(The introduction to this sermon was dramatic reading from the Lenten Series, ‘The Lenten Road,’ published by The Center for Creative Communication for the Parish. © 2004)
(1) Look at this photo for a moment. It’s magnificent! It’s majestic! It’s appealing! It’s warm! It’s sunny! What a beautiful place to go hiking and camping! Why would anyone want to complain about being in such a place? Well, they have and they do!
Mike Neifert, in the February 1997 issue of Light and Life magazine, shares the following responses, actual responses, from comment cards given to the staff members at Bridger Wilderness Area in 1996. (Click for bold items.)
Trails need to be wider so people can walk while holding hands.
Trails need to be reconstructed. Please avoid building trails that go uphill.
Too many bugs and leeches and spiders and spider webs.
Please spray the wilderness to rid the areas of these pests.
Please pave the trails so they can be snow-plowed during the winter.
Chair lifts need to be in some places so that we can get to wonderful views without having to hike to them.
The coyotes made too much noise last night and kept me awake. Please eradicate these annoying animals.
A small deer came into my camp and stole my jar of pickles. Is there a way I can get reimbursed? Please call
Reflectors need to be placed on trees every 50 feet so people can hike at night with flashlights.
Escalators would help on steep uphill sections.
A MacDonald’s would be nice at the trailhead.
The places where trails do not exist are not well marked.
Too many rocks in the mountains.
Where’s the majesty? Where’s the beauty?
(2)This is the second of our Lenten series, ‘The Lenten Road,’ entitled ‘The Road to the Wilderness.’
(3) Last week we began our journey with ‘The Road to Damascus’ with a look at the light of God and what that light meant for Paul and still means for us.
The Road to Damascus (click) was a road of confrontation about being ‘knocked off our high horse’ like Paul was on the way to Damascus. He was confronted by the Lord as to his efforts to stop the faith, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?” and then to be redirected in a new way, ‘Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you are to do.’
The Road to Damascus (click) was also a road of transformation. Last week we only heard read a part of the entire story.
After the dramatic experience we looked at, Paul went onto Damascus where he began preaching that Christ was the Messiah. It was a message that was 180 degrees from what he had been preaching.
It confused both the believers and those with whom Paul had aligned. And it would almost cost Paul is life because those with whom he had once agreed became his sworn enemies.
But the transformation was unmistakable because it was a transformation that was made by the power of God. This is what we read in Acts 9:21 and 22, ‘All who heard him were amazed. “Isn’t this the same man who persecuted Jesus’ followers with such devastation in Jerusalem?” they asked. “And we understand that he came here to arrest them and take them in chains to the leading priests.” Saul’s preaching became more and more powerful, and the Jews in Damascus couldn’t refute his proofs that Jesus was indeed the Messiah.’
(4) What kind of a road then is ‘The Road to the Wilderness?’
I remember going to Phoenix 10 years ago this summer for our International Youth Convention and hearing about this wonderful park that we could go to and hang out prior to the convention. And my picture of this park was that of green grass and large shade trees just like we have back here in the Midwest.
Was I surprised! There was hardly any grass at all just desert, cactus, and lots of sagebrush. Sort of like this picture. (5)
But, what kind of a road is the Road to the Wilderness?
It is a road of temptation. (click) We read in verse 1 of Matthew, ‘Then Jesus was led out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted there by the Devil.’
On this road Jesus’ own faith and relationship with the Father would be severely tempted because He will be tempted to use His tremendous power to fulfill three very human needs and desires.
(6) To meet legitimate needs (in this case hunger) in an illegitimate way. In Matthew 4:2 we read, ‘For forty days and forty nights he ate nothing and became very hungry.’ Now, hunger is a legitimate need but Satan appeals to Jesus’ power and ability to break the self-imposed discipline of the fast by immediately turning stones to bread so that He could satisfy His hunger.
All of us need to eat because we were created that way. 40 days is a long time to go without food! Most of us, I think, have trouble going 12 hours without food before blood work or surgery!
However, the issue here is not the legitimacy of eating but whether or not He is going to give in to the temptation that is before Him to change the stones to bread or not. He can wait (hard to do after 40 days) or He could heed Satan’s advice and change those stones right now. He resisted and did not give into the temptation.
There is also another important point that Jesus makes in His response to Satan as we read in verse 4, ‘People need more than bread for their life; they must feed on every word of God.’ There is more to life than food. There is the spiritual dimension that with deals with our values, priorities, and beliefs. It also addresses our relationship with God; a primary issue which Jesus addresses in this situation. But, Jesus resists the temptation to ‘make bread’ because He knows that there is more to life than food and the discipline to wait is essential if He is to be and stay obedient to the Father.
The second temptation is related to the all three but is highlighted in this one. (7) It is the temptation to test important boundaries.
As with the first temptation there is an appeal, much more blatant this time, to Jesus’ power. If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, ‘He orders his angels to protect you. And they will hold you with their hands to keep you from striking your foot on a stone.’
(Isn’t interesting that the Devil knows scripture and can quote it?)
More than once before His death and Resurrection Jesus will have the opportunity to step over a boundary and exert His power and control. And this is no truer than during those moments when the time of His arrest and His death grows near.
We read in Matthew 26:39 the start of a tremendous struggle within our Lord as the completion of His earthly ministry draws near. ‘He went on a little farther and fell face down on the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will, not mine.”’
Then while hanging on the cross we read from Matthew 27:42 through 44, “He saved others,” they scoffed, “but he can’t save himself! So he is the king of Israel, is he? Let him come down from the cross, and we will believe in him! He trusted God—let God show his approval by delivering him! For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” And the criminals who were crucified with him also shouted the same insults at him.’
How tempting would it be for you and I to say, ‘I’ll show them! They cannot talk to me that way!’
