A WIN-WIN SCENARIO
Sermon by the Rev. DWHinkle
L1C February 14, 2016
Scripture: Luke 4:1-13
It’s because Jesus overcomes his temptations in the wilderness that we are able
to overcome our temptations, too. His first temptation shows this the best. Jesus
has been fasting in the wilderness for forty days and forty nights, and he's starving.
You’d think that he’d do anything to get something to eat, but he doesn't. He
remains committed to catching God’s desire, not Satan's. He quotes scripture, "one
doesn’t live by bread alone." If we finish that quote from the Book of
Deuteronomy (8:3), it continues, "but by every word that comes from the mouth of
the Lord." Ever since the beginning, humankind has had the choice of catching our
desires from each other or from our Creator. In other words, we can imitate each
other, or we can imitate God. We get in trouble when we aren’t listening to God
and catching God’s desires for our lives. We generally fall into one addiction or
another, physical and spiritual addictions.
Physical addictions, however, can help us to see our main point for today. We
usually can't beat our addictions by willpower alone. For instance: in 34+ years of
ministry, I've only known one person who was able to stop drinking on his own.
That’s why the Twelve Step programs work. The First Step is to realise we are
powerless to beat it on our own, and then to open our life to a Higher Power. Jesus’
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response to temptation was to catch his desire from God and God alone. It’s only
when we open our lives to catch the Spirit of God’s desire that we are able to beat
temptation.
Are you struggling to get out of a rut in your life? What are your addictions,
physical and spiritual? A big one for our time is consumerism, the race to keep up
with the Joneses. The key to breaking any such addiction isn't our own will-power
but to let go and let God, to listen to God’s Word for our lives. What is it that God
wants you and me to do with our lives? Focus on that and the temptation to
accumulate more and more stuff moves further and further into the background.
Living simply really is the best.
Is it really that easy? We know it’s not. Because focusing on God’s Word, on
God’s desire, on opening our lives to God’s Spirit, has never been an easy task.
The Bible is our main guide, but the Bible remains a difficult text to read and
understand.
Last week's Gospel was the Transfiguration story, and the fact that God tells us
to listen to Jesus even before other important biblical figures like Moses and
Elijah, who represent the law and the prophets. So, before we listen the law or the
prophets, we should be listening to Jesus. There’s something we need to see about
who Jesus is and what Jesus shows us about God that provides the key. Luke’s
story of the Transfiguration is followed immediately by Jesus casting out demons
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from a boy who hears voices. So, now we have two stories of people hearing
voices: The first story is about the disciples and Jesus hearing God’s voice; The
second story is about a boy hearing the voices of demons. How do we tell the
difference? Many who struggle from certain kinds of mental illness also hear
voices, and an important concern is how does one know if the voices are from God
or from demons, good voices or bad voices? I think the answer is that if the voice
asks you to harm yourself or anyone else, or even to go to war, then it’s not from
God. Jesus and his Abba never ask us to harm people. God never uses force. This
is an excellent principle for interpreting all of scripture, discerning the many voices
in the Bible as well. The Bible may say that "god" said to do harm to these people
or to wipe out those people, but that "god" surely wasn't Jesus or his Abba.
The second temptation of Jesus is about this, I think. The powers of Satan, the
powers of all this world’s kingdoms and countries, are based on force. They are
based on the ability to punish wrong-doing. We tend to think God is like this, too,
that God’s power is based on the ability to punish wrong-doing. But I believe that
in Jesus Christ God is saying to us, “No! That’s not who I am. That’s your
kingdoms and the power of Satan. My power is based wholly and completely on
love and so never forces itself upon anyone. "God is love and in him is no darkness
at all." My power is based not on the ability to punish wrong-doing. Wrong-doing
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ultimately brings its own punishment. No, my power is based on the ability to
forgive wrong-doing.”
So what about the third temptation and Jesus’ response? In a world where we
follow God’s desire to live according to love and forgiveness, we're surely to meet
resistance. We're surely to meet suffering. Just because we may be doing God's
will doesn't mean it'll all be smooth sailing. In a world where the power of Satan’s
force continues to work, we can expect resistance to God’s way of love. So, there
is the temptation to wow people into believing.
How can we make our way through a path of suffering? Once again, because
Jesus did, we can. Because Jesus follows God’s desire, he ultimately does the
things the devil’s temptations represent, but he does them as God’s way and not
Satan’s. Though he refused to turn stones into bread to satisfy his personal hunger,
he does miraculously feed thousands of hungry people with five loaves and two
fishes. Though he refused human political power based on force, the proclamation
of God’s empire of justice based on love and forgiveness is the very focus of his
whole ministry, and it has changed the world. And though he refused to jump off
the temple to see if angel’s would catch him and not let him be harmed, he goes to
the cross in confidence that God’s desire for life will overcome the world’s power
to execute punishment.
Game, set, and match to Jesus! Because he wins, we win, too. Amen?!
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Source:
1. A Win-Win Scenario" Sermon by Paul J. Nuechterlein
Delivered at Prince of Peace Lutheran,
Portage, MI, February 21, 2010
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