Bishop David Hamid | February 23, 2010
St Luke 4.1-13
The word temptation has even made it into the front pages of newspapers this past week. Not because we are in Lent, mind you, but because of the public confession of golfer Tiger Woods, who said, in his 13 minute press statement, “I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled”.
What do you think of when you hear the word temptation? Is it a table laden with delicious desserts – cakes, pies and tarts? Is temptation a warm bed and a cup of tea and the morning paper, instead of getting up and going to work? Is it the concept which was exploited several years ago in a TV programme which I think was called “Temptation Island”. The idea of this reality TV series was to put unmarried couples on a Caribbean island, they are separated and then “tempted” by attractive singles to try to lure them away from their fiancé(e)s. Most of us when we think of temptation, we tend to think of the sorts of things that appeal to our lower nature – our appetite, our laziness, our desires.
But when we listen closely to the Gospel, we hear that the three temptations that Jesus faced were not about cakes, and laziness and sex. These are minor things compared to what Jesus faced. The temptations that Jesus faced were about the lure of becoming something less than fully human.
In the first temptation, Jesus is hungry. He had been going without food for 40 days. Our 40 day fast in Lent before Easter hearkens back to this voluntary hunger of Jesus. In fact, Jesus was at that time not only hungry, he was a homeless person – wandering in the wilderness. He feels in his body the burning hunger of the poor and the uncertainty of drifting as someone without a place to lay his head. When our Lord cares for the homeless and hungry it is from the experience of living as they live, from the true knowledge of a shared experience. “Turn this stone into bread” it is suggested to him by the devil. But despite his hunger he refuses to centre his life around simply satisfying physical needs. There is more to the life of human beings than simply pursuing physical satisfaction.
In the second temptation, Jesus is taken and shown all the glories of wealth and power of this world. “I will give you this glory and all this authority” says the tempter. Jesus is not seduced by this. There is more to the life of human beings than being drawn in by things that will satisfy our ego and our quest for status and power.
In the third temptation, Jesus is asked to challenge the way God runs the universe, and to ignore our own responsibility within the universe. Don’t worry about gravity, suggests the tempter, “throw yourself down from this pinnacle”. But Jesus refuses to accept this sort of arrogance which is inside all of us, when we try to tell God what to do, and how to do it.
Uncontrolled appetite, unchecked ego, and playing God – these are the very things which our history tells us gives rise to dictators and tyrants. But if we are honest we have to admit that these are also at the root of our own sins: wanting our needs to be instantly satisfied; a longing for power and wealth and status; and forgetting about attention to God’s will, but focussing on our own. We are offered tantalising temptations, to put ourselves and our own personal fulfilment first, but disciples of Jesus are challenged to live not “by bread alone”, to honour God’s place and God’s authority in our universe, and accept God’s will in our lives.
Our culture offers us a myriad of tantalising deceptions about who we are. The world prefers to cover up, if it can, all signs of weakness, dependency and our fundamental fragility. The cult of glamour, wealth, fame, physical beauty, dulls our senses and makes more invisible the hungry, the homeless, the weak, the infirm, the fragile. Yet last Wednesday, across the Christian Church, priests put ashes on people’s foreheads and said, “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return”. These are severe words, but they are necessary in a world which tries falsely to cover up all forms of weakness and to glorify strength and self-sufficiency. To cover up weakness and dependency is a lie. In truth, every life is fragile – tomorrow we can become dust.
It is a certain comfort to me to know that Jesus was tempted! We all are tempted. Temptation is normal. Temptation is human. Temptation is part of daily living. What’s more, we hear in the Gospel that the temptation of Jesus comes right after his baptism, when he was filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus, the Son of God, filled with the Holy Spirit, was still tempted.
When I update my blog every couple of days, I smile when I see the little message that pops which says “Powered by Google”. If tonight’s Gospel were digital, we should see a little message which flashes that Jesus was “Powered by the Spirit” –– the Holy Spirit –– God's Spirit. Jesus was God-powered. We, too, the brothers and sisters of Jesus are “Powered by the Holy Spirit”. We, too, are God-powered. We received the Holy Spirit at our baptism, so God is able to lead us through the wilderness of our lives, just as the Holy Spirit led Jesus in the wilderness.
This Holy Spirit empowers us to resist the temptations that make us less human. We need to worry less about the puddings, the lazy days, the flirtations, but let us confront the more dangerous temptations to be less human; to believe that I am what I buy, I am what I own, I am what I control.
This Isaiah Community is inspired by a vision of a world where human beings begin to refuse these huge offers that tempt us. We seek to build in this city a community where, instead of defending ourselves from encountering the poor, we return to defending the poor. This Isaiah Community can take our part in the formation of new community of human beings who have chosen the way of the Gospel as a priority rather than the way of money, power and control – which are the usual seductions and temptations of our society. We can help to lead a return to the path of Jesus, who teaches us how to become truly human, not on account of what I have, or what I own. But on account of who I love.
