Close Encounters: Jesus in the Wilderness
Rev. Eugene N. Nelson, Jr.
The Community Church of Sebastopol
February 10, 2008
Matthew 4:1-11
This past week, as I was listening to all the commentary in the wake of Super Tuesday, and then also thinking about the sermon and this text, I came across some words of Thomas Wright, a British New Testament scholar. In his commentary on this text from the book of Matthew, he shares a story about a newly elected member of the British Parliament: "Jennifer went for a long walk in the woods. It had been an exhausting six months, and she needed time to think. She had concentrated on the campaign ever since her local party had told her, to her surprise, that they wanted her to be their candidate. She had been overwhelmed by the honor both of running for Parliament and of serving her country, her people, her world. All the noble ideas had been smiling at her, beckoning her, telling her she was now going to be able to achieve them. Her one thought had been: get elected and then you'll be able to change the world, make things better, turn things around.
"Then came the last frantic days of the campaign. Touring the area, making speeches, late-night sessions with party workers... and finally the election. She couldn't believe it. Victory by 10,000 votes. They had chosen her. This was her day and it was sweet. But now she needed some space to think, to reflect, to work it all through. Hence the long walk in the woods.
"And as she walked in silence, she was shocked at what she discovered. Oh, the ideals were still there - the dreams of service, of changing the world, but there were other voices. Where did these voices come from? 'Now at last' they whispered, 'you have a chance to make some real money. Lots of businesses are going to want you to lobby officials for them. You can name your price.' And there was more. 'This is just the first rung on the ladder,' said the voices. 'If you play your cards right, if you don't make a fuss about too many things and get to know the right people, you could be a government minister... in the Cabinet... fame, popularity... oh, you have power. But you can have more. The world is your chessboard. Go ahead, play the game by your rules.' What was happening to her? Where were these voices coming from?"
"Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil." It would seem that Jesus also knew something of the power of these "other" voices. And so, I suspect, do we.
Lent, a season of reflection, spiritual assessment; a time to look at our lives and changes we might need to make, or want to make, a time to figure out new directions we might need to go, which is the definition of repentance, turning, moving in a new direction. And in many churches over the years, Lent is a time of self-denial. Did you ever do that in your families? Maybe some of you do still give up something for Lent? A minister writes, "When I was a child, many years ago, our pastor always stressed the importance of Lenten self-denial. We may not have taken much notice of the other seasons of the year, but we celebrated Lent. I recall a service, on the first Sunday of Lent, in which we were all given small pieces of paper and pencils and were told to write down what we were going to give up for Lent. We wrote down things like chocolate, dirty books, ice cream after school, things like that. Then, as the organ played 'Beneath the Cross of Jesus' we all processed down to the altar rail, laid our folded pieces of paper on that rail, and then we knelt there for a moment in prayer, asking Jesus to help us keep our Lenten promise."
Well, this is the first Sunday of Lent, but it seems like we've come a long way from the days of Lenten self-denial. Maybe I'm wrong about that, but certainly in this church, do we ever talk about giving up something for Lent? In fact, I've read sermons, I've probably preached those sermons, that poke fun at what are often our trivial acts of self-denial. "Oh, I've given up drinking for Lent." "Really, then what are you doing with that wine glass?" "Oh, I've given up hard liquor." One pastor says,” Our puny little self-denial pales in comparison with the huge act of self-giving that Jesus is about to make for us on the cross. Giving up chocolate is nothing compared to what God is giving to us in Christ." Now, I realize some of you chocoholics may dispute that illustration, especially so close to Valentine's Day, but hopefully you get the point.
And yet, while Lent surely means more than our often meager attempts at self-denial, it does not mean less. My mind goes back to those tempting, enticing voices in the head of that newly elected member of Parliament. What are the voices that dominate our lives, our culture? I once heard a parent say that one of her toughest jobs was to look her child in the eye and say, "no". She had a point. How do you tell a child no, how do you set limits, in the midst of a culture that constantly tells our children that they should get, indeed that they deserve, every little thing their hearts desire? In the words of one of my favorite curmudgeons, United Methodist Bishop, William Willimon, "TV advertising tells us that we are the most important projects in the world. The most damage you can do to you psyche is to deny yourself what you really, really want. Self-care, self-aggrandizement, and self-satisfaction are what our much heralded American 'freedom' has come to. We worship the self. We have no greater project then the self. Perhaps that is why Jesus responded to Santa's temptations by mentioning worship. He repeats the prayer that Israel knew by heart. 'You shall worship only the Lord your God.' That's a tough word to hear in a world that daily tells us to worship ourselves."
