Fasting And Temptation
Sermon
I once fasted for five days. Not for any religious reasons, but because I was interested in food allergies, and fasting is the quickest and most effective way of clearing the system in order to begin to identify the allergens.
It was an interesting experience. Although I felt pangs of hunger from time to time, to my surprise I never felt ravenously hungry, for frequent drinks of water seemed to keep the hunger at bay. I remember a ferocious headache for the first day or two, but after that the headaches cleared and I felt very well. I was, of course, young at the time!
There were other surprises too. My problem (which was eczema) cleared, but I didn't lose as much weight as I had expected! And I felt curiously alert, quite clear-headed and somehow hypersensitive to all that was going on around me. It was as though my natural senses were heightened, and I could see and hear and touch and sense more clearly. So this enabled me to feel close to nature and to God in a way that I hadn't experienced before. At the time I wondered whether channels to God were somehow blocked by food, or blocked by certain types of food.
In retrospect and many years later, I now think fasting can alter consciousness to some extent. It has perhaps, a similar effect to deep meditation or mild hypnosis or mild drugs in that although you feel heightened senses, in fact the brain is perhaps somehow dulled. So this altered state of consciousness feels not zombie-like or sleep-inducing, but bright and alert and full of concentration.
It's probably because of this effect of altered consciousness, that fasting has been used from time immemorial by religions throughout the world as a means of approaching the deity, whoever or whatever that deity is considered to be. Many religions demand fasts of their followers, not as a sort of self-sacrifice but as a means of enhancing spirituality and inducing spiritual visions. And especially for priests or shamans, these spiritual effects of the fasts are often enhanced by the use of natural hypnotic drugs.
No wonder Jesus had such a vivid experience of the devil after fasting for 40 days and 40 nights. Although he must have been weak with hunger, he probably felt hyper-alert and very much in touch with his own inner self and with God. The silence and solitude in the desert would inevitably have been emotionally disturbing, and the lack of food would have enhanced his inner vision.
The temptations started in quite a small way. He was hungry, and already aware of his own amazing powers. It would seem obviously practical to turn those stones into bread. And why not? What harm could it do to anybody, even himself?
That's the difficulty with temptation. It's usually quite subtle and therefore difficult to spot. If you know something is wrong it's relatively easy to avoid it. But what if you're not sure? What if you think this particular thing is extremely practical and obvious and therefore quite all right? Then it may only be much later, when it's too late, that temptation is recognised for what it really is.
If you live in an area where you've lost everything you possess through a terrible earthquake or flood or volcano so that you have no food and nowhere to lay your head, is it wrong to take from a shop a loaf of bread or a mattress? And if it's not wrong, at what point does looting become wrong, if at all? When something seems to be good practical common sense, how can you determine whether or not it's a temptation?
The second temptation of Jesus was less subtle and rather more impressive. Jesus was transported in a vision to the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem, and told he could fly like Superman because God would take care of him. So this was a religious temptation. He was taken to the centre of his religion and told to trust God, for God can do anything. Why was that wrong? How can it be wrong to place all your trust in God, even when that trust defies common sense?
Back in the Sixties when psychedelic drugs were all the rage, there were a number of reported deaths of youngsters jumping out of windows, because under the influence of the drugs they thought they could fly. But the sad truth is, that human beings can't fly. Jesus may have been divine, but he was also fully human.
It's only in a state of altered consciousness or the deepest depression (which is probably also an altered state of consciousness of some sort) that anyone would even be tempted to jump off the pinnacle of a temple. So perhaps this second temptation was partly about being tempted to act like God himself, and partly about the difficulties of identifying the true voice of God.
There have been tragic cases of people who have been told by some inner voice or voices to commit some terrible act, usually a murderous act. Because they believe that any inner voice must come from God, they act upon it - with disastrous consequences. How do you identify whether or not your inner voice comes from God?
Because this is so difficult, many human beings ignore their intuition or inner voice so that it gradually disappears. It's safer that way. But that's a bit like throwing out the baby with the bath water, for God also speaks through intuition, and those who wish to hear his voice need to develop that faculty, with all its attendant risks.
In all his temptations, Jesus drew on the resources of Scripture to check out whether or not the voices he heard were from God. If some intuition doesn't fit with the general thrust of Scripture, it's very unlikely to be from God.
The third temptation was the least subtle. Almost as though having failed with clever and heavily disguised insinuations, the devil then goes all out and appeals directly to sheer greed. Jesus sees the whole world spread out before him, and becomes aware that through his gifts he could exercise colossal power. The exercise of power is a huge temptation, and we probably all fall prey to it in one way or another.
It's easy to look at public leaders and point the finger, for so many of them abuse power in their relationships and in satisfying their natural greed. But what about us? It's very easy from a position of even slight power to bully verbally or emotionally or physically, those who are less powerful. But it's also very easy for the apparently powerless to resort to manipulation to gain their own way, and that's even more difficult to spot. We all have some power over somebody, especially over our children. How is that power exercised? Is the exercise of power even recognised as temptation?
The encouraging aspect of this story of Jesus in the wilderness is that once the temptations were spotted and identified for what they really were, they then became much easier to spot and eventually ceased altogether.
Most of us are good people. We're probably seldom if ever tempted to break any of the Ten Commandments. But that doesn't mean we're never tempted. Temptation is part of the human condition. The success of the Devil is that temptation is so rarely spotted, because of its subtlety. Perhaps it's only through periods of solitude and silence and fasting that we can ever begin to identify our own temptations. But once identified, then they become easier to spot, and eventually perhaps, they'll cease altogether.
