Lent 1- The Temptation to Sin
The liturgical seasons generally reflect on the life of Jesus. During Lent we focus on Jesus fasting for 40 days in the wilderness in preparation for his ministry.
In the early church, adults who were preparing to be baptized on Easter spent time in intense spiritual preparation. As they prepared for their new life as Christians, they would focus more intensely on disciplines like prayer, fasting, study, generosity, service, and renunciation of sin. … Christians (who were already baptized) realized that it was helpful to join those who were preparing for baptism at Easter, so they could re-dedicate themselves to Christ through a time of self-evaluation and spiritual discipline. This turned into the season of Lent.
As Lent ends, at the Easter Vigil, a renewal of baptismal vows is a part of that service. We are blessed today to also have a baptism. So, as these baptismal vows are made over Zachary today, as we begin our journey of Lent, we can once again renew our baptismal vows as we start Lent.
Part of baptism is the turning away from sin- turning away from all that draws us away from God, and our readings today teach us a lot about the temptation to sin. This can be helpful because if we see how temptation works, then we are more likely to recognize it and resist it. …
Part of what we are seeing in these readings is that Jesus succeeds where Adam and Eve failed. And this begins Jesus’ work of undoing the damage done by sin that has come into the world. He will create the opportunity for humanity to escape the power of sin.
As we look at our reading from Genesis, we see the famous story about how sin entered the world, and we also see about how temptation to sin works.
God gave Adam and Eve permission to eat from every tree in the Garden except for one- The tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Some people wonder why God would put a tree like that in the garden at all. The explanation I find most helpful is that for love to be genuine, it has to be freely chosen. For Adam and Eve’s love to be real, it had to exist alongside the real possibility of rejection. No one can force you love them. Real love has to be freely chosen. God wants people to freely love Him. The tree provides the possibility for Adam and Eve to reject God. If the command to not eat from that tree didn’t exist, then Adam and Eve wouldn’t really be able to love God because they wouldn’t have the ability to reject God. …
The serpent tempts Eve to doubt God. He and Eve are discussing God’s command to not eat from the tree, and the warning God gave that eating from the tree would result in death. He says,
"You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." The serpent is tempting Eve with the thought that God is keeping something good away from you. … And then we read that Eve sees “that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.”
Notice that there are three things that tempted her to eat the fruit.
There are consequences to rejecting God, who is the source of all love, beauty, peace, and joy. You become distanced from those things. The consequences of rejecting God through eating the forbidden fruit of the knowledge of good and evil is that they will now have to experience evil- they will have to know evil. Up to then, they have only experienced good. The day they eat it, which means the day they reject God, they enter spiritual death. By rejecting God, they distance themselves from the source of all life.
We can learn a lot about temptation from this passage. First, it seems like they were hanging around the forbidden tree. You have the sense that the tree was right in front of them. … Don’t we sometimes do that with those sins that we are most drawn to? We dance around the line. We put ourselves close enough to the sin that we aren’t technically sinning, but we are close enough that it is just in reach.
Then we see the sin as a good thing God is denying us. Maybe we even see God as mean for denying us this thing. Eve didn’t desire the fruit because she desired to be disobedient. Her motivations were to eat the beautiful fruit and obtain wisdom. … That is how sin tends to work in our lives. … Take stealing for example. Wanting money isn’t bad in itself, but stealing as a means to get it causes it to enter into the realm of sin. Pleasure isn’t bad, but when we become addicted to an illegal drug to obtain it, then we enter into the realm of sin. Desiring intimacy with another person is good, but not when the means are an extramarital affair. …
We can see this on a broader scale as well. Did Hitler think he was a bad person? … I don’t think he did. In his mind he was creating an empire that would eventually bring in an era of peace and prosperity. He was following the latest scientific principles of social evolution to help the human race become stronger in the long run. So, he tried to remove those elements of humanity that he thought were “weak” and supported those elements he thought of as “strong”. Did he think he was doing something evil? No, he probably saw what he was doing as a means to a good end. …
Sin, in my own life, and in the lives of those I encounter, seems to be a desire for something good, but the means of obtaining it makes it sinful. We obtain the thing outside of God’s will.
