“The Greatest Temptation”

Luke 4:1-13

March 9, 2003

St. Paul United Methodist Church

Rev. John Fleming

I wonder what the conversations would have been like if this morning in Sunday School or in the various studies that happen here throughout the week or if you weren’t a part of either of those groups, if I asked you to gather around a table, maybe in the Ruth Wilson room with six or seven other people and the teacher or the leader started the conversation with these words, “Okay, today the subject is temptation.” Maybe, at first, there would be a little nudging. Perhaps a smile would appear on several of your faces. Maybe someone would quote some famous temptation sayings, like Flip Wilson’s, “The devil made me do it the first time, but ever since then I’ve been doing it on my own.” Or Oscar Wilde’s famous line, “I can resist anything but temptation.” Then someone might tell you something that they did, maybe recently, that was mischievous, but not all that bad. Maybe they would tell about the morning that the alarm clock buzzed and they started to get up, but when they saw that it was rainy and stormy or dreary outside, they reached for the phone, called in sick to work with the imitation of their best sore throat, then pulled the covers back up to their chins and slept in. Or maybe someone would tell about the dinner that they had out just the other night. The meal was fabulous. They were with friends and the conversation around the table was good. The dinner plates were being removed when their waiter arrived holding a tray. On the tray are the goodies. On one of the plates is cheese cake with strawberries oozing on top of it. On another plate is a piece of German chocolate cake. Another option is creme brûlée. Maybe there is a pie, hot, probably, apple or pecan, served with the possibility of ice cream. Maybe seeing those dishes prompted the words, “Get thee behind me, Satan.” But then you talk it over with the ones that you are with, “Oh, I don’t know. I shouldn’t. Maybe this time, what do you think, would you split it with me? It’s so tempting!” What is going on here? The subject is temptation and the discussion is about chocolate cake!

Perhaps there is someone around the table or sitting in the class who does not feel all that amused because when you say the word it causes them to go to another level, a deeper level. Maybe he recalls the time that his family was asked by their next door neighbors to go to a lake house that they had near the Tennessee River. He was young, five or six maybe. What was promised was a day at the lake complete with fishing and boats and skiing and four wheel riding in the woods near their house. He was so excited about it. He had been waiting for it for days. He could not sleep the night before they were to go up there. When they left it was sunny, but when they got to the lake it was cold and rainy. So instead of a fun filled weekend with boats and skis and four wheelers, it was a weekend cramped in a small cabin with his family and their family.

Sometime, in the middle of the afternoon, while no one was watching. While the adults were out on the covered porch and while his sister was asleep, he snuck into the kitchen, reached into a jar, pulled out a Three Muskateers candy bar, and shoved the thing completely in his mouth. He had had his eye on the jar all day. He really wanted the candy bar, but no one had offered one to him and so he took it, shoved it completely into his mouth. Which, by the way, was no small feat. He did all of this about the time that the adults were coming in from the porch. He turned his back and swallowed the chocolate. There was something inside of him besides the chocolate and the caramel. The something was guilt. He got away with it, but he walked into the other room not feeling so well. There was even a chance later in the day to redeem himself. Later in the day another candy bar was offered. This thought crossed his mind, if I say No to this, then I am redeemed. But he did not do that. He accepted the second candy bar and the guilt remained. On the way home, he admitted his sin to his mother and dad, but never to the woman whose cabin it was and for some reason the memory of it still haunts him. When I get to heaven, uh, I mean when this boy gets to heaven, he will have to make amends with his neighbor.

A minister tells of a time when he was visiting in one of his church members’ homes. They were in their den, coffee was offered, and they sat there and talked. It was a great visit. On the coffee table is a bowl of peanuts and he was told to help himself and so he did. He was there for an hour and for an hour he reached for the peanuts. When it was time to go, he looked down and noticed that the bowl was empty. That preacher said this, “If you had told me that I would have eaten the whole bowl, I would have said that there was no way that I would do that. But a peanut at a time, that is the danger.” And it is. One lie at a time; one act at a time, and pretty soon these acts overwhelm you. A lot of times, our temptations are more significant than five year olds and candy bars. Temptation is a little different now.

Now if you are willing to wade out into the deep, then I will ask you to go to the deeper end of the pool and listen to our text for this morning, the story of the temptations of Jesus, found in three of the four gospels. This morning, we are looking at Luke’s version of it. I do not want the way this story is told and the way that we read it this morning to throw you. At first glance, it seems like it could be a cartoon or a comic strip. Can you get the sense of that? The devil said this and Jesus said that. The devil offered this and Jesus countered with that. This, friends, is no cartoon and it is no comic strip. If you saw it drawn in front of you, Jesus might look like we’ve always pictured him. Would the devil be wearing a red suit with a pitch fork in his hand? You see, here is the problem. The devil does not always look like the devil, and temptation does not always look like temptation.

