Weekly Devotional for Lent 1

Scripture text: Luke 4:1-13

(Pastor's note: Since I'm not preaching the lectionary this year for Lent and doing a preaching series, I figured I'd dedicate this space to my thoughts and reflections on the Sunday morning lectionary texts.)

The Power of No

In many ways, we live in a society that considers the word "no" to be profane. We are actively discouraged from saying it. A child who says "no" to a parent is often punished. A customer who says "no" to a salesperson is just asking for the pitch to be ramped up to the Nth degree. Congress has driven its popularity to record lows by saying "no" to anything and everything the President has suggested. Men's Rights Activists claim that women don't really mean it when they say "no." Some of these examples are reasonable. Others border on nonsense. But regardless, "no" is seen as a bad word.

And our text today is all about "no."

Much like the examples above, some of these are reasonable. Others make little sense. Of course, that's the devil's trap. It's perfectly reasonable to turn those stones to bread or to force the world to submit to Jesus' vision. Throwing oneself off a building, on the other hand...

Reasonable however is not always wise and Jesus thankfully knows the difference. He recognizes the "quick and easy path" of saying "yes" to the devil's temptations. (Yes, I'm squeezing a Star Wars reference in here.) Yes, Jesus is hungry and yes, it is reasonable to use his power to grant himself food. But if he uses his divine might for such a simple and largely pointless thing here, where will he stop? Welcome to the slippery slope.

And yes, it would be easier to force the world to submit. To become the king and tyrant the crowd at Palm Sunday will soon desire him to be. Power and domination are anathema however to his message of love and grace. He would completely subvert and undermine his message about his father and utterly destroy his mission to save the world.

And yes, he could claim invulnerability by jumping off the temple. But Jesus was born to die and being invulnerable to the violence of this world would subvert and undermine that purpose. If the angels protect him here, what's to stop them from pulling him down from the cross later?

So, to these temptations, he must say no.

We can and probably should take a lesson for Jesus. What is reasonable is not always wise. We too face temptations particularly in these times.

Fear and anxiety, it seems, are our constant companions these days. We worry about our nation, about our church, about our paychecks, our families. We fear terrorism and crime. And all too often we focus that fear into distrust and outright hostility towards our neighbors.

It may seem reasonable. After all our jobs are disappearing and yet those immigrants keep coming. Terrorists don't look like us. We often equate crime in the inner city with people of color. And yet, most of this is based on perceptions that cold facts do not support. What may seem reasonable is not always wise. What we are tempted to do and believe because of our fears is the very trap the devil lays before us.

Like Christ, we are called to say "no" to these temptations. To remember Christ's call to love our neighbors, to forgive our enemies, and live peaceably with all people. To also remember that these people, however they may differ from us, are also people for whom Christ went to the cross, died, and rose again. They are our mission field. The more we fear them, the less likely we are to bring Christ to them.

Which is, of course, precisely what the devil would want. Fear is his ally. And to that fear, we must say no.