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A first grade teacher I know shared with me an embarrassing
moment she had in her classroom. She singled out the lone Muslim student in
her class in her brief explanation of Ramadan, the Muslim time of fasting
and reflection that usually happens near the time when Christians are celebrating
Advent. Later in the week, she realized that she had embarrassed the shy student
and had caused several students to focus upon the little boy even in the lunchroom,
where he ate along with the rest of his friends. They chided him that he was
not fasting as a good Muslim should for Ramadan! My teacher friend later learned
that Muslim children are not required to fast as adults are, and that making
a big deal about the young boy’s celebration of Ramadan was making public
what is to be an extremely private time of reflection and celebration among
Muslims. She apologized to the young boy in front of the other students, offered
a full explanation, and later she apologized to the boys parents. After a
time of clearing up her errors and apologizing to the boy’s parents
she said, “Happy Ramadan!” They graciously smiled, but after they
left a colleague of hers said, “Saying ‘Happy Ramadan’ is
not really appropriate. It’s not like saying ‘Merry Christmas.’
It’s sort of like saying, ‘Happy Lent!’”
Indeed the season of Lent is not meant to be festive as much
as it is to be reflective. Like Jesus did in the wilderness (the sermon that
begins this season in the lectionary readings), Christians are to allow themselves
to be drawn closer to God through purposely denying themselves. The purpose
is not to punish us; rather, it is to shift the focus away from our comforts
and ourselves and onto the life and work of Christ. The great 20th Century
theologian Karl Barth once wrote that unless a person takes time to learn
what dying means, that person can never fully experience resurrection. He
further reminds us that without Good Friday and the preparation leading up
to it (Lent), there would be no Easter.1
Just as Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness preparing for
His Messianic ministry, so Lent provides forty days for Christians to fully
prepare to experience the whole truth of what it means to live out the resurrected
life we celebrate at Easter. Along the way in Lent, as Jesus experienced and
as all of life’s experiences—we encounter temptations, desperation,
refocusing, and sometimes feelings of abandonment. However, we are given the
grace to walk faithfully, to rely upon God and His word, and most importantly,
to keep our eyes fixed upon the Cross that is our calling and the empty tomb
that is our ultimate victory. Lent is valuable, crucial to the Christ-walk
even if it not always “fun”.
So at the beginning of the season of Lent, we are called to
a time of deep soul searching and bold reliance upon God’s Word as He
prepares us to live consistently the holy life of resurrection Christ has
provided by grace. As Dr. Samuel Wells, Dean of Duke University chapel, once
said at the beginning of Lent: “We have forty days . . . let’s
get to it.”
Jesus’ time of fasting in the wilderness—the sermon
which begins our Lent series this year—was not only a time of giving
up, it was also an opportunity for Jesus, who allowed himself to be limited
to space and time during His incarnation, to spend extra time with the Father.
The Gospel writers demonstrate that Jesus’ time of devotion, reflection
and fasting in the wilderness allowed Him opportunity for a further demonstration
of His power over the temptations of the devil.
All the sermons in the lectionary for the season of Lent focus
on aspects of God’s long journey toward us, and our long journey with
God. This journey involves patience and trust, even when we’re being
pounded by temptations and discomfort. The first sermon of the season of Lent
becomes the lens through which we view our journey toward Easter. It also
sets the tone for the kind of life we will live as Christians who are, in
the words of Paul, “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20) and
yet display the life of Christ within us.
The journey into Lent is a journey that parallels the temptations,
sufferings and the victories of Jesus in the wilderness. It will not be easy,
but it will prepare all of us to trust God more despite the trials and temptations
that the enemy sends our way.
If your church does not celebrate (or has not lately celebrated) Lent, you
might be surprised (as I was) at how open and excited they will be to participate
in this important season of the Church year. At my church, we provide small
devotional/
prayer guides that walk families and individuals through every day of Lent.
Also, we have special prayer gatherings each week of Lent that focus upon
prayer, fasting and other Christian disciplines. A focused celebration of
Lent (including special services for Holy Week) gives Easter an added depth
of meaning to pastor and congregation alike!
Like any text we preach from in the Bible, context is key. In
examining this text, we must keep in mind the text that immediately precedes
it. This very private and reflective time in the wilderness comes on the heels
of a very public time in the life of Jesus: his baptism (see Luke 3:21-22
and parallel texts). The baptism of Jesus marks the “official beginnings”
of his public ministry. John the Baptist hails Jesus as the promised One from
God. He baptizes Jesus and a very public and powerful “Trinitarian moment”
occurs in which the voice of the Father acknowledges the Son and the Holy
Spirit appears descending upon the Son as a dove.
When Jesus began His earthly ministry, there were all kinds
of definitions of what the Messiah should be (see John 7 for an example of
pre-conceived notions). Was He to be a political power broker, a military
leader, a great scholar, a king? The wilderness account in Luke gives Jesus
plenty of opportunity to demonstrate that He is powerful and smart in the
conventional sense, but He will not be the kind of Messiah who demonstrates
His power through vast earthly resources. Rather, the resources for His ministry
come from the Father who sent Him. Two of the three temptations involve the
meeting of very real and basic needs (food and affirmation). The third temptation
(bowing down to worship the devil) really involves our sometimes felt need
to take a “short cut.” The devil invites Jesus to avoid all the
suffering that comes with the job of Messiah and skip right to the “good
part,” namely, having the kingdoms of the world bow down. The essential
question that comes from these temptations is, “What kind of Messiah
are you going to be?”2 Jesus’ answers are loud and clear.
