SERMON Stretches

Lent 1C: Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Psalm 91:11; Romans 10:8b-13; Luke 4:1-13

What images come to mind when you hear about Jesus' temptations? About his forty days in the wilderness after the baptism by John? Maybe images of stones and the vision and the whisking off to Jerusalem? Or, perhaps the image of this morning's bulletin cover? An image of Jesus' powerfully banishing the devil -- the fallen dark angel -- as the good angels arrive.

For most of us, I would guess, imagining Luke's account of the temptations is something of a stretch. No, probably more than "something of a stretch." A real stretch.

And I was reminded this week with the news of the evangelizing efforts of Athletes in Action in Vancouver just how much of a stretch it can be. Athletes in Action is a sister ministry of the Jesus Film Project and a part of the Campus Crusade for Christ. At the Olympics, the Athletes in Action are distributing a DVD called "Struggles and Triumphs." And, in addition to featuring six athletes' talking about their struggles and triumphs, the DVD also has the 1979 Jesus the Movie on it. When Mel Gibson's The Passion was released in 2004, it was estimated that 117 million people had seen Jesus the Movie. The Jesus Film Project now estimates that Jesus has been viewed almost 5.6 billion times and over 225 million people have indicated a decision to follow Christ after viewing the film.

I was one of those 117 million people who had seen it in 2004. A friend of mine once lent me the video. It's now available online in hundreds of languages -- go to

             http://www.jesusfilm.org/film-and-media/watch-the-film?al=e.

Jesus the Movie is based on Luke's gospel. It features an intensely handsome Jesus who smiles maybe twice in the entire film: once when he pats the head of an adorning little girl with very crooked teeth who says, "Hello," and the second time when he says (laughing), "What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent[?]"

The humor in that last remark escapes me. This is not the Jesus whom N.T. Wright describes as "a shrewd Palestinian Jewish villager who drank wine with his friends, agonized over the plight of his people, [and] taught in strange stories and pungent aphorisms." And who, I firmly believe, did have a real sense of humor.

Nor is it Mel Gibson's portrayal of a very real Aramaic-speaking prophet who really suffers.

Even so, the temptation in Jesus the Movie abounds with scenes and images. The setting is right. This is the Judean wilderness around and near the Dead Sea. We see Jesus not too much worse for wear. His hair, it is true, is damp, almost (but not quite) curly, and he does stumble once or twice. While Jesus is sweaty and somewhat disheveled, he is not overly sweaty and disheveled.

Temptation Scene 1: The devil appears -- anyone want to guess who plays the devil? It's not the fallen angel on today's bulletin cover. Rather, it's the central casting serpent from Genesis. Jesus is sitting down holding a loaf shaped rock and the snake hisses (with a large bass voice),

"If you are the Son of God [hiss, hiss], command this stone [hiss, hiss] to become a loaf of bread." [Hiss]

Without missing a beat, Jesus answers,"It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.'" Jesus drops the rock.

Temptation Scene 2: Jesus stands up, follows the hissing snake up an incline, back to us, and suddenly, there is a small flash of what we are told are all the kingdoms of the world in front of Jesus, and the snake's bass voice hisses:

"I will give you all this power and all this wealth; it has all been handed over to me, and I can give it to anyone whom I choose. All this, then, will be yours if you worship me."

And, again without missing a beat, Jesus replies, "It is written, ‛You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.'"

Temptation Scene 3: Jesus is standing at the edge of the roof on top of the temple in Jerusalem. The height is dizzying. One senses Jesus is experiencing vertigo. The snake is no longer hissing."‛If you are the Son of God,'" he booms, "‛throw yourself down from here." And quotes from the Psalm that we just sang: "He will give his angels charge of you, to guard you,'" and "‛On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'" With great conviction, Jesus answers, "'You shall not tempt the Lord your God.'"

And that's it. Temptation behind him, Jesus is off to his hometown synagogue in Nazareth to launch his public ministry by reading from Isaiah.

