Look for the Resister

A sermon preached at Niles Discovery Church, Fremont, California,
on Sunday, February 26, 2023, by the Rev. Jeffrey Spencer.
Scripture:  Matthew 4:1-11
Copyright © 2023 by Jeffrey S. Spencer

There are two moments in the narrative arcs of the gospels when I’m quite certain that Jesus is wrestling with who he is. The second happens when he asks the disciples who the crowds think he is and who they think he is. When Peter says tells Jesus he is God’s anointed one, the Christ, Jesus responds by explaining that this means he will be persecuted, prosecuted, and executed. It is as if in that moment, in the moment of Peter calling Jesus the Christ, that Jesus reaffirms the identity he has known since his baptism and at the same moment realizes where this identity will lead him. “You’re right, Peter. I am the son of the living God. And that means the principalities and powers will kill me.”

Peter will have none of that and he tries to convince Jesus otherwise. Jesus rebukes Peter and he does so by calling Peter, “Satan.” “Get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling-block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”^[1]

We heard the first time that I see Jesus deeply wrestling with who he is in today’s gospel reading. What we didn’t hear in today’s reading is what comes immediately before. Jesus was actually already in the wilderness, despite what the gospels say about the Spirit leading Jesus into the wilderness. He’d come out to the wilderness, to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. There were crowds there, so Jesus wasn’t alone when John dunked him under the water. But it wasn’t the crowds that Jesus heard when he was baptized. What Jesus heard was a voice from heaven calling him “Beloved Son.”

And that, I think, is why the Spirit led him deeper into the wilderness, into the wilderness by himself: To wrestle with what it means to be the beloved child of God.

The 40 days of Lent have long been (and perhaps always been) associated with the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness fasting and praying. In the ancient scriptural imagination, “40” plus a unit of time was a shorthand way of saying, “for a long time.” Jesus was out in the wilderness fasting for 40 days. In other words, he was out there for a long time. “40” also shows up often enough in the scriptures that its appearance here calls to mind other 40s. In the time of Noah, it rained for 40 days (Genesis 7:12). During the Exodus, Moses spent 40 days without food on Mount Sinai (Exodus 34:28). Elijah went on a 40-day journey to Mount Horeb without food – sort of a forced fasting (1 Kings 19:8). The newly freed Hebrew people spent 40 years of wilderness wandering (Deuteronomy 8:2). Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness reminds us of other times God connected with people through the number 40.

I think a key to understanding Matthew’s story of Jesus’ time in the wilderness is to focus on both the temptations he resists and the way he resists them. Jesus’ three responses to the temptations are all quotations from Deuteronomy. That’s actually the prime reason I picked The Message for the telling of this story – it makes it clear that Jesus is quoting the fifth book of the Torah.

Deuteronomy is a retelling of the story of the flight from Egyptian slavery and the receiving of the divine law that made this ragtag group of former slaves into a community of God’s people. Jesus relies on scripture, this scripture to resist temptation.

One way of looking at the first temptation is to see it as being about comfort. Look, the devil purrs, you’re really hungry. Have a nosh. The thing is, this temptation is also about power. Hey, you won’t owe me anything. You have the power to turn these stones into bread all on your own. And this temptation is also about trust. You don’t need God to sustain you. Use your power to meet your own needs.

I think Jesus sees all the layers of this temptation. In quoting from Deuteronomy 8 in response, Jesus signals that he understands the stakes. He sees the connection between his situation and the 40 years the Hebrews spent in the wilderness. God met their needs in the wilderness, feeding them with manna, and God will meet Jesus’ needs. God is the true source of all we need, physically and otherwise.

We see similar layers in the second temptation. At one level, the temptation is about security (prove that you’re God’s beloved). And it’s about power (you can make God act). And it’s about ego (you’re so important God will break the laws of nature to rescue you). Jesus’ response to all three of these layers is to proclaim that he has no need to put God to a test.

