(Luke 4:1-13)

The temptations (testing) that Jesus has to go through are straightforward enough.  We look at this passage at the start of Lent.  They come at the start of Jesus’ public ministry.  We are using Lent to get ready for Easter.  Jesus is preparing himself for the next three years of his life that will end up with him crucified in Jerusalem.

The first temptation is to command the stones to become bread.  This is the temptation for Jesus to take control of the situation.  He is hungry.  He is the son of God.  What is more natural than for him to create some food.  The test for Jesus is whether or not he is able to trust in God even though it might seem the more unsteady option and even though there seems an obvious answer for him to take.  Jesus faces the same temptation to take things into his own hands in Gethsemane – he pleads with God to let him off being crucified (surely there must be another way!).  Yet, Jesus says “Your will be done”.

This first temptation for us is to feel the need to always be in control and to moan or feel sorry for ourselves if we are not.  There is nothing wrong with us wanting to seize a moment.  What is wrong is to feel that it is always our responsibility to cope, manage and produce results (turn stones into bread).  In doing this we shut out God.  (Annoyed, frustrated, depressed if things don’t go our way).

The second temptation for Jesus is to throw himself down from the Temple and the angels will pick him up before he hits the rocks.  It is the temptation to make a big show of himself so that people might be immediately impressed.  It is the same temptation he faces over the miracles.  I preached a few weeks ago on the difference between miracles and magic – Jesus’ miracles were only ever in response to faith.  They were never performed to make a big splash, just to create faith.  The temptation for us is to act only to make a good impression on people – for people to think well of us and to be liked.  This is a huge temptation for me as any vicar where it is easy to be trapped into trying to please everyone.  Throwing himself down fro the Temple would have been Jesus’ way of getting an immediate reaction.  Doing something just because we want people to like us might be our equivalent.

The third temptation for Jesus is to be given the authority over the kingdoms of the world.  This is the lure of authority.  For Jesus it would be trading the ignominy of crucifixion for an easier way where his immediate authority would be enough to help make people respond – the difference being that they would be responding because they felt they had to, rather than, as in the way of the cross, because they chose to.  The temptation for us is the same – to want people to do what we ask of them.  It is to fall for the attraction of immediate authority over slowly built long-term relationships (influence of power). 

These temptations are easy enough to explain but behind each of these there is something hidden beneath the story that gives us a clue about what we should be doing at Lent.  Jesus has just been baptised.  There was a vision from God at his baptism (This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased).  When he comes back from the wilderness he is rejected by his own people.  Why did he not stay to build on his good start?  The fact cannot be escaped from that Jesus’ words are not some form of principle, a new moral and political programme, a better ideology.  What is involved are the blessings and the curses that come from heaven and hell – Jesus is wanting to raise our eyes to the stuff of eternity.  So Lent needs to be a little bit less busy.  Avoid making the biblical call for holiness a self-help, self-improvement exercise.  Avoid making our preparation for Lent a Designer Lent – a detox for the soul.  “I am going to give up chocolate” is a classic example of the Christian discipline selling out to designer culture – it’s all about me!

Don’t make Lent a time of repentance from whom we thing ourselves to be – that can end up being all about us.  Make Lent a time of imagination for the person God would want us to be.