Is this a stretch? I think so. And seeing this, and imagining the forty days and the temptations this way, there are a lot of reasons to conclude that Luke's temptation account as well as Matthew's similar one are fiction -- and not very good fiction at that. That they are the product of simple minds and a primitive world inhabited by devils and magical morphing from desert to rooftop. And that they have nothing to do with us.

But there are a lot of reasons to forget what we've just seen and imagined.

To begin, this is a wonderfully woven piece of literature that is operating on all sorts of different levels. Did you notice? Everyone of Jesus' replies to the devil begins, "It is written." Each of Jesus' replies is a quotation from scripture. But not just any scripture. Each of Jesus' replies is a quotation from the book of Deuteronomy, and each of the quotations relates to a specific event in the Israelites' forty years journey in the wilderness to the promised land. Events where the Israelites are unfaithful -- unfaithful by rejecting the manna given them, unfaithful by worshiping the golden calf, and unfaithful by demanding water and a miracle from Moses -- events of infidelity where, given the same temptations, Jesus is faithful.

Not at all simple, is it? Or simplistic. We have a portrait of Jesus who, as the Son of God, refuses to exercise his powers to do miracles. A Jesus who, in being faithful to his Father, rejects political power and wealth. A Jesus who refuses to exploit his Sonship (in the words of one commentator) "in the interest of a foolish challenge to his personal safety." (Fitzmeyer 517) A Jesus who does not fit anyone's notion of a messiah, but does conform to everyone's understanding of a faithful Israel.

It's not simple. It's not simplistic. But is it fiction? Is it the early church's reading back into the ministry of Jesus a time of trial before the start of the public ministry -- a testing period commonly described in the lives of Hellenistic heros. Or did it happen?

We might naturally assume that what we hear this morning is fiction because there are no witnesses to Jesus' temptation. He is alone in the wilderness. But challenging that assumption is the fact that all of the gospel writers (including John), all from different communities and traditions, share accounts of a time of testing.

What is likely is that Jesus told his disciplines about this time of testing and temptation. And during this time of testing and temptation Jesus, aware now of his unique calling and mission, encountered and conquered what for him was the embodiment of evil.

Was it a hissing snake? I doubt it. Was it an internal struggle? Probably. Did it involve another person? Possibly. Was it real? Certainly.

And what it involved is a real temptation for us as well. A real temptation to operate on a basis of power and authority. The late Harvard social psychologist, David McClelland, theorized that individual human beings (as well as societies) are motived by three needs:

      (1) the need for achievement (n-ach),

      (2) the need for power (n- power), and

      (3) the need for affiliation (n-aff).

Of the three, the n-power is the probably most dangerous. I think that we can safely say that we have seen concrete examples of the need for power run dangerously amok in recent years, both in business and in government. The exercise of power is far more tempting, and the need greater, when the power is there to exercise.

And that's what the three temptations this morning are all about. The power to do miracles. The ability to secure political power. The authority to call on another power. By refusing the challenges and taunts to turn the rock into bread, to worship evil in exchange for political power, and to jump from the pinnacle of the temple, Jesus chooses not self but service to God. He turns his back on power that can so easily be abused. Instead, Jesus becomes the messiah who can and does return to his home synagogue to announce that he has been anointed "to bring good news to the poor . . . to proclaim release to the captives . . . and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, [and] to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

Jesus the Movie has a pretty good John the Baptist. As Jesus makes his way through John's disciples, John says,"One greater than I is coming." Also pretty good, except the Greek should probably be translated "more powerful." And, isn't it interesting that, by refusing the devil's invitations to operate from a base of power, Jesus acquires authority over the demons and over the embodied forces of evil that he encounters in his ministry? And isn't ironic that, in doing that, he is indeed more powerful than John the Baptist?

The specific temptations we hear about this morning are, in many ways, unique to Jesus. But the ministry that they make possible -- the ministry "to bring good news to the poor . . . to proclaim release to the captives . . . and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, [and] to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" -- this ministry is ours to share both as individuals and as community. And, unlike trying to imagine this morning's gospel, with God's grace and help, sharing that ministry at Wicker Park Lutheran Church will never, ever be a stretch.

Amen

February 21, 2010

Ruth VanDemark, pastor

Wicker Park Lutheran Church