The temptations of Jesus in the wilderness follow a similar pattern. Jesus wasn’t tempted to do evil, he was tempted to do good, … but outside of God’s plan. What was Jesus tempted to do? Jesus is hungry after fasting for 40 days and the Devil tempts Jesus to use his power to turn stones into bread. The desire for bread is a good thing, but his bodily desires are not to be his master. His hunger in fasting is a reminder that
There are consequences to rejecting God, who is the source of all love, beauty, peace, and joy. You become distanced from those things. The consequences of rejecting God through eating the forbidden fruit of the knowledge of good and evil is that they will now have to experience evil- they will have to know evil. Up to then, they have only experienced good. The day they eat it, which means the day they reject God, they enter spiritual death. By rejecting God, they distance themselves from the source of all life.
We can learn a lot about temptation from this passage. First, it seems like they were hanging around the forbidden tree. You have the sense that the tree was right in front of them. … Don’t we sometimes do that with those sins that we are most drawn to? We dance around the line. We put ourselves close enough to the sin that we aren’t technically sinning, but we are close enough that it is just in reach.
Then we see the sin as a good thing God is denying us. Maybe we even see God as mean for denying us this thing. Eve didn’t desire the fruit because she desired to be disobedient. Her motivations were to eat the beautiful fruit and obtain wisdom. … That is how sin tends to work in our lives. … Take stealing for example. Wanting money isn’t bad in itself, but stealing as a means to get it causes it to enter into the realm of sin. Pleasure isn’t bad, but when we become addicted to an illegal drug to obtain it, then we enter into the realm of sin. Desiring intimacy with another person is good, but not when the means are an extramarital affair. …
We can see this on a broader scale as well. Did Hitler think he was a bad person? … I don’t think he did. In his mind he was creating an empire that would eventually bring in an era of peace and prosperity. He was following the latest scientific principles of social evolution to help the human race become stronger in the long run. So, he tried to remove those elements of humanity that he thought were “weak” and supported those elements he thought of as “strong”. Did he think he was doing something evil? No, he probably saw what he was doing as a means to a good end. …
Sin, in my own life, and in the lives of those I encounter, seems to be a desire for something good, but the means of obtaining it makes it sinful. We obtain the thing outside of God’s will.
The temptations of Jesus in the wilderness follow a similar pattern. Jesus wasn’t tempted to do evil, he was tempted to do good, … but outside of God’s plan. What was Jesus tempted to do? Jesus is hungry after fasting for 40 days and the Devil tempts Jesus to use his power to turn stones into bread. The desire for bread is a good thing, but his bodily desires are not to be his master. His hunger in fasting is a reminder that
“One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”
quoting Deuteronomy 8:3. His fasting, and the resulting hunger, have a purpose. It is preparing him for his ministry where he has to rely of his Father’s provision, and prioritize the will of God over his own bodily desires.
The Devil then took Jesus to the top of the temple where he is invited to very publicly throw himself off and allow angels to catch him, which would remove any doubt in the minds of the temple elite that the messiah has arrived. This is a temptation that has to do with his religious identity. … Again, Jesus isn’t tempted to do evil. He is tempted to do good. Jesus will do miracles as a part of his ministry. He is the messiah and he invites people to arrive at that conclusion. … However, the invitation will begin with fishermen and tax collectors in the towns and villages, not with the ruling elite. People were going to believe Jesus was the messiah because
The Devil then took Jesus to the top of the temple where he is invited to very publicly throw himself off and allow angels to catch him, which would remove any doubt in the minds of the temple elite that the messiah has arrived. This is a temptation that has to do with his religious identity. … Again, Jesus isn’t tempted to do evil. He is tempted to do good. Jesus will do miracles as a part of his ministry. He is the messiah and he invites people to arrive at that conclusion. … However, the invitation will begin with fishermen and tax collectors in the towns and villages, not with the ruling elite. People were going to believe Jesus was the messiah because
“the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them” (Matt 11:4-5).