We are taught that Maslow’s hierarchy of needs—food,
clothing, shelter and so on—are basic and essential. As one who is “fully
human,” as our creeds remind us, Jesus would indeed have had human needs
like those Maslow identified. Here in the wilderness, the Son of God deprives
himself of these: He fasts (no food) and He sleeps outside (no shelter, and
probably with no change of clothes!). Other kinds of psychological needs are
important, too: companionship, affirmation and comfort. They help define us;
they give our lives meaning and comfort. In the wilderness, away from the
awestruck crowds that were present at His baptism, Jesus is deprived of these
as well. Jesus does not deprive himself of these things to punish himself.
Instead, He demonstrates that intense, focused preparation time with the Father
is the most important need of the human person. While, of course, we should
not neglect the things on Maslow’s list, we should not allow even these
crucial survival needs to keep us from really living.
Essentially, this text reminds us that our real need at the
very core of our being is to have intimate fellowship with God, even if it
means giving up what we deem to be “essentials” for a short time
(or a long time in some cases) in order for that to happen.
I had an acquaintance in seminary that used to quote Lewis Sperry Chafer,
the founder of a large seminary in Texas. Chafer said that if God called him
to a 10 year mission, he would spend 7 years in preparation for it so as to
be faithful and clear about God’s calling. Jesus, instead of allowing
the momentum of His public baptism moment, human desires and needs to dictate
what kind of Messiah He was, retreated to a quiet place. He spent forty days
depriving himself of those kinds of “needs” in order to demonstrate
the real need of all who would follow the purposes of the Father: an intimate
connection with God and consistent preparation for God’s purposes.
It would be easy to say (as some have said) that the “answer”
in this text is Jesus’ quoting from Scripture when He faced the devil’s
temptations. This, of course, is a valid thing to do, since the word of God
is filled with timeless truths from God about living the way He created us
to live. But Jesus’ response is more than just whipping out a Bible
memory card. Jesus’ answer flows out of an intimacy with the Father.
This intimacy produces a response from Jesus that reflects absolute trust
in the will of the Father for His own ministry and destiny. Human beings are
not to be governed by any other need than the need to do God’s will.
This, indeed, is the “holy life” that we in the Church of the
Nazarene talk about a lot. It is not, as Dr. William Greathouse is fond of
saying, that we “get more of God,” but that God “gets more
of us.” God’s answer is to call us to places of preparation and
rest, even though those places are often quite uncomfortable, so that we may
find our true peace and comfort in God. A Wayne Watson song in the mid-eighties
said, “It’s good to be lonely every now and again,” if “it
makes me love You even more.” God, in His desire to make us what we
were created to be, calls us, sends us to wilderness places and launches us
on a focused, Spirit-directed new beginning.
Through Jesus we are invited to have a relationship with God.
It is an intimate relationship that, in the words of Paul, causes us to cry
out “Abba, Father” (Galatians 4:6-7). As I said above, our response
is not simply to memorize key texts in order to win an argument with Satan
at some appropriate time, although I’m a strong advocate of memorizing
Scripture. Rather, we are to allow God to lead us into deep times of intimate
encounter with Him. When (not “if”!) we are faced with temptations
to take shortcuts in our walk with God, or to try to rush God’s provision
for us instead of listening to Him, or to rely upon any talent instead of
upon God, God’s Word can flow out of us, giving us comfort and victory
over the distractions of the devil. Of course, the result of our wilderness
times goes beyond just “winning”. The response that comes from
a time of wilderness is greater empathy with those who face (and who have
given into) similar struggles and temptations. We do not enter into wilderness
times just so God can make us “the best.” Instead, we are led
into wilderness times so that God can make us effective vessels of ministry
toward those who live in the wilderness away from the life-giving words (and
Word) of God.
(For the full manuscript
of this sermon go to www.preachersmagazine.org and click on “Sermons”.)
I begin my sermon with a “CNN/FOX News” press conference
kind of moment: “Local boy heralded as the Chosen One.” The big
moment occurs, as mentioned above, right before the wilderness time begins.
Jesus is baptized publicly and God publicly affirms Jesus. In our materialistic
marketing-driven world the combination of public affirmation and determination
on Jesus’ part (who insists on being baptized) it would seem, Jesus
has it made. The only thing left to do now is to keep “going public”
in order to have a strong and successful road as Messiah. But this is not
what happens. With all the cameras flashing and with people buzzing with anticipation
after this public affirmation of Jesus, what does God do? Does God announce
a “world Messiah tour,” or hire a high-priced publicist to keep
the momentum of this moment going? No! Instead, the Spirit of God leads Jesus
(“casts” Him, in Mark’s Gospel, which uses ekballo, to “cast
out”) into the wilderness. It seems to be a momentum break, but as Dr.
Wes Tracy once preached: “The biblical pattern for new life is not,
‘Wilderness, call of God, new beginning.’ Rather, it is, ‘Call
of God, wilderness, new beginning.’” Jesus’ ministry follows
this pattern and if we are following Him, we should not be discouraged if
our lives follow this pattern as well.
People need to be reminded constantly that our real need is
faithful and consistent obedience to and constant guidance from God and not
the “market-driven” approach of the world and of many churches
today. “All I once held dear, built my life upon” is nothing compared
to this: knowing Jesus (as the praise chorus reminds us). This temptation
that seems so illogical from a worldly perspective (and in some “church
growth” circles) is the perfect reminder of what it means to really
serve God. This should be emphasized in the preaching of the text. It is,
therefore, a great way to begin Lent because what we really need is to deprive
ourselves of what we think we need and instead embrace what we really need:
a deeper walk with God the Father!
1. Cf., Karl Barth, Dogmatics in Outline (London: SCM Press,
1960), 114, 153.
2. Phillip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995).