Lead Us Not Into Temptation

Matthew 4:1-11

You know how sometimes a phrase just gets in to your head and bounces around in there for days? Well, that's been happening with me these last couple days, and I'm sure you'll recognize that phrase because it's one we say together every single Sunday morning:

"And lead us not into temptation..."

Sound familar?  Anyone want to guess why that's been running through my head for days?

Yes, it's a particularly appropriate phrase today, on the first Sunday of Lent, a season when our faithful attention focuses on resisting temptations - chocolate, wine, bad attitudes, or whatever you might "give up" for Lent.  And of course, today the Bible stories we heard were famous "temptation" stories.

Particularly the story of Jesus in the wilderness.

We hear some version of this story every year, and it’s become a classic model for temptation – the devil waving something seductive and desirable in front of you, and having to argue yourself out of it. 

But as I read it this week, I started to think it sounds almost like Jesus isn’t tempted at all.  Oh, he’s hungry all right, he’s human, he’s vulnerable – and the devil’s only offering him what the Son of God should really have – but in this story he’s also clear and single-minded about his purpose and his relationship with God, and nothing Satan offers seems to make him pause.

It's like the tempter is waving a cold glass of water on a hot day in front of Jesus while he’s sitting next a deep cool well with an open tap.  The temptations are very attractive in themselves, but Satan doesn't tempt Jesus with anything he doesn't already have in his deep kinship with God.

And that’s it.

The devil doesn’t have anything to offer that God doesn’t already provide, somewhere deep in your relationship with God.

Which doesn’t mean you won’t be tempted. (Rats!)

Wealth seduces us – no matter how much we might have, or need – by looking like security, or comfort, or protection – or just plain fun. 

Chocolate, alcohol, soda, fast food, social media – all those are on the list of the top 10 things given up for Lent, drawn from Twitter – all those things that feel tempting are actually ways we might be trying to find peace, security, comfort – and joy – all things that also live deep in our human relationship to God.

You and I get tempted in those ways all the time. 

It’s different from one of us to the next. Chocolate might be easy to resist for you and hard for me; new gadgets might be totally resistible to me and painfully desirable to you. 

But the reason any of those things tempt us is when somehow they stand for the things that the devil offers Jesus in the wilderness: comfort, success, and security.

And the reason Jesus doesn’t seem to hesitate – even if he finds those things as attractive as you or I ever could – is because he’s spent the last 40 days steeping so deeply in his communion with God that he’s overflowing with assurance, victory, and well-being.

Sounds nice, doesn’t that?

That’s what Jesus wants for us, too.

It’s what he’s taught us to pray for.

Just a few pages ahead in his gospel, Matthew tells us how Jesus taught his disciples to pray:
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name…save us from the time of trial, and deliver us from the evil one.”

Some scholars think that last bit is a deliberate reference to Jesus’ experience in this wilderness – a time of trial; experimental testing – face to face with the evil one.

That phrase that’s been running through my head all week is just a different translation of that same prayer: “lead us not into temptation; deliver us from evil.”

Week after week, year after year, we pray to share the kind of experience Jesus had in the wilderness.  And if Jesus’ life shows us anything, it’s that prayer doesn’t belong just to our words, but to our living, to our daily choices of action and inaction.

So if we want Jesus’ assurance, victory, well-being and his resistance to temptation, we need to do what he did, to steep in our connection with God.  And if you can’t take 40 days off for a food-free wilderness retreat, you can spend Lent practicing trust, prayer, openness, and worship.  It won’t make you perfect at temptation, but you can spend 40 days steeping in your communion with God.

That’s why we’re supposed to give things up for Lent. 

It’s the time to give up the substitutes for God.

It’s the time to give up TV that numbs your soul – whether by violence or comedy;

to give up work that excuses you from difficult relationships,

foods or habits that are a distraction from facing your own heart,

or whatever you use to soothe your anxiety – cookies, wine, coffee,  facebook, whatever. Do give that up in order to spend more of your trust on God.

Spend more trust on telling God what’s gnawing at you. 

Spend more love on praying throughout the day. 

Spend more hope on seeking out the will of God. 

Spend more time on joy.

Because only being steeped in those deep elements of our relationship with God can drain the power out of real temptations, real desire for security, comfort, and success.

And it will.

Let’s be clear – I’m not telling you this is easy. 

I fall out of my connection to God all the time and find myself powerfully drawn to busy-ness – getting stuff done – to chocolate, shopping (one can never have too many books or hair care products, right? or at least it’s easy to tell myself that) And then I know I have to work that connection back open again.

It’s not easy, but when we steep ourselves in our relationship with God,

it can become simple. As simple as it is to resist running a red light when you’re not in any kind of hurry.

That’s my goal for this Lent – for all of us.  That we can sink so deep into our communion with God that all those things that seduce with promises of comfort, success, or security don’t seem to matter any more.

I think that’s Jesus’ prayer for us, too.

After all, it’s one he taught us to pray:

Lead us not into temptation, and deliver us from evil.    Amen.