Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tested by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over he was famished. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’ ” Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’ ” Then the devil led him to Jerusalem and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’ ” Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time. --Luke 5, NRSVUE
You are a beloved child of God. Say it after me, “I am a beloved child of God.” Okay, now turn to a neighbor and tell them “you are a beloved child of God”
Seems like a strange way to start off the first Sunday in Lent, yeah? We’re supposed to be all sad and give up things and thinking about the bad stuff we do so we can do differently. And, yes sorta to the last one. Stick with me, we’ll get there. Today we hear the story of what happens after Jesus is baptized - the holy spirit leads him in the wilderness where he is tested by the devil. I, too, would want to go somewhere to think had I just been told BY GOD that I was, in a very specific way, God’s child. I, however, would not appreciate the whole tempted by the devil thing as a part of it.
This story, in many ways, parallels the story of the temptation of Adam and Eve, and where they diverge it’s because through Jesus the acts of that story are being undone. We begin both stories with a test of food that is not about food, it is about obedience. Jesus is supposed to be fasting, he should not eat. The first humans were told not to eat, they should not eat. Jesus passes the test, quoting Deuteronomy and saying, “one does not live by bread alone…” the rest of the sentence there is, “but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Jesus is both obeying and trusting in the word of God, where the first humans did not.
The next test is a temptation to power, which is also what is offered to the first humans in the garden. The devil offers Jesus all of the earthly power and glory, just as the snake in the garden offered the first humans the knowledge of good and evil, making them like gods. There are two things to understand in order to understand this temptation. The first is that Like believes that the devil is behind all earthly kingdoms. As Luke sees it, we live in a world of violence and oppression because evil is in charge because of sin.
It is also imperative to remember that Jesus eventually *will* have the power the devil is offering him. The test here is not the power itself, but reaching for it before the appointed time and as a concession to evil. This is what the first humans do. “In the early church, the entire history of creation and the fall was understood in the sense that God created Adam and Eve after the divine image in the same way in which a child bears the image of its parents. Adam and Eve were intended to grow into greater communion with and likeness to God. The temptation they faced is not the desire to be like God, but in preempting the process set forth by God. Jesus trusts in Gods and Gods time, where the first humans do not.” The temptation “you will be like God” has power only if Jesus forgets, or doesn’t believe what he was just told at baptism – that he is God’s son, and God is happy with him.
The final temptation is a temptation of not believing that Jesus is who God says he is. It’s a lack of faith in both God and self. The devil is challenging Jesus belief in who he is he is saying yeah, I don’t think you are who you say you are, and I don’t think you believe it either, so prove it. Kinda like oh, you think you’re tough?
So often in our world the people who chase power and wealth, those that are willing to sell their souls to the devil to get it are people who are deeply lacking in love – love of self, love from others – and do not know or have forgotten that they are beloved children of God. These people also have forgotten, or do not care, that we are all beloved children of God. Most of us can look at the people who use their power to serve themselves and/or to do harm and see people who are deeply in need of reassurance and care who are acting out in the worst ways possible. They gave into the temptations of the world because they do not understand that they are beloved children of God and all that means.
We are tempted all of the time by the world. There are so many things that call to us and try to pull us off of the path to which God calls us, and those things are (generally) the most tempting when we are feeling the worst about ourselves. When we have lost track of who we are and whose we are, when we forget ourselves, that is when we are most likely to give in to the temptations of the world. It can be so, so hard to remember we are beloved children of God. There are so many voices telling us that we aren’t enough – that we are too young, or too old, or too fat, or too weak, too ugly, too pretty, too balding, too hairy, too smart, not smart enough… the list goes on and on and on. There are multiple industries that exist just to tell us how terrible we are so we buy their products. There are a whole lot of people who don’t remember that they are beloved children of God and so they want us to feel bad about ourselves. There are so many voices that try to convince us that we should be ashamed of who we are when we feel shame over something we did (or simply that we should feel shame for being ourselves in a world that desperately wants us to conform to be a certain type of person).
All of these voices coalesce into what is in my opinion anyway, the worst devil of them all, the voice in our heads that is mean and nasty and tears us down, or the voice that tells us we should take things from others, that we should resent others, that we are better than everyone and we should take away others joy because of it. These voices are a result of not being able to stand comfortably in the fact that we are beloved children of God. Getting off the path of goodness and love and kindness and mercy God calls us to happens when we forget who we are and whose we are.
It is fundamental to our Lenten disciplines to remember who we are and whose we are. We are best equipped to be honest with ourselves to see where we have done harm, where we have broken relationships, where we have, through action or inaction, had things disrupt our relationships with God, ourselves, one another, and creation when we know in our hearts, minds and bodies that we are beloved children of God. We are best equipped to walk with others in their disciplines when we remember whose we are and who we are – all of us, together. We cannot do the work of following Jesus if we do not remember, each and every day, each and every moment, if we cannot walk in the fact that we are beloved children of God. You are a beloved child of God I am a beloved child of God. We are beloved children of God. Never forget it. Amen.
