First Sunday in Lent
Luke 4:1-13
February 21, 2010                                                                                                   

 

Son of God

            Have you tried to get a driver’s license lately?  Gone are the days when you could take the test, pay the fee, and walk out with a really bad photo of yourself on a brand new driver’s license.  Now you have to provide at least two forms of identification, one of which has to be either an official social security card or an original or certified copy of your birth certificate.

            A friend of mine, who doesn’t drive, had to go to the DMV to get a photo i.d.  My friend was born in New Jersey, but I don’t hold that against him.  He presented his social security card and a certified copy of his birth certificate, and that’s when the trouble started. His name was not spelled the same way on both documents.  The name on his birth certificate was misspelled.  All these years he thought he knew who he was.  Turns out, so far as the State of New Jersey was concerned, he was somebody else.  Therefore the Sate of Florida wasn’t about to issue him a photo i.d.  It took months to sort out his official identity. 

            In Luke’s Gospel the identity of Jesus is a given.  We know who he is from the start.  He’s the Son of God.  In chapter one of Luke’s Gospel the angel Gabriel appears to Mary and scares the daylights out of her by announcing that she will become pregnant before her wedding day. The child who will be born to her, says the angel, “will be called the Son of God.” 

            Mary swallows hard and replies, “Let it be to me according to your word.”  Such courage.  It still astounds me.

            And just in case we didn’t get the message after reading about the remarkable events surrounding Jesus’ birth – the shepherds, the angels and all the rest – Luke tells us that when Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended on him like a dove and a voice from heaven said, “You are my Son, the Beloved. With you I am well pleased.”

            As icing on the cake, Luke inserts a genealogy of Jesus right after the account of his baptism.  Here is evidence enough to impress even the State of New Jersey.  Starting with Joseph, Luke traces Jesus’ lineage all the way back to the beginning.  I’ll skip the intervening grandfathers and read you the last few on the list :“son of Methuselah, son of Enoch, son of Jared, son of Mahalaleel, son of Cainan, son of Enos, son of Seth, son of Adam, son of God.”

            If we haven’t got Luke’s message by now, we’re just not paying attention.  Jesus is the Son of God.  That’s why I think the New Revised Standard Version gets it wrong when it translates the words of the devil as he tempts Jesus in the wilderness.  “If you are the Son of God . . .” the NRSV reads.  But the Greek could be rendered in another way. I think the devil is saying, “Since you are the Son of God.”

            It makes a difference, doesn’t it?  The story is not so much about who Jesus is, as it is about how he is going to be the Son of God.  The devil is not asking him to prove his true identity.  Instead he’s tempting Jesus to become someone he was never meant to be. 

            The devil makes three attempts.  In the first temptation, Jesus is hungry.  No wonder. He’s been fasting for 40 days and nights.  Picking up a good-sized stone, the devil casually says, “Since you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” 

            Now that Kathleen Engstrom is baking those homemade loaves for Communion, I no longer picture that stone as a potential loaf of pale, white Wonder Bread.  Now I can’t help but imagine one of Kathleen’s brown, hefty, healthy loaves, full of natural grains and baked with love.  What, in heaven’s name, could be wrong with that? 

            Nothing if, like Kathleen, you make the bread from scratch, giving thanks to the God from whom all blessings flow.  You mix the dough.  You let the yeast rise.  You knead and pat and shape the loaf.  It’s not magic.  Bread making is a spiritual exercise. 

            The devil is tempting Jesus to misuse his identity – to twitch his nose and perform a magic trick.  The time will come when Jesus will produce bread -- more than enough bread to feed the multitude.  Just now, however, he’s fasting; he’s listening to God.

            “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’  Luke leave us to finish the quotation from Deuteronomy, “but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

            So, first things first.  First God, then that loaf of Kathleen’s bread.  Since Jesus is the Son of God, he refuses to take a shortcut.

            Next the devil offers Jesus a career in politics. He shows him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world, with all their glory and power, and makes an outrageous offer.  “You see all this?  It’s mine.  I own it.  I can give it to anyone I please.  If you’ll just worship me, it will all be yours.”

            You’ve got to admire the sheer audacity of the devil.  He doesn’t own squat.  Those kingdoms don’t belong to him.  They belong to God.  “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.”   He’s bluffing, and you and I know it. 

            The question is, will Jesus take the bait?  Will he be the Son of God by behaving like any other run-of-the mill potentate?  Will he be Caesar?  Will be Pharaoh?  Will he be Lyndon Johnson?  Will he fall for the devil’s lie?   

            Will Willimon relates an incident in which the great Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder got into a debate with someone at a church meeting. Yoder had been arguing his "pacifism" and the other man was countering with his "just war" theory. Finally the man said, "Well, though we disagree, at least we are both trying to worship the same God. Right?"

            Yoder replied quietly, "I don't think we are."

            Years ago, when the war in Afghanistan began, I invited this congregation to pray for those in military service. I did that because I grew up during the Viet Nam War. I had a very small part in the anti-war movement, but I saw how badly soldiers were treated by those of us who opposed that war.  I didn’t want to repeat that mistake. 

            The United Sates launched “Operation Enduring Freedom” in Afghanistan in October of 2001.  The war expanded to Iraq in March of 2003, and now the attention is on Afghanistan again.  All this time, our congregation has continued to pray for servicemen and servicewomen, but I fear that our prayers for them might be misinterpreted.  Concern for those who serve should not be equated with support for never-ending war.  We must not equate faithfulness to Jesus Christ with uncritical allegiance to the state.

            The devil does not own us.  The state does not own us.  We belong to God.  Jesus, the Son of God, refused the devil’s offer to assume the power of the sate. 

             “It is written, “Worship the Lord your God and serve only him.”

            Finally, the devil takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and suggests he go for the gold.  “The judges are ready.  The cameras are rolling.  Go ahead.  Jump!  Since you are the Son of God, a flock of angels will catch you before you hit the ground.” 

            This, it seems to me, is the most American of the three temptations.  The devil is tempting Jesus to wow ‘em in the aisles, to dazzle the crowd, to don the sequenced outfit and give the folks a really good show.  Jesus, the ultimate showman.  Jesus, the new American idol.

            The real Jesus will have nothing to do with the devil’s suggestion.  Since he is the Son of God, he has nothing to prove to him or to us.  His sonship will take a different course. It will take him to Jerusalem, and to Gethsemane, and to Golgotha.  His sonship will not lead to glory before it takes him to the cross.

            “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”

            I wonder if, like me, you are just a little disappointed with Jesus in each of these temptations.  It would be nice to have a Savior who would end world hunger with a single command, who would take control of corrupt or inept governments, who would fly off the top of tall buildings and land without breaking a finger nail.  That would be impressive, wouldn’t it? 

            That would be our way.  Certainly that would be the devil’s way.  But it’s not God’s way. 

            The good news in this story is that Jesus is not the Son of God we want, but he is the Son of God we need.  He saves not on our terms, but on God’s. 

            Since Jesus is the Son of God, we must follow him on the path he has chosen.  If we find ourselves following some other Savior down some easier path suggested by the devil, or the culture, or by our own predispositions, we need to stop, turn around, and retrace our steps.  We won’t find Jesus on our own terms.

            In a nutshell, that is what the season of Lent is all about.  It’s about finding the real Son of God and following him, for he is the way, the truth, and the life. 

 

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