Matthew 4:1-11
“Avoiding Temptation in Lent”
This message was written by the Rev. Amanda Currie, and presented by the ministry team at First Presbyterian Church in Regina, Rev. Amanda Currie and Rev. Sumi Jung.
AC: Hey Sumi! Your husband sure did a good job of acting like the devil who was tempting Jesus.
SJ: Yes, he was so sneaky and so tempting. He reminded me of the serpent who tempted Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Except in this case, Jesus was able to resist his terrible ideas.
AC: Every time the devil gave Jesus a bad idea, Jesus turned to the Bible to find wise words from God. He used God’s words to give him strength to resist evil and choose goodness instead.
SJ: But did you notice that the devil quoted from the Bible too? We have to be careful when we hear someone quoting from the Bible to make their point. It’s not hard for people to take a passage out of context and twist it to mean something that is not from God.
AC: That’s true, Sumi. We do have to be careful when we hear the Bible being quoted like that, and any time we are interpreting the Scriptures and trying to figure out what God is saying to us.
SJ: Well, I’m glad that the devil isn’t whispering in my ear like he did in Jesus’ ear. I’m afraid I could be tempted or tricked into doing something awful.
AC: Sometimes people imagine that we all have a little angel on one shoulder and a little devil on the other shoulder, and each of them is whispering to us and trying to get us to be good or to be bad. We don’t really have either of those things. We just have our own hearts and minds to make choices. We can choose to do the good that God is calling us to do, or we can choose to do the evil that the devil prefers.
SJ: We do have the Bible to help us though, don’t we? Today, for example, we have this great story about how Jesus resisted temptation, and I think it can help us to resist temptation during the Season of Lent as well.
AC: Absolutely! Let’s look at each of the temptations a little more closely, and consider how we can avoid temptation during this season.
Seeking Personal Comfort? Comfort Another.
SJ: In the first temptation, the devil suggested to Jesus that he could take some stones and magically turn them into loaves of bread that he could eat. Jesus hadn’t had anything to eat or drink for 40 days, so he was really, really hungry!
AC: Oh my goodness! I can get pretty grumpy even if I just miss lunch. I can’t imagine not eating for 40 days! I’m sorry that Jesus had to go through that.
SJ: It makes me wonder why it would be so terrible for Jesus to make a little bread out of the stones. As God’s Son, I guess he could have done it, and what would be the harm?
AC: In our Wednesday Bible study this week, someone pointed out that Jesus did multiply a few loaves and fishes so that they would have enough to feed a crowd of 5000 people. Everyone thought that was great, so why shouldn’t Jesus use his power to make himself a lunch in the wilderness?
SJ: I wonder if it’s because the devil was tempting him to think only about himself. After all, he was out in the wilderness to get ready for his ministry. God was preparing Jesus to share God’s message of love with the world. His mission was to give himself for others, not to use his power to fill his own stomach.
AC: Oh no. That’s the problem that I have too. Sometimes I find myself thinking only about what is best for me. What do I want to have for dinner? Is my chair comfortable? Do I get to spend time doing things I enjoy?
SJ: I think we all struggle with that, Amanda. It’s tempting to put ourselves first, and to forget that our mission is to live for others like Jesus did.
AC: I wonder about others in the congregation today. What comforts do you find yourself wanting? When do you get tempted to put yourself first? (Pause to get some input from the congregation.)
SJ: I think that one of the ways we can resist that temptation to seek comfort for ourselves would be to choose to put others first. During this Season of Lent, maybe we can look for ways to comfort our siblings, neighbours, and friends.
AC: So, instead of complaining about all the work that I have to do, I could check in with my colleagues to see how they’re doing with their work loads.
SJ: Or instead of choosing to cook my favourite supper, I could ask my family what they would really like to eat.
AC: (To the congregation:) Maybe you have some other ideas for how you could think about the comfort of others in your life during this season, choosing to set aside your own desires to live for others like Jesus did.
Doubting God or Yourself? Practice Prayer.
SJ: Okay, let’s go on to Jesus’ second temptation. It’s the one where the devil takes him up to the roof of the temple in Jerusalem, right to the very top where he can look down on the people below and they look like tiny ants scurrying around.
AC: Oh, I love going up to high places and looking down! Every time I visit Europe, I like to climb the stairs to top of the churches I visit. It’s so fun!
SJ: That does sound fun, but I don’t think that’s why the devil took Jesus up there. That sneaky devil wanted to tempt Jesus to doubt God and to doubt himself. You see, not long before this, Jesus had been baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist.
