Lent 1, Year C

Donna Joy

Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Romans 10:8b-13; Luke 4:1-13

We live in a world where the focus is on satisfying the wants/needs of the individual. A primary cultural motto or creed could be “each one for himself/herself.”

In this culture, my needs, my wants are paramount. I take care of myself first, and anything else is of lesser importance.

And, furthermore, I am the creator of my own destiny, and therefore, before anything else . . . I come first.

As I was searching for more phrases to emphasize this point, I googled ‘Self Centred Phrases’ and instead of getting exactly what I was looking for I discovered dozens (maybe even hundreds) of wellness spas with the name Self Centred Spa.

One such spa was described as “a place where you can cultivate the “art of living well.” Nourish your mind, body and soul in our spa, salon, fitness and dance center . . . Experience yoga to feel vital and centered . . . Massage Center is an expanding awareness of passion for well-being, synchronicity, trust and nourishing the inner self.”

As I read this I was struck by the contrast between this advertising and the words we heard on Ash Wednesday as we marked the beginning of the Season of Lent. Based on what we heard on Wednesday, if we were to advertise alongside those `Self Centered Spas` our advertising might sound somewhat less appealing. It may sound something like this, `…a place where you are invited to observe a holy lent by self-examination, penitence, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, and by reading and meditating on the word of God.’ One experience promotes wellness through self-indulgence while the other promotes wellness through self-discipline and sacrifice.

It often seems clear to me that there is much confusion over the difference between the ‘wellness’ that comes from a ‘Self Centered Spa’ and the ‘wellness’ that comes from the church. The first is designed to focus on and satisfy my individual wants, while the purpose of the church is to lay aside my own selfish wants for the purpose of being increasingly open to God: the one true giver of life and wellness and grace . . .  

But having said that, I confess that I have on two occasions been given a gift certificate to a Spa, and on both occasions I have enjoyed and appreciated it immensely. I’m just saying that it is important to recognize the difference between that experience and the church.

With this in mind we turn to the first reading we heard this morning, where the Israelite people are reminded of their mandate to move away from a self-centered, self-satisfied existence and toward a life that is constantly recognizing God as the source of all their blessings and therefore expressing gratitude to God for all that God is producing and all that God has done.

In this reading Moses is anticipating a time when the Israelite people will reach the Promised Land, and he is urging them to always remember God’s faithful generosity in leading them out of slavery, through the wilderness, into the Promised Land and continuously providing for them in this land full of plenty. In remembering all that God has done in the past the people are reminded that the pleasures they are about to enjoy are none other than generous gifts from God.

Of course we know that these people do eventually reach the Promised Land, and they do become self-centered, self-indulgent, and they do forget that God is the one true source of every blessing and every gift. Much like the culture in which we live today, they begin to see themselves as the source of all that is good, and they live according to their own selfish wants rather that according to God’s will. 

Much of the final editing of the Book of Deuteronomy is done in the wake of the people having forgotten Moses’ teaching. It becomes an important reminder of who they are as God’s people. Those Israelite people were, as we are today, constantly tempted to seek power, self- indulgence, self-centeredness, self-gratification, and self-glorification. They forgot to acknowledge God for all their blessings and all their gifts, because they began to see themselves as the source of all good things. These are ageless human temptations. They have existed as far back as Adam and Eve. 

And it is these temptations with which Jesus is confronted in our Gospel reading this morning, where Jesus is tempted by the devil after having spent 40 days in the wilderness. Just prior to this time in the wilderness Jesus has been baptized, and I tend to view this wilderness time – at least in part – as a time during which Jesus is discerning his vocation. A time when he would be asking what kind of Messiah is God calling him to be.

N.T. Wright suggests that the three temptations can be read as possible answers to this question. They offer him one option, but he chooses another, and these choices define the nature and the tone of what kind of Messiah God is calling him to be.