The word temptation has even made it into the front pages of newspapers this past week. Not because we are in Lent, mind you, but because of the public confession of golfer Tiger Woods, who said, in his 13 minute press statement, “I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled”.
What do you think of when you hear the word temptation? Is it a table laden with delicious desserts – cakes, pies and tarts? Is temptation a warm bed and a cup of tea and the morning paper, instead of getting up and going to work? Is it the concept which was exploited several years ago in a TV programme which I think was called “Temptation Island”. The idea of this reality TV series was to put unmarried couples on a Caribbean island, they are separated and then “tempted” by attractive singles to try to lure them away from their fiancé(e)s. Most of us when we think of temptation, we tend to think of the sorts of things that appeal to our lower nature – our appetite, our laziness, our desires.
But when we listen closely to the Gospel, we hear that the three temptations that Jesus faced were not about cakes, and laziness and sex. These are minor things compared to what Jesus faced. The temptations that Jesus faced were about the lure of becoming something less than fully human.
In the first temptation, Jesus is hungry. He had been going without food for 40 days. Our 40 day fast in Lent before Easter hearkens back to this voluntary hunger of Jesus. In fact, Jesus was at that time not only hungry, he was a homeless person – wandering in the wilderness. He feels in his body the burning hunger of the poor and the uncertainty of drifting as someone without a place to lay his head. When our Lord cares for the homeless and hungry it is from the experience of living as they live, from the true knowledge of a shared experience. “Turn this stone into bread” it is suggested to him by the devil. But despite his hunger he refuses to centre his life around simply satisfying physical needs. There is more to the life of human beings than simply pursuing physical satisfaction.
In the second temptation, Jesus is taken and shown all the glories of wealth and power of this world. “I will give you this glory and all this authority” says the tempter. Jesus is not seduced by this. There is more to the life of human beings than being drawn in by things that will satisfy our ego and our quest for status and power.
In the third temptation, Jesus is asked to challenge the way God runs the universe, and to ignore our own responsibility within the universe. Don’t worry about gravity, suggests the tempter, “throw yourself down from this pinnacle”. But Jesus refuses to accept this sort of arrogance which is inside all of us, when we try to tell God what to do, and how to do it.
Uncontrolled appetite, unchecked ego, and playing God – these are the very things which our history tells us gives rise to dictators and tyrants. But if we are honest we have to admit that these are also at the root of our own sins: wanting our needs to be instantly satisfied; a longing for power and wealth and status; and forgetting about attention to God’s will, but focussing on our own. We are offered tantalising temptations, to put ourselves and our own personal fulfilment first, but disciples of Jesus are challenged to live not “by bread alone”, to honour God’s place and God’s authority in our universe, and accept God’s will in our lives.
Our culture offers us a myriad of tantalising deceptions about who we are. The world prefers to cover up, if it can, all signs of weakness, dependency and our fundamental fragility. The cult of glamour, wealth, fame, physical beauty, dulls our senses and makes more invisible the hungry, the homeless, the weak, the infirm, the fragile. Yet last Wednesday, across the Christian Church, priests put ashes on people’s foreheads and said, “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return”. These are severe words, but they are necessary in a world which tries falsely to cover up all forms of weakness and to glorify strength and self-sufficiency. To cover up weakness and dependency is a lie. In truth, every life is fragile – tomorrow we can become dust.
It is a certain comfort to me to know that Jesus was tempted! We all are tempted. Temptation is normal. Temptation is human. Temptation is part of daily living. What’s more, we hear in the Gospel that the temptation of Jesus comes right after his baptism, when he was filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus, the Son of God, filled with the Holy Spirit, was still tempted.
When I update my blog every couple of days, I smile when I see the little message that pops which says “Powered by Google”. If tonight’s Gospel were digital, we should see a little message which flashes that Jesus was “Powered by the Spirit” –– the Holy Spirit –– God's Spirit. Jesus was God-powered. We, too, the brothers and sisters of Jesus are “Powered by the Holy Spirit”. We, too, are God-powered. We received the Holy Spirit at our baptism, so God is able to lead us through the wilderness of our lives, just as the Holy Spirit led Jesus in the wilderness.
This Holy Spirit empowers us to resist the temptations that make us less human. We need to worry less about the puddings, the lazy days, the flirtations, but let us confront the more dangerous temptations to be less human; to believe that I am what I buy, I am what I own, I am what I control.
This Isaiah Community is inspired by a vision of a world where human beings begin to refuse these huge offers that tempt us. We seek to build in this city a community where, instead of defending ourselves from encountering the poor, we return to defending the poor. This Isaiah Community can take our part in the formation of new community of human beings who have chosen the way of the Gospel as a priority rather than the way of money, power and control – which are the usual seductions and temptations of our society. We can help to lead a return to the path of Jesus, who teaches us how to become truly human, not on account of what I have, or what I own. But on account of who I love.
