Getting What We Want 10 February 2008

Lent 1
Matthew 4:1-11
Sunday, 10 February 2008


Nothing inspires the righteous indignation of adults more quickly than spoiled children who belong to someone else. What we despise in such children is their ruthlessness. No trick is too low, no public display too embarrassing, no decibel of crying or pitch of whining too high, so long as they get what they want.

Just as Jesus had completed the traditional forty-day fast that the great prophets of his people had observed, Satan arrived with the tests, each representing something in the catalog of Jesus’ desires, passions, or ambitions. Jesus was hungry; Satan suggested that Jesus make bread from stone. Jesus wanted affirmation; Satan suggested that Jesus test God and the angels’ commitment to his life. Jesus wanted to exercise his rightful dominion as the Messiah; all he had to do, Satan said, was to perform one simple act of obeisance – to Satan. Each test contributed to the larger temptation for Jesus to use illegitimate means for necessary or laudable ends, to get what he wanted the petulant and childish way.

It is curious that bread and hunger would figure into a scene in which much more significant matters were at stake. After all, the act of changing stone to bread would have been harmless, when compared with suicide or idolatry. Jesus had fasted forty days, and his hunger derived from his original obedience to leading of the Spirit. No one would have been injured, no commandment violated, if he had simply changed the stones to bread. But apparently the ethic of faithfulness is more complicated than simply refusing to do harm or break a specific commandment. In resisting Satan’s suggestion, Jesus modeled an unwillingness to exploit kingdom gifts to satisfy even legitimate self-centered desires. When Jesus prepared a table, it would be for us not for himself.

For us, the crucial act of self-denial in this consecration is the denial of some things that are not technically bad for us. We draw near to the crux of our faithfulness when give up more than just those things that make us sick. In so doing, we can learn that we do not live by bread alone but by everything that comes from the mouth of God. In the fast, we learn that no matter what we want superficially, our deepest longing is only for that which God provides.

When we long most for what God wills, when we want what God wants, we exhibit the maturity and discipline needed to handle spiritual and ecclesiastical power and its responsibilities. We have learned the obedience that makes us trustworthy; we are no longer spoiled children doing tricks for our own satisfaction or others’ entertainment. We have passed the test and the angels can attend us.

Sing "Yield Not to Temptation"

Let us pray:
We come to you, O God, in this season of Lent opening ourselves to your Spirit and desiring that you would conform our desires to your perfect will. Forgive us for our sometimes petulance. Grant us grace to use our God-given talents and gifts in a way that advances your work, not our agenda. And when we have passed the test send your ministering angels so that we might be restored for the next round. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen