Beating down the devil
Commentary
Ask me if I believe in the devil and I would have to answer this way. If you mean the tailed creature with cloven hooves and a pitchfork, the answer is no. But I believe in the New Testament image of Satan (the devil, the prince of this world, the prince of the power of the air, the evil one) as a rich and profound symbol of the reality of evil in its personal and collective dimensions.
The gospel lesson deserves all our attention on this first Sunday in Lent as we start to follow Jesus to the cross. Throughout his gospel Luke signals to us that Jesus is not the messiah of traditional expectations. The all-powerful and controlling kind of messiah they then wanted and we now hanker for is a messiah with a job description written by the devil. That is a central message of the temptation narratives in Luke and Matthew.
The Old Testament reading is a call to Israel to remember her humble origins. The epistle reading is a section of Romans 10-12 where Paul centers his thought on the destiny of Jews and Gentiles in the providence of God.
Sermon Seeds In The Lessons
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
This passage sometimes appears as a Thanksgiving Day reading, an assignment to which it is well suited. It would also be at home on the Sunday of the Every Member Canvass. What a wonderful memory to ponder while approaching the altar with a gift: the humbleness of one's origin and the goodness of God in the past and present. That will help to keep us both humble, generous, and welcoming in the present.
But a passage like this also engenders the reminder that many persons were displaced by Israel en route to the promised land just as native Americans were displaced by our forebears' march across the land under the banner of manifest destiny. As an Old Testament reading for today, however, I would prefer Genesis 3:1-7.
Romans 10:8b-13
In this season of penitence Paul reminds us that confession and profession is much more than a matter of words and the recitation of formal creeds. It is what is transpiring in the very core of our being, our hearts, minds, and wills as we stand before the God who makes no distinction among all his children and whose hands are open to all.
Luke 4:1-13
Luke concludes his account of the temptation with the comment, "When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until the opportune time." The testing was not just a once and for all struggle for Jesus. The devil would come again. He always does. This narrative is a summary of what was for Jesus and will be for his followers a life-long struggle. The seducer ever lies in wait for the opportune moment. We are vulnerable and dependent as was our Lord. Luke understood this and the narrative functions in part as an exemplary story to help Christians escape the seductions that lead to servitude.
Note that the temptation immediately follows the baptism of Jesus and his heady experience on the banks of the Jordan. Jesus is "full of the Holy Spirit." He is primed for his mission. We might say he is riding a high. How one can be vulnerable to seduction at such a time is well reflected in Shakespeare's tragedy, Macbeth. Macbeth is a young man full of ambition who is tempted by the witches of whom he would later say, "They met me in the day of success." The witches meet Macbeth and trigger dreams of dominion by playing to his ambition. Note the ascending titles.
1 Witch. "All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!"
2 Witch. "All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!"
3 Witch. "All hail, Macbeth; that shalt be king hereafter!"
Act 1, Scene 3
They dangle the vision of mastery before him. Macbeth succumbed, Jesus beat the devil down.
At this point an outline for a sermon on how Jesus dealt with temptation begins to suggest itself. He heeded the Word from beyond conveyed through the biblical tradition; he kept first things first; he continued to be led by the Spirit. You can fill this out and polish it up. "Live in this world as your Lord lived," proclaims Luke through this narrative.
There are other homiletical paths that lead out of this narrative. Note how the devil appears not with a trumpet blast but with the subtlety of Eden's serpent. The refusal of Jesus to be a bread messiah has been competently dealt with time and again. Let's follow another path suggested by the first temptation. The devil asks Jesus to do what is humanly impossible. This is a variation of the serpent's whisper to Eve.
The word translated stone is the Greek word litho. It suggests a heavy and immovable boulder. The word has a rich metaphorical usage in biblical tradition. Check the concordance for references to the stumbling block and the stone of offense. Among us a stumbling block is an impediment to understanding or belief. Oh, for a messiah who can turn some of these sort of stones into bread, bring simple solutions to complex and baffling questions. There was and always is a market for that kind of messiah, as cult leaders, political demagogues, and ideologues well know. Behind the question Jesus sensed the devilish temptation to seek mastery by bringing simplistic answers to complex questions. He himself died without knowing all the answers (Matthew 27:46). It is ironic that Jesus who refused to turn the stone into bread became the cornerstone of a new community of living stones (1 Peter 2:4-10). If this line of thought suggests a sermon to you, this passage from 1 Peter would be a good substitute for the present epistle reading.
In the second temptation as recorded by Luke the devil invites Jesus to play the world's power game and reap the world's reward. Again the echo of the serpent is heard, "You shall be as God." Unlike Macbeth who had no principles, Jesus did not succumb. In the end Jesus did not look like a success as the culture around him defined success. Someone hanging on a cross could hardly be called a winner. But a Roman centurion saw a glory there that turns upside down all our false measurements.
The last play by the devil has been interpreted as the temptation to be a messiah with a bag full of razzle-dazzle tricks. We can also think of it as a temptation for Jesus to think of himself as possessing some sort of executive privilege that made him exempt not only from the law of gravity but from moral claim and consequence. The image of falling down is a loaded one in our theological tradition. Satan is a fallen angel. They are the worst kind.
Note carefully that the devil quotes the scriptures. He wears the robes of goodness and light. He is a sort of platform piety. The devil also believes in God. In all ways he is a master of disguise. We think of the Bill of Rights in our constitution as designed to protect us from evil people. Another way to see them is to see them as designed to protect us from good people who have seen the light and know just what we would believe, how we should pray, and what we should think.