Now I know, maybe Willimon is a little over the top here, as he likes to be. Is he being a bit too harsh? Maybe. Except, how often do you hear Lenten phrases such as deny yourself, take up your cross, lose your life to find your life, how often do you hear those phrases in TV ads? Enjoy yourself, indulge yourself, you owe it to yourself...mighty hard to get away from those voices...voices that want to tell us exactly what we want, what we need, who we ought to be, who we ought to want to be.
Does it make it easier to know that Jesus faced the same things? He is baptized, he is blessed by the voice from heaven, he's got it made, things are going now. But it isn't quite enough. And so he finds himself in the wilderness where he must answer the questions: What am I going to do with my life; what are my priorities, for what and to whom will I give my life? And, much like that young member of Parliament, he is tempted. He hears the voices - we are told it's the voice of Satan, but we don't need to get totally literal on this - it could be the voice of culture, the voice of self-satisfied, self indulgence... maybe all of the above. "Think of what you can do with your power. Dazzle us with miracles, take care of your needs first, say the word and kingdoms of the world are yours." A time of testing, temptation, when he must confront those voices that would distract him from his true mission, that would entice him to do the right thing in the wrong way, that would divide his loyalty, that would turn him away from God and dilute the way that God has called him to follow. In the wilderness he comes face to face with all of those things, all of those voices, I think, within himself. And he says no. That's not who I am. He says the word that is so hard to say.
Years ago, Flip Wilson had a skit in which his famous, "Geraldine" character, went out and bought herself an expensive new dress. When she later modeled the dress, she was told that when she was tempted to buy it, she should have said, "Get behind me, Satan!" To which Geraldine replied, "That's exactly what I did say, and he said it looked very nice from the back." And so the Devil always does. Geraldine is not going to be tempted by a dress that makes her look terrible. Jesus was not tempted by voices that promised to make him look stupid and powerless. How do we hold on to our souls and not sell them to delusion? And so, I think, I am back to that hopelessly awkward, outmoded, countercultural season we call Lent. It might be that we all could use just a little Lent.
I once heard this season described as a kind of Outward Bound for the soul. You know Outward Bound? It's a program that takes ordinary people like you and me and sends them off repelling down sheer rock faces, or through high rapids, spending nights alone in the wilderness. It teaches people about wilderness survival, about how to get by when you have no resources whatsoever. It teaches about self awareness, self-confidence, then puts you to the test. Can you survive in the wilderness just with what you have inside of yourself for 24 hours? Says one preacher, "That's when you find out who you really are. That's when you find out what you really miss and what you are really afraid of. None of the normal crutches and pacifiers. None of the normal anesthetics and self-deceptions. None of the things we use to drown out the inner voices. None of the things we use to numb the fear and the pain.”
Could that be a description of Lent? Might Lent be for us an invitation, not an easy invitation to be sure, but an invitation to leave behind all those things we think are so important but really aren't. An invitation to look at ourselves with just a bit more honesty, to begin to discard our arrogance, our self-deceptions, to empty ourselves of the things that get in God's way, that we might begin to focus, as Jesus had to focus on just what kind of persons we really want to be, on the voices that are truly worth following. What is that thing in your life that is in danger of taking over your life? What do you love too much in the wrong way? What do you need to give up - there's that phrase again - in order that God might have a chance to get in? We all make a living. Lent comes along and dares to ask, "When will you begin making a life, and in your heart of hearts, what do you want that life to look like? To whom will you say yes? Equally important - to whom or what will you say no?"
A medical student was telling his pastor how much he enjoyed a particular class. "Dr. Jones is a really great teacher," he said, "More than that, a great person. I really listen to him. I want to take him as a model for my own career. Knowing that he left behind a lucrative medical practice, knowing he could have a salary three or four times larger than what he makes here teaching us. That really tells you something about who he is."
And so, as we enter this 40 day journey, what is it that we would like our lives, our choices, to tell the world about us?