Sermon Lesson: Mark 1:12-15
Old Testament Lesson: Genesis 9:8-17
Psalm: Psalm 25:1-10
Referenced Bible Lesson: Job 1-2:10
The Temptations
I remember growing up, one of my favorite band was the Temptations. And, really, what’s not to love? As Christians, we’re conditioned to think of temptation (the earthly sort, not the blues group) as a bad a thing. But, really, it really isn’t necessarily. Instead, it’s a part of life. With the good, comes the bad. With the virtuous, comes the temptation.
When we resist, we build up our resolve and our resistance.
We need to rethink how we view temptations. If we think that they’re sent specifically to make us fail, then we’ve lost half the battle already. If we think we’ll fail, we most likely will.
If we think of them as a goalpost, as a something to test ourselves against, then we are more likely to succeed.
If we think of them as part of life, like a butterfly or a spider, we’re more likely to not realize they’re there, and less likely to assign any sort of real importance to the temptation. Just like the arachnid (who may have frightened us as a child and even still might hold sway over our nighttime imaginings), it may turn out to be something easily swept away with a broom instead of a giant tarantula of nightmarish proportions.
Why Was Jesus Tempted in the desert?
Because he was human, just like you and me. We are tempted on a daily basis, so Jesus was tempted.
For instance, I can see a DQ from my front door and can easily walk to it if I grab my coat. I need to remind myself that a Blizzard a day does not keep the doctor away, even if I think changing the words to the usual rhyme does have a nice ring to it.
Was there a reason why it was forty days of temptation? Well, yes. It wasn’t actually forty days. “Forty days” in Hebrew culture simply means “a really long time.” It could have been a week, it could have been a year. Most likely, in my opinion, the actual temptation lasted Jesus’s whole human life because, as a human, Jesus would have been tempted just as often as the rest of us.
How often are you tempted? You don’t have to tell anyone or even answer out loud, but if an answer popped into your head, imagine Jesus being tempted just about that much, or maybe even a little more. He walked in your shoes so he could understand you—wonderful you—in all stages of your life—as a child, teenager, adult, alone, together with friends and family, in love perhaps, heartbroken, angry, at peace, tempted for that extra slice of lemon loaf, all of it.
Let’s Quickly Talk about Satan
In Mark, it says that Satan tests Jesus, which isn’t as straightforward as you would think it is.
“Satan” is a title in the God’s heavenly court. Basically, he is the one who, according to Job 2:2, says everything that can be said against humankind. He’s not necessarily a bad figure, per se. He’s controversial, certainly, but he is not pitted against humanity as our archenemy, at least not under the title of “Satan.”
I like to think of him as a really good lawyer or politician for the opposition. He’s on the other side of the argument, saying everything against the argument one would normally make for the side of humans. He’s really good at what he does, poking holes in arguments that you really wish he’d leave unexplored.
Job, who lost his livelihood and almost his entire family and ended up crying in a pile of ash, could say a thing or two against how Satan is a bit too good with an argument against humans. If you need a refresher, just read Job 1-2:10. It’s all there.
But does that make Satan bad?
No. He’s just the best devil’s advocate the world has ever seen (no reference to “the Devil” actually intended).
Let’s Quickly Talk about the Devil
Satan often gets confused with the Devil, which is the English for the Greek diabolos. I’m sure many of you recognize that word through the Spanish (and I offer you a spiritual high five).
The Devil is a very different creature from Satan, but the two often get conflated.
The Devil, or diabolos, means “slanderer” if we were to translate it. This is the thought you have in your head when you are just about to slander God or Jesus maliciously… or even semi-maliciously. The Devil, therefore, is a construct of our own thoughts. He is amorphous. You can’t get a read on him. He is the enemy of humankind, he is within our own thought processes, and he becomes the enemy of God except through our own thoughts.
He doesn’t really have a physical body. He doesn’t have horns. He probably wouldn’t have red skin and burning eyes if he had skin and eyes. He sadly doesn’t appear in a dating app commercial. Nor did he perform at this year’s Grammy’s.
The Devil is nowhere and everywhere simultaneously. He is insidious. He isn’t even a “he”. He is all. He is nothing. He is more dangerous than Satan, the devil’s advocate, could ever be.
In Conclusion
To bring this all together, Satan, an officer of the Lord’s court, tempted Jesus Christ because Jesus was as human as you and I are—for most likely his entire life as a human being. Satan did this not because he was mean or cruel or wanted Jesus to give into his worst desires, but because Jesus Christ chose to live life as a human. Being tempted is just part of life as a human. Nothing more to be said except that the “Devil” as he actually exists had no part in this.
Amen.
ARCHDEACON’S CORNER
Lent is a very serious time and can often seem to drag on (forty days, without counting Sundays, lasts for well over a month). So, to liven things up a bit, here are some very dreadful cat jokes.
What do you call a feline with a short haircut? A bob cat.
Why are cats so good at video games? They have nine lives.
What do you call the cat that was caught by the police? The purr-petrator.
Leave a Reply