Regaining the Capacity for Flight
Lent I
February 10, 2008
Matthew 4:1-11
By Pastor Tom Kadel
What a difference a week makes. Last Sunday was Transfiguration Sunday and we followed Jesus, Peter, James and John to the mountain top where Jesus was transfigured – his face glowed, his garments became radiant. It was a holy moment in the life of Jesus. It was a pivotal moment for Peter, James and John.
But what a difference a week makes. Today, on this First Sunday in Lent, we do not travel with Jesus to a mountain top. We follow him into the wilderness – the brutal desert. There will be no glowing face this week, no radiant garments this week. There will be instead intense hunger, filthy garments, dripping sweat from the blazing sun, hard-edged aloneness, physical weakness from 40 days of not eating. What a difference a week makes.
Good morning, brothers and sisters. We gather today on the First Sunday in this powerful and significant season of Lent. And setting the tone for our 40 day journey in this season is Matthew’s account of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. If you were reading along with me in the pew Bible, you may have noticed that this event in Jesus’ life took place immediately following his baptism by John in the Jordan River. At his baptism and again on the mountain of Transfiguration, Jesus hears a voice from heaven proclaim, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
In the wilderness he hears a voice from Hell say, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” And “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down (from the pinnacle of the Temple).” And, “All these (all the kingdoms of the world) I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Yes, what a difference a week makes. Last week we thought of how the holy breaks in to our lives so unexpectedly. This week we are led to acknowledge how Hell breaks in to our lives so regularly.
Today I’m not going to talk about those three specific temptations that Jesus faced. There’s a lot, for sure, to be gained by doing that. But instead, I would like us to consider the heart of what is happening here, something that the three temptations of Jesus have in common. The temptations that Satan flung at Jesus after his forty-day fast in the wilderness weren’t just challenges to do three things he wasn’t supposed to do. They were challenges that tempted Jesus to be someone he was not born to be. Did you hear that difference? The ultimate temptations in life are not those that push you to do things you aren’t supposed to do, but to be a person you were not created to be.
Preacher Lenard Sweet puts it quite well when he observes, “The devil wasn’t tempting Jesus to take the edge off his hunger by turning stones into bread. He was tempting the ‘Son of God’ to replace his table relationship to God with fast food. The devil wasn’t tempting Jesus to jump off the temple roof. He was tempting the Son of God to demand that God take action based on the Son’s desires and preferences. The devil wasn’t tempting Jesus with power and prestige offered by the kingdoms of the world. He was tempting the Son of God to intentionally orphan himself from the Father.”
Satan was tempting our Lord to be a self-filled, self-empowered, self-righteous person with no need of the Father. And that is not who he came into the world to be.
Now Satan has never tempted me to turn a stone into a loaf of bread, nor has he urged me to leap off a high pinnacle to see if angels will save me, nor has he offered me rulership over the whole world. But Satan has been a constant presence in my life. And I’ll bet I’m not alone. On a daily – sometimes an hourly – basis, I have been drawn to be someone other than who I was created to be. And it always seems that Satan is urging me – like he urged Jesus – to be a self-filled, self-empowered, self-righteous person with no need of the Father.
Writer Ronald Meredith in his book Hurryin’ Big for Little Reasons tells the story of some geese they had on their farm. These geese had long ago settled down and taken up residence at the farm’s pond. One evening he saw a flock of truly wild geese fly over that pond, honking and honking. Here’s how he tells the rest of the story. “[The tame pond geese] heard the wild call they had once known. The honking out of the night sent little arrows of prompting deep into their wild yesterdays. Their wings fluttered a feeble response. The urge to fly – to take their place in the sky for which God made them – was sounding in their feathered breasts, but they never raised from the water. The matter had been settled long ago. The corn of the barnyard was too tempting! Now their desire to fly only made them uncomfortable.” Meredith concludes with this powerful observation, “Temptation is always enjoyed at the price of losing the capacity for flight.”
Losing the capacity for flight is exactly what happens to us when we fall into being someone other than who we were created to be. And we were created to be the children of God. Children of God draw their life from God and not from their own accomplishments. Children of God draw their purpose from God and not from their own egos. Children of God are shaped by God and not by their own desires. To settle for less is to lose the capacity for flight.
Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa led that nation’s struggle against apartheid and still today is a voice pleading for racial harmony and human dignity. But he has often been criticized that is he not more aggressive toward his opponents. One of the Bishop’s closest colleagues observed, “At his age you’d think he would have learned to hate a little more. There is this problem with Tutu:” he goes on to write, “he believes literally in the gospel.”
What that colleague means is that Desmond Tutu remembers who he is, remembers his baptism. He knows the gospel story and will not change the script – even in the pursuit of a noble end. Bishop Desmond Tutu has retained the capacity for flight.
Back to the tame geese at the pond. We have an advantage that those geese do not enjoy. We have Lent. Lent is our time for remembering who we are, who we were created to be. Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness remembering who he was and that is why Satan was no match for him in the wilderness. We have our 40 days of Lent to remember who we are. In Lent we can worship more. In Lent we can pray more. In Lent we can meditate more. In Lent we can read the Bible more. In Lent we can sacrifice more. In Lent we can use each of these classic Lenten disciplines to re-mold us back into being true children of God – ones who know our need of God, ones who remember who we were created to be, ones who recover the capacity for flight.
Only four of those 40 days are behind us now. There remains a whole wealth of opportunity before us for remembering, and in the remembering comes the being, and in the being comes the soaring flight of the children of God. Let’s get into the air together, brothers and sisters.
Amen
The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
