2/26/61

Scripture: Luke 4: 1-14a

Before Jesus began his ministry in Palestine, he went through some life-lifting and soul-testing experiences. First, he went to see John, who was called "the Baptist" and who was preaching out in the country. There Jesus himself was baptized. It must have been an exalted experience, thus to dedicate himself and to feel himself received and accepted. The Biblical writer speaks of the Holy Spirit descending as a dove upon Jesus, while there came a voice from heaven saying: "Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased."

All three of the synoptic gospels (that it, Matthew, Mark, and Luke) speak of Jesus’ baptism before he began his ministry. Then Mark says, quite simply, that "the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with wild beasts; and the angels ministered to him." [Mark 1: 12-13]. This is all that Mark says about Jesus’ wilderness temptation. But Matthew and Luke go into much more detail as to what went on there in the wilderness. Perhaps Jesus had spoken of it later to some of the disciples who remembered what he said.

Strange, is it not, that Jesus should, so soon after the exalted experience of his baptism, be subject to such severe testing as that of these temptations! And yet it is not so strange. The baptism and the temptations are linked quite naturally.

After his baptism, Jesus knew with an instant and overwhelming certainty that his God-ordained ministry had begun. He was God’s man! But he must go into the silence and solitude to face his own thought and take his own decision on the alternatives which lay before him. He must determine as precisely as possible what God’s will for him involved. When anybody tries to answer such a question as that, he must sort out the plausible voices of shrewdness or of self-seeking in contrast to the wholly good which comes from God’s insistence.

Jesus, living in the flesh, had the same testing to endure and the same decisions to make. He was "one who in every respect has been tempted as we are." And this series of temptations came not accidentally, but as a part of the very necessity which God was fashioning.

Mark’s comment, right after the exaltation of Jesus’ baptism, that the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness to be tempted, sounds harsh. But it is no more harsh than life itself. Jesus later remarked: "It is necessary that temptations come." But why? Because it is ever the way that leads to growth and greatness. God wants sons and daughters -- not puppets. So do we mortals. We want sons and daughters, with wills of their own -- not puppets who follow our every whim.

All wise parents know that they can not shield their boy or their girl completely. The young folk have to go out more and more into contacts with the world, making more and more of their own way, making their own choices, grappling with life, getting bruised, but learning what God expects of them. None of us can escape temptation, because we are endowed with freedom of choice. And without freedom of choice there would be no truly human life. In a world of no freedom, says Ernest Tittle, there might be perhaps the physical perfections of a snow flake, but not the perfection of Christ, nor any possibility of moral and spiritual attainment.

Jesus was tempted. It was not even anything unusual that his severe testings and temptations came right on the heels of his baptism. After self-dedication, moral testing has been a common experience.

On the night of May 24, 1738, John Wesley had a great spiritual awakening as he meditated in a little Moravian chapel in London. Yet on that same night he was "much buffeted with temptations," and was, two days later, "in heaviness because of manifold temptations."

Spiritual triumphs are not won without temptations. A young man like Dwight L. Moody makes a great decision. Moody resolved "to see what God can do with a fully surrendered life." But he still has to make good on the resolve. And before he is through, he has temptations aplenty -- temptations of the flesh; temptations to follow the line of least resistance; the temptations to turn aside from the chosen course to follow some false ambition or standard of success.

The same spirit which had said to Jesus: "Thou art my beloved Son; with Thee I am well pleased," led him into the wilderness to be alone and to wrestle over his mission. He was sure, after his baptism, that he was called of the Father to a mission unparalleled in history. What must he say and do? He felt driven to seek solitude for meditation and prayer. It is not surprising that he found himself tempted as he faced the question of his destiny.

The temptations are presented in vivid form. The Bible uses picture language a great deal in setting forth spiritual experiences. Think of such examples as: "The Lord is my rock, and my fortress --- my buckler -- and my high tower." [Psalm 18: 2]; and "If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me." [Psalm 139: 9,10].

1) And so one reads of the first testing, or temptation that came to Jesus. "If you are the Son of God (and by now Jesus was sure of that!), command this stone to become bread." He may have been hungry, but that was probably beside the point. For he was raised among people who are accustomed to fast upon occasion. The greater temptation, in the idea of turning stones to bread, was to abolish hunger and poverty -- making that the sole aim of his life.

Any one who had heard a voice saying, "Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased" would hardly be really tempted to put self-interest before all other considerations. But such a person might be profoundly disturbed by human misery. And he might wonder whether or not he should concentrate on its relief.

It was a popular belief, in Jesus’ time, that the coming of the Messiah would mean unprecedented prosperity for the masses of the people. The vision of a world wherein "the desert shall bloom as a rose" was shared by the prophets of Israel. It was a great dream, this vision of a world free from want. Hunger can wreck human life. In the days of 1947, when much of Europe was struggling to recover from the devastation of war, an Austrian physician wrote of his own experience. He said, "Hunger is numbing. You are sitting at your desk with a patient, and suddenly you find that you cannot keep your attention on what the child’s mother is saying. You sit there until your strength creeps back and then you work a little longer --- It is pitiful to see the old --- When they walk they stay near a wall and press their hands against it for support. They move like ghosts --- You see the children getting thinner, day by day --- You gag when you eat your food, knowing that your children are hungry." It is surely right and proper to desire and seek a world wherein people "shall not hunger." Jesus did not think otherwise. He once saw to it that a hungry crowd was fed. And he taught his disciples to pray: "Give us this day our daily bread." But he refused to make the abolition of hunger and poverty his first aim.

