In our gospel reading for the first Sunday in Lent, the Holy Spirit takes Jesus straight from his baptism, into the wilderness where he is tempted repeatedly by Satan over the course of forty long days. But the gospel writer Luke only records three of the temptations that Jesus faced during this whole time. And based on which temptations Luke recorded, we have insight into the REAL danger of temptation, and what Jesus did to overcome it.....
A forty day fast. Could you imagine taking your next meal on April 18th? What possible reason would the Holy Spirit have to put Jesus through an experience like that? The key is in the number of days: forty seems to be God's favourite number for PREPARATION. It takes 40 days of rain to prepare the earth for Noah and his family. It takes 40 years of wandering in the desert for the Israelites to be prepared to claim the promised land. And so it's no accident that when the early church decided on the length for this season of Lent, the season of preparation for Jesus' death and resurrection, the early church decided Lent would be 40 days, not including Sundays. And it's at the very end of Jesus' 40 long days of preparation for ministry, that Satan brings out the heavy artillery, and he springs on Jesus the last three temptations we heard in our gospel reading. These are the three where Jesus was the weakest, the loneliest, the most hungry, the most vulnerable.
Satan tries to trip Jesus up in three different areas. First, he says, “Jesus, you have the power of God. You were born this way. Use that power and make yourself a sandwich.” Seems like a natural thing for the Son of God to do, considering he went on to feed thousands of people with bread and fish created by the power of God. Second, Satan says, “Jesus, you have the wisdom of God. You were born this way. Use that wisdom to rule the kingdoms of the world.” Again, most folks would see that as very fitting for the role of Messiah, and we look forward to the time of Jesus' leadership in the book of Revelation. And finally, Satan says, “Jesus, you have the protection of God. You were born this way. Use that protection to be spectacular and gather a large following.” What better way for Jesus to quickly attract a huge army of disciples, than to display the protection of God in dramatic fashion - a leap from the pinnacle of the temple. For Jesus, these were very real and very tempting temptations, as real and as tempting as the temptations Satan springs on us.
How does Satan try to trip US up? IT SEEMS like Satan focuses on morality. Temptations to adultery, either physically or virtually through pornography. Temptations to bear false witness, also known as gossip. Temptations to steal - money, equipment, time we're being paid for but not really working, and so on. And in all Satan's temptations, it seems we are tempted to do something evil, something that harms our neighbour or ourselves, right? Aren't we steering clear of temptation if we stick to our goal of being “good people”?
But some of Satan's strongest temptations are sprung on us as we try to do good. We set up government programs to feed less fortunate people...but not out of love for them - to keep them dependent and therefore under our control. We spread the word to people that Jesus is Lord...but not out of love for them – to feel proud of ourselves and to gain influence with these people. We take on spectacular projects to build buildings and support causes, ...but not out of love – to feel like we are a big, relevant church accomplishing something big and relevant. If we think temptation is only about choosing good and rejecting evil, we're missing some of Satan's most devious work.
Because the ultimate goal of temptation – Satan's goal – is all about identity – it's all about commandment number one. Temptation is designed to make us doubt or reject our identity as God's people. How does Satan do this? One prevalent way these days is to get us to LINK our faith in God with a particular issue, cause, or group, which then becomes more important than God himself. Satan wants us to say things like, “People are not true Christians if they don't actively promote climate justice, LGBTQ+ rights, Ukrainian sovereignty, and reconciliation with indigenous peoples.” Because then, if we fail on one or more issues on the list, a wedge of guilt comes between us and God, and given enough time, either we reject God, or we despair that God has rejected us. Either way, as long as the temptation separates us from God, and gets us to reject our identity as God's people, it doesn't matter if it's good, evil or ambivalent - it all works for Satan.