The following is an abbreviated version of the sermon for March 6th.

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.

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Since Christmas and throughout Epiphany the gospels of Matthew, Luke and John stressed the role of the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ birth, and supernatural moments like the angel choir, the star that led the Magi to Jesus the voice of God proclaiming Jesus as his beloved son.

Today’s gospel changes that miraculous narrative to remind us that Jesus was also fully human. The opening passage, above, suggests that the Spirit deliberately led Jesus to be tested…and that Jesus accepted the time of testing. 

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Every morning about 8 AM a group of people go for a plunge in Lake Ontario at the foot of Silverbirch…even when the temperature is in the minus 20’s the wind chill is minus 30 and there are ice flows on the water.

They believe a five minute dip in frigid water boosts the cardiovascular circulation, supports a strong immune system, high energy levels and well-balanced mental health. (I’ve told Chris, the oldest in the group, who is in his 80s, that I question the “well-balanced mental health” aspect.)

They definitely find the water cold. The fact that there are health benefits doesn’t change the reality of the frigid shock. There are mornings when they want to roll over in bed and enjoy the comfort of the blanket and pillow. But they get up anyway, in quest of something more.

It seems counterintuitive.

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I know others who fast for several days, enduring hunger for benefits such as weight loss, control of blood sugar, better brain function, cancer prevention….and spiritual enlightenment. 

People put themselves in these different stressful situations because they believe in the benefits.

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When the Spirit beckoned Jesus into the wilderness, after his baptism in the Jordan it was to encounter God, to realize his role as God’s son and to become fully alive in God.

Jesus accepted the invitation…but it came with an ironic price…for forty days he was tested by the devil. It is as though the Spirit was Jesus’ coach and wanted to see if he was ready for what was to come, because the mission that God sent him on would test him in many different and extreme ways.

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When he went into the wilderness he had fasted. At the end, when he was hungriest, the devil tested him to turn a stone into bread. I imagine the devil saying something like, “Come on Jesus, you’ve gone 35 days. You’ve shown what you can do. Give yourself a break!”

One way or another we all experience the same. I heard an aphorism that went…God invites us to walk a pilgrimage, but when we become tired the devil sends us a limo.

It’s true! The devil tests us when we are most vulnerable. 

There is no virtue in discipline under ideal circumstances.

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The devil also tempted Jesus with the prospect of authority over all the kingdoms of the world… and their glory.

The devil probably knew that Jesus had wondered how he would overcome the combined power of the Roman empire, the religious establishment and the ambivalence of the people. 

I imagine the devil saying, “Jesus, think of all the good you could do with that kind of power!” 

Who wouldn’t be enticed by that promise? 

But Jesus replied with a quote from Deuteronomy…saying “Love the Lord, and God alone”

Later in this gospel Jesus said something that I think reflects this time in the desert and the temptation of the world when he told his disciples What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose their very self? (Luke 9: 25) after the rich young man turned away from selling his goods and giving the money to the poor. I think Jesus spoke from an understanding of the temptation.

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This gospel was a dialogue between Jesus and the devil. But no one was there as a witness. For the evangelist to know the story and to have written it down Jesus must have been its source.

I wondered how the story got told and why it became so important to Jesus’ early biographers that Matthew, Mark and Luke each wrote a version of it. 

Let me suggest a scenario.…(It has no theological or historical support, only my conjecture.)

At some point in Jesus’ discussions with his disciples…perhaps after Peter had said ‘You are the Messiah’ (Luke 9:20)…one of them may have said something like, “Since you’re the Messiah, You were probably never tempted.”…to which Jesus responded by telling them this story about how he was tested.

I think it made it into three gospels because they understood it as a significant lesson about Jesus’ humanity and a model of the importance of being tested and testing ourselves to resist temptation.

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A few years ago a television reporter from Louisville Kentucky drew an assignment to go to the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemane about 80 kilometres south of the city. His job was to interview the abbot about the monks’ life before Ash Wednesday, as a backdrop for a segment about Lent.

The story was going to run as a contrast to another one about the orgy of excess at Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

The report from Gethsemane included pictures of the entrance arch with its sign “God Alone” (that quote from Deut 6:4)…. footage of the monastery chapel and some monks clearing brush in the hills on the monastery grounds. 

The reporter asked the abbot about the life and the vows that the monks take…poverty, chastity, obedience, stability and conversion of life. The abbot explained these in simple terms.

Then the reporter…knowing that the story would air back to back with the one about Mardi Gras… asked the abbot if chastity was the hardest vow. 

The abbot paused for a moment then replied something like, “Chastity is a constant challenge. It is never easy. One learns to live with the temptations and resist them.”

His answer seemed both honest and ironic. Monks went to this place of solitude and prayer to devote their lives to “God Alone”… They saw few women still they found that in lonely moments sexual temptation came with them.

The message was that no human escapes temptation. Not monks, and not Jesus.

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Jesus may have gone into the wilderness to meditate on his experience of the Spirit and the voice of his Father to spend his time thinking about “God Alone” but, being fully human he was tested when he was most vulnerable. 

In this gospel we tend to focus on the fact that Jesus overcame the tests of the devil, and this is, indeed, one of the lessons. But the more subtle and important lesson is that Jesus was tempted… as each of us is…regardless of how holy a person’s life looks to others. 

Another way of saying this is to acknowledge that each of us faces temptations, every day.

Temptations aren’t wrongs in themselves. But… as we pray in the Lord’s Prayer “deliver us from temptation”…Jesus recognized that they were a constant feature of life.

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The monks’ sexual abstinence, the swimmers’ immersion in freezing water, the hunger of people who go on fasts, Jesus’ temptations in the desert are not good things in themselves.

Our appetites and our desire to address them are part of the human condition. Procreation, staying warm and fed, wanting control, are natural instincts.

But when our response to these impulses are disordered and we seek sex outside of committed relationships, food and drink in excess of our needs and good health, control, at a cost to others, our temptations lead to sin.

The lesson of the various tests of the swimmers, the fasters, the monks and Jesus is that, rather than responding to every impulse we learn to control them to become better…to become more fully alive.

The self-discipline that we practice can extend to other parts of our lives.

Even though Jesus was God, he was also human.

He modelled control in dealing with adversity.

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Traditionally, Lent was a time of fasting and abstinence. People gave up desserts, or drinking.

More recently, the emphasis has been on trying to add some particular spiritual exercise to one’s daily life…a regular time of prayer, conscious new acts of generosity, spiritual journaling… attending a study session on Holy Listening.

The season of Lent encourages each of us to model the forty days on some aspect of Jesus’ time in the wilderness.

The goal is not deprivation or discomfort but growth through becoming more conscious of the Spirit of God in our life.

I encourage you to consider adopting some discipline during these 40 days. It may be life altering.

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The second century theologian Irenaeus said. “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.”

The journey to becoming fully alive is what Jesus modelled in today’s gospel.

Peace

Michael