Worship & Serve God Alone—Lectionary Reflection for Lent 1A (Matthew 4)

Matthew 4:1-11 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested by the devil. ² He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was famished. ³ The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” ⁴ But he answered, “It is written,

‘One does not live by bread alone,

    but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

⁵ Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, ⁶ saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,

‘He will command his angels concerning you,’

    and ‘On their hands they will bear you up,

so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”

⁷ Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

⁸ Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, ⁹ and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written,

‘Worship the Lord your God,

    and serve only him.’”

¹¹ Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

*************

                The first reading from scripture for the First Sunday in Lent, Year A, comes from Genesis 2-3. In that reading, the serpent entices the first couple to eat the forbidden fruit, which leads to their discovery of their nakedness, the beginnings of shame, and their exile from the Garden. The Gospel reading for the First Sunday of Lent also has a temptation story. This time it’s not the serpent but the devil who serves as the tempter, and the one being tempted is Jesus. According to Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus had just been baptized by John the Baptist. In the course of his baptism, the heavenly voice declared Jesus to be God’s Son, the beloved, with whom God is well pleased (Mt. 3:13-17). With his baptism in place, the Holy Spirit, who had descended upon Jesus in his baptism, led Jesus into the wilderness so that he might be tempted by the devil (Mt. 4:1). That’s where we begin this First Sunday of Lent. The question before us: will Jesus succumb to the devil’s wiles?

                This is a story most of us, who have some church background have some knowledge of. If we’ve seen one of the ubiquitous Jesus movies, we’ve likely encountered this story. The question is, how should we read it? What message might it hold for us this Lenten season?

                When the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness, he chose to fast for forty days and nights. This decision on Jesus’ part is the foundation for the Lenten tradition of giving something up during the season, though few if any fast in the way Jesus is said to fast here. When the fast was over, Matthew tells us that Jesus was famished. He was hungry and thirsty. His body and his spirit were weakened by his fast. It was at that moment when Jesus was weak with hunger and thirst that the devil pounced. That’s the way it is with the devil. It’s when we’re weak that we’re most likely to give in to temptation.

                Rachel Srubas writes of the power of temptation in terms of addiction:

Temptation of the compelling, destructive, magnitude that Jesus faced makes laughable such Lenten “fasts” as giving up chocolate—unless chocolate happens to be your gateway drug to a full-blown sugar binge and a diabetic coma. As the daughter of an alcoholic father (now deceased), I know about addiction, the baffling, cunning, powerful force of compulsive overconsumption. I know that the sinister presence who showed up at Jesus’ moment of weakness, tempting him to do the very things that would destroy him, can be compared to addiction’s hold on human life. [Srubas, Desert of Compassion, p. 29].

This was no ordinary temptation, but the destructive type, the kind that, as with the eating of the forbidden fruit in Genesis 2, leads to death. Would Jesus say no or would succumb to temptation? A lot was riding on that question.

                I expect many readers assume that Jesus had a special power that would keep him from giving in to temptation. He’s not like us in that way, but is that true? Even if (and I do) confess Jesus’ divinity, if we confess (as Chalcedon would have us confess) his full humanity, then surely he could have given in. Otherwise, the story is of little use to us.

                According to Matthew, when Jesus completed his fast he was famished. As a result, he was physically, emotionally, and spiritually vulnerable. The three tests are enticing. They seek to raise questions in the mind of Jesus about his identity, calling, and authority. Each time that the devil seeks to entice Jesus to give in to the devil’s tests, Jesus responds with Scripture. After all, the devil seeks to use Scripture to entice him. The passages Jesus turns to come from Deuteronomy.

                Regarding the first test, the question raised had to do with turning stones into bread to satisfy his physical hunger. What would be the harm in turning stone into bread, if that was your power? But, if this was harmless, why would the devil waste time on it? So the temptation was laid—if you have the power then use it for your own benefit! Could it be that this is where things in life go awry? Eating delicious-looking fruit from a tree that was said to be off-limits shouldn’t be that big a deal. Yet, it could set a person on a path that could prove destructive.

                Augustine’s story in The Confessions comes to mind. It’s the story of fruit that he and some friends stole, not because they were hungry, but because it seemed fun. He writes:

 

My desire was to enjoy not what I sought by stealing but merely the excitement of thieving and the doing of what was wrong. There was a pear tree near our vineyard laden with fruit, though attractive in neither colour nor taste. To shake the fruit off the tree and carry off the pears, I and a gang of naughty adolescents set off late at night after (in our usual pestilential way) we had continued our game in the streets. We carried off a huge load of pears. But they were not for our feasts but merely to throw to the pigs. Even if we ate a few, nevertheless our pleasure lay in doing what was not allowed. [Augustine, The Confessions (p. 29). OUP Oxford. Kindle Edition].

Turning stone into bread might not seem like that big a thing, but it might be the beginning of a larger problem. Of course, Jesus said no, but the temptation had to be there. He was hungry, and according to Matthew he had the power to address his hunger, but he rejected the temptation, telling the devil that “one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Deut. 8:3; Mt. 4:4). As Ron Allen notes here, the issue here isn’t physical versus spiritual. Rather, “the issue from the standpoint of Deuteronomy is where the community turns for bread and other resources necessary for survival—to idols or to the living God” [Working Preacher].  That was the first of three temptations Jesus faced that day.

