Pastor Martin RussellPastor Martin Russell
Assistant to the Bishop
Nebraska Synod, ELCA

An English author once observed “Death was Nature’s way of telling you to slow down.” One could easily say “Lent is the Church’s way of telling you to slow down.” This first Sunday in Lent we slow down to encounter the temptations faced by Jesus in Luke’s gospel. I am indebted to Richard Rohr (Radical Grace: Daily Meditations) for the ways in which he reminds me that all of us face the same three temptations as Jesus did.

The first temptation of Christ was to turn stones into bread (Luke 4:3). Sounds good, but this is likely our need to be immediately impressive and effective, successful, relevant, and make things happen right now. It is our natural desire to look good.

The false self tells you what it immediately wants and seldom knows what it really needs. You can be a very popular and successful person when you operate at this level, and you will easily think very well of yourself. That is why Jesus has to face that temptation first, to move us beyond what we first want to what we really need. In refusing to be immediately relevant, in refusing to respond to people’s immediate requests, Jesus says, Go deeper. What do you really desire? It is not usually what you first think. “One does not live by bread alone” (Luke 4:4).

The second human temptation is the need for control, importance, and power. The devil tells Jesus to bow down before the power systems of this world: “To you I will give their glory and all this authority” (Luke 4:6). In other words, the devils says make these into your actual belief and security system.

Jesus refuses to bow down before these little kingdoms—the corporations, the idols of materialism, race and nationality, and all imperialistic thinking. He knows that the price of such love of power is to “worship Satan” (Luke 4:7). That’s a very heavy judgment on all the security systems of this world. They will finally and inevitably demand your full allegiance and interest. Jesus tells Satan, “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him’ (Luke 4:8).

The third temptation of Jesus is another one that all of us must face. Satan takes Jesus up to the pinnacle of the Temple, symbolizing the top of the religious world itself, and tells him to play “righteousness games” with God. “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here” (Luke 4:9). It’s the only time in the Bible where the devil quotes Scripture. Holy words can be used for evil purposes, it surely says. This third temptation is to think of yourself as superior to others, the moral elite on the side of God and religion, and to quote arguable Scriptures for your own purpose—being against God in the name of God. Actually it is quite common.

True obedience to God won’t always make us look or feel right (that is why it takes faith!), so be careful before you stand on the pinnacle of any Temple, Scripture, or Sacrament. It is the common temptation of actually loving ourselves under the guise of loving God.

As we examine our struggles with the temptations of life that come from well-disguised demons, we are also drawn to re-discover our need for a Savior.

See you at the foot of the Cross.

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