Sermon for February 26, 2023: Who Will You Listen To? based upon Matthew 4:1-11

Matthew 4:1-11 The Temptation of Jesus

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’ 

But he answered, ‘It is written, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” ’

Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you”,   and “On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” ’

Jesus said to him, ‘Again it is written, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” ’

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour; and he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! for it is written, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” ’
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Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

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​     Today is the first Sunday in Lent. While reading our devotional Seeking: Honest Questions for a Deeper Faith, I found myself appreciating the way the authors approach Lent. The Rev. Danielle Shroyer wrote the introduction to the devotional and invites us to understand Lent as a time for seeking: “seeking clarity, seeking wisdom, seeking a love that makes us whole.” That seems pretty good to me. As a pastor, part of the reason I appreciate both Lent and Advent is the ways that these church seasons can pull us out of the demands of economic systems that demand productivity, isolation, and efficiency and into seasons of connection, meaning-making, and curiosity. The act of seeking is rarely efficient and often done best in community.

     Rev. Shroyer is inviting us to treat Lent not like a search organized on a grid to cover every square inch, but, instead, as an opportunity to listen with fresh ears and see with fresh eyes. For those of you who went birding with our intern Sarah Mills last year, you might remember how Sarah and Rev. Ian Lynch suggested we understand seeking the Holy Spirit to be a little like attending to birds and birdsong. You will experience so much if you can listen and discern what is calling to you. But, it is hard to follow that call if you aren’t listening for it.

     It is likely not an accident that this reading about Jesus being tempted is a suggested text for the first Sunday of the season. This is likely not the beginning of Jesus’ attentive listening to the Holy Spirit. In Matthew, he has already been baptized, which can be recognized as a sign of his following the Spirit, especially when the Spirit affirms his belovedness by God. That same Spirit, it is said, is what led him to the wilderness. He would not be there were he not listening. But, there, in the wilderness, as he is listening, he realizes that he must decide who he’s going to be listening to.

     In her commentary on this text, Aubrey West notes that Jesus is not be punished and is not lost out in the wilderness. That is an important distinction to make as many of us have come to think “being in the spiritual wilderness,” as being in a time of confusion or a time when one feels adrift or far away from God. That’s not what is happening in this story or actually any time Jesus goes into the wilderness in Matthew. The wilderness, those marginal, in-between spaces that many thought to be dangerous, was a place of connection to the Spirit for Jesus. He would listen to the Spirit there and that would empower him to continue with his mission. This first time we see him in the wilderness, we are told that it is a test. I am inclined to agree with the scholar Melinda Quivik that this story has been passed down to us not so that we will assume that The Tempter will show up in our wilderness, but so we can learn something about Jesus, and about the God we know through Jesus, in paying attention to Jesus’ response to temptation. And, one thing we learn is Jesus’ relationship to power.

     These tests, like many tests from antagonistic conversation partners, are from the start obviously not in good faith. “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” Imagine saying something so callous to someone who is hungry. Have any of you ever had to go without food or drink before surgery? I have... very recently. It was a real bummer. And, I only had to do it for about 12 hours. Jesus has been intentionally fasting for days and days. This question was a real provocation. And, yet, Jesus has the resources within himself to see the provocation for what it was: an invitation to use his power to make himself more comfortable. And, that’s not what his power was for.

     The next two temptations are increasingly goading. The tempter takes him to the high point of the temple and says, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you’, and ‘On their hands they will bear you up so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” Isn’t it interesting to have a literal interpretation of Scripture as a temptation for Jesus? Melinda Quivick calls this the temptation to “abandon deep-reading of God’s word by taking it literally.” I think there is also the temptation to use literal reading to shore up an excuse to use power for personal gain. Rev. Shroyer calls this the temptation to use his gifts as a “parlor trick.” Jesus does not fall for this temptation.

     The final temptation is to have a kind of power that comes as the cost of allegiance to one who does not share the same values as God. Jesus is offered all the kingdoms of the world and all they have to offer if he will shift his allegiance away from God to the Tempter. Imagine what good he could do with the power? It is in his response to this temptation that we might see Jesus most clearly. When given the opportunity to have tremendous power over people at the low, low price of all of his devotion and loyalty, Jesus declines. His mission is not about his ego or his ability to dominate creation. That’s what Quivik and Shroyer, in their commentaries, argue this question is about. Will he choose ego and domination or connection and justice? The Jesus we come to know in this passage chooses connection and healing, as Rev. Shroyer says, every time.

     In his commentary for the Isaiah text I read on Ash Wednesday, Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow speaks of this era of the pandemic as a time that is revelatory in the fullest sense of the word. Our personal response and larger communal responses to events of the last three years reveal some things about us and about our communities, some positive. Many negative. But, with revelations come the opportunity for us to consider, as Reyes-Chow puts it, “who we can be and become.” Perhaps this season can be a time when we all can work to cultivate the ability to listen for this Jesus who wielded power with love towards healing and justice. Our reading for the day shows us who Jesus is and how he works in this world. How might we make sure that this Jesus is what Rev. Shroyer calls “right at the center of [our] heart” where we can hear his invitation to take up our cross and follow him?
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Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
Melinda Quivik: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/first-sunday-in-lent/commentary-on-matthew-41-11-5
Audrey West: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/first-sunday-in-lent/commentary-on-matthew-41-11-2
Danille Shroyer's introduction to Seeking: Honest Questions for a Deeper Faith, a devotional developed by Sanctified Art, as well as her devotional entry for the First Week of Lent