What does the Way of Jesus do for You?
Best as I can tell, I’ve only preached on the story of Jesus’ post-baptism temptation one time. This was the second. Ministers have to exegete their context as well as the text each week. Each minister has their own list, their own practice of study and preparation. Here is a short list of my basic questions when I approach a text.
- What did this text mean, if one can know or discern such things from contextual clues and the help of modern scholarship, for the community which first heard it or read it?
- Are there textual variances or other ways to translate the original language other than how the NRSV has presented the text? How does this change the interpretative choices?
- How has Christian tradition interpreted this text?
- How have voices at the edges of tradition or within mainstream Christendom challenged tradition’s interpretation of this text?
- Has this text been used to oppress?
- Is this a text: to teach, stand against, offer a different interpretation, offers comfort, provides a go and do likewise example or an example of what not to do, or that has a archetype character?
- Does this text tell us about the nature of God?
- Who is my audience?
- What is happening locally, in the Nation, and around the world.
- If I was only talking to people who share my theological perspective, what would I say?
- Since I’m talking to a diversity of human experience, economic, education, ethnic, and theological perspective, what is the best language that will be authentic for all of us to proclaim the good news of God?
- I always remember, “Good news to some will almost inevitably be bad news to others.”
(Quote from Rev. Dr. Peter Gomes, The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus: What’s So Good About the Good News?)
You may be thinking, “That’s a short list?” It is for me. Here are the words I offered from the pulpit at Presbyterian Disciples Church in Pawhuska.
The Way of Jesus
Matthew 4:1-11
First Sunday of Lent, 2023
I don’t know what you brought with you to worship today. It might be exuberant joy, deep grief, apathy or ambivalence. It could be that you came for the experience of hospitality, a safe space to be yourself, or that spirit memory of church on Sunday morning. Whatever it may be for you, this morning let us be a witness of the good news of God and remember:
that the Lord’s mercies never cease;
that the Lord’s mercies are new every morning;
and the Lord’s faithfulness extends beyond our ability to see in a mirror dimly, or recognize the image of God in others as well as in our own face.
As you are willing and your spirit able, please join me in a moment of silence and prayer: Open our ears and our hearts, O God, that our meditations, words, and living are a reflection of our faith in You, who creates, who redeems, and who sustains creation and our lives. Amen.
Buckle up church. Here we go.
With the reminder of what the Holy One can do with dust in the rearview mirror, we meet Jesus in the desert. He’s just been baptized. Rather than a fellowship dinner of fish over the fire and wine afterward, the spirit of God has led him out here, to the desert. Most interpreters and tradition encourage Christians to identify with Jesus in this story. That’s a good thing. I’m still a student. I’ve studied the history of Christianity and world history, observed what has become of Christendom during my lifetime, and reflected on my own walk in faith, I wonder if identifying with the “tester” isn’t sometimes more fitting.(1) We want to make God and Jesus transactional, which is an action or activity between two parties that reciprocally affect or influence each other.(2) What do I get out of it? But, I’m not sure that’s a reasoned exegesis of the good news of God. It might help us make sense of living as Jean Valjean sings in Les Mis’erables:
My soul belongs to God, I know, I made that bargain long ago. He gave me hope, when hope was gone. He gave me strength to journey on. Who am I? Who am I?
God, the Holy One, that Jesus pointed to and reflected is covenantal: a relationship not based on what you can get out of it, but based on what you put into it.(3) Do rainbows give you a sense of awe and comfort? God keeps covenant even when humans do not. Maybe that is the temptation of Lent and this desert story, “discovering who am I” the way Jesus did.
Whew, that escalated quickly.
The story goes that a mother was preparing lunch with her young son. They are having grilled cheese sandwiches and soup. She asks him to go into the pantry and get his favorite can of soup. He walked to the pantry and opened the door slightly. He hesitates. “What’s wrong?” mom asks. He says, “I don’t want to go in the pantry. I can’t reach the light. It is dark and it’s scary.” Thinking this is a good learning opportunity the mom replies, “Remember at Vacation Bible School you learned that Jesus is everywhere, all the time, and that Jesus will always help you. Jesus will be in the pantry, so you don’t have anything to be afraid of.” The child thought about it a moment. Opened the door and shouted into pantry, “Hey Jesus. If you are in there could you hand me a can of soup.”