AC: Of course! That’s when Jesus saw the Spirit of God coming down from the sky like a dove and landing on him. And that’s when Jesus heard the voice of God saying to him, “This is my Son, the one I love. I am pleased with him.”
SJ: Right. That’s what Jesus heard God saying to him. And in that moment, Jesus must have known for sure that God loved him, and that he belonged to God, and that God was pleased with him. But then, along comes the devil, trying to make Jesus doubt God’s love and trying to make him doubt if he’s really God’s son.
AC: I remember. The devil says, “IF you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from the top of the temple.” It’s like the devil is trying to get Jesus to prove his identity, to prove he’s God’s beloved.
SJ: But that makes no sense! After all, we know that we are God’s children and God loves us. But if we went up to the balcony of the church up there, and if we jumped off over the pews down below, we wouldn’t expect God to catch us and stop us from hurting ourselves when we hit the wooden pews at the bottom.
AC: No, it doesn’t make any sense because the devil is twisting around the Scriptures. He’s taking God’s declaration of love and care and blessing in Psalm 91, and he’s saying, “If God really loves you, you can do crazy stupid things like jump off a balcony or a tall building, and God will protect you.” It just isn’t true.
SJ: The truth is that many hard things will happen to us in life. We might get sick, we might have an accident, or we might lose someone we love. But that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love us. God promises to walk with us and help us through the hard things that happen in life, not to magically save us from all the hard things.
AC: I know that the people of our congregation have experienced some hard things in their lives already. And when those hard things happen, it’s tempting to think that God doesn’t care about us. But that’s simply not true.
During this Season of Lent, one thing we could do to avoid that temptation would be to spend time in prayer. When something hard happens, let’s resist the temptation to doubt God’s love or that we matter to God. Instead, let’s draw close to God in prayer so that we can receive the support we need.
Craving Power or Control? Give and Serve Others.
SJ: That sounds good, Amanda, but there’s one more temptation that Jesus experienced in the wilderness. The devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. The devil said to him, “All these I will give to you, if you will fall down and worship me.”
Of course, Jesus had a great answer to this temptation. He quoted the Bible where it says in the first commandment, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only God.”
AC: But it seems like there are a lot of people in our world today who really want to have power over all the nations of the world. They’re people who already have a lot of power and influence, but they want to control more and more territory, and they don’t mind how many people they hurt in order to get what they want.
I shudder to think about how Russia keeps trying to take over Ukraine, and how so many Ukrainian people and Russian soldiers are dying because their leader wants so much power. This week is the 4th anniversary of the start of the war, and it just keeps going.
And while it hasn’t turned into a war yet, the threats against Greenland and even the statements about wanting to make Canada into the 51st State are worrying. It seems like the devil is at work in our world, whispering in the ears of some powerful people who would just love to become even more powerful.
SJ: I think you’re right, but I also think that people like us can be tempted by power as well. Most of us like to feel in control. Whether it’s in our work, or in our families, or in the church, we want things to be the way that we want them to be.
AC: Ah, yes. I can relate to that. When you live in community with other people, there’s a lot of give and take involved. You have to make decisions together, and you don’t always get your way. There can be a temptation to push through our personal agendas and avoid taking time to listen to the ideas and desires of others.
SJ: One way that we can resist that temptation is to follow Jesus’ example of living for others. Instead of grabbing control and forcing our plans on others, we can look for ways to give and serve others around us.
AC: So, we’ve got some work to do during this Season of Lent, don’t we? It’s not so much a matter of trying to tune out the voice of the devil who is trying to tempt us. But we can be intentional about listening to the voice of God and choosing the good instead.
SJ: Instead of seeking comfort for ourselves, we can look for ways to comfort and support our siblings, neighbours, and friends. Instead of doubting God’s love for us, we can turn to God in prayer and remember that God is with us. Instead of trying to control everything in our work, our families, our church, and community, we can look for ways to give and serve others around us.
AC: In your bulletin today, we’ve included a calendar for Lent. It includes some dates of things happening in the church community. But mostly we want to invite you to use it as a way to track how your Lenten Season is going. Each day, see if you can do something intentional to respond to God’s voice that is calling you to goodness and love.
SJ: Maybe one day you will spend time in prayer, remembering God’s love for you. Another day you can find a way to comfort or care for another person in your life. And another day you can give of yourself or serve someone else. On Sundays, take a break. Come to worship and enjoy the fellowship of our community of faith.