"No Concessions, No Compromises"

Sermon 02.21.10
“No Concessions, No Compromises”

The children were all lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic elementary school. At the head of the table was a large pile of apples. The nun in charge of the lunch hour had made a note and posted it on the apple tray. “Take only one,” it said. “God is watching”. Moving further along the lunch line was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies. A child had written a note and placed it beside the goodies. “Take all you want. God is watching the apples.”

The subject of temptation, specifically the temptation of our Lord, is the focus of the gospel text this morning. It’s a time prior to his ministry. He had been baptized by John in the Jordan River and is immediately led into the desert by the Holy Spirit. No miracles have been performed as of yet, no sermons have been preached, no healings have occured. Jesus is in a place of preparation, of testing, of contemplation, and of temptation. He is wondering at this point, perhaps, about what lies ahead of him as the Savior of the world.

There are 3 temptations, since trouble always comes in threes (you didn’t know that this had a biblical basis, did you?) The devil first appeals to the humanity of Jesus. The verses tell us that he had not eaten in 40 days and he was famished. The devil taunts him – “do a trick,” he suggests, “and take a stone and turn it into a loaf of bread. If you are the Son of God, this shouldn’t be a problem.”

The second temptation is one of power, of greed, based on Let’s make a deal. Bet you didn’t know that this was biblical. The devil says that He has the authority over all the kingdoms of the world, and this can all be had by Jesus, as long as he is willing to worship Satan. Jesus says, “No trade.” I’d like to think that he muttered to himself, “where does this guy get off saying HE has all authority – does he know who he’s talking to? I mean he just alluded to the fact that I’m the son of God.”

The third temptation is putting God to the test. The Devil says that Jesus can hurl himself down from the mountaintop and the angels will be there to protect him, according to the Scriptures. Jesus response: “Don’t even go there. Everyone knows that you don’t spit into the wind. Don’t test God. You will never, even win this one.”

The devil slinks off, but you know that he will eventually come back into the picture, as the text tells us, at an opportune time. But Jesus has held his resolve, relying on the Scriptures for all of his answers, with no concessions and no compromises.

You would think that this would be the model passage from the Bible to show us how to resist temptation. But it just isn’t, most of the time. For modern readers, the problem with the temptation story is that it seems unreal, far removed from our experience. The devil does not appear to us and transport us from place to place. The temptations we experience are often not so clearly recognizable. The choice is not between good and bad, but between bad and worse or good and better.

Let me go back to the very first story that I told about the apples and the cookies. Clearly, if we are told to take one of something, and we take two, that is wrong. But the child’s sign of, “Take all you want” is a can of worms waiting to be opened, a Pandora’s box. Taking an extra cookie for yourself may be an okay thing to do, and taking one for a friend is certainly a nice gesture. But if you take all the cookies for the kids in your neighborhood and leave none for the children behind you in the rest of the cafeteria line, this is not good, even if it sounds like a wonderful philanthropic act.

What we do learn from the story, however, are that there are some ethical instructions that cover the basis for most Christian living. In the first temptation, Jesus shows us that life is more than meeting one’s physical needs. You do not live by bread alone. There must be more and there is more. Selfishly satisfying your own desires is not the path we are called to take. Jesus tells us that that even a single loaf could lead to danger. We are called to lives that are sacrificial for the good of others.

In the second temptation, we are called to be faithful, not necessarily successful by the world’s standards. We cannot be dazzled and consumed by the riches of this world, when another world awaits us where the streets are paved with gold, and there is no more pain and tears. We are called to be true to ourselves and not to other people’s dreams of power and greed.

On the final temptation, we are taught that we must rely on God’s power in our lives. We are to serve God and God alone, and to relinquish control to God’s call for who we are to be. This is the hardest temptation of all, I think, because we all want to believe that we are driving the bus. It’s natural, in a country that takes pride in self-reliance, to think that we can take on anybody, even God. You would think that we would know better by now.

No concessions and no compromises. It’s a tough act to follow. But follow we must if we are to call ourselves Christians. When temptations come, we must find the courage to do as Jesus would have done: to put others before self, to not be seduced by submitting to the popular way, and to allow God’s hand to take precedence over all that we do. May our temptations be few, may our faith remain strong, and may we be led by the Holy Spirit. Amen.