SUNDAY, March 13, 2011 
On Matthew 4:1-11
Just last Sunday we witnessed a mountaintop experience where Jesus changed in front of the disciples’ eyes into a dazzling white figure. It was awesome, and they wanted to stay. But they had to come down. Together with Jesus they walked back into the valley of daily life. The valley of Lent. On top of this sobering experience we were confronted last Wednesday with our mortality in rather blunt words: “remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
That is depressing. Yet we haven’t seen the end of it. Today, we hear two stories of evil. Pictures of an ugly, smelly creature come to mind, a terrifying, sinister creature with a long tail, hoofs, and horns. In many churches in Europe one can see Satan’s carved or painted horrifying visage lurking in dark corners or peeking around a pillar… vividly reminding the faithful of Satan’s terrorizing power. Or the Disney version of evil portrays the devil as a cute little red cartoon character on someone’s shoulder that whispers nonsense into the person’s ear.
In the readings today, evil appears as a crafty snake that confuses Adam and Eve and lulls them in to believe that they can become like God. Matthew, on the other hand, doesn’t give us any physical description and just speaks of evil as the diabolo… the Confuser. In the Bible we don’t hear of the devil as a hoofed being. Nor do we smell the sulfurous stench of hell. The devil doesn’t have a name or a specific look. Instead in the Bible evil is described as what he does.
And what the confuser does in Matthew’s story is trying once again to show his own power to manipulate, his cleverness, and smugness, and he suggests that he has the power to be like God. He has tempted the Old Adam. Let’s see if it works with the New Adam, as well.
Again, his attempts to entice are skillfully presented, reasonable. First he tries to prey on Jesus’ hunger, maybe Jesus will turn stones into bread. After all, “Jesus was famished” it says. However, no success for the diabolo. He gives it another try by testing Jesus’ sense of security. Maybe he will jump off the temple and get carried away by Angels. The devil even quotes Scriptures to make the temptation more enticing. Again to no avail. Finally, in a last desperate attempt the diabolo lays it all out and offers power in order to be worshiped in return. But Jesus does not even flinch.
The mirror story of temptation that we heard in Genesis seemed to have worked so well. All it took for Eve was one question for her to succumb to temptation. And don’t forget that Adam followed along with no questions being asked at all.
So, what went wrong here? The diabolo has tried to exert power and control, to manipulate and contort, to show that he is like God. But actually it isn’t Jesus who wants to be like God… It is the Confuser. Yet, what he shows is the opposite. He struggles to know who he is or where he belongs.
We know what these struggles are like, these struggles to know who we are and where we belong, and the power they have. And in our searching for identity we look to be more than we are. The temptation of the Garden of Eden was to be like God. In our version of being like God, we try to be powerful, controlling gods who can keep everything around us in check and under wraps. We try to become masters of our work, our homes, our communities, our religion. We try to enforce the rules, we try to shape the world around us according to our vision. It is often not God’s will be done but ours.
The journey of Lent all the way to Golgotha on Good Friday is a journey that reminds us of all the ways in which we are trying to be God. For example, when we hear the story of Jesus’ temptation, we usually try to make it into a model or formula for our own action. We are lured into the illusion that if we can just be like Jesus, we too can avoid the temptations and pit falls of life. And we are so focused on seeing what this story means for us and how we can get something out of it, that we fail to notice that there are only two people in it, and neither of them is us.
The attempter’s efforts to tempt Jesus, thoroughly backfire. Simply because God cannot be tempted… Jesus cannot be tempted because Jesus is God… Just before today’s incident where Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness he has been baptized. At his baptism God has claimed Jesus as his Son. God has named Jesus his beloved. Then last week, when we stood on the mountain with Peter and James and John, God once more declared: ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!’
But the diabolo has a hard time listening to God. Jesus’ responses to each temptation don’t seem to make sense. To whom is Jesus talking when he answers? Is he giving himself the pep talk?
NO!
This is no self-talk or some feeble attempt to fend off the confuser’s temptations. Instead Jesus proclaims who he is. Jesus declares to the diabolo that he is God and says to the tempter: “You do not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from my mouth.” And then “Do not put me to the test.” And then “Worship me, the Lord your God. Don’t serve yourself and your own interests but serve only God.”
God has the ultimate power. And that is something that the confuser doesn’t get.
And we don’t get it either.
We want to be like God; we, too, want power. But when the illusion of control and power to be like God comes crushing down… when we inevitably and miserably fail to be God in God’s place… when being in control is no longer up to us… when we encounter our limitedness, our creatureliness, our humanness then our burden is lifted. Because God takes care of the details.
Today’s story is not about Jesus who is nice enough to set a good example for us. But through Jesus God reveals himself to us as a God who allows and faces the confusion and chaos of this world to come close, and who remains faithful to us nevertheless.
Our God is not a god who has to show his super-powers and muscles, or who needs our adoration and our obedience. But God’s greatness is his powerless love and steadfast faithfulness that he offers to us despite our shortcomings and sinfulness.
We will keep facing trials and temptations. After all, we are human. And a life with God is not always easy. But the trials and temptations shall not discourage us. For God’s call leads us into and through and out of the wilderness to life.
God tells us who we are. In Baptism God drowns us and breathes new life into us. In Baptism God names and claims us, and we are marked with the cross of Christ forever. And being a disciple is to be changed by God. Being an ambassador for Christ in the world is to be identified and chosen by God and living out the Good News. And above all, in Baptism God declares “I am God and you are my Beloved”.
Amen.
