The Passage<\/p>\n
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.\u00a0 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.\u00a0 And the tempter came and said to him, \u201cIf you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.\u201d\u00a0 But he answered, \u201cIt is written, \u2018Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, \u201cIf you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, \u2018He will command his angels concerning you,\u2019 and \u2018On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Jesus said to him, \u2018Again it is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.\u00a0 And he said to him, \u201cAll these I will give you, if you will fall<\/em><\/p>\n down and worship me.\u201d\u00a0 Then Jesus said to him, \u201cBe gone, Satan!\u00a0 For it is written, \u2018You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.<\/em> \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0[English Standard Version]<\/p>\n If, because of one man\u2019s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [Romans 5.17]<\/p>\n \n \u00a0 In the Name of Christ + Jesus Our Lord<\/p>\n As we travel the interstate highways through states like Georgia, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, have you noticed how people mark the places where deaths have occurred?\u00a0 In sharp contrast to that practice, as the Lord\u2019s people make their way through a fresh Lenten season, we are brought notice the places where real Life occurs.\u00a0 The highway places of death are seen most clearly in the wildernesses of the world\u2019s life.\u00a0 It is helpful to remember how these wildernesses stem from people refusing to recognize that the Father is our Creator, that the Son is our Rescuer and that the Spirit is the Breather of new Life.\u00a0 In spite of these wildernesses, though, we gratefully remember that there are oases within them, oases which are brimming with the Lord\u2019s Scriptures along with his Sacraments of Baptism, Forgiveness and the Eucharist.<\/p>\n However, noticing both of these realities puts the Lord\u2019s people in a dilemma.\u00a0 On the one hand, we are stepping into very familiar territory as we journey through these six weeks \u2013 preparing for Holy Week, the three Great Days of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday, along with Easter Day!\u00a0 During these weeks the rhythms of the Church\u2019s liturgies are heightened and deeper work is required of parishioners and pastors.\u00a0 During all this month and a half the Church\u2019s history and traditions re-enter the lives of the Lord\u2019s people in vital ways.<\/p>\n On the other hand, the world in which the Lord\u2019s people reside hardly has a clue to the uniqueness of this day and its succeding five weeks.\u00a0 To it the Church\u2019s traditions and history seem antiquated, the liturgical rhythms appear useless, and it appears that the Lord\u2019s people should disappear increasingly from public view.\u00a0 Such a dilemma tempts parish communities to lose their nerve as the Lord\u2019s people, to explore more creative ways of gaining the world\u2019s attention and approval while fastening on the ways in which we are or are not impacting the world.<\/p>\n Thankfully, during these Forty Days of Lent, the Holy Trinity pushes into this dilemma, guides us through the wildernesses and brings us to the holy oases where real Life is occurring.\u00a0 The framework for this pushing, guiding and bringing is seen clearly in today\u2019s Gospel.\u00a0 This passage opens up in the days coming immediately after Jesus\u2019 Baptism.<\/p>\n With the words of the Father still ringing in his ears, \u201cThis is my Son, the Beloved; he enjoys my favor,\u201d Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.<\/p>\n Remember that the wilderness recalls the wanderings of the Lord\u2019s Old Testament people for forty years as they made their way from the Exodus in Egypt to the promised Land in Canaan.\u00a0 Remember, too, that these forty days also recall the flood at the time of Noah as well as with Moses\u2019 stay in the Lord\u2019s presence on Mount Sinai.<\/p>\n Our Lord goes without food for forty days and nights.\u00a0 Going without food for more than month has spawned numerous books on fasting.\u00a0 From different angles they detail what happens to the body during that time.\u00a0 In the first three days, the body rids itself of toxic poisons from poor eating habits. The symptoms in those days include headaches, a coating on the tongue and bad breath.\u00a0 Over the next two days, the hunger pains begin to subside, but there are feelings of weakness and dizziness.\u00a0 In the last two days of that first week, a person feels stronger and is more alert; the hunger pains are only a minor irritation, most of the poisons are gone from the body.\u00a0 The person feels good, concentration is sharper, there is a sense that the fast could go on and on.<\/p>\n Jump ahead two weeks, though, and a much different picture emerges.\u00a0 The hunger pains return, signaling the first stage of starvation.\u00a0 The body has used up all its excess reserves and is now drawing on living tissue, including its muscle.\u00a0 The signs are very clear after twenty-one days that now is the time to break the fast.\u00a0 Add another nineteen days and we realize that Our Lord has been pushed way beyond the first three weeks.\u00a0 He has gone forty days without food!\u00a0 It is beyond cynicism that this is the point when the tempter comes up and says to Jesus,\u00a0 \u201cIf you are the Son of God, tell these stones to turn into loaves!\u201d<\/p>\n With his body breaking down and his Life at a dangerous intersection, Jesus is severely tempted to follow through on the suggestion.\u00a0 After all, there is no \u201cif\u201d about it, he is the Son of God, he can do whatever he chooses to do.\u00a0 But he does not exercise that choice, he tells the tempter that real Life does not come from bread, but from his Father (quoting Deuteronomy 8.3)!