For Others

Luke 4:1-13

Lent 1, March 9, 2025

Holy Trinity Cathedral

“For Others”

The great temptation of our time is choosing who comes first.  We are witnesses to the battles raging between earthly authorities on many levels.  They are battles that involve choices: selfishness or selflessness.  Do you do what is in your best interest?  The best interest of your family?  Your community? Your country?  The decisions we make shape us and tell others who we really are.

In Luke’s gospel, Jesus is at the decision point of his adult life.  He has just been baptized by his cousin John.  The Holy Spirit of God has descended upon him and the voice of heaven has proclaimed, “You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”  What does this all mean for him?  He needs some time alone to think this through, to wrestle with the implications.  So Jesus goes away from family, from friends, from all the powers and authorities, into the wilderness.  Scripture says that he is led by the Spirit, so he is alone but not quite alone.  In the presence of God, he must choose for himself.  That is not the same as being selfish.  But the temptations come in his time alone to underscore how difficult it is to include others’ needs with our own.

It starts small.  Jesus is hungry.  He has been fasting for a long time during his prayers.  The devil comes to him and tells him to use his divine powers to turn a rock into a loaf of bread.  After all, if Jesus is going to have the energy to minister to the world, shouldn’t he start with himself?  Bread would meet his physical need in the moment, but Jesus looks beyond himself to the greater purpose of why he is here on earth.  “One does not live on bread alone”, he replies.  Maybe the devil doesn’t know the end of the verse, but we do: “but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God”.  To speak and demonstrate God’s love for the world, Jesus doesn’t need food for himself, he needs to share it with others.  Later on in his ministry, when Jesus breaks bread and eats with thousands, he affirms how in God’s compassion there is enough for all.  Beyond the material things we can get for ourselves, there is a greater motivation than our personal hunger.

The devil tries again to tempt with a much higher stake.  Satan takes Jesus up high to give him a birds’-eye view of the kingdoms of the world.  “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please.  If you then will worship me, it will all be yours.”  The offer starts with a lie and ends with a catch.  So evil twists and distorts the truth.  All that has been made comes from God and belongs to God, and those who think they own it and have control are operating from a lie.  It is not theirs, no matter how often they say it.  And then the snare is cast tighter with a trade: you get power if you bow down to me.  The choice is to get the illusion of power in return for idolatry. 

From a distance, the world and its inhabitants look very small.  Individuals seem unimportant.  To the devil, we all are!  It is easy to dehumanize and even justify choices when you don’t take into account the ways actual people are hurt and affected.  Maybe that’s why statistics and maps and numbers dull us to the human cost.  When the devil takes Jesus up high, he is counting on the lofty perspective to excite the prospect of being powerful, maybe even the possibility of doing good for those puny little creatures on earth.  But Jesus doesn’t lose sight of his own identity and purpose.  He is not here for his own glory, but to serve the Lord God. 

The devil seizes on this holy declaration.  He takes Jesus up to the pinnacle of the Temple in Jerusalem and tells him to throw himself off, so God can save him.  If he really is God’s son with this wonderful ministry ahead of him, then nothing bad is going to happen.  God will send his angels to guard him against all harm.  What is being insinuated is “don’t you trust God to help you?”  The location is intentionally charged.  On one hand, shouldn’t Jesus feel safest in the place where God’s glory is said to dwell on earth, and in the midst of those who profess to follow his commandments?  On the other, the very holy people that keep the Temple going are the ones who will oppose and condemn what Jesus is going to do.  Jesus, in the presence of the Holy Spirit, sees through the devil’s ploy to challenge his worth.  He is not going to test his immunity.  God’s will be done, whether that leads to death or life.  In his human form, he is bound by what humans can bring about.  The angels have to watch and weep, but not interfere.  Jesus is not in this to save his life, but for God to save the world.

Jesus takes the devil’s use of Holy Scripture and turns it on its head.  The devil is quite capable of taking individual verses from the Bible to try and convince people to turn away from God.  But Jesus refutes his game of using texts for proof.  Instead, he keeps pointing to the great Commandment:  Love God, and love your neighbour as yourself.  There is no room in this summary for selfish operations.  He is not going to manipulate events to come like the devil wants.  Hearts cannot be changed with the promise of material goods, or power, or protection from harm.  Hearts can only be changed by love, and that is something that can never be achieved by selfishness.  Each time the devil tempts Jesus, he tries to get him to choose for his own benefit.  But Jesus chooses with others, with us, in mind.

Jesus is tested, I believe, because we all are tested.   Humans have to make choices, and we can make them selfishly or weighing how they will affect others.  When God came down to earth as Jesus, God entered into our human condition.  That in itself is love in action: to interact with and be limited by others.  Then for Jesus to choose to continue to live in love, rather than to wield divine power and strength, is a further demonstration of God’s love for us.  Each of us has agency and worth, and the capability of choosing rather than being coerced into doing something. 

The temptations are real today.  How do we help each other to make the choices that result in right actions?  How do we help each other resist the ways of selfishness?  If we can look beyond our own personal material needs, our own privilege, and our own protection, then God’s Holy Spirit will be present.  For us, and for others.  Amen.