It was an interesting experience. Although I felt pangs of hunger from time to time, to my surprise I never felt ravenously hungry, for frequent drinks of water seemed to keep the hunger at bay. I remember a ferocious headache for the first day or two, but after that the headaches cleared and I felt very well. I was, of course, young at the time!
There were other surprises too. My problem (which was eczema) cleared, but I didn't lose as much weight as I had expected! And I felt curiously alert, quite clear-headed and somehow hypersensitive to all that was going on around me. It was as though my natural senses were heightened, and I could see and hear and touch and sense more clearly. So this enabled me to feel close to nature and to God in a way that I hadn't experienced before. At the time I wondered whether channels to God were somehow blocked by food, or blocked by certain types of food.
In retrospect and many years later, I now think fasting can alter consciousness to some extent. It has perhaps, a similar effect to deep meditation or mild hypnosis or mild drugs in that although you feel heightened senses, in fact the brain is perhaps somehow dulled. So this altered state of consciousness feels not zombie-like or sleep-inducing, but bright and alert and full of concentration.
It's probably because of this effect of altered consciousness, that fasting has been used from time immemorial by religions throughout the world as a means of approaching the deity, whoever or whatever that deity is considered to be. Many religions demand fasts of their followers, not as a sort of self-sacrifice but as a means of enhancing spirituality and inducing spiritual visions. And especially for priests or shamans, these spiritual effects of the fasts are often enhanced by the use of natural hypnotic drugs.
No wonder Jesus had such a vivid experience of the devil after fasting for 40 days and 40 nights. Although he must have been weak with hunger, he probably felt hyper-alert and very much in touch with his own inner self and with God. The silence and solitude in the desert would inevitably have been emotionally disturbing, and the lack of food would have enhanced his inner vision.
The temptations started in quite a small way. He was hungry, and already aware of his own amazing powers. It would seem obviously practical to turn those stones into bread. And why not? What harm could it do to anybody, even himself?
That's the difficulty with temptation. It's usually quite subtle and therefore difficult to spot. If you know something is wrong it's relatively easy to avoid it. But what if you're not sure? What if you think this particular thing is extremely practical and obvious and therefore quite all right? Then it may only be much later, when it's too late, that temptation is recognised for what it really is.
If you live in an area where you've lost everything you possess through a terrible earthquake or flood or volcano so that you have no food and nowhere to lay your head, is it wrong to take from a shop a loaf of bread or a mattress? And if it's not wrong, at what point does looting become wrong, if at all? When something seems to be good practical common sense, how can you determine whether or not it's a temptation?
The second temptation of Jesus was less subtle and rather more impressive. Jesus was transported in a vision to the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem, and told he could fly like Superman because God would take care of him. So this was a religious temptation. He was taken to the centre of his religion and told to trust God, for God can do anything. Why was that wrong? How can it be wrong to place all your trust in God, even when that trust defies common sense?
Back in the Sixties when psychedelic drugs were all the rage, there were a number of reported deaths of youngsters jumping out of windows, because under the influence of the drugs they thought they could fly. But the sad truth is, that human beings can't fly. Jesus may have been divine, but he was also fully human.
It's only in a state of altered consciousness or the deepest depression (which is probably also an altered state of consciousness of some sort) that anyone would even be tempted to jump off the pinnacle of a temple. So perhaps this second temptation was partly about being tempted to act like God himself, and partly about the difficulties of identifying the true voice of God.
There have been tragic cases of people who have been told by some inner voice or voices to commit some terrible act, usually a murderous act. Because they believe that any inner voice must come from God, they act upon it - with disastrous consequences. How do you identify whether or not your inner voice comes from God?
Because this is so difficult, many human beings ignore their intuition or inner voice so that it gradually disappears. It's safer that way. But that's a bit like throwing out the baby with the bath water, for God also speaks through intuition, and those who wish to hear his voice need to develop that faculty, with all its attendant risks.
In all his temptations, Jesus drew on the resources of Scripture to check out whether or not the voices he heard were from God. If some intuition doesn't fit with the general thrust of Scripture, it's very unlikely to be from God.
The third temptation was the least subtle. Almost as though having failed with clever and heavily disguised insinuations, the devil then goes all out and appeals directly to sheer greed. Jesus sees the whole world spread out before him, and becomes aware that through his gifts he could exercise colossal power. The exercise of power is a huge temptation, and we probably all fall prey to it in one way or another.
It's easy to look at public leaders and point the finger, for so many of them abuse power in their relationships and in satisfying their natural greed. But what about us? It's very easy from a position of even slight power to bully verbally or emotionally or physically, those who are less powerful. But it's also very easy for the apparently powerless to resort to manipulation to gain their own way, and that's even more difficult to spot. We all have some power over somebody, especially over our children. How is that power exercised? Is the exercise of power even recognised as temptation?
The encouraging aspect of this story of Jesus in the wilderness is that once the temptations were spotted and identified for what they really were, they then became much easier to spot and eventually ceased altogether.
Most of us are good people. We're probably seldom if ever tempted to break any of the Ten Commandments. But that doesn't mean we're never tempted. Temptation is part of the human condition. The success of the Devil is that temptation is so rarely spotted, because of its subtlety. Perhaps it's only through periods of solitude and silence and fasting that we can ever begin to identify our own temptations. But once identified, then they become easier to spot, and eventually perhaps, they'll cease altogether.