And there are similar layers in the third temptation. A one level, the temptation is about glory (worship me, and all this can be yours). And it’s about power (all the kingdoms of the world will be yours). And it’s about fidelity (bow down and worship me). I suppose Jesus’ one-line response, “Worship the Lord your God and serve only God,” is a lot quicker than reminding the devil about how pointless it is to worship idols, even if they are pretty, golden calves. The point that Jesus makes is clear: “God is the graceful fountain not only of nourishment, but also of loving-kindness and graceful, genuine power – not the anxious, cheap power peddled by the tempter.”^[2]

What does it mean to hear God say, “You are my beloved child in whom I am well pleased”? Having heard that, what does it say about who Jesus is and how he’s supposed to live out that identity? I think the devil’s temptations are as much about Jesus’ wrestling with that identity as they are about anything else. That’s one of the reasons I like that little animation^[3] we saw during the Time with the Children. Did you notice that Satan looked just like Jesus, just a little slicker? We can see these temptations about his identity as coming from within. Jung might say they are coming from his shadow self.

Jesus is trying to figure out, is being God’s beloved child about comfort, security, glory, power, trust, security, and ego? Or is being God’s beloved child about other things? Is being God’s beloved child about a humble, open-handed reliance on God, about a deep, abiding trust in God, about dwelling in and acting from the unconditional love of God? In resisting the temptations of embracing the things his shadow side might have claimed being the beloved child of God is all about, Jesus looks for and finds love in the right place.

One of the many things I like about these temptation stories is that they remind us of how human Jesus was. Jesus was still subject to the same weaknesses, desires, and temptations that affect all of humanity. He got hungry, just like everybody else. We see his struggles and fears were just as gut wrenching as anyone else’s. Jesus figuring out how to justly use his power was just as challenging for him as it is for the rest of us. And I like that we see Satan at work trying to do to Jesus what Satan succeeds in doing to so many: convincing Jesus to fill up a space meant solely for love with material things that fall short.

Marcia McFee reminds us, “Food, security, and power are all things we can tend to hoard to excess. And I think that is the case because we tend to use these ‘earthly’ things to meet a spiritual or sometimes emotional deficit within us. Excessive eating can become a coping mechanism for some who are traumatized or plagued with self-loathing or excessive stress. We are surrounded by temptations to feel more secure … And the temptation for power, status, or prominence can often distract us from the real work God is calling us to do.”^[4]

When I think looking for love in the right places, I think we can look for the resisters, for the people who have resisted evil successfully (you know, like Jesus). And we can look for other resisters, too, people like you and me who are struggling as best we can. I bet you know some successful (or at least semi-successful) resisters personally, people who resist evil that pulls at them from within themselves, and people resist evil that is at work outside themselves.

We can find love in both kinds of resistance. The evil that comes from within can cause us to fall into traps of excess and/or addiction, and it can cause us to fall into the lie that says we are unloveable. The evil that comes from outside us can lead us into judgmentalism, fury, and violence.

So many people go through life believing that “Our fundamental identity is that we are sinners in need of a Savior.”^[5] I find that so sad because I believe our fundamental identity is beloved children of God. We are created in love. We are created for love. We are created good, holy, blessed. It is when we forget that identity, when Satan tempts us with a false identity or a false way of living out our identity, that we are in need of a Savior, a Savior who will show us the path of resistance and lead us back to love.

Amen.

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[1] Matthew 16:23, NRSV.

[2] SALT commentary, https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/trust-saltlectionary-commentary-lent-1-year-a (posted 20 February 2023, accessed 23 February 2023).

[3] See “40 – A Video of Jesus in the Wilderness,” https://youtu.be/P-6a25Yo2wE.

[4] Marcia McFee, sermon fodder from the “Lookin’ for Love in all the Wrong Places” worship series, available at www.worshipdesignstudio.com.

[5] See, for instance, Kevin DeYoung, Twitter, https://twitter.com/RevKevDeYoung/status/1625556457679687693 (posted 14 February 2023).