I know the Revised Common Lectionary doesn’t point to the story of Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness until the first Sunday in Lent, but it seems to have more layers when it is taken in context between Jesus’ baptism and his sermon in Nazareth where they deemed him unrecognizable. I’ll find something else for Lent.
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The first time I heard the word “Trip Tik” was back in the days when you could go by AAA and they would help you plan your vacation. They printed out a booklet that had maps for the trip broken up in daily segments to make it more manageable.
It was years later before I realized someone at AAA must have been an art aficionado because the name of the guide was a pun on the word triptych— which isn’t spelled like it sounds. It is a word that came out of the eighteenth century to describe a painting on three connected tablets—a visual triology—and has also come to mean something composed or presented in three parts.
As we continue through Luke’s gospel, we are in the middle of a gospel triptych: the accounts of Jesus’ baptism, Jesus’ time in the wilderness where he was tempted, and Jesus’ return to Nazareth are three stories that are deeply connected.
Last week we saw that Jesus went out to be baptized to repent—to mark a change in his life. What happened in the river with John marked the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Then, Luke says, “Jesus returned from the Jordan River full of the Holy Spirit, the life-breath of God, and was led into the wilderness. There he was tempted for forty days by the slanderer.”
It’s an odd sequence of events: Jesus walked the twenty-five miles back to town and then the Spirit led him into the wilderness—that is to say even deeper into the desert—to be tempted, which is a word, like repent, that meant something more layered to Luke (and to Jesus) than it often does to us. The word “tempted” can also be translated as “put to the test” or “put through a trial,” as if to say Jesus went out to wrestle with who he thought he was, rather than temptation being about (if I may use personal examples) how much I think about getting an ice cream cone whenever I shop at Bishop’s Orchards, or how I can hear the Salt and Vinegar potato chips calling me regardless of what food store I’m in.
Suffice it to say, Jesus had more at stake in this text than blowing his calories for the day.
Theologian Ched Myers points out that Jesus was retracing the steps of his ancestors who had wandered in that wilderness for forty years trying to figure out what it meant to be God’s people. Jesus, he says, was “driven by the Spirit deeper into the wilderness where he, like his ancestors [had to] discover what his vocation [meant].”
His baptism had culminated in God proclaiming, “You are my beloved child in whom I find delight.” Now he was alone in the wilderness where God had led him and he was hearing a voice that was not God’s and that began each challenge with, “If you are the Son of God . . . ,” a short phrase packed with self-doubt, calling Jesus to do something to prove himself.
If you are who God says you are . . .
Though Luke begins by saying Jesus was tempted for forty days, when the specific trails come it sounds as though they all happened at the very end of his sojourn. Jesus had fasted for forty days, Luke says, and he was starving. Then the challenge came: “If you are who God says you are, you don’t have to go hungry. You can make all the food you want if you just turn the stones into bread.”
Jesus answered by quoting from the Torah: People need more than bread to live.
The focus then moved to seeing things through the eyes of position and power. If you are who God says you are, pledge allegiance to those who say they have the power and you can have it, too. Worship the empire and you can share in the spoils. Take everything because you can.
Jesus went back to the Torah: We worship only God.
The last of the trials had to do with avoiding suffering by leaning on his position and privilege. If you are who God says you are, then jump off of the pinnacle of the Temple and make the angels catch you.
Jesus quoted one more verse from Deuteronomy: Don’t test God. Actually, it could be translated “don’t tempt God” because it is the same word that is used when the translation says Jesus was tempted.
There is an interesting similarity between the trials Jesus faced and the specific actions John the Baptist gave when people asked him what repentance looked like. John said, if you have two tunics, give one away to someone in need; if you are a tax collector, collect only the legal amount and don’t cheat others for your own gain; and to the soldiers he said, don’t use your power to extort others. They are not exact parallels, but we can here resonant themes of what it means to be a child of God. John was calling people to change their lives and to demonstrate that change in the way they incarnated the love of God in their words and actions. Even though we are in the crosshairs of a winter storm instead of a desert wind, we have to face similar questions:
If we are who God says we are . . .
. . . will we allow our need or our appetites to alter our integrity?
. . . will we give into the seduction of power and influence?
. . . will we take advantage of our position and privilege when it serves us?
The temptations didn’t offer Jesus a whole different life, or even a chance to run away from responsibility. They offered the choice to be content with a different version of himself—a lesser version. Instead of one who would use his miracles to heal and to teach, he could use them for personal gain. Instead of speaking truth to power, he could ally with those in charge to gain power for himself. Instead of facing suffering, he could use his privilege to avoid it and be on easy street.
And these trials were not a one-time occurrence. Jesus stared them down over and over throughout his ministry. The tests he faced in the wilderness were examples of what he faced almost every day: to use who he was and what he could do as a way to make his life more comfortable and powerful.
Over the past couple of years, a quote from a friend has attached itself to this story of Jesus’ time in the wilderness. I learned it when I was going through a time that tested my sense of myself and required me to make some difficult decisions. He quoted wisdom from another friend who said, “We either choose our losses or we lose our choices.”
Let me repeat that: we either choose our losses or we lose our choices.
When we are willing to risk beyond what feels safe or comfortable, we see things in ourselves and in our world that we did not see before. We create possibilities, as Jesus did coming out of the wilderness in this second part of our gospel triptych. From there, he went back to Nazareth, his hometown, which is the biblical story we will tell next week as we see the last panel of the triptych.
In the meantime, let us carry these questions into the days ahead:
If we are who God says we are . . .
. . . will we allow our need or our appetites to alter our integrity?
. . . will we give into the seduction of power and influence?
. . . will we take advantage of our position and privilege when it serves us?
We, like Jesus, choose how we live and relate to those around us. May we choose to live and speak and act as those who know they are beloved children of God created to love and serve one another as we travel this journey of life together. Amen.
Peace,
Milton
