Temptation

What does it mean to be tempted? There are three different versions of Jesus being tempted in the Bible. The basic story goes like this: Jesus is baptized and then he goes off by himself to prepare for ministry and to reflect on what it is God is calling him to do. We might think of this as a vision quest. He goes by himself for the purpose of seeking God. Many cultures have a practice where people go into the wilderness alone to learn more about themselves, to seek the spirit world and to strengthen their own spirit.

This is the journey that Jesus has embarked on. Once he is in the wilderness he has a sacred experience.

I don’t know exactly what happened to Jesus in that wilderness experience. The thing about many sacred experiences is that we can’t always explain them clearly to other people and we don’t always need to because they are our own experiences. Something happened to Jesus while he was on this fast in the wilderness. I don’t believe that there is an actual being out there lurking around corners and waiting for opportunities to trip us up. But I do think that we find ourselves in situations where we lose sight of what’s really important. Jesus is in the wilderness to focus on God and he is tempted to be distracted.

First, he is distracted by his physical body—by his need for sustenance. He realizes he is hungry. He has been fasting—intentionally going without food so that he can put his focus on God and not on his physical needs. But it’s hard and he’s hungry. Jesus uses scripture as a way to refocus his mind on his spiritual quest. The words from the book of Deuteronomy remind him that “one does not live  by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

I imagine Jesus in the wilderness, alone. He might be feeling tired. He’s definitely hungry. He might be questioning what he’s doing out there in the first place. He might be wondering why he committed to living faithfully. He wonders if God is going to protect him out there in the wilderness. He wonders if God really is going to be with him in the ministry he is embarking on. And then in his mind, he hears the scripture that he knows and loves tempting his down a destructive path. The path that he is tempted to is one that is all about him. It isn’t about the people that he has come to love and serve. It isn’t about being faithful to God. This is a path that would serve no purpose other than to have people worship him—not because of God but because he threw himself off the temple and survived. This path distorts the ministry that Jesus offers and it distorts the scripture. Jesus again hears words from Deuteronomy in his mind which reorient him to God and God’s ministry.

Jesus continues to wait in the wilderness to hear God’s will for his life and ministry. Again he is tempted to be distracted by the power of authority. He could take over the world—at the expense of his ministry and his faithfulness to God. Again, it would be all about him and not about God at work in him or in the world. Jesus could create the world he wants. It would be so much easier than trying to change hearts and minds. He could just become dictator of the world but at what cost? The loss of his soul? The loss of his faith? Jesus finds yet another quote from Deuteronomy with which to counter his temptation: Worship God and serve only him.

This story uses scripture in two ways: it uses scripture in a way that distracts Jesus from God’s path and it uses scripture to bring Jesus back to God’s path. Our own relationship with scripture is complicated. The Song of Faith, our most recent statement of faith in the United Church says this about scripture:

Scripture is our song for the journey, the living word
passed on from generation to generation
to guide and inspire,
that we might wrestle a holy revelation for our time and place
from the human experiences
and cultural assumptions of another era.
God calls us to be doers of the word and not hearers only.

The Spirit breathes revelatory power into scripture,
bestowing upon it a unique and normative place
in the life of the community.
The Spirit judges us critically when we abuse scripture
by interpreting it narrow-mindedly,
using it as a tool of oppression, exclusion, or hatred.

The wholeness of scripture testifies
to the oneness and faithfulness of God.
The multiplicity of scripture testifies to its depth:
two testaments, four gospels,
contrasting points of view held in tension—
all a faithful witness to the One and Triune God,
the Holy Mystery that is Wholly Love.

It is always tempting to read scripture in ways that normalize and support what we already believe or what we think we know. For example, in 1988 when the church was talking about sexual orientation and ministry, I was shocked as a thirteen-year-old, to hear the Bible being used to justify hatred. I was shocked hear the Bible being used to support killing anyone who was gay.

How did Jesus sort out in his mind what was just a distraction and what was faithful? A friend of mine often says that the way to know whether a belief (Christian or otherwise) is faithful is to ask yourself this question: Does this belief or practice support you in creating a more loving and compassionate world? If it does then it is probably faithful. If it doesn’t then you might need to rethink it.

Scripture gives us many viewpoints—some of which lead us to love and compassion and some which might lead to hatred and violence. Sometimes it is easy to be distracted by our physical needs, our need for safety, our need for power and control. We need to pay a certain amount of attention to these things in order to survive but when they become the sole focus of our lives and when we use scripture to justify our focus we are no longer being faithful.

Scripture helps to bring our lives back into focus. It helps us to be faithful and discern what it is God is calling us to do and be in our personal lives and in our community of faith. But scripture is only useful to us if we really engage with it and commit to learning and understanding what it means for us. I encourage you to commit to the regular study of scripture.

I find that the more I learn about scripture, the more questions I have. Even with all the questions, I continue to ask, I know that it is a core component of my faith—not because I believe every word of it as it is printed but because it challenges me to question and struggle with my faith. Our faith becomes stronger as we ask questions, as we learn and as we struggle with it. Scripture forces us into that struggle and it encourages us when the struggle becomes difficult.

Jesus wrestled with his faith. It wasn’t something that he always got right. He was challenged in this story and in other places in the gospels. If we are going to be faithful, we also need to be open to challenge. It is tempting to simply accept the faith that is passed to us but what is passed to us is incomplete. I encourage each of us to wrestle with what it is that we believe and what it is that God is calling us to do and be as individuals and as a community of faith.