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Meet Father KempFirst Sunday in Lent – 21 February 2010
In Brideshead’s Revisited, Evelyn Waugh said this about memories, “These memories…were always with me. Like the pigeons of St. Mark’s, they were everywhere, under my feet, singly, in pairs, in little honey-voiced congregations…until, suddenly, the noon gun boomed and in a moment, with a flutter and sweep of wings, the pavement was bare and the whole sky above dark with a tumult of fowl.”[1] Scripture, like a pigeon, has this ability to be silently omnipresent, noisily moving about your feet, forcing you to look where you step to avoid treading on it and then suddenly exploding with a mighty rushing sound clamoring for our full attention. The opening verse of our Epistle, “We…beseech you…that ye receive not the grace of God in vain” was like a pigeon this week, always lurking around my mind and suddenly, when I would least expect it while I was supervising children at recess or giving Gunder a bath, it would explode into clear sight. “We…beseech you…that ye receive not the grace of God in vain…” Grace: “God’s favorable disposition toward undeserving sinners and a transforming power in the soul,”[2] can be given in vain. This verse upset my stomach and churned my mind. How? Why? When can grace be given in vain? This is not a question we often ask because it is a frightening question, possibly because the answer is Scripturally clear: Grace is given in vain when the seed of grace God the Father has planted in our lives fails to produce fruit such as love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance.[3] So then, we must ask how our lives can fail to produce fruit. We find a Scriptural answer in our gospel lesson from two Sundays ago in Jesus’ parable of the sower. Sometimes the enemy takes the seed of grace from our lives before it has a chance to take root. Sometimes the seed of grace quickly spouts but finds our lives rootless and shallow and fail to produce fruit. Sometimes the seed of grace is planted in a life that has also been seeded with numerous temptations and as the seed of grace grows into a plant, it is choked out by temptations. I believe this third scenario is common, all too common. Thus, our question this morning is how can the seed of grace overcome the thistles of temptation?
Our lesson from the Gospel today, Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, is perhaps the best place to begin. We will look at this story from two perspectives. First, Jesus’ actual temptations. At the end of Jesus’ forty days of fasting and prayer in the desert, Satan tempted him three times. (By the way, if the only begotten Son of God demonstrated his love for His Father through fasting, how much more should we, adopted children of God, fast.) The Scriptures teach that Jesus was tempted in everyway we are, thus, Jesus’ three temptations will provide insight into our common temptations. The second perspective we will explore is how Jesus overcame his temptations. Scripture commands us to be conformed to the image and likeness of Jesus, thus Jesus is our best example of how to overcome temptations that threaten to choke out the fruit of grace.
Jesus’ first temptation was to turn a common stone into a loaf of bread. This temptation is both a temptation of physical desire – Jesus had not eaten for forty days and was quite hungry – and a temptation to use his power as the Son of God to get what He wanted. This temptation alludes to Israel’s wandering in the wilderness when they continually rebelled against God because they were hungry. Thus, one commentator said, “Israel demanded its bread but died in the wilderness; Jesus denied himself bread, retained his righteousness, and lived by faithful submission to God’s word.”[4] This temptation also alluded to the temptation of Adam, who was tempted into sin by food. Jesus however was not like Israel or Adam he overcame his temptation. We are tempted in a similar fashion. Many temptations are about physical desires – the desire for sex, food, comfort, and ease. Furthermore, many of temptations are to use power and force needlessly and recklessly to get what we want – the reckless use of parental power that forces our children to conform to our desires and the subtle powers we deploy to win arguments. These temptations, if not nipped in the bud will choke out the seed of grace.
Jesus’ second temptation was to jump off the pinnacle and demand the angels to cushion his fall. This temptation was a temptation to presuppose God’s gracious care and protection or to manipulative God. This temptation alluded back to Israel wandering in the desert when they demanded water and put God to the test. This temptation also alluded to Moses who tempted God in the wilderness when he struck a rock to procure water for Israel rather than speak to the rock as God had commanded. Jesus however was not like Israel or Moses he overcame his temptation. We are tempted to make similar presuppositions or bribes to God. We are continually tempted to the quid pro quo, to make our relationship with God conditional upon his blessings (If you do this, then I will do that). We are tempted to demand that God forgive us of our sins while not forgiving those who have sinned against us. We are tempted to demand forgives but then not attempt to eradicate those habitual sins. We are tempted to demand that God credit Christ’s righteousness to our account but then not make any effort to conform to the likeness or image of Christ. These temptations, if not overcome, will destroy the fruit of grace.