                Jesus doesn’t bite on the first question, which addresses his identity. At his baptism, God claimed Jesus as God’s son. Now, the devil raises the question of whether Jesus is truly God’s son. Jesus answers by choosing not to address the question. The next test has to do with the use of power, or better, the abuse of power. The first question invited Jesus to act in private to prove his identity. Now, the devil invites Jesus to use his power to gain a following. The temptation involved Jesus jumping off the pinnacle of the temple. After all, doesn’t Scripture say that God will command the angels concerning the Messiah so that nothing will happen to him? Why not demonstrate how this safety net works? This isn’t the only time we see something like this take place in the Gospels. In fact, it is a temptation that faced Jesus as he entered Jerusalem in triumph (Palm Sunday). It would seem that Jesus had the power to raise an army or at the very least capture the hearts and minds of the crowds. They hailed him the Son of David. In other words, they assumed he was the coming king who would run the Romans out. A lot of people were ready to follow him (Mt. 21:1-11). If the Triumphal Entry caught the attention of the people, then surely something as dramatic as angels catching Jesus so he didn’t even stub his toe against a stone would be worth trying. Again, if you have the power at your disposal, why not use it? Once again Jesus said no. It’s not proper to put God to a test. Jesus’ responses draw on Deuteronomy 6:16.

                As we ponder this second temptation, it might be worth considering the kinds of temptations the church faces, especially in a secular age, where it’s increasingly difficult to get the attention of the people. There is a temptation to grow the church through spectacle. Let’s do something amazing that catches the eye and the ear of a society that’s not paying attention to the church. Let’s be creative and innovative—give the people what they want (I’m not against creativity or innovation but bear with me). If the focus is on entertainment rather than worship and service, then are we not engaging in spectacles to gain attention for ourselves? In other words, is what we’re doing asking God to bless our self-aggrandizement? If we’re seeking examples, what might we say about preachers with corporate jets, mansions, and more? You know, the TV preachers that continually beg for money to support their “ministry” while living the “good life.” The devil’s message was, of course, more subtle than that. Why not use spectacle to gain a following? But are we not tempted to do the same?

                Finally, we come to the third temptation. That temptation has to do with allegiance. The devil takes Jesus up to a high mountain and invites him to look at the world. This could be yours; the devil suggests. Just give me your allegiance. Become my vassal and you can be king for the day. That could have been enticing. Think here of Herod. He got to be king, and as we’ve been told by Mel Brooks, “it’s good to be the king.” All he had to do was give his allegiance to Rome and Rome would let him have all the trappings of monarchy. The devil would let Jesus be king, he just had to give his allegiance to the devil. Of course, the enticement here had to do with this being an easier pathway. Taking this path toward establishing the kingdom of God needn’t involve a cross. Jesus responded to this offer by telling the devil that one must “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” Here he draws from Deuteronomy 6:13. Ultimate allegiance is owed to God alone. God is the one from whom all authority and power ultimately are derived. Taking this path might be more difficult, but it is the road that leads to the revealing of God’s realm.

                Jesus’ response to the tempter, though it was given at a moment when he was physically weak and spiritually vulnerable, provides us with a word of guidance. Turning again to Ron Allen’s commentary on the passage, “for Matthew’s congregation, the temptation is to ease one of their tensions by just going along with the Empire and its idolatry and exploitative behaviors. This temptation is before every congregation in the United States—and other places—right now. Deuteronomy reminds the Matthean congregation that yielding to this temptation will set the community on a path to destruction” [The Working Preacher]. This is an important word for our times. We’ve been watching, as Christian nationalism spreads, a sickening debasement of Christianity that focuses on gaining political/coercive power. Those who seek to wield this power, to protect “religious liberty,” but only for those who share their view of the world. From what many of us have seen, there is little in this “religious liberty” message that reflects the message of Jesus. Protecting our “Christian” culture, which is really an outdated “Euro-American” culture (white supremacy) doesn’t reflect well the values of God’s realm.  

                What we’re talking about here are two kinds of power. There is worldly power where those with power seek to lord it over others. Then there is the power of God that liberates and reconciles rather than excludes and oppresses. This is the kind of power that Jesus spoke of when teaching his disciples how to pray. In that prayer, the one we call the “Lord’s Prayer,” we ask that God’s realm will come and that God’s will might be done on earth as in heaven. In that prayer, we ask for daily bread (manna not French cuisine) and receive forgiveness in the same way that we forgive. Finally, we ask that we might be delivered from the tempter’s snare. That would be the pathway marked by evil. When we pray this prayer, we are giving our ultimate allegiance to God and God alone. It’s okay to love one’s country, but ultimate allegiance owed to God precludes the kind of nationalism that closes us off from the rest of the world, especially when that nationalism seeks to define itself in “Christian” terms. 

                When Jesus told the devil that the Scriptures teach that we’re to “Worship the Lord your God,

    and serve only him,” the devil left. May we embrace the way of Jesus and in doing so give our ultimate allegiance to God and God’s realm so that we too might bid adieu to the devil and his ways!

 Image Attribution: Kramskoĭ, Ivan Nikolaevich, 1837-1887. Christ in the Wilderness, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54297 [retrieved February 20, 2023]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kramskoi_Christ_dans_le_d%C3%A9sert.jpg.