The gospel lesson deserves all our attention on this first Sunday in Lent as we start to follow Jesus to the cross. Throughout his gospel Luke signals to us that Jesus is not the messiah of traditional expectations. The all-powerful and controlling kind of messiah they then wanted and we now hanker for is a messiah with a job description written by the devil. That is a central message of the temptation narratives in Luke and Matthew.
The Old Testament reading is a call to Israel to remember her humble origins. The epistle reading is a section of Romans 10-12 where Paul centers his thought on the destiny of Jews and Gentiles in the providence of God.
Sermon Seeds In The Lessons
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
This passage sometimes appears as a Thanksgiving Day reading, an assignment to which it is well suited. It would also be at home on the Sunday of the Every Member Canvass. What a wonderful memory to ponder while approaching the altar with a gift: the humbleness of one's origin and the goodness of God in the past and present. That will help to keep us both humble, generous, and welcoming in the present.
But a passage like this also engenders the reminder that many persons were displaced by Israel en route to the promised land just as native Americans were displaced by our forebears' march across the land under the banner of manifest destiny. As an Old Testament reading for today, however, I would prefer Genesis 3:1-7.
Romans 10:8b-13
In this season of penitence Paul reminds us that confession and profession is much more than a matter of words and the recitation of formal creeds. It is what is transpiring in the very core of our being, our hearts, minds, and wills as we stand before the God who makes no distinction among all his children and whose hands are open to all.
Luke 4:1-13
Luke concludes his account of the temptation with the comment, "When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until the opportune time." The testing was not just a once and for all struggle for Jesus. The devil would come again. He always does. This narrative is a summary of what was for Jesus and will be for his followers a life-long struggle. The seducer ever lies in wait for the opportune moment. We are vulnerable and dependent as was our Lord. Luke understood this and the narrative functions in part as an exemplary story to help Christians escape the seductions that lead to servitude.
Note that the temptation immediately follows the baptism of Jesus and his heady experience on the banks of the Jordan. Jesus is "full of the Holy Spirit." He is primed for his mission. We might say he is riding a high. How one can be vulnerable to seduction at such a time is well reflected in Shakespeare's tragedy, Macbeth. Macbeth is a young man full of ambition who is tempted by the witches of whom he would later say, "They met me in the day of success." The witches meet Macbeth and trigger dreams of dominion by playing to his ambition. Note the ascending titles.
1 Witch. "All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!"
2 Witch. "All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!"
3 Witch. "All hail, Macbeth; that shalt be king hereafter!"
Act 1, Scene 3
They dangle the vision of mastery before him. Macbeth succumbed, Jesus beat the devil down.
At this point an outline for a sermon on how Jesus dealt with temptation begins to suggest itself. He heeded the Word from beyond conveyed through the biblical tradition; he kept first things first; he continued to be led by the Spirit. You can fill this out and polish it up. "Live in this world as your Lord lived," proclaims Luke through this narrative.
There are other homiletical paths that lead out of this narrative. Note how the devil appears not with a trumpet blast but with the subtlety of Eden's serpent. The refusal of Jesus to be a bread messiah has been competently dealt with time and again. Let's follow another path suggested by the first temptation. The devil asks Jesus to do what is humanly impossible. This is a variation of the serpent's whisper to Eve.
The word translated stone is the Greek word litho. It suggests a heavy and immovable boulder. The word has a rich metaphorical usage in biblical tradition. Check the concordance for references to the stumbling block and the stone of offense. Among us a stumbling block is an impediment to understanding or belief. Oh, for a messiah who can turn some of these sort of stones into bread, bring simple solutions to complex and baffling questions. There was and always is a market for that kind of messiah, as cult leaders, political demagogues, and ideologues well know. Behind the question Jesus sensed the devilish temptation to seek mastery by bringing simplistic answers to complex questions. He himself died without knowing all the answers (Matthew 27:46). It is ironic that Jesus who refused to turn the stone into bread became the cornerstone of a new community of living stones (1 Peter 2:4-10). If this line of thought suggests a sermon to you, this passage from 1 Peter would be a good substitute for the present epistle reading.
In the second temptation as recorded by Luke the devil invites Jesus to play the world's power game and reap the world's reward. Again the echo of the serpent is heard, "You shall be as God." Unlike Macbeth who had no principles, Jesus did not succumb. In the end Jesus did not look like a success as the culture around him defined success. Someone hanging on a cross could hardly be called a winner. But a Roman centurion saw a glory there that turns upside down all our false measurements.
The last play by the devil has been interpreted as the temptation to be a messiah with a bag full of razzle-dazzle tricks. We can also think of it as a temptation for Jesus to think of himself as possessing some sort of executive privilege that made him exempt not only from the law of gravity but from moral claim and consequence. The image of falling down is a loaded one in our theological tradition. Satan is a fallen angel. They are the worst kind.
Note carefully that the devil quotes the scriptures. He wears the robes of goodness and light. He is a sort of platform piety. The devil also believes in God. In all ways he is a master of disguise. We think of the Bill of Rights in our constitution as designed to protect us from evil people. Another way to see them is to see them as designed to protect us from good people who have seen the light and know just what we would believe, how we should pray, and what we should think.
