Jesus’s motivations. A
test of his willingness to identify as fully human, even as he is fully God….
(she goes on to reflect a bit further)
Many of us have
“given up” something for Lent this year. Chocolate, wine, TV,
Facebook. The goal is to sit with our hungers, our wants, our
desires — and learn what they have to teach us. What is the
hunger beneath the hunger? Can we hunger and still
live? Desire and still flourish? Lack and still live
generously, without exploiting the beauty and abundance all around us?
Who and where is God when we are famished for whatever it is, we long
for? Friendship, meaning, intimacy, purpose? A home, a savings
account, a child, a family?
|
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I write
these words with trepidation, because I know what it is to let hunger
gnarl and embitter me. Hunger in and of itself is not a virtue, it’s
a classroom. To sit patiently with desire — to become its
student — and still embrace my identity as God’s
beloved, is hard. It’s very, very hard. But this is the
invitation. We can be loved and hungry at the same
time. We can hope and hurt at the same time. Most of all,
we can trust that when God nourishes us, it won’t be by magic. It won’t be
manipulative and disrespectful. It won’t necessarily be the food
we’d choose for ourselves, but it will feed us, nevertheless. And
through us — if we will learn to share — it will feed the world.”[5]
Three temptations, all very human, and in his human-ness
Jesus chooses to stay true to his calling and who he is. Jesus chooses to
remain Hungry and uncomfortable in that moment because that is the journey he
is on. Jesus chooses to walk his journey as it is intended to be as difficult
as it may be with lessons learned and lessons taught. Jesus does not choose
instant Glory but as we know chooses to take his journey right to the cross as
a common criminal though he committed no crime.
There is a ripple that runs through this story that often is
ignored, the holy Spirit is the one who leads him into the desert just for this
test. Some may hear this as disturbing.
God wanted all this for Jesus? But remember I use the word a time a
discernment. Discernment is testing, prayerfully trying to understand what has
led one to this point and where one must go from there. The holy spirit was with Jesus through his
time just as the holy spirit is with us through any trying time, any good time
for that matter.
Even the wildest of places, the most terrible circumstances
cannot separate us from God's love! If we had our way life would be easy,
rich and joyful all the time. We don’t (for the most part) volunteer for
pain, loss, danger, or terror. But life happens. Whether it comes
to us in the guise of a hospital waiting room, a toxic relationship, a troubled
child, a sudden death, or an unshakeable depression, Life happens!
Whether we like it or
not we all have a time of wilderness.
All this means is that God is with us through it and, with
faith and prayer we may even see the signs of the God among us in those most
trying of times and other times it will seem as if we are alone. But it is said
that God is as close as our own jugular. And if God is right here (pointing to
my Jugular) She may be a bit hard to see.
Lent is an intentional wilderness time. Time to take our spiritual life and be
intentional in seeking God around us and among us. It is a time to reaffirm our commitment to a
spiritual Journey. A commitment to see it through as a journey not a series of
individual events. It may be a time of discernment, it may be a time of
thanksgiving, and it may be a time of just discovering that God is here with
us. Blessing us and walking beside us while we are busy being human. Because
the son of God knows what it means to be human and knows the temptations we
endure and knows when we fail and knows when we succeed and still walks beside
us every day.
Amen!
[1] Craddock,
Fred B., Mike Graves, and Richard F. Ward. Craddock Stories. St.
Louis, MO: Chalice Press, 2001. Pg. 80-81
[2] https://www.journeywithjesus.net/lectionary-essays/current-essay
[3] https://www.journeywithjesus.net/lectionary-essays/current-essay
[4] King,
Nicholas. The Bible: a Study Bible Freshly Translated by Nicholas King.
Stowmarket: Kevin Mayhew Ltd, 2013.
[5] https://www.journeywithjesus.net/lectionary-essays/current-essay
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