There are lots of pretty good commentaries that talk about the temptations. Temptation to satisfy immediate self-interest, to a display of power, to selling out for the illusion of power over others.
There are fewer that focus on what Jesus said. But after all, all those Scofield Reference Bibles ® with the Words of Christ in Red feature what Jesus said. And what Jesus said is what turns this around, night into day, and transforms, potentially, us.
One does not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
First: Jesus reminds us that we are dependent on God, not our own merits or powers. We are not dependent on material things. Difficult as it may be to live without our daily ration of what we daily need, someday we will not have that ration, maybe for a day, a fast day or a day without, but the day will also come when we will not have it forever. Ash Wednesday, and Lent, are about more than temporary deprivation, hard as that may be, or voluntary abstinence. The fast of Lent is about more than that. It is about death.
And it is about Life. The fast of Lent does not end on Good Friday, with Jesus’ death. It does not end on Holy Saturday, with his body entombed below a stone. It ends with Easter. It ends in life. It ends in the resurrection, the hope of resurrection for all people, that began on the third day after Jesus’ execution.
Death is not the winner. But we need to take account of what happens before eternal life begins.
In this world, in this life, there is plenty of death and pain to go around. We do not need much reminding of that. But we do need to remember that we are not dependent on this world’s bounty, this life’s abundance; we are dependent on God alone, and his Word, his Word who is Jesus.
That’s the first admonition.
Then the second. Do not put the Lord your God to the test.
This is a negative way of saying, trust in God.
God is dependable. God is reliable. God also is sovereign. We are not his judges. He is ours.
And he is our Redeemer and our Advocate. Who better? The one who made us, the one who redeems us, the one who leads us to sanctification, is the one who brings us to righteousness.
Third,
Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only him.
You could have it all. But you don’t need any of it. And some days you do not, or will not, have any of it. God alone. That is what you will have.
Still above the gate of a monastery in Kentucky is the motto that was there long ago, perhaps in the original construction back in the 1830s, certainly by the time Thomas Merton entered that gate in 1941.
GOD ALONE.
That is what it says. All it says. It has a special meaning for the men who passed through that gate into a contemplative, ordered, intentional life. It has a meaning for all of us. Inside the monastery or outside we are finally only confronted with our Saviour, our Lord, our Redeemer.
God alone is what we depend on, who we depend on, who is our Judge, who is the object and purpose of our devotion.
A hard school, but a true one.
Lent helps us to remember this. We may not give up much or take anything on. But it is there, this season, not one of deprivation at its core, but one of preparation. For at the end of it we will celebrate, remembering who we depend on, who is our judge and advocate, who we worship. And we will remember, in the splendor and joy of Easter.
All that is contained in this austere season. This is not austerity in the sense of having taken something away from us because ‘this could be the best thing that ever happens to you’ or ‘for your own good’ - this is clearing the day, clearing the desk, clearing the calendar, revealing what is really going on. Beyond and beneath the surface of our lives, underground as it were, where spring plants are gestating even long before bud break or the first sprout of green, life is stirring.
Life is going on. Are we prepared to welcome its fullness?
That is what this season is about.
All of Lent, of fast, of expectant waiting, of preparation, is leading to joy.
***
When he spoke at a preaching conference in San Francisco, Desmond Tutu said that a preacher has one sermon. His was: God loves you. But the implications were tremendous.
One sermon. And I recall the words of Jesus, in response to the first temptation:
One does not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
And then I recall the context. Jesus had been fasting, in the desert, for forty days.
What do we live by? Bread is in there. But much more so are the words that come from God.
And I recall what Jesus heard, ringing in his ears, just before the Spirit led him on that forty-day fast.
‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’
These were the words that came from the mouth of God that he had forefront in his mind.
God loves you. Loves you like his own beloved child.
Sometimes in the past I’ve given my own one sermon: You are the beloved child of God.
And the implications are tremendous.
If you are God’s beloved child, and I am, and all of us are, and the people we haven’t even met, then how we treat each other - and even people far away whom we’ve never met and never will, is of paramount importance.
Hence the words of the prophets:
Of Isaiah (58:6): Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
Of Micah (6:8):
He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
What we give up or what we take on, whatever we think we are doing to make God love us more this Lent or we God, is of secondary importance. First before anything we do, even before we are born into this world, God loves us. You are God’s beloved child. There is no way that can be taken away from you, from us, from me.
And what are you going to do about it? Everything we do comes after God’s loving action in making us, redeeming us, making us his own delight, his own joy.
As we move through these forty days of Lent, let us remember that one thing: God loves us. We are God’s beloved children. What we do, however austere it may be, however saintly we may become, we are first of all the children in whom God delights.
JRL+
Sermon for St. Michael's Episcopal Church, Coolidge, Arizona.
First Reading
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
Psalm
Psalm 32
Second Reading
Romans 5:12-19
Gospel
Matthew 4:1-11
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