Sermon: Genesis 2:15-17; 3: 1-7; Matthew 4:1-11

Many of you are probably familiar with the term Theme and Variations.  This term describes a very common form of musical composition.  When used, this compositional technique first presents a simple theme or idea and, after it is initially stated, repeats that theme but alters it and embellishes it.  There can be multiple variations presented, based on this simple theme, but each variation can always be traced back to the original presentation.

Today’s Old Testament reading from Genesis as well as the Gospel reading from Matthew present a form of theme and variations.  You see, there are not really three temptations in our Gospel story.   There are three variations of the same basic theme.  As from the beginning, the devil always tempts his victims to reach for, access, and attain power.

As we look at our reading from Genesis, I want to first make clear that this ancient story was written to help explain why, in God’s creation, there came to be sin and death.  It is not a story to be interpreted as literal.  The truth of this story goes much, much deeper.  This ancient tale helps to communicate something about human nature, something about our alienation from God.  It serves to narrate aspects of human brokenness and it helps us understand more about the way we disobey God by eating false foods of all kinds.  And, it describes how we invite others to join us in our disobedience. 

So, from the beginning, we see evil, in the form of a serpent, tempting victims to go for power, saying, “You will be like God.”  For the tempter, there seems to be no surer path to internal contradiction and self-destruction.  You see, this story is our story because human beings repeatedly succumb to such temptation.  All we need do is look around us at what is happening in our country and the world, and we see not only the result of people eating false foods (foods being a metaphor for all kinds of things), but we also see the result of human beings wanting to be like God.  It is all about the desire for power.  This Genesis story provides a foil to our Gospel reading today because it not only represents us, it represents the opposite of what happens when Jesus encounters temptation.

In our gospel reading, Jesus is tempted to misuse power.  As we look at our reading from Matthew where the first temptation, or first variation of this theme, is presented, the devil goes right for the jugular.  The tempter addresses Jesus’ very identity saying, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.”  This first variation is a temptation for Jesus to use power to show the miraculous.  Having just heard for the first time, at his baptism, that he is God’s Son, the tempter then calls that holy moment into question saying, “If you are the Son of God.”  Lutheran Minister Nadia Bolz-Weber reminds us that God’s first move is always to name us and claim us as God’s own.  But soon other people try to tell us who we are and to whom we belong.  Nadia writes, “Capitalism, the weight-loss industrial complex, our parents, kids at school—they all have a go at telling us who we are.  But only God can do that.  Everything else is temptation.” Jesus responded in this moment of vulnerability by quoting scripture saying, “One does not live by bread alone.”  In this first confrontation, the deceiver attempts to mislead Jesus into using his God given power for himself rather than trusting the Father to satisfy his need.  Jesus refused.  He will not misuse his power for personal material gain.

In the second variation on this theme, the tempter takes the quest for power to yet another level.  After leading Jesus to the holy city of Jerusalem and placing him on the pinnacle of the temple, the tempter again calls Jesus’ identity into question saying, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.”  Then, misusing scripture and taking it out of context, the tempter says, “For it is written in scripture: ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you’ and ‘on their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”  Jesus is tempted to use his power to save himself from danger.  This is a test of heroism and what kind of Messiah Jesus will be.  Is he going to be the warrior king, the superhero who can leap from buildings in a single bound and be saved at the last instant because he is God’s Son?  Or is he going to be a Messiah folks never imagined possible, the Son of God who will suffer and die on a cross?  Jesus says, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”  Jesus will not and does not use his power to make himself safe and secure.  

Well, the tempter has yet one more power play to make, yet another variation on the same theme, and he raises the stakes even higher.  He attempts to seduce Jesus with domination and prestige.  Essentially, he offers Jesus all the power in the world.  He offers Jesus control over all the world’s kingdoms, along with their praise and glory, in exchange for Jesus’ allegiance to him, allegiance to evil itself.  He says, “All these kingdoms I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”  But, Jesus is not led astray.  Jesus rejects the deceiver’s misdirection and Jesus quotes Scripture in its context, saying, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only Him.”  Jesus will not misuse his power to amass clout and esteem.  Jesus will not turn from God to embrace the kinds of success we would recognize and applaud.  In fact, contrary to the way most human beings pounce on the opportunity to attain such power, Jesus remains exasperatingly himself, and he remains steadfastly faithful as God’s beloved Son.

Human beings – individually, corporately and institutionally – all know the pull of the quest for power.  What could be more human?  And, we have seen throughout history as well as in today’s present context, the way in which the quest for power corrupts.  But, in Jesus, we find a very different kind of power.  In Jesus, we find one who not only speaks the power of love but also lives the power of love.  And, divine love is infinitely more powerful than all the powers of this world combined.  What is even more fascinating is that such love is the only power that assumes the utter vulnerability of the lover.  As St. Paul wrote, “whenever I am weak, then I am strong.”

Theologian, Paul Tillich, wrote, “We long for a Christ of power.  Yet if He were to come and transform us and our world, we should have to pay the one price which we could not pay:  we would have to lose our freedom, our humanity, and our spiritual dignity.  Perhaps we should be happier, but we should also be lower human beings, our present misery, struggle and despair notwithstanding….Those who dream of a better life and try to avoid the Cross as a way, and those who hope for a Christ and attempt to exclude the Crucified have no knowledge of the mystery of God and humanity.”  (The Shaking of the Foundations, p.148)

In today’s reading, the tempter finally leaves Jesus.  But, we soon find this tantalizing deceiver will again voice one more variation on his major theme.  The tempter will present yet one more power play as Jesus hangs on the cross, despised and rejected.  In that seemingly God forsaken place, we hear the taunts voiced by those who pass by, shaking their heads while saying, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.”  And, in that place of horror, we find out just how powerful the force of divine love really is.  There we find the greatest love and grace the world has ever known, a power that will ultimately trump evil forever.  As we make this Lenten journey together, live into that divine love.