Come
with me for a moment. Close your eyes and daydream about
something you have always longed to do. Perhaps you
wanted to parachute out of an airplane, sing in an
opera, go scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, climb
Mt. Everest, run a marathon, or walk on the moon. Some
of these are achievable, aren't they? But what would it
take? Time, money, dedication, and a lot of training.
But, none the less achievable.
I know, because when I was in my
30's I actually achieved a couple of these. I spent a
year running six days out of the week in training and
progressed from 2 miles a day to actually finishing the
26.____ grueling miles along the shoreline of Honolulu,
Hawaii finishing up and over Diamond Head. A year before
that I took the requisite classes, bought the equipment,
and actually went diving more than 85 feet beneath the
surface suspended in absolute silence over what is known
as the Cayman Trench, a two-mile deep crevice under the
ocean. I even auditioned for a part in a local version
of the musical Funny Girl. For those of you who are old
enough to remember the song. I attempted . . . , "Oh my
man I love him so." Ummm, needless to say I did not get
the part. But while I never made it to broadway, or sing
in any great musicals, I did eventually get on stage in
several community plays. A dream I had since childhood
when I was so painfully shy. I had what seemed like
impossible dreams. Some of which are still out of reach.
I'm still trying to learn how to sing. ah, hmmm.
Now, of course, these dreams are
all self-generated. We imagine ourselves being something
else, or something more. If we want it badly enough, we
plot, plan, save, practice, train, go to school -
whatever it takes to develop that self-image into a
self-reality. My son, who has been jumping for six
years, has moved from backyard trampoline to competitive
team with the hopes of making it to Nationals this
summer. Why? Because trampoline is once again an Olympic
sport. Why is that important? He can visualize what he
might be able to accomplish. Because there is an image
he holds out as a goal to strive for. And it grows from
there. He already dreams of being able to do a double
back flip with a twist off the diving board.
But what happens when someone
else challenges us to be different than we presently
are? Are we as successful? Is the motivation strong
enough to get us through the training? Usually not,
unless the reward for change is part of a larger goal we
have set for ourselves. Yet, this happens everyday.
People expect things of us that we don't feel equipped,
prepared, or ready to do. Take Fiona's dreams of a
rescuer. While Shrek was more than willing to do the
rescuing, his job description did not include true
love's first kiss.
Then, let's take the flip side
of that. How often do we expect things of others? We
challenge them, motivate them, enlighten, envision,
encourage, expect, equip, teach, nurture, poke, prod,
tease. Why? For the most part our motives are honorable
- to develop a loved one to meet their potential, secure
independence, and enjoy a full life. But sometimes, we
want a hero. Someone who can do what we have longed to
do - or someone to do what we simply cannot. We project
fulfillment onto someone else. We sometimes live
vicariously through our stars in sports, movies,
politics, royalty.
Every nation has its folk
heroes, individuals that seem bigger than life - King
Arthur, Joan of Arc, Robin Hood, and relatively modern
ones like Superman, Batman, Xena, Ninja Turtles, Power
Puff Girls, etc. We attribute to them powers beyond
normal human ability to save the day. They fight against
the things of this world over which we have no control.
Cheering them on enables us to feel a little less
helpless.
Well, the nation of Israel was a
whole lot like us. In Jesus' day they were a small
corner of a vast empire overrun with Roman soldiers who
kept the peace. But they remembered and longed for the
glorious days of Joshua, King Solomon and King David,
Samson, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These
were their heroes. No one lived who had known them
personally but the stories were told to the children as
they went to bed, around campfires, and to pass away the
time walking from town to town. Gone were the days when
Israel was a mighty nation formed out of the 40 years in
the desert when God lived amongst them and called heroic
men for great deeds of valor. Now Israel was
subservient.
The scene is set. The scriptures
told of the Messiah who was to come. Well, knowing what
we know of human nature, what would the everyday
Israelite be looking for in a Messiah? Someone who would
be like one of their heroes who had proven his worth.
The image would have been of a warrior or a great leader
of people, perhaps a David or a Moses. For Jesus' entire
childhood, youth, and young adulthood the stories he
would have heard in the local market, family gatherings,
in the town square, outside the temple would have been
the great hope of the Messiah - leader, warrior, king.
Oooops. When do you suppose
Jesus realized that wasn't his style? Or maybe I should
ask, when do you suppose the humanness in Jesus realized
he was the one who was to come? Do you suppose Mary and
Joseph told their son everyday from the time he could
speak who he was? My parents never told me I was
adopted. We can only speculate the answers, and it
really doesn't matter anyway. We just know that he knew.
It seemed that as a youth in the temple speaking with
the elders, he knew. And as he approached John to be
baptized, he knew. And when he came up out of the waters
of baptism, everyone who was gathered there knew without
a shadow of doubt.
But then a funny thing happened.
