The Temptations of Christ. Maestro Bartolomé and workshop, after 1493.
Three temptations. And Jesus passes up on all of them. But they would be so easy to succumb to - and who could blame the old Adam if the new Adam did not partake?
First of all there is security - and there is power. What a temptation! If I could turn this stone into bread, think what else I could do. I could be like Midas only better. And one hopes, gluten-free.
After all, bread goes stale. Gold, however. That is bankable. Or perhaps you would prefer bitcoin? Conjure all you want! You won’t be alone.
Power - power to make one mad, or rich. Security - any time I want I can have plenty to eat.
“Give us this daily bread” - for we do not depend on bread, or the baker, but on God, and on the Word that comes forth from his mouth. In that Word is life. Ironically, that Word is Jesus himself.
How about Door number Two? Dominion. Subordination. Just worship me and all is yours. Of course that allegiance belongs to God alone. But what has he done for you lately? All the kingdoms of the world. Wealth, power, prestige. And what would you do with them?
Such a temptation was presented to, of all people, Sancho Panza, right-hand man of Don Quixote himself.
The dolorous knight Don Quixote had long assured his faithful squire Sancho Panza that he would some day reward him with governorship of an island, since being a knight errant such gifts would surely be within his power to bestow before much longer in the course of their adventures. And then they met a noble lord who promised to award the island governorship straight away - but before Sancho could go, the knight gave him some astonishingly sound and sober advice, enough to make him as wise as Solomon, as impartial as the judge of the Caucasian Chalk Circle, and as knowing of human nature as the Wife of Bath.
Judge fairly. Would this be likely, given the provenance of the gift? Worship me - and rule all the kingdoms of the world. Or dispose of them to the highest bidder. Then retire, and play golf. Entertain your buddies, if you think that is what they are, those people who gather around you.
No thanks. Jesus is not interested. “Worship the Lord and him only.” Another opportunity passed by.
At last: come on if you really are - if you really have faith - would not God save you, from whatever scrape you get yourself into? But to be sure - best put him to the test. Put God in the untenable position of saving you - or letting the one he calls Beloved plunge needlessly to his death. Test him. Prove it. Look how well it worked out for Adam and Eve. Take a bite. Or a leap.
But that is not the blind faith, the leap of faith, that persuades Jesus. Nothing does. He sends away all these opportunities, bread, kingdoms, and test, and is left alone. He has nothing but God.
And that is all he needs.
If that does not prove he is the son of God, what would?
What we see from then on, is Jesus acts of compassion, words of truth to power, and ability to give from apparently nothing but faith a greater abundance, suzerainty, and self-confidence, than any tempter could provide. Strength in faith.
Give us this daily our daily bread. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done. The power, the kingdom, the glory: all are yours O God.
Those are the three temptations in reverse. Power, Kingdom. Glory. All of which belong to God.
And Jesus is content to rest in the same hands that hold those three realities.
How do we in our world acknowledge that the power, the kingdom, and the glory belong to God? How do we see that kingdom come in our lives? Our world? Our community? Our church?
How do we reveal our dependence on God for our daily sustenance, thank him, and share it? How do we share the gifts of providence, thinly spread or overwhelmingly abundant, that we have received?
How do we acknowledge that all things come from him, and in that knowledge offer our gifts?
And do we stop, look at the sunset, or the smile on the face of a neighbor, or the happy sound of a confident child, or the shape of a rose, and remember, that all these reflect the glory of God? How do we render our praise in the face of his majesty, his gentleness, his care, his share in our sorrow and our joys? In little things and big ways, how do we give God the glory?
Finally there is the extra-biblical last Temptation, as imagined by the novelist Nikos Kazantzakis, which Jesus meets with obedience. In the garden of Gethsemane, when he was sweating blood in fearful supplication, let this cup pass from me - but what thou wilt not I - what if, offered an ordinary life, a wife, a family, just some simple things, Jesus had said, yes. But he did not. In fearful obedience, frightening to contemplate, he stood his ground. He kept the faith.
It goes way back to that first temptation. Because he lived not for himself but for us. He did not betray us for a crust of bread. He did not sell us out to rule as the dominant megalo-monarch. He did not need to prove anything, for himself or for us, and in that he showed the strength of faith that he gave us. He did not surrender to temptation. And he kept the faith to the end.
God of the desert, as we follow Jesus into the unknown, may we recognize the tempter when he comes; let it be your bread we eat, your world we serve, and you alone we worship. Amen.
(New Zealand Prayer Book, 573)
He did not betray us for a crust of bread.
--Ladislaus Boros, In Time of Temptation (translated by Simon and Erika Young)
http://edgeofenclosure.org/lent1c.html
https://ctktucson.org/sermons/
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote, Part 2, Chapter 52 (?).
An image of Don Quixote in Cordoba, Spain.