Jesus’ third and final temptation was to receive the kingdoms of the world in exchange for worshipping Satan, in other words, idolatry. In many ways, this temptation alluded to the entirety of Israel’s history, a history full of stories describing Israel’s desire to short cut God’s promises through idolatry. This temptation also alluded to Solomon who, through grace, had wealth, riches and power over many kingdoms, but exchanged God’s blessings for idolatry. We face the same temptation to idolatry every day. For every promise God has made, Satan has made a counterfeit promise, a counterfeit that is always easier and less demanding, and a counterfeit that requires only a little idolatry: just a little wink to god Mammon, just a little bow to Aphrodite, just a little homage to Dionysius. If, however, we prostrate ourselves before idols, the grace of God will have been given to us in vain.[5] All of these temptations – the temptations of physical desire, manipulation, and idolatry – will choke out the seed of grace.
Therefore, these temptations need to be overcome, so how can we frail humans, who are prone to wander, overcome temptation. We overcome temptation the same way the Jesus overcame his: through the appropriate use of Scripture because Scripture is a means of grace and when grace through Scripture continually waters the seed of grace, it will grow strong, deep and healthy roots that wrap around the anchoring rock of Jesus Christ and produce fruit. So let us look at Jesus’ use of Scripture in greater detail.
When Satan tempted Jesus with physical desires, Jesus responded by quoting Deuteronomy 8:3, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” We must know scripture; it is like a GPS system that redirects our physical desires to godly and appropriate ends when our desires are tempted to wander. However, when satan tempted Jesus to test God, satan misquoted Scripture. Jesus’ answer, Deuteronomy 6:16, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God” shows that mere knowledge of scripture is not enough, scripture must be correctly interpreted. Correct interpretation of Scripture requires great diligence, perseverance and a surrounding community of Christians that lovingly corrects our mistakes. Finally, when Satan tempted Jesus to idolatry, Jesus again replied with scripture, quoting Deuteronomy 6:13, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God.” Jesus’ answer shows that scripture cannot be merely known and mere interpreted correctly, it must be applied to our lives. In other words, knowledge and interpretation do nothing if they are not applied to our life. Thus, to overcome life’s temptations we must know Scripture, we must interpret it correctly, and we must apply it to our lives.
In many ways, temptations are like little moles, nocturnal animals that scurry about in the dark, but quickly hide when the sun’s rays pierce the darkness. They, then, lurk underground eating away at the roots of productive plants waiting for a shadow, waiting for us to turn our back to the sun and then suddenly they burst forth from the ground and cause us to stumble. Scripture is a continual light upon our path, a light that keeps the moles of temptation buried deep in the ground, a light that repels our temptations. Scripture is our light because it reveals God’s character, it reveals God great historical acts of salvation, and it reveals the eternal light of God’s Son, Jesus, who overcame his temptations, lived a perfectly faithful life, and became our atoning sacrifice. His death and resurrection destroyed the power of sin and sins weapon of temptation. Finally, through Christ we are forgiven when we fail. Christ’ forgiveness is not an excuse to give into temptation; rather it gives us the freedom to boldly battle temptation. Therefore, for those in Christ, temptation no longer has any hold, temptation can be overcome for all those in Christ have been given eyes to see, ears to hear, minds to understand, and a heart to apply the words of Scripture.
[1] Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited, (beginning of Book II, chapter 1) pg 225.
[2] Simon Chan, Spiritual Theology, pg 89.
[3] Murray Harris answers this question in these words, “How would they fail, or show they had failed, to profit from that grace? By refusing to purify themselves from everything that contaminated body and spirit, or allowing a chasm to develop between faith and conduct, or embracing a different gospel – one based on law keeping as the ground of acceptance before God.” Murray Harris, II Corinthians, Expositors Bible Commentary, Vol. 10 ed. by Frank Gaebelein, pg 355. I believe a failure to produce the fruit of the Spirit (the down payment of what is to come, the Father’s guarantee of grace) is the same as the failure to purify oneself from contamination.
[4] D.A. Carson, Matthew, Expositors Bible Commentary, Vol. 8 ed. by Frank Gaebelein, pg. 113.
[5] One further thing should be said about Jesus’ temptation, there is a grand irony Jesus’ temptations for God the Father gave Jesus the very things satan tempted him with. As someone has said, “Jesus had refused to relieve his hunger by miraculously turning stones in bread; now he is fed supernaturally. He had refused to throw himself off the temple heights in the hope of angelic help; now angels feed him. He had refused to take t shortcut to inherit the kingdom of the world; now he fulfills Scripture by beginning his ministry and announcing the kingdom.”