… Jesus is not recognized as the messiah because he impresses the leaders with a miraculous sign (Luke 23:8). The invitation to perform this particular miracle is outside of God’s plan.
Then the Devil tempts Jesus with the promise of giving him all the kingdoms of the world. We might see this as having to do with his political identity. … Having Jesus rule as the king of the world is not a bad thing. His teachings have had incredible political effects in the world. The book of Revelation tells us that Jesus is the “ruler of the kings of the earth”, and the “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Rev 1:5; 19:16). At the end of the Gospel of Matthew Jesus says that “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matt 28:18). That all sounds a lot like being given all the kingdoms of the world. His ultimate destiny is indeed to be King of the whole world. … But not through force, and not by avoiding the cross. His empire is to be built on love. The Devil is tempting Jesus to attain good things- things even appropriate for Jesus to have. The Devil even uses Scripture to support his temptations.
Through all these temptations, Jesus recognizes that he is being tempted to prioritize his own bodily desires over God’s will; and to take shortcuts that prioritize the religious elite over the poor; and to prioritize the use of political and military force to draw people to himself, rather than self-sacrificial love as expressed on the cross.
Jesus is tempted to avoid the way of God- but he is tempted by good things. This is important because unless we realize that we are tempted by good things we will be likely to justify our sin. … Cheating on our spouse is not sin, we just fell in love. We aren’t stealing, we just took what we deserved. We can hurt someone and justify to ourselves that they deserved it- it was justice- they had it coming. … The way sin usually works is that we are obtaining a good thing in a way that is bad. It is attaining some good, some pleasure, in a way that doesn’t fit with the ways of God.
The Bible tells us that “Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Cor 11:14). Temptation will not come to us in a cloud of black smoke, speaking in a raspy voice, wearing horns and carrying a pitchfork. Temptation will come to us as a beautiful good, but avoiding the ways of God, and especially avoiding any cross that God might be asking us to carry. …
All of us fail at this. None of us are leading perfect lives. But, for our own good, and for the good of our communities, God wants to help us get up again when we fall. God is eager to forgive us and to set us back on our feet again. God wants to help us walk the path, and will give us the resources we need. AMEN.
Then the Devil tempts Jesus with the promise of giving him all the kingdoms of the world. We might see this as having to do with his political identity. … Having Jesus rule as the king of the world is not a bad thing. His teachings have had incredible political effects in the world. The book of Revelation tells us that Jesus is the “ruler of the kings of the earth”, and the “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Rev 1:5; 19:16). At the end of the Gospel of Matthew Jesus says that “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matt 28:18). That all sounds a lot like being given all the kingdoms of the world. His ultimate destiny is indeed to be King of the whole world. … But not through force, and not by avoiding the cross. His empire is to be built on love. The Devil is tempting Jesus to attain good things- things even appropriate for Jesus to have. The Devil even uses Scripture to support his temptations.
Through all these temptations, Jesus recognizes that he is being tempted to prioritize his own bodily desires over God’s will; and to take shortcuts that prioritize the religious elite over the poor; and to prioritize the use of political and military force to draw people to himself, rather than self-sacrificial love as expressed on the cross.
Jesus is tempted to avoid the way of God- but he is tempted by good things. This is important because unless we realize that we are tempted by good things we will be likely to justify our sin. … Cheating on our spouse is not sin, we just fell in love. We aren’t stealing, we just took what we deserved. We can hurt someone and justify to ourselves that they deserved it- it was justice- they had it coming. … The way sin usually works is that we are obtaining a good thing in a way that is bad. It is attaining some good, some pleasure, in a way that doesn’t fit with the ways of God.
The Bible tells us that “Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Cor 11:14). Temptation will not come to us in a cloud of black smoke, speaking in a raspy voice, wearing horns and carrying a pitchfork. Temptation will come to us as a beautiful good, but avoiding the ways of God, and especially avoiding any cross that God might be asking us to carry. …
All of us fail at this. None of us are leading perfect lives. But, for our own good, and for the good of our communities, God wants to help us get up again when we fall. God is eager to forgive us and to set us back on our feet again. God wants to help us walk the path, and will give us the resources we need. AMEN.
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