Romans 10.8b-13; Luke 4.1-13
A couple of weeks ago, Fr. Alan reminded us to look afresh at the cross as the central focus of our faith. He directed us to Jesus' sacrifice on the cross as revealing a loving God who is concerned for our welfare; the cross as showing a God who invites us to share in the work of achieving good for all people. As we consider today the question, 'Why should we keep Lent?', I want to return to the cross, and look again at what that tells us about the kind of God we follow and what he calls us to as Jesus' disciples.
In our gospel reading today, we hear Jesus being called into the desert. Jesus has just been baptized, and immediately the spirit sends him out there. We read that he fasts for forty days and forty nights - and is then hungry.
It is probably fair to say that Jesus puts himself in the way of temptation by going into the desert and fasting there. He deprives himself of human company and the things that are essential to his survival. His time there leaves him hungry, thirsty, alone, lonely, and feeling probably fairly powerless - perhaps desperate, perhaps he even came close to death. And it is in this heightened state of vulnerability that he meets Satan. Satan offers him various things that he wants or desperately needs, offering a short cut or 'fix' to the situation Jesus finds himself in.
Satan offers Jesus food to survive, encouraging Jesus to use his divinity to manipulate the order of nature, by turning stones into bread.
Satan offersJesus the worship of all creation if he will first worship him; the praise 'of all creation' must have seemed an answer to the pain of isolation in the middle of the desert.
Finally, Satan asks Jesus to test the thought that God cares for him, by seeking a demonstration of God's power intervening to save him; he asks Jesus to double-check that he enjoys God's protection by throwing himself offof the top of the temple. I suppose that this temptation points to whether or not God still loves Jesus something that must have been easy to doubt in the desert. All these temptations must have been attractive indeed, they are not pandering to pride, but each meets a kind of need that Jesus had.
Instead of choosing the short cut - the easy way out - Jesus each time chooses to stick with his difficulty; to live with his hunger, loneliness, fear of being unloved, fear that God is not somehow in control. Each time, when faced with an option which will meet his need, Jesus chooses a path of self-denial. He holds on to not using his power in a way that dishonours God's purposes.
It is perhaps difficult for us to see any reason why Jesus should go out to the desert in the first place, apart from the spirit having led him there. But as we think towards the end of Lent, we can see that his time in the desert has acted as a kind of training; a training that will prepare him for the cross - but more immediately, will prepare him for his ministry, and for his life with his disciples, because that will require a certain form of self-deprivation too.
Last week I mentioned Darth Vader. The older children in junior church had been talking about someone that they would like to have conversation with; someone who they thought talking to might change their life. I told them that I would like to talk to them about Darth Vader.
In the Star Wars film series, Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, takes the early life of Darth Vader as its focus. This episode looks at a time when he is tempted. Darth - known as Anakin Skywalker in this part of the film, is on the side of the Republic - on the side of a good democratic body that seeks the freedom of the Republic and promotes its people’s welfare.
As a young man, Anakin shows himself to be very much in tune with 'the Force' and shows all the promise of being one of the best Jedi knights, working to defend the Republic. Indeed, his skills as a Jedi knight put him ahead of his superiors; the only thing that frustrates him is that his fellow Jedi realise that he is young, and are concerned that he doesn't have the maturity to use his power well. There is a risk that his power, together with pride, will corrupt him - making him use his talents for his own good, rather than for the good of all. And so the Jedi council wait.
A key turning point in the film is when Anakin Skywalker falls in love. His wife becomes pregnant, and in the wake of her pregnancy, Anakin has disturbing dreams which show his wife dying in childbirth. In fear, Anakin seeks ways to preserve her life. He discovers that the magical power needed lay only with the dark side; and he knows that embracing it will mean great suffering for many people - giving up the cause of the Republic. But as time passes, his heart gives way, and he decides that the cost is desire that he wait and grow to spiritual maturity now seeks a 'fix' for the one he loves most. To save the life of the one he loves, Anakin embraces the dark side, and as a result, his mind becomes twisted, evil takes over and the Republic falters.
Whilst the story seems quite removed from everyday life, the moral is familiar enough: we see the same patterns of choice all around us. We all know that the desire for power, or safety, or the wellbeing of a loved one tends to make us prioritise our own needs and desires over others'.
One of the faults that I often struggle with is a particular kind of impatience, both with myself and with others. I'm often aware of that impatience manifest on the tube, as I hurry to get from one platform to another. Invariably tourists - or slow commuters - idle or wander to and fro, seeming not to know where to go next, and I quietly fume, held up behind them; it would tempting to push through them to make my way. It is not that I am in a desperate need to get anywhere quickly, but I lack the discipline of self-denial that would patiently wait - and not get frustrated.
The traditional disciplines of Lent provide the opportunity for training in self-denial. By committing to do without things - or by taking up a new discipline - we train ourselves to cope with the kind of losses come with not putting ourselves first. God leads each us each gently by his Spirit, showing each of us the things we need to think about and change. My experience is that there is a blessing when we do.
As we turn to the cross to seek to understand the God who loves us, we see in Jesus' sacrifice a profound example of self-denial that we may never fully understand. Jesus chose not to change the world by power, but by speaking against what was wrong, and standing up for what was good; by proclaiming that God is near. That action had a cost - a cost that we see in the cross - a cost that adds up his readiness to deny himself for the good of others.
As we start this Lent, we are called by Jesus to follow him into our own self denial - first in the training ground of Lent, by prayer and fasting and abstinence, but then in the reality of life. We see in the cross that following Jesus brings a cost, even though - as we earlier prayed this morning - 'Those who enter into Christ's death are promised a share in his resurrection.' As we contemplate the Jesus' example of love and self-denial - in the desert, in the opposition and indifference he suffered, and finally on the cross - the question put to us seems stark: 'will we follow him there'?
© John Seymour
