NOTE: I preached the past Sunday here is what I said:
I vividly remember when I was perhaps eight or nine years old following my mother around the house
as she busily de-cluttering every room.
I loved it when she did this because she would uncover so many little treasures
that I had forgotten about.
I would be right behind her finding old toys that had been pushed under beds,
buried under other things
or hidden and forgotten.
I’d play with them for a while until they’d get lost once again,
or my mom would take it as soon as I got distracted with another toy
That particular day I had discovered something more than a toy.
I had discovered a very small orange book.
This book you all have seen,
some of you have given them out many times.
This little orange book I had decided that night I would read.
So I opened it and discovered many different words and stories.
Names I recognized but it had been a long time since I had heard them.
In the fourth chapter of the gospel of Matthew
I found a story that would be for me another step closer
on the journey with Christ that I am on.
and tonight we find ourselves in same story.
The chalky barren soil that once only covered his feet now covered his whole body.
It was in his eyes, his mouth, his hair
There he was led by the Spirit
It seemed a long time since he had heard his Father’s voice say
“This is my Son with whom I am well pleased”
As he sat in the desert,
weak and surrounded by the desolate ground and stones
he felt every hunger pain
It was then that he was visited by the tempter who used those same rocks
to suggest to Jesus that that he should use his equality with God to
summon food for himself.
If you are the Son of God satisfy your hunger by making these stones turning into bread.
Although weak from hunger Jesus uses words that were taught to him as a young Jewish boy
“People do not live on bread alone but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God.”
As we follow the story found in the fourth chapter of Matthew
we hear echoes of other stories in our tradition;
stories of our collective past as God’s people.
Jesus’ response to the tempter takes us to the story of Israelites in the wilderness.
In this story God sustains the people with his very promise;
the promise:
Food for today
and God kept his promise with manna and quail.
In Deuteronomy 8:3 God reminds the Israelites about this story;
And tells them they are to learn humility and sole dependence on God.
This first temptation also reflects another story much earlier
in fact the first story we hear in Genesis.
The story of Eve and Adam enticed by fruit
and betrayed by the tempter’s lies of power and equality with God.
We find that Jesus being the 2nd Adam chooses dependence with his response
Again the tempter tests Jesus
taking him to the highest point of the Holy city of Jerusalem
and telling him to jump.
Scripture says “You will be taken care of, and all will know you are the Son of God.
Once again Jesus utters words memorized from his youth.
He uses the portion following the Shema
Jesus responds “Do not put your God to the test”
Jesus will ultimately come to Jerusalem some day
but it will not be on accusers terms and
he will not come with guns a blazing
but riding on a humble donkey.
Once again Jesus response is
dependence
Jesus understood the Shema which says;
“Hear Oh Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.
Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)
The last desperate attempt the adversary uses to lure Christ
Is similar to the second one
but this time he promises not only that he can gain Israel
but also the whole world
if only he depends on the other.
Once more we are taken back to the Torah in the book of Deuteronomy
same chapter as the Shema
“Fear the LORD your God and serve him only and take your oaths in his name.” (Deuteronomy 6:13)
For the third time Jesus chooses dependence
Jesus refuses to gain the whole world for the price of his soul.
He refuses to enslave us by trickery or miraculous works
but instead calls the world to love him
for ultimately he is love perfected.
I wondered what caused my little eight year old brain and heart to love this story of Jesus so much.
I now know it was because in my reading I understood
Jesus was someone like me
Some one who relates to me and my suffering,
Some one who was vulnerable to attacks
Who has heard the voice of the accuser spew lies
For me those lies are that I am too young
That I’m not good enough
That I don’t have enough experience
That I am not worthy of love
Christ had enabled me to response:
It is not me but Christ who lives in me.
For I can do all things though Christ
And I am not alone
but stand the shoulders of faithful servants who for many many years have chosen Christ
and I follow their example.
What I have found in Christ is that he has renewed my heritage
and in my sometimes weak state it is the Holy Spirit who silences that voice of the accuser
and allows me to stand with Christ in freedom.
Just as with the stones in Jesus’ temptation narrative
The voice of the accuser uses our situation to question our dependence.
You may hear a voice that says
“What of your children,
Your brother, your sister,
your loved ones?
What have you done wrong?
Why has your faith not saved them?”
Our dependence in Christ responds
“For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only Son not to condemn the world but to save the world through him”
God’s love is not dependent on our response to him
Our loved ones are deeply and truly loved by God!
We choose to depend on God
And pray and love all people
With the assurance that God’s love is with those who have not yet responded or have forgotten to respond to God.
We may also hear from the adversary:
“You are alone”
“You are sick and no one can heal you”
“The pain you feel now will be forever”
For lament, loneliness, pain and suffering there are no pat answers
We have the right to reside in anguish
But we also have the freedom knowing that we do not remain in anguish
We are simply waiting,
waiting on God and freedom in Christ and his resurrection.
That we may join in the story of Mary Magdelene at the empty tomb
Where we can shout with her “RABBI”
And embrace our Savior here and now.
Author Steve Frost writes
“New life grows out of the soil of an honest engagement with our own pain”
There is no denying that pain, sorrow and suffering can exsist inour lives
But we find that new life is perfected in Christ.
For by enduring suffering he empathizes
By resisting temptation he begins the process of the redemption of humanity,
empowering us to live fully.
Rejecting the accusers voice and become Kingdom builders.
We find in Jesus the way to truly worship God with our hearts, minds and soul.
During this Lenten season my prayer is that we may we follow Christ and may our response be
dependence.
