Cedar Valley Lutheran Church
Lent 1C March 9, 2025 Luke 4:1-11
I don’t know if you know this, but only two of the four gospels offer a detailed version of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. The gospel of John doesn’t mention it at all. And the gospel of Mark uses only two sentences to tell us that the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness, that he was there for forty days, that Satan tempted him, that wild beasts kept him company, and angels waited on him. That is it! That’s all Mark thought we needed to know about this important time in Jesus’ life.
So, anything else you remember about his temptation in the wilderness, you are remembering from either Matthew or Luke’s gospels. They are the only two who tell us the most about what the devil said and what Jesus said in reply. And what the devil says, among other things, proves that the devil knows the scriptures. He knows exactly where to go in the Bible to find the verses he needs to put Jesus to the test. But Jesus knows more than what the scriptures say, Jesus knows how to apply the heart – the essence – of the scriptures that is in keeping with the heart and essence of God’s will.
Every time the devil tempts Jesus, he offers him more … more nourishment, more power, more protection. And every time, Jesus turns him down. He says “no” to the bread, “no” to the kingdoms, and “no” to the angelic bodyguards who could protect him from danger. Jesus knows he doesn’t need more because he is already full – full of what matters the most – full of trust in God’s goodness, full of confidence in being a dearly beloved child of God. There is nothing more that Jesus needs than a deep and abiding relationship with all that is divine and holy.
Oh, how easy it is for us to fall victim to the temptation of “more” that Satan throws at us. Just think about the barrage of advertising most of us are subjected to in the media. Nine out of ten times the goal of such ads is to create a sense of how much we lack and how inadequate we are. And those ads always uses those false fears to promise that if we just buy what they are selling, we will be happy and satisfied.
Every single day these tempting messages offer us meager substitutes that try to keep us from living in that beautiful relationship God wants us to enjoy. They all want to offer us more when God’s love and forgiveness and grace alone are more than enough.
From Ash Wednesday through Holy Week, Christians are invited to go without something they are perfectly capable of having. Lent is what we call it. The word comes from the Old English word, “lencten”, referring to the lengthening of days in the spring. It is not only a reference to the time of year when, as the days get longer, new life pushes itself out of the ground. It is also talking about the new life that is happening during Lent to the human soul. Lent is about pruning with repentance and fertilizing with fasting and watering with self-examination and tending with prayer. All of this is done so that our soul can bud and blossom with the peace that passes understanding and the joy that knows no end.
Now, I will be the first to admit that it took a long time to learn that Lent wasn’t about punishing myself for being a sinful human being. And it took me even longer to figure out that it wasn’t about giving up chocolate or potato chips or something else that I enjoy. So, I don’t blame anyone who has decided to just let go of making such Lenten sacrifices.
What I hope you understand, however, is that Lent is not about self-denial or resisting temptation. Instead, it is about claiming the fact that the love and grace of God that was poured out for us on the cross is enough. God loves us and will keep loving us no matter what and that is sufficient. We don’t need anything more.
Pentecost 7B July 7, 2024 Mark 6:1-13
We see in our gospel reading for today the continuation of a theme that has been running through the life and ministry of Jesus from the beginning. Again and again, Jesus has been forced to deal with rejection: rejection for what he teaches, rejection for what he does, and rejection for who he is.
The Pharisees criticize him for healing on the Sabbath. His disciples chastise him for sleeping in the middle of a stormy sea. Even his mother and his family try to get him to stop working so hard because his zealousness is proving to be an embarrassment to them. And today, Jesus returns to his hometown of Nazareth and it happens again. The people who sat next to him in worship, who celebrated with him at festivals, who watched him play and grow up, can’t accept what he has become.
At first, listening to Jesus teach in the synagogue, these family friends and neighbors are astonished by his eloquence and spiritual insight. They are impressed: “Where did he learn all of this?” they ask each other. “How did he get to be this good?” they wonder. “When did he get so wise all of a sudden?” they question. “After all, he is one of us. Up until recently he was just a local handyman, patching our roofs, framing our doors, and fixing our wobbly tables and chairs.” What happened? Where did Jesus get all of this?
Well, the answer to their questions is that he got all of this from them. He got it from his parents and siblings and relatives. He got it from his teachers at the synagogue. He got it from the values kept by his neighbors and from the stories he learned of his hometown heroes and his local scallywags. Jesus, in essence, is a mirror, showing them who they are and the role they played in shaping his identity and his place in the world. And the same is true for us. So much of what it is that makes us who we are and the things we do is shaped by our environment. And the history we carry and the people who have left a mark on our lives play a big part in our identity.
But their amazement suddenly shifts and they take offense at him. Someone in the crowd – perhaps a jealous neighbor, or maybe a childhood rival, or possibly the village gossip who loves to stir up trouble – questions the fact that Jesus has stepped out of his lane and ignored his place in the community. “He was one of us and now he thinks he’s something more – he has become something we didn’t expect him to be – something that doesn’t fit into the box we put him in.” And their doubts leave him powerless to do what he would love to do for them – what he has done for so many others.
But before we judge them too harshly, let’s imagine that we are also standing among his homies wondering the same thing ourselves. Like them, how often have we missed the holy among us because we could only see what we wanted to see? How often have we missed the new thing God is doing in Jesus because what we could only see is the old and familiar? How often have we not allowed Jesus to surprise us?
I remember something a wise friend told Pam and me when we were newly married. She said that we should surprise each other every once in a while with something unexpected. That surprise, she said, keeps the intrigue and the mystery of love alive in a relationship. I believe that part of the gospel mission for us involves an element of surprise. Because our openness to being surprised, keeps us open to the intrigue and mystery of God’s deep love for us so that it doesn’t get old and boring and meaningless.
My prayer for you, my friends, is that when you listen to Jesus you can hear a new thing God is doing underneath the comfortable traditions and the familiar habits of your faith. I pray you will be surprised by the mystery of the abundant life God has for you in Jesus – a life filled with love and grace … with mercy and forgiveness … with freedom and peace. May you have the eyes to see and the ears to hear the surprising good news God has for you in Jesus Christ, our Lord.