<\/p>\n Still vulnerable from the forty days without food, the devil takes Jesus to Jerusalem and<\/p>\n stands him at the top edge of the temple (this is a height of 200-225 feet).\u00a0 He says<\/p>\n to Jesus,\u00a0 \u201cIf you are the Son of God, throw yourself down!\u201d\u00a0 Surprisingly, the devil himself quotes two verses from Psalm 91, reminding Jesus of how the LORD God has promised to protect his people.\u00a0 With his body breaking down and his Life at a dangerous point, Jesus is severely tempted to follow through on the suggestion.\u00a0 After all, there is no \u201cif\u201d about it, he is the Son of God and he can call on his Father\u2019s protection any time he chooses.\u00a0 But Jesus does not call that protection in, instead he reminds the devil that the Father is not to be tested (quoting Deuteronomy 6.16)!<\/p>\n Next, taking Jesus to a very high mountain, the devil shows him all the world\u2019s countries and their splendor (we know, from the International Space Station, that the world looks very attractive; its ugliness and squalor are not readily apparent).\u00a0 He tells Jesus that he will deliver all of this to him if he only falls down and worships him!\u00a0 With his body breaking down and his Life at a highly dangerous point, Jesus is severely tempted to follow through on the suggestion.\u00a0He knows the devil has been taunting and challenging him, perhaps if he caves in to him, the taunts and challenges will disappear.\u00a0 But Jesus does not cave in, he orders Satan to leave, reminding him that the only God to be worshiped is his Father (quoting Deuteronomy 6.13)! \u00a0The devil leaves and the angels of the LORD God appear and look after Jesus.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s Gospel is framing our lives in these Lenten weeks as the Son\u2019s Spirit pushes, guides and brings us to the holy oases where the Father, the Son and the Spirit are working mysteriously for the people of this world.\u00a0 The devil\u2019s temptations were meant to cut the connection between Jesus and his Baptism.\u00a0 That did not work, however, and now Jesus can let his Baptism by the Father and the Spirit continue to drive his Life.\u00a0 He knows and we know that his Baptism will bring him to the dying and rising which rescues the world\u2019s people from the devil, from sin and from death.<\/p>\n The devil\u2019s temptations continue to make their way into the lives of the Lord\u2019s people today.\u00a0 He means to cut the connections we have been given by the Holy Trinity at Baptism, preventing us from seeing and participating in the places where real Life is flowing because of the Trinity\u2019s activity.\u00a0 The devil pursues us because he wants our lives to be shaped and driven by the world (his actual world!). \u00a0As we consider the devil\u2019s temptations, however, we need to make some distinctions:\u00a0 We are not describing the temptations to go into a Best Buy store and steal some DVD\u2019s or to cheat on a test for which we are not prepared or to get creative on our tax returns for 2022.<\/p>\n Instead we are describing the temptations which occur because we have been baptized into the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 These temptations are intended to separate us from that Baptism.\u00a0 We are highly vulnerable to such temptations, not because we have been going without food for forty days and nights, but because of the following circumstances: our emotional state may not be steady; our insecurities may be causing us to act in ways that are dishonest; our physical condition may be shaky; our marital relationships may not be that strong; our mental attitude may be clouded; our spiritual state may not be that deep; our sense of who we are may be determined by what the people around us are thinking and doing.<\/p>\n Being his or her slick self, the devil may present the temptations in this fashion: Haven\u2019t you been baptized into the crucifixion and resurrection of your Lord?\u00a0 Don\u2019t you realize the power to which you have access?\u2026or\u2026<\/p>\n Hasn\u2019t the Father marked you as his daughter and son, promising he will be your Lord?<\/p>\n Don\u2019t you think you should test that promise now, to make sure that it\u2019s sure?…or\u2026<\/p>\n Doesn\u2019t this world, created by the Father and filled with splendid material, look good to you?\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t you like to make a real impact on it while, at same time, enjoying its attractions?<\/p>\n Well, you can, the tempter says, Just walk away from your Baptism!\u00a0 Let us remember, however, that if we do reach for the life he offers for ourselves, we cut the connection to Baptism, a cut plunging us into the destruction of this world as well as its bleak end.<\/p>\n The good news today is that when we are tempted to cut that connection, the LORD God is looking after us \u2013 he makes clear the relationship he has established with us.\u00a0 He does that by surrounding us with the holy oases of his Baptism and the Scriptures, his Forgiveness and the Eucharist.\u00a0 As his Life surrounds ours, he leads us safely through the world\u2019s wildernesses and the places where deaths are marked.\u00a0 Out of his deep grace and mercy, then, the LORD God gives us the holy oases where his real Life is occurring!\u00a0 In such mysterious giving, may this year\u2019s Lenten season be new and freshening for all his baptized people!<\/p>\n Now may the peace of the LORD God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our\u00a0hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus Our Lord<\/p>\n Pr. Carl A. Voges, Columbia, SC; carl.voges4@icloud.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lent One (Revised Common Lectionary) |\u00a002.26.23 |\u00a0Matthew 4.1-11 | Carl A. 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