Look For The Resister
Matthew 4:1-11
It can be very easy to associate shame with temptation. When we are "tempted" we can come to believe that we are somehow weak, and then feel shame as we believe a false narrative that we tell ourselves about who we are.
But the fact of the matter is this: everyone gets tempted. And the story of Jesus in the gospel of Matthew after being baptized and then heading out into the wilderness demonstrates that even Jesus was tempted. The beauty of this story is the reminder that, as God incarnate on earth, Jesus was still subjected to the same weaknesses, desires, and temptations that affect all of humanity.
Jesus' body was as hungry as anyone's body had been. Jesus' fears were just as gut wrenching as anyone else's had been. Jesus' desires for power likely had the same temptation to him as it did others. We see Satan at work trying to do to Jesus what he succeeds in doing to so many: convincing Jesus to fill up a space meant solely for Love with material things that fall short. Food, security, and power are all things we can tend to hoard to excess.
And I think that is the case because we tend to use these "earthly" things to meet a spiritual or sometimes emotional deficit within us. Excessive eating can become a coping mechanism for some who are traumatized or plagued with self-loathing or excessive stress. We are surrounded by temptations to feel more secure--just look at our obsession with guns as a country or the amount of funding we allocate for policing in our cities. Having more and more power is an alluring prospect: we idolize billionaires and elect celebrities as politicians.
The temptation for power, status, or prominence can often distract us from the real work God is calling us to do. And we need to be honest and not ashamed at the real fact that all of us have been tempted by something before. What really matters, however, is how we respond to that temptation. Do we succumb to the empty things that provide fleeting pleasure but harm us in the long run, or do we resist?
This year, we are doing a worship series in Lent called, "Lookin' For Love In All The Wrong Places." In this series we will be exploring how Jesus points us toward the right places to find Love, rather than the temptations or false places we might think love can be found.
When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness he modeled a kind of resistance that is important for us. Jesus resisted by leaning on something bigger than the temptations he was offered--his faith. He was tempted three times by Satan: once for the taste of food, once for the feeling of security, and once for the possession of power.
And every time, Jesus resisted by leaning on the scriptures of his faith--quoting from Deuteronomy, in fact--to rebuke Satan's temptings each time. So this week we look to Jesus as the resister--who looked to a greater Love than the facsimiles he was offered while sojourning in the wilderness before his ministry journey began.