Matthew’s story about Jesus of Nazareth is filtered through the writer’s experience and context, just like all of us. The writer had the Gospel of Mark, and some letters of Paul, as the source material for this story about Jesus, and his proclamation of Jesus as the Christ. Where there is a lack of detail in Mark, Matthew feels obliged to embellish. Where the writer thinks explanation is needed to help the hearer or reader understand or theologize, the writer provides answers from their experience. Similarly, the Lectionary does the same picking and choosing of texts from both testaments to make it appear that the whole biblical witness tells the Christian story about God. You probably have that family story or two that has changed a bit every time it is told by another generation. You’ve probably told it your own way adding a detail or two as you remember it. The same is true of all the gospels.
Matthew’s context was probably a community of believers following the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by Rome around 70 CE. In the ashes of the city and countryside, followers of Jesus, who were Jews and a growing Gentile population, spent a lot of time arguing about: for what and for whom Jesus primarily came to bless, and what kind of kingdom, reign or empire of God Jesus proclaimed. There was a lot of us and them language. Everyone suited up in their team jerseys. There was a lot of finger pointing and placing of blame on the ‘other’ for the destruction of Jerusalem, the death of Jesus, and so much more.
The journey through Lent will turn from Matthew to John next week, and rely on John until we arrive at Palm Sunday. I think of John’s gospel as a theological handbook more than a story about the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth. John is focused on the “Christ of faith,” rather than a poor peasant from Galilee who healed people, challenged religious and political leaders, and taught things like, “love your neighbor as yourself.” When I read John’s gospel, it reminds me that orthodoxy, right belief, has a long, long history of importance, for some, more than orthopraxy, right action. When you think about the way of Jesus, his interactions with Gentiles (all of us), and Jews alike, and all the parables he told, Jesus seems more concerned with what a person does, rather than on what they profess or believe That includes this desert story today.
Tradition encourages that Lent is a time to “test” oneself as Jesus did in the desert. Maybe some definition will help us. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary offers this definition for temptation. It can mean enticement. Something or someone is the cause or occasion that entices one to act.(4)
Digging a bit further to the root, “tempt” it can mean: to entice to do wrong by promise of pleasure or gain; to induce to do something; to cause to be strongly inclined, to try presumptuously (provoke).(5)
If Jesus could only be obedient to the mission that God sent him into the world to accomplish, then this tempting story is not significant because Jesus, by his very nature, could have done no wrong. But, if Jesus had choices and could exercise free will, then the stories of his temptation in the synoptic gospels can provide water for our own desert journeys and our thirst for meaning. We can see in a mirror, dimly, if we are willing to look, at those moments when we’ve been more transactional instead of covenantal with God and with our neighbor.
This desert story humanizes Jesus of Nazareth and makes his journey, his way of living, and his faith in God accessible. Each round of the verbal wrestling match begins with:
“If you are the son of God, then . . .”
Specifically during Lent, but anytime during a day, we are faced with:
“If you are a child of God, then . . .”
“If you are a Christian, then . . .”
Human beings struggle with “temptation.” Being “tempted” is most often used to refer to a negative action, thought, or desire. Rarely, will one find the notion of being “tempted” or “enticed” to do the right thing, but isn’t that what the bell ringers are doing during the countdown to Christmas? We are “tempted,” maybe we prefer “invited,” to participate in this “good” work, this “good” thing, or this “good” experience. The Week of Compassion, One Great Hour of Sharing, and any number of telethons offer images that tempt, entice, induce, or provoke one to participate in helping or showing compassion. In all my life I’ve never heard anyone say, “I was tempted to come to church this morning.” Usually, you hear the other, “tempted to stay home.” “Tempted to go to the lake. “Tempted to go to the golf course.” Temptation is always connected to luring one to do the wrong and seldom considered as an opportunity to choose the path that leads one to faith,
to doing what is right because it is right,
to believe in God,
or to practice of the way of Jesus.
We never think of being provoked, induced, enticed, or tempted, to keep covenant; only breaking covenant.
