Look at the picture while hearing the Gospel - Luke
4:1-13
4 Jesus,
full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in
the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the
devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was
famished. 3 The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of
bread.’ 4 Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “One does not live by bread alone.”’
5 Then the devilled him up and showed him in an instant all the
kingdoms of the world. 6 And the devil said to him,
‘To you I will give their glory and all
this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I
please. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.’
8 Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”’
9 Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on
the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, ‘If
you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for
it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you, to protect
you”, 11 and “On their hands they will bear you up, so that you
will not dash your foot against a stone.”’
12 Jesus answered him, ‘It is
said, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”’ 13 When
the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune
time.
Today is the first Sunday in Lent, as
well as St Valentine’s day… Did you know, even if you’ve given chocolate up for
Lent, that Sunday’s of Lent are feast days, not fast days? The start of Lent
was moved from today to Ash Wednesday to accommodate the Sundays as feast days.
Sundays in Lent are feast days as a weekly microcosm of Easter, a day for
celebrating the Resurrection epitomised in the Eucharist. The reprieve from the
fast on the Sundays of Lent is meant to keep us from falling into a rut of
fasting simply for the sake of self-denial, they remind us that the purpose of
Lent is to prepare us to receive the reconciliation and new life God offers us
in Christ. Even though the fast is typically relaxed on Sundays, the sights and
sounds of the liturgy are usually stripped to a minimum – clergy trade the
bright green vestments of ‘Ordinary Time’ for purple, the traditional colour of
repentance and humility. Flowers are typically absent, and images throughout
the church are often veiled or removed, especially during Holy Week. The sounds
of worship are usually toned down as well, and the more joyful recitations like
the Gloria and Hallelujah’s are temporarily suppressed to remind us of their joyful
power when they are restored….
Religion at its best uses scripture
and scriptural images as a metaphor for descriptions of essentially spiritual
(not physical) realities – if we choose to examine scripture merely at a
literal level, we only appreciate the lowest level of meaning. So by using the
picture and the words at the same time, in prayerful God inspired refection, we
are invited to discover deeper truths…
This lent, our sermon series is based
on reflections assisted by paintings, and appropriately enough, our painting
for today is Briton Riviera’s 1898 painting “The Temptation in the Wilderness”, described in our gospel reading…
For me, the painting picks up on the
minimalist, stripped down contemplative simplicity of Lent, as a lonely Jesus
sits, in silence, head bowed…. Can you imagine the words described in our
Gospel going through Jesus’ mind?
What went
through your mind as you looked at the picture while hearing the Gospel? What
are the big and true meanings of the passage and the picture for you?
Richard Rohr makes an interesting
point about the big and true meaning being about
Jesus’ response to the devil in this
passage – he says how the
misuse of our power, or our failure to use our power at all, is what undoes
most human lives and that how Jesus does neither in his response to Satan, thus showing us a way
through…
The
temptations Luke describes universal temptations to three abuses of power:
The misuse of social or cultural power (turning stones into
bread in in a way that would be spectacular and draw attention to Himself) ….
The misuse of religious power (to stand in the parapet of the
temple and to quote scripture for his own purpose) ….
The misuse of political or dominative power (looking down on all the
kingdoms of this world from a high mountain position) …
Note how, in each case, Jesus merely
uses scripture to expose and exorcise the demon, and all the demon can do is
depart. Jesus does have His own legitimate place and power, yet he very
delicately does not over-identify with His power, which would only set ‘an
equal and opposite reaction’ against Him personally, and so deflects the energy
from Himself and quotes three very God-centred scriptures to show where the
real conflict lies: between God and evil and not between ‘me’ and evil….
We too can learn from this, and so
not make the mistake of allowing our own ego’s to get involved by taking things
personally and fighting back to defend our small, insecure selves. This is
possibly the mistake Adam and Eve made in regard to their temptation, which can
only put them in a state of greater exposure, nakedness and shame.
Jesus shows us an ideal way to deal
with temptation and how to recognise what the underlying temptation usually is:
to a misuse or a non-use of our very real human power. Jesus refuses to eat of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in any self-serving way, and leaves
that final and full knowledge to God alone!
What are the
big and true meanings for you? Dare you hold out for your own big and true
meanings whenever you pray or contemplate scripture? Amen!
- Rev Gavin Smith 2016
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