His answer to that temptation was put in the form of a quotation from Deuteronomy, as he said, "It is written ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’" [Deuteronomy 8: 3]. This is written also in the very nature of man. We human creatures are made so that we hunger for much beside bread. There is (1) hunger for fellowship and the sense of belonging. There is (2) hunger for clean hands and a pure heart. There is (3) hunger for something worthy to live for --- that will give meaning and zest to life. There is (4) hunger after faith and hope in a world where visible things pass away. These hungers must be satisfied even above the hunger for food. Of course, people suffering from malnutrition must be fed. But it goes far beyond that. What about totalitarian systems that provide work and bread for people, but deny them fundamental rights and freedoms? And what of the man who is living in a "free" society, with comfortable income and assured social position, who is wrecking his career through indulgence of his flesh, and through other sins?

If a man lived by bread alone, we of this nation, in this generation, should be of all people most fortunate. Look at the output of our farms -- more than we can consume. See the factories able to produce more than is used. Stores and markets and sales rooms and hamburger stands with an abundance to offer. The American people have certainly had "the goods." And our chief activity has been "selling things to one another."

But it is not nearly so clear that Americans have a faith to live by; clear vision; moral character; the will and the power to subordinate self to the general welfare. And so we witness an enormous increase in mental and nervous disorders; in family breakdown; in selfishness and cynicism and despair. And the world as a whole, our entire civilization, lives under the awful threat of destruction. "It is written, man shall not live by bread alone." And to the extent that we do live by bread, we must see to it that bread is distributed to the multitudes who need it!

2) There, in the solitude of the wilderness, a second temptation is presented to Jesus. "If you, then, will worship me, it shall be yours," says the devil. The popular hope for a Messiah was fostered under the influence of strong nationalistic feeling, of bitter hatred toward the foreign overlord, and a passionate hope that their roles would be reversed. Instead of being downtrodden, Israel would come to exercise dominion over all the earth. According to the popular belief, the Messiah would wreak vengeance on all the enemies of God --- that is upon all nations that had oppressed and humiliated Israel.

There were those in Israel, especially the ardent and patriotic young folk, who were all set to cooperate with the Messiah in this bloody enterprise. They were all ready to spend their lives for freedom; to lay down their lives if necessary. Realizing that the census which was required at the time of Jesus’ birth, was only a means of squeezing more taxation out of the Jews for the benefit of Rome, the extremists appealed to the Jews to rise unanimously against the Romans. They were as zealous as the young French revolutionists of a later time -- and as ruthless.

All Jesus had to do was to declare a "holy" war on Rome, and great numbers of Hebrew folk would flock to his leadership in the attempt to make him ruler over the earth that they cared about. But Jesus rejected the idea as Satanic. He could not believe that Israel would be benefited, and the kingdom of God set forward by the hate, the killing, the looting and the rapacity that is always incident to war. Refusing the temptation to temporal power, he chose the way of truth and love. He recognized, early, that it might lead to a cross; but he was convinced that this way, alone, would lead toward world redemption and peace.

It was not an easy choice. His people wanted to be free. They wanted to win glory for Israel. Now, of course, it may be easy to say that Jesus and a bunch of rebellious Hebrews could not have accomplished much against Rome before they would have been subdued and wiped out, anyway. But, be not so sure! Look what happened in our century, before our very eyes! For a quarter of a century after World War I, there was a man who seemed insignificant and inconsequential. He lived in a nation that had been beaten and humiliated. He had no obvious resources of power, and great forces were ranged against him. But the enormous force of this man’s purpose and passion burned through all opposition, and ranged zealous support behind him. Presently this man, whose name was Adolph Hitler, had so incredibly followed his vision of imperial conquest that he was only very narrowly prevented from being the ruler of all Europe and the arbiter of the world’s destinies.

There is a tremendous gulf between him and Jesus. But underneath them both is the fact which gives meaning to this second temptation. There is complete plausibility that, had Jesus gone along with the devil, and headed toward what tantalized him in this temptation, he could have had great power --- at a price. It was the kind of price he decided not to pay -- the price of holding that the end or aim justifies the means of getting there. And, again, he quoted Scripture: "You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve."

3) One more great temptation came to Jesus there in the wilderness. In his imagination he was led to the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem. It was the popular belief that the Messiah would work mighty miracles. Now here was a good one; "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here." This time the tempter holds Scripture before Jesus’ eyes. It is written: "He will give his angels charge of you; to guard you;" and "On their hands they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone."

"Doesn’t that mean you? Think of the sensation! You will really get a hearing! People will flock to you! Wouldn’t that be a way to use your miraculous power? And of course you could do a lot of good with it, too!"

All of this went through Jesus’ mind. He wanted a hearing for his message, and allegiance for his cause. And he did have a tremendous confidence that could work wonders. But he decided that the wonders were not to be used for sensation. True, he would effect some marvelous cures, but as an act of compassion, not as a means to attract attention. In fact, he tried to keep some of his acts of healing secret. To one, he says, "See that thou tell no one." To the amazed parents of another, "he charged them that they tell no one what had happened." [Luke 5: 14]. He had no confidence in these acts of mercy and restoration to bring new heart, new ambition, new outlook on life, moral regeneration or spiritual enlightenment. Why then try to impress people by astonishment?

It is written, "You shall not tempt the Lord your God."

Later, Jesus was to say, "If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead." [Luke 16: 31].

Will the church of today share this insight? Will its members see that the only real way to get Christianity across to people is to act it out --- to live out daily the compassion of Christ?

Then the devil departed from him, until an opportune time. Jesus won a basic victory then and there, but he was tempted like as we are through the rest of his life. It can therefore be said, "We have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sinning. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." [Hebrews 4: 15, 16].

And after this, Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit!

AMEN

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, February 26, 1961