Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 6 March 2022.
Temptations of Christ, 12th-century mosaic in St Mark’s Basilica, Venice (Source and large image)
• First Reading: Deuteronomy 26: 1-11 (Offering of the firstfruits)
• Psalm 91: 1-2, 9-16
• Epistle: Romans 10: 8-13 (‘Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved’)
• Gospel: Luke 4: 1-13 (Temptation of Jesus)
I think that the first thing that a farmer harvesting his first crops in a new holding would do would be to set by some as a seed corn and a reserve.
But today’s Old Testament lesson instructs the Israelites on their first harvest to worship God – before all else. This was to be their first priority and all the other farm activities would fall into place after that.
It is like a person’s first salary or wage being dedicated to the charity or the church before they had even fed themselves or paid the rent or mortgage.
This is a very high bar of faith but then the Israelites had grown up on the stories of their deliverance from Egypt, their transit of the wilderness and how they had been victorious as they entered the Promised Land, and took possession.
It was a time of radical faith and of confidence in God, the law of Moses was still warm in their hearts and they had seen a generation of miracles.
So yes, the first offering of their harvest was a time of exuberant faith and confidence in God. There was no room for hesitation and no time for excuses.
Looking at Jesus’ temptation, also in the wilderness, there was the same undercurrent of faith.
This time, Satan was wanting to undermine Jesus’ faith in who He was, and what His mission was. Save the world, yes, but how? When? Where? What would be the process and how to start?
The first challenge was, ‘If you are the Son of God’ then be dramatic, seize power, command attention and above all, preserve yourself.
In fact do anything you like so long as you do not go near the cross. Avoid death or suffering – others can do that bit and the deluded have. Do anything and everything you can except strip sin of its power over humanity, and death of its finality.
You can have anything you like so long as you do not make yourself the expiation of human wickedness and rebellion.
And so Jesus was being led, tempted, beguiled and seduced into losing faith in Himself and in God His Father.
The interesting thing is that Jesus did not argue or score points. His response was devastating: it was to submit Himself to the will and command of God: ‘It is written’. Not much more. Jesus would place Himself under the same scriptures that applied to the rest of Israel and there would be no exceptions.
There would be no contextual analysis or advanced criticism. Even if the scriptures contain mysteries that we will understand only when the fulness of the Kingdom of God is manifested, Jesus was willing to place Himself under them in their simplicity, and to do so with a directness that took no argument.
Jesus was not going to enter a theological discussion or discuss the appropriate application of ancient Hebrew. There would be no negotiation.
And so Jesus navigated His way through the temptations to save Himself, avoid the cross and disobey God. All the blandishments which may appeal to others – to feed the poor, entertain the masses, seize power – were met and dismissed by a simple but powerful commitment to the will of His Father.
If there had been room for self-doubt or confusion about means and ends, they were met and dismissed.
Writing to the church in Rome, Paul also deals directly with the challenges of the time. In a city where the power of the Roman Empire was at its peak, and any nuance of opposition would be silenced ruthlessly, his instruction was for the church to stand its ground.
Without Jesus, the church would not exist. But centred in Him, rooted and grounded in Him then the church was built on a rock.
The temptation to nuance the Lordship of Jesus with polite words about multiculturalism, going along to get along were going to be as strong in Rome as anywhere.
Yet Paul is uncompromising in saying that a personal faith in Jesus which was willing to admit to it openly and in public would be the salvation of the church rather than its destruction.
Yes, there may be a personal cost and there may be threats but a simple faith underwriting personal holiness and a direct confession of faith would still be the life-blood of the church.
In our time when the variety of challenges to our way of life lead us into caution, and the playing-down of the place of Jesus, we also are challenged to place our trust in Him above and before all others.
It does not require aggression or bigotry – only a personal conviction that our faith lies in Jesus Christ and none other. It is a confidence in His salvation which He gained on the cross and in His provision for us in our daily lives.
It places Him at the centre of what we are and do and say, and it allows our lives and relationships to find their place and their direction under and within that salvation.
Therefore there is no place for fear – for in Him we already have all things. And He will never fail us or forsake us.
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