Do you remember the comic strip, “Calvin and Hobbs”? One of my favorites has Calvin and his lion friend Hobbs walking beside a stream. Calvin asks, “Do you think babies are born sinful? That they come into the world as sinners?” Crossing the stream, balancing on a log, Hobbs replies, “No, I think they’re just quick studies.” The final panel Calvin says, “Whenever you discuss certain things with animals, you get insulted.(6)
Just as Jesus was thinking about his identity during his time with the “tempter”, we, too, continue the conversation today. There are many people, things, institutions, relationships, and systems seeking to define our identity, secure our loyalties, and our action. These are tenuous times, but humanity has lived through wilderness experiences before. Slogans have replaced dialogue, and ideological purity is replacing the common good. The “tempter” doesn’t lie to Jesus about God, but shapes the truth to fit its own purpose.(7) Jesus, too, can quote scripture, but it is the “why,” the motivations of his actions, the tempter’s actions, and our actions, that matter most. Lent can be a time to consider the “why” of your practicing the way of Jesus. Could it be that salvation might equally have something to do with the here and now, rather than the then and there?
In an article titled, “Testing That Never Ceases,” the great 20th century preacher Fred Craddock helps us consider the “why” of our corporate and individual discipleship.
Matthew presents temptation not as a private morality game but as a contest about the shape and nature of ministry. Jesus will soon preach good news to the poor and release to captives, relieve the bruised, cleanse lepers, and heal the blind and crippled. Of course, he will be opposed immediately. Forces that traffic in human misery and reap huge profits from the poverty of others will try any means to turn him from such a ministry. The world hardly has changed. Every church engaged in the ministry of Jesus knows painfully well that there is another team on the field and it is often surprising and disappointing to learn who their members are. Of course, churches that do not extend themselves in addressing human need seldom if ever face opposition.
Fred Craddock, “Testing That Never Ceases”, The Christian Century, February 28, 1990, p. 211.
Sometimes we treat the story of Jesus like we must follow a pattern to re-create the story, exactly the same, over and over again. Somewhere out there in the next weeks, Jesus will remind his disciples that they will do even greater things than he did.
I’ve watched my mother sew all my life. I’ve watched her follow patters precisely. Cut along the edges. Lay out the pieces. What is the best stitch to use to join a sleeve to the shirt? Over the years as her skill and confidence have grown. She made my sister’s multilayered, ruffled wedding dress without a pattern. She rarely uses patterns anymore. She can disassemble and reassemble with confidence. She can mend, take in a dress, shorten a hem, add a snap, a button, and lengthen a cuff with ease. Last December she fixed a jacket I bought by moving a button so it matched the button hole that was off by ¾ of an inch. She shortened the sleeves and lining about half an inch.
Over the years, mom has turned her attention to machine embroidery and now quilting. Macular degeneration is making her eyes go dim, so she needs lots of light to see. I’m pretty sure she does some of the work by muscle memory and trust around the machines that have enriched her life, and those who have received the work of her hands and heart. The finished suit, dress, jacket, shirt, or quilt is amazing, but it is the stitching, and with the quilts it is the stitching and backing, that make something made for the journey. Something made to last a good long while.
A final thought. What does the way of Jesus do for you? There is a lyric from a Broadway show that sums it up for me. I don’t know if the way of Jesus has changed me for the better, but I do know I’ve been changed for good.(8)
As odd as it is going to sound, I trust this season of Lent will be filled with opportunities for you to be tempted by the way of Jesus, “for good.” Through this journey you might find the wisdom and clarity of the Appalachian poet, Wendell Berry who wrote:
There is a day
Wendell Berry, Sabbath Poems. 1997, VII
when the road neither
comes nor goes, and the way
is not a way but a place.
May God bless you along the journey in faith.
Notes
1. Jim Hansen, “It’s Tempting.” Spirit in the Desert,(spiritinthedesert.org) February 22, 2023.
2. “Transaction.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transaction. Accessed 25 Feb. 2023.
3. A definition of biblical covenant by Rev. Dr. Lisa Davison, Johnny Eargle Chadieux Professor of Hebrew Bible, Phillips Theological Seminary.
4. “Temptation.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/temptation. Accessed 25 Feb. 2023.
5. “Tempt.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tempt. Accessed 25 Feb. 2023.
6. Bill PWatterson, Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat: A Collection of Calvin and Hobbes. Andrews and McMess, A Universal Press Syndicate (Kansas City) 1994.
7. See: Dylan’s Lectionary Blog for a fuller exploration of this idea from her post in 2005.
8. Elphaba and Glinda share a duet, “For Good,” near the end of Wicked. Lyrics by Stephen Schwarts, 2003.