"When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time." (Luke 4:13)
It wasn't just a one-time trial or rite of initiation. Jesus was constantly facing the lure of the world's (and the devil's) way of doing things. And just because Jesus persisted in his resistance to the tempter over the course of his life, all the way to his death, it doesn't mean it was easy... or that there wasn't the constant option being offered to him to take sulfur-smelling diabolical path of "Me and My Group First!" thinking in his messianic vocation. It was always there, buzzing in the background, relentlessly, and Jesus endured in saying no at every turn.
In fact, even from the cross, it seems that the Tempter keeps trying to find "an opportune time" to get Jesus to take the bait. Near the end of Luke's version of the Gospel, the crowds cry out to Jesus in a startling echo of the devil's preface as he bleeds out on the cross. "If you are the King of the Jews," they cry out, "save yourself!" recalling the tempter's line, "If you are the Son of God..." here in the wilderness. The connection is clear: the devil has many tactics and angles all aimed at the same purpose--to get Jesus to reject the way of self-giving love (that goes to a cross) and instead to sell out for self-serving safety, comfort, and power. And all the way to the end, Jesus defies the devil. Whether it was the suggestion that he could have creature comforts at the snap of a finger (like turning a stone into bread), or the offer of building an empire with political power over all the kingdoms of the world, or the appeal to parlay his privilege to avoid pain, or even the call of the crowd to come down from the cross, Jesus is resolute in rejecting the ways of the evil one. He persists in his resistance.
The trouble, however, is that the community that confesses Jesus as Lord so often fails on this very point. We have a history over many centuries now of reaching for the very things Jesus was wise enough and strong enough to refuse. The Church has a habit of seeking our own comfort, selling our soul for political power, and preserving our own privilege, rather than refusing those diabolical deals. As Jacques Ellul put it bluntly, "When Satan offers to give him all the kingdoms of the earth, Jesus refuses, but the church accepts." And of course, Jesus calls us to turn from those temptations and instead to follow his lead in resisting the ways and offers of the Tempter. It isn't a one-time test for us any more than it was of Jesus, but rather a lifelong continual struggle to say "No" to the devil's offers. We are called to resist the self-centered sales-pitch of Satan, no matter how respectably or attractively it dresses, not just once in our lives, or for forty days every Lent, but every time and every place we encounter it.
Of course, part of what makes that call to vigilance so difficult is that the devil rarely shows up in the cartoonishly obvious get-up we picture from cartoons--don't expect a goateed man in a red jumpsuit and cape with a pitchfork and horns to arrive in a puff of acrid smoke. All too often, as this story of Jesus in the wilderness has made clear all week, evil presents itself as reasonable, noble, practical, and efficient. It's easy to reject the devil if he shows up with cloven hooves and dares you to do something obviously rotten like kicking a puppy dog. But when the Tempter shows up in a suit and tie (as the late Daniel Erlander used to draw him in his works of theology) and says, "I am going to make you SUCH a great deal!" it's easy to believe the lies and lose our souls in the pursuit of power, plenty, or privilege. Jesus calls us to an ongoing defiance to the Tempter, even when he looks respectable.
And when we fail (which, let's be honest, is indeed a matter of "when" rather than "if") there is twofold good news for us: for one, Jesus makes it possible for us to begin again. And if we discover that we have fallen for the "devil's empty promises" yet again (as the old baptismal liturgy put it), Jesus declares that we can change direction, reject those rotten offers, and start resisting now. Even if we've been suckered before and now regret getting hoodwinked, we can turn a new way. That by itself is a word of grace we deeply need. But beyond that, there is also the good news that for all of our failures, Jesus doesn't given in to the Tempter. Jesus didn't give in or fall for Satan's schemes in the wilderness, and he didn't give in to the temptation to come down from the cross on Good Friday... and he still doesn't give in, even now. Where we prove fickle, Jesus proves faithful. Our hope is not grounded in our own ability to always get it right and sniff out the devil's schemes, but in Jesus' faithful persistent resistance. That gives us the courage to say no to evil, no matter how alluring it is, in this day.
Lord Jesus, enable us to resist the lure of the evil one in this day, and to say yes to walking on your way.
No comments:
Post a Comment