And we get a definite sense that the temptations come in the form of a quiet voice issuing a string of ideas in Jesus’ head. I think this piece is important, because I suspect that each of us knows that quiet, yet insistent voice that urges us to do things we know we ought not to do, or not do things we know we ought to do. And what is also important to note, each of the ideas with which Jesus is presented is plausible, somewhat attractive, and in some ways make a lot of sense. Each offers a reasonable justification for Jesus to act according to this seductive voice.”If you are God’s son, tell this stone to become a loaf of bread.” This is plausible, really, because God can’t really want his beloved Son to be famished with hunger. And then the devil offered to give him authority over all the kingdoms of the world, and all the prestige that goes with it. All Jesus has to do is worship evil, and it can all be his. This, too, is an understandable temptation. Power and prestige are extremely seductive. Then that seductive, evil voice, offers Jesus an opportunity to embark on something spectacular – something that will impress everyone so much they will automatically embrace him as Messiah. Acting on this temptation most certainly would have eliminated a painful death on a cross. Again, this is a reasonable temptation. Taking the easy road to power and fame is also seductive.

But Jesus does not succumb to any of these temptations. Each of these temptations urges Jesus to focus on what may have been his wants and needs.

Each of these temptations offers him a self-indulgent Spa experience, rather than the self-sacrifice that his ministry, life and death are to follow. These temptations can potentially satisfy that ever present human desire to feed ourselves (take care of ourselves) first – to seek power and prestige – and to satisfy our need for self-indulgence through taking the easy road.

But Jesus said not to all of this, and that is the point of this story. Jesus prevailed over the devil in the wilderness. He is able to be in a place of vulnerability and confusion, to be weak and hungry, and yet – not succumb to the devil’s seductions. This is clear in the first verse: he carries the Spirit within, and that Spirit leads him when he is in the wilderness. This Jesus is not led or thrown or driven into temptation by the Spirit. He faces temptation when he comes to it, indeed faces it down, confronting the thrusts of the voice of evil with words from Scripture, and the right spirit of faith and faithfulness.

C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity says, “No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness — they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means — the only complete realist.”

In the temptations, according to Benedict XVI, Satan seeks to draw Jesus from a messianism of self-sacrifice to a messianism of power: "in this period of "wilderness"... Jesus is exposed to danger and is assaulted by the temptation and seduction of the Evil One, who proposes a different messianic path, far from God's plan because it passes through power, success and domination rather than the total gift of himself on the Cross. This is the alternative: a messianism of power, of success, or a messianism of love, of the gift of self.

I will hazard a guess that each of us knows every day the sound and feel of that subtle voice, tempting us to do those things we ought not to do and not do those things that ought to be done. Whatever those temptations may be, they will differ from one to another, whatever they may be . . . to give in to those temptations is to satisfy (to feed) our own selfish wants first rather than answering God’s call to self discipline and sacrifice.

I am reminded of an old Grandfather, whose grandson came to him with anger at a schoolmate who had done him an injustice.

The grandfather said, "Let me tell you a story. I too, at times, have felt a great hate for those who have taken so much, with no sorrow for what they do. But hate wears you down, and does not hurt your enemy. It is like taking poison and wishing your enemy would die. I have struggled with these feelings many times." He continued, "It is as if there are two wolves inside me; one is good and does no harm. He lives in harmony with everything around him and does not take offence when no offence was intended. He will only fight when it is right to do so, and in the right way." "But the other wolf, ah! He is full of anger. The littlest thing will set him into a fit of temper. He fights every one, all the time, for no reason. He cannot think because his anger and hate are so great. It is hard to live with these two wolves inside me, for both of them try to dominate my spirit." The boy looked intently into his Grandfather's eyes and asked, "Which one wins Grandfather?" The Grandfather solemnly said, "The one I feed."---

To use this analogy, feeding the wolf that is angry and selfish and seeking power is to give in to such temptations. To feed the wolf who is peaceful and selfless is to live according to God’s will.

During this season of Lent as we respond to the challenge set before us on Ash Wednesday`… to observe a holy lent by self-examination, penitence, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, and by reading and meditating on the word of God’ – as we embark on this task, let us confront those things within ourselves that are self-serving, self-indulgent; let us recognize that the strength of Jesus overcoming those temptations in the wilderness exists within us through our baptism; let us – through the gift of the Holy Spirit – be strengthened by Jesus’ strength and discover a renewed resolve to recognize God at the centre of all blessings and all gifts, and to be grateful.

May our own self-indulgent ways be set aside to allow room for the indwelling of God, through Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit.