Resisting Temptation

​Lent always begins with the story of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness for forty days. Lent is modeled on that time in the wilderness.
 
As the temptation story is told in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, Satan and Jesus engage in a kind of debate, with Satan trying unsuccessfully to lure Jesus into disobeying God. Satan suggests that Jesus turn stones into bread to feed himself, or throw himself off the temple roof to prove that he is the Son of God. When those don’t work, Satan offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if only Jesus will bow down and worship him. Jesus rebuffs Satan, and sends him packing (Matthew 4:1-11).
 
Mark’s version of the temptation story, the one we just heard, is considerably briefer. Mark doesn’t tell us anything about the actual temptations Jesus faced, just the bare fact that Jesus was “tempted by Satan.”
 
I’m glad we have the full temptation story in Matthew and Luke. We can learn a lot from it.
 
But I like Mark’s shorter version of the story, too. Mark’s version is easier to relate to. I have never experienced anything like what Jesus went through in the desert. Satan has not offered me all the kingdoms of the world!
 
But I know what it’s like to be tempted. I can even imagine myself surrounded by tempting forces on one side and angels on the other, with each encouraging me to go their way, a little bit like the angel and the devil who appeared in Saturday cartoons when I was a child.
 
And I take some comfort in the fact that even Jesus experienced temptation. Indeed, as Hebrews teaches us, Jesus was tempted “in every respect…as we are,” with the important difference that Jesus was tempted without sin (4:15). Sadly, I can’t say the same for myself!
 
Mark’s briefer, more generic account of Jesus’ temptation is an invitation, well-placed here at the beginning of Lent, for us to ponder the particular temptations that beset us.
 
For me, the temptations have changed as I have aged.
 
Even when I was young, I was never much tempted to lie, cheat, or steal. I found wine, women, and song more attractive, but never had much luck with the latter two. Still, I spent a handful of years drinking too much and staying out late. I am therefore well aware of the many temptations that beset a young man under the influence in the wee hours of the morning.
 
But what tempted me then doesn’t tempt me in the same way now. Now the idea of drinking too much gives me a headache before I even start, and I can’t imagine staying out late for fun.
 
As I have aged, my temptations have gone from the fun but tiring ones to something closer to sloth. Ruling all the kingdoms of the earth is not tempting to me at this point. But if Satan told me that I could spend more time in my easy chair every day if only I would bow before him, that would tempt me!
 
I joke, although there is genuine spiritual peril in sloth.
 
But there is another temptation, I think a bigger temptation, drawing many of us. I mean the temptation to give up on the world around us.
 
The news can be overwhelming. The problems are huge, and it seems there is nothing I can do about them. I gather that depression and anxiety are skyrocketing in our nation, particularly among young people. And one cause seems to be the state of the world. Starting where we are right now, many people find it almost impossible to envision a bright future, for themselves or for other people.
 
Many people simply despair. My version of giving up on the world isn’t despair exactly. But I turn inward. I focus on the needs of our parish, or on my own spiritual growth. Those are good things to focus on. But not to focus on so totally that I ignore the suffering and violence and injustice in the world around us.
 
In my darker moments, I imagine Satan saying to me, “Don’t worry about the world. The problems are mostly far away. The people hardest hit are mostly not people you know. There is nothing you could do anyway. So leave the world to me, and enjoy yourself as best you can. Eat, drink, and be merry, because we’re all going to die anyway.”
 
In those moments of temptation, when we feel most inclined to give up on the world, we can do what Jesus does in the longer temptation stories: turn to Scripture.
 
In Scripture, we read that God created the world, and the world is good. We read that sin has tainted the world and tainted us. But if we keep reading, we see that God’s love for us and for the world will not be denied. We read that God loved the world so much that God gave his only begotten Son to the end that all who believe in him will have eternal life. We read that Christ overcame sin and death. We read that Christ ascended into heaven and will come again to establish God’s kingdom.
 
What we see in Scripture is that Satan is NOT in charge, that the problems of the world may be big, but are not bigger than God’s love, that God wins in the end, and that God invites us to play on the winning team, on God’s team.
 
We know all that. And then another horrible thing happens, and we waver. Some of us turn away. Some of us give up. And Satan wins another temporary victory.
 
But I got a boost Saturday a week ago. A friend of mine who teaches at Smith has a student interested in writing about religion in the Northampton area. My friend asked me to talk to her, to give her the religious lay of the local land. I agreed, and this student and I spoke for nearly an hour.
 
Talking to this young woman gave me hope. I figure, if she is typical of young people today, we’ll be OK.
 
I’m old enough that I can dwell in the past, and fret about the present. I don’t know how old this young woman is, but she is young enough that she thinks about the future more than she thinks about the past. That can be a good thing.
 
At one point, she asked me the question that led to this sermon. Things don’t look great, she said, including specifically in the churches. What was my vision for the future?
 
She didn’t put it this bluntly, but she was asking if I had given up hope, if I had given up on the future, if I had given up on the world, if I had given in to that temptation.
 
And in that moment, I realized, once again, that the answer is no, that the answer has to be no for every person of faith.
 
I don’t always see my way forward, of course. I certainly don’t have all the answers. But that’s OK. Because God has a plan. And God’s plan is unfolding, whether or not I can see it. And God is at work in the world around us. And God wins in the end.
 
In that moment, I overcame one of my own great temptations. It will be back. But I am grateful for every reminder I receive, we should all be grateful for every reminder we receive, that this is God’s world, and that we are God’s people, and that God wins in the end.
 
Thanks be to God. In Christ’s name. Amen.