I want you to understand this. These temptations of Jesus come at the beginning of his ministry. They happen right after he is baptized. The orderly Luke throws in a genealogy between the stories, but nothing happens between them. When Jesus in the wilderness, being tempted by the devil, just has yet to heal anyone, to perform any miracle at all, or to teach powerfully. Maybe he wondered when the temptations came his way, “Maybe I ought to try out a miracle, just to make sure that they work.” Jesus did not do that; he had not done any of the above mentioned things. Jesus had been baptized and he had heard the words, “You are my Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Then, immediately, he was led to the wilderness. Luke tells us that it was the Spirit that led him there. There is a sermon there whose point is that the wilderness is never far away. In one moment, Jesus is hearing affirming words that He is God’s son and his Father is pleased with him. In the next verse, he is in the wilderness, famished and tempted. The sermon is that the wilderness, really, isn’t all that far away. Sometimes it is only a phone call away. That’s not the sermon that I want to preach this morning. I want to say something else this morning.

On my way to saying it, I want to admit something to you. I have always had trouble with these temptations. I can easily explain my problem with them. They don’t really fit my life. I do not have any grand thoughts about being some kind of a savior, though there are some times when I think that I can save the world. In my more sensible moments, I know that Jesus’ temptations are not my temptations. I have never thought of turning stones into bread. I have not been that hungry. I have never wanted to be a king over kingdoms. And I am not a big fan of flying, especially when it involves jumping off a roof top. So, I have always had a problem with these temptations.

I have been preaching this story for nine Lenten seasons. It is always the scripture lesson on week one. It only took me nine years to figure this story out. Here is what I have discovered. It is not the temptations that I am supposed to identify with. The real lesson, I think, is understanding how Jesus dealt with these tests. There are three of them. You will remember that. Because there are three, there are three responses. All three, I think, have to do with remembering that it is God who is in charge. One of the best preachers that I ever knew once said this. “There are three things that I know about God. First, there is one. Second, I’m not Him. And third, neither is anyone or anything else.” Sometimes we forget that. You will remember the Ten Commandments, I hope. If I asked you to, could you recite the first one? Flip through your Bibles and you’ll find it in Exodus 20:3, “You are to have no other gods before me.” There is no other god before me. Worship no one but me. Listen to Jesus’ answers once again and see if you agree with me, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Do not put the Lord your God to the test and Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.” Jesus counters with those words and then the devil leaves him. Luke is the only one who says this, but he writes that the devil left him until a more opportune time. Which, by the way, is in the garden of Gethsemane.

What should we do with these words of Luke? What should we do with these stories of the temptations? Here is what I think. I think that the temptation of Jesus and the temptations that all of us have is to forget that it is God who is in charge. I think that we go to God with options. I think that we give Him a couple of choices, a couple of options that we’d be happy with either way and ask Him to choose. “Lord, do I move to Mobile or Minnesota?” “Do I keep working here or do I pursue another job?” Preachers do that. Proclaimers of God’s words do that, especially in the spring when they think that they might move to a different church. I don’t mind admitting that I bended God’s ear about coming here last spring. I gently said to God, “Lord, don’t you think that St. Paul would be a good place for me and my family?” Evidently it was. Last spring, though, wasn’t the first time that I prayed that I’d come here. It is hard, don’t you think, to put everything in God’s hands and to let God be God? We know that that is the way that we are supposed to live. We know that we are to search for God’s will for our lives, which means trusting that God’s plan for us is more powerful that the things that threaten to undo them. I think that our first temptation. I think that our greatest temptation is to trust in our own plans and believe that we are in charge of our lives. When we do that, this happens, when our plans fail, we believe that our lives are over.

Jesus is going to test that now. That is what we are going to move towards in Holy week. Jesus will go to the very heart of the enemy’s camp, he will parade in on a donkey on what we have come to know as Palm Sunday. The shouts will be loud. Hosannas will be said. But Jesus knows what is going to happen at the end of the week. He will trust that God knows what He is doing. The biggest temptation, the greatest temptation is to try to play God and to be God. I don’t mind telling you that at the beginning of this week, I thought that these temptations had nothing to say to me, since I’m not the Messiah, but now I think that it speaks to the greatest temptation that any of us have, the temptation to be in charge. That is what the devil offered Jesus.

Now I will have to be honest and say that my future is becoming more and more important to me. I want you to know that I have made some plans and I will be making more. I have been storing up some things. I am putting back some funds so Annie Grace can go to college one day, hopefully. But I’ve also done enough funerals here to know that if you think that you’re in charge, you have another thing coming. You are being tempted, friends, and the real temptation, the greatest temptation, is to lead you away from where your security and safety really lies. That is a line worth hearing twice. The greatest temptation is to lead you away from where your security and safety really lies. How does Jeremiah put this in his prophesy? “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” Did you hear that? The plans I have for you!

Do me a favor. For the remainder of the days in the Lenten season, tell the devil to get lost! God has great plans for you. Do not deny them, sit tight, and God will bless you. Let us pray.

(Special thanks to Fred Craddock for the idea for the opening of this sermon. Special thanks to Robbie Phillips, who, I am sure, forgives me for stealing the Three Musketeer candy bar. We will talk about it when I arrive in heaven).