The boundaries of scripture, well stated in passages as the Ten Commandments, are there for our good. God gave them to the Israelites and to us to stay out of trouble. But, our impatience, our need for acceptance, and our desires to have something now create the temptation to break those boundaries.
The final temptation (8) is the temptation to place ultimate loyalty (worship) in someone else.
In verses 8 through 10 we read, ‘Next the Devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him the nations of the world and all their glory. “I will give it all to you,” he said, “if you will only kneel down and worship me.” “Get out of here, Satan,” Jesus told him. “For the Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God; serve only him.’
Now the temptations to meet a legitimate need (physical, emotional, financial, as well as relational) in an illegitimate way are common to us. We face them everyday of our lives. Giving into them causes problems for us and gives sin a place in our lives that blocks our relationship with the Lord.
Furthermore, the temptation to test important boundaries that God has placed in our lives and world for our good, are common to us as well. The heartache of divorce, the devastation of drug addiction, and the pain of domestic violence are evidence that we have violated some important boundaries that God has put in place for our good and benefit.
But this third temptation is to me the most serious temptation because it deals with what the Bible illustrates in numerous ways: the temptation to worship (or give our loyalty to) someone other than God. The Devil has tempted Jesus regarding physical needs and boundaries and now he comes at Jesus with a temptation to worship him by bowing down and declaring loyalty to him.
There are debates about the use of video clips in worship but there are times when an appropriate movie clip is better than a thousand words and when I read this segment what comes to my mind is a scene from the last ‘Star Wars’ movie that came out last spring. In it we see an emotionally weakened and, I think, morally compromised Anakin Skywalker physically kneeling and giving his loyalty to the evil Senator Palpatine who becomes the powerful Emperor that seeks to take control of the entire universe.
And we see the physical result of what happens when we take the ‘shortcuts of temptation’ as Anakin renounces the way of the Jedi and turns his back on his wife and his mentor and ends up becoming a horribly disfigured machine called Darth Vader.
This temptation is at the heart of the conflict that runs through the Bible starting with the Garden of Eden and ending in the great triumph of the redeemed people of God, the Church, in Revelation. It is running through human history between good and evil and it runs through our hearts and souls.
At its heart, it is about our loyalty at the most deepest level – the spiritual level. It is about who and/or what we are going to worship at the center of our being: God or our own desires that are corrupted when we give into temptation.
There is another reason for this desert experience as well. We get a glimpse of it in verse 1 when we read Jesus was led out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. It was not only a road of temptation it was also (9) a road of preparation for two reasons. First we read in Luke’s account of Jesus’ wilderness experience in Luke 4:14, ‘Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Soon he became well known throughout the surrounding country.’
After this hard and tempting 40 days, Jesus begins (click) His public ministry, as Luke says, ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’s power.’ Why? Because after the 40 days, Jesus begins His public ministry, a ministry that would require Him to be obedient to His Father’s purposes which was strengthened by the time in the wilderness.
It would be a demanding ministry. He would have his critics calling into question His motives and His actions. He would be called ‘demon possessed.’ He would seek to develop what is now called a ministry team that would leave Him at a critical moment and include a betrayer. There would be those who needed healing from serious physical pain and suffering as well as those who needed deliverance from spiritual affliction and oppression. Being able to resist temptation at this critical period would strengthen His will and ability to resist temptation later in His life and ministry.
It was also (click) a road of preparation for the mission that the Father had for Him. He acknowledges that mission in John 12:31 and 32 when he says, “The time of judgment for the world has come, when the prince of this world will be cast out. And when I am lifted up on the cross, I will draw everyone to myself.”
Jesus makes this statement at a key moment in His ministry when news of His work begins to reach out beyond Israel and a group of Greeks ask to see Jesus. Now Jesus knows the time for God’s plan of salvation is close to being completed because it would be for the entire world that Jesus would die for on the cross. This mission would be accomplished because Jesus would resist the temptations in the wilderness as well as the temptation in the garden to say no to the Father’s will and on the cross to prove His power to get off of it.
Obedience pays dividends. Obedience makes possible a life free from guilt and shame. Obedience helps a person to avoid the heartbreaking consequences of disobedience.
Jesus’ resolve to love and obey the Father was strengthened during these moments when He said, ‘NO!’ The same holds true for us when we say ‘No’ to the various temptations that we face everyday. Jesus’ example sets the way for us as we are reminded Hebrews 4:15 and 16, ‘This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same temptations we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it.’
Last week we learned that ‘light’ represents the power, presence, and will of God in this world. What do the stones mean? (10)
Well, in addition to representing temptation, in Matthew 7:9 (click) they represent the issue of how to and not to give good gifts to children. You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.’
In John 10:31 (click) they represent a weapon to be used to kill Jesus. ‘Once again the Jewish leaders picked up stones to kill him.’ (Referring to Jesus)
In Mark 12:10 (click) Jesus calls Himself ‘the cornerstone’ that is used to insure that the foundation of a building is set straight.
And finally in Mark 16:4 (click) it is the stone that is rolled away from the tomb that sits empty when followers and some of the disciples come to visit their crucified Lord. ‘But when they arrived, they looked up and saw that the stone—a very large one—had already been rolled aside.’ It is the final barrier to eternal life.
And that is what we look forward to celebrating in another month – the resurrected Christ! A stone would not stop Him from obeying the Father in a time of severe temptation and it would not hold Him back from overcoming death and the Devil and therefore fulfill His father’s mission.
Let us give thanks and praise to God for the fact Jesus overcame and so can we! Amen!
Power Points for this sermon are available by e-mailing me at pastorjim46755@yahoo.com and asking for ‘031206 svgs’ Please note that all slides for a particular presentation may not be available.