That very same Spirit that had affirmed Jesus as Beloved
Son of the Father, led Jesus into the wilderness to be
tested. In the back of his mind You know he remembered
the expectations and the heroic images of the people he
was born to save. How easy it could have been to fall
into the trap of becoming what other people wanted him
to be. People would have flocked to him if he came as a
military conquerer. But that is not the kind of
allegiance God desires. But that was the kind of test
Satan had in store.
Let's look at the three
challenges. Matthew tells us Jesus fasted forty days and
forty nights. Most of us would agree that we'd never
have made it that long, we would have keeled over weeks
ago. But whether reality or hyperbole, Jesus would have
been hungry, and yet he resisted the opportunity to
provide for himself. He counters Satan with an OT quote
that comes from the Israelite wanderings in the desert.
Actually, the 40 days and nights are reminiscent of
those 40 years. (De 9:9 - Moses fasted 40 days and
nights twice to go before God to receive the law.)
Deuteronomy 8:2-3. Remember the long way that the Lord
your God has led you these forty years in the
wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know
what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep
his commandments. He humbled you by letting you hunger,
then by feeding you with manna, . . . in order to make
you understand that one does not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of the
Lord." You see, the Israelites, God's chosen people also
were tested. Not ultimately to discover if they would
pass or fail, but to teach them that they could make it
in strict reliance on God. Grumble and complain all they
wanted - they were formed in the empty caverns of
hunger.
The second test involved
challenging God to protect the Son. If Jesus were to
place himself in a precarious position in order to prove
God's word, it would be manipulating God to demonstrate
a point that should already be obvious. Again we can
find a counterpart with the Israelites in the desert.
They had wandered without water for a long time and
began to quarrel with Moses, demanding him to provide
their needs - NOW - to demonstrate God's fulfillment of
promises. God indeed met their grumbling with water, but
Moses reprimanded them highly for trying to manipulate
God to know if the Lord was among them or not. Jesus'
response to Satan came from Moses' admonition to the
Israelites at the borders of the promised land in
Deuteronomy 6:16. "Do not put the Lord your God to the
test, as you tested him at Massah (the place of the
water incident). For in a covenant relationship reliance
is all that is required. Both parties trust - not prove.
The third and final test would
have given Jesus public acclaim and power . . . seeming
control of the entire earth's population! Surely Jesus
could have wielded that responsibility and accomplished
the Father's goal of saving all creation. But such an
illusion!! Maybe some of you are Tolkien fans and have
seen the first episode of Lord of the Rings. You will
remember the lure of a similar power in the one ring
forged by evil. It draws both the warrior and the wise
toward its trap. One by one the great heroes either
succumb to the illusion or triumph. Galadriel, queen of
the elves, completely encompasses the potential of the
ring and in a powerful moment resists, saying, "I have
passed the test, I shall diminish."
You see, it's not a matter of
power over, but individually, one-by-one free submission
to the ultimate good, even if that means you "diminish"
or in Jesus' case sacrifice everything. Anytime you
exercise power "over" you actually place yourself under
the power of Satan. Jesus knew the subtle ways of evil
and countered again with scripture from Deuteronomy.
"You shall not go after the gods of the peoples who are
round about you." Worship the Lord your God and serve
him only."
It seems simple enough, yet we
sometimes place job, people, possessions, social and
economic status, fear of embarrassment above God. We
worship all these other things first because people have
great expectations of themselves and us. Now, we may
never have the opportunity to rule the world, or jump
off the Empire State building, or magically turn stones
into bread. But we are faced with moments of compromise
daily. Moments that show us what we are made of. You
know what it is like to triumph over our own weaknesses.
It is such a high when we find we can do the right thing
for the right reasons. It strengthens us for the long
haul.
When Jesus was led into the
wilderness to be tested, there was no doubt in my mind
he would resist Satan - I mean after all he is the Son
of God. And yet his humanness knew what lay ahead. His
humanness could still feel tired, hungry, lonely, sad,
pain. Just as Jesus was affirmed by the Holy Spirit at
baptism and bolstered through his hours in prayer, he
was also strengthened through trials in which he relied
completely on the Father.
We too go directly from baptism
into the trials of life. From the moment we receive the
gift of the Holy Spirit we are faced with opportunities
to rely on it. From the moment we have the Holy
Scriptures placed into our hands, we are given
opportunities to read it, teach it, use it. From the
moment the cross is placed on our foreheads we
experience the power of God in our lives. Never doubt
that God is with you when you are given temptations and
trials. Remember instead that these are moments to shine
with God's gifts. the Holy Spirit, the Bible, and the
cross. These are chances for you to know that you have
the gospel written in your hearts. Do not fly with the
fantasies of those who only dream of knowing the Lord
for their dream is born of human desires not the will of
God. Do not be led astray by those who doubt. Instead,
rely on the Word of God - for this is the witness of
those who knew Jesus face to face and experienced God in
their lives.