Luke 4:1-13
February 29, 2004
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
I have another confession to make. One of my white tennis towels has the name “Hilton” on it. Maybe it got packed in by mistake after I played tennis while staying at a Hilton. Or maybe Joy packed it in by mistake. She made me do it!
A lot of travelers and vacationers must succumb to temptation. Last year Holiday Inn announced an amnesty program for all the people who have stolen towels from their hotels over the years. Holiday Inn estimates that guests take about 500,000 towels every year. The amnesty was offered in a lighthearted fashion. Those who came forward were encouraged to tell about what they’ve been using the hotel towels for. For the 25 most interesting towel stories, each of them was to receive a limited edition souvenir Holiday Inn towel. Using the towel to wipe the sweat off my brow playing tennis probably wouldn’t win. A spokes person for Holiday Inn indicated that the hotel doesn’t really mind if people take the towels. Their replacement cost is about $3 each.
I believe we have an amnesty program going on in our church right now! Some of the gospel choir members seem to have a temptation to keep their sheet music and not return them to church. Unlike Holiday Inn, the director does mind when you don’t return the music. I wonder what interesting things they are using the sheet music for!
It seems like we can’t help ourselves from doing things we are not supposed to do. We succumb to the temptation of taking a towel home.
Jesus’ Temptations
All three of the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke recorded the time when Jesus has come to the end of his 40 days of fasting in the wilderness. Mark’s version is brief but Matthew and Luke provide details of the encounter between Jesus and the devil. But we wonder that if Jesus is the Son of God, why would temptation be a problem for him? He could easily resist temptation. Temptation, however, for Jesus was very real. The devil was toying with Jesus with another set of options then what he was called in life to do. The devil was trying to undermine Jesus’ certainty about his identity and purpose.
It’s not too different from stealing a hotel towel for a souvenir. The towels are just hanging there. No one is watching you if you just happened to put one in your suitcase. If you are tempted to take the towel, you reveal the kind of person you really are—are you an honest or a dishonest person? We have a choice to either respect someone else’s property or to compromise our own integrity to come home with a souvenir. We are given opportunities to reveal our true identity and character by the actions that we take.
When we look at the temptations that Jesus faced, we see that they were attractive options for him. Good possibilities for Jesus to advance his goals.
The devil said, “Turn these stones into bread.” Well, what’s wrong with bread? It would taste wonderful especially after you’ve been fasting for 40 days. What’s wrong with feeding the hungry children of the world? What’s wrong with meeting the basic needs of people?
The devil then said, “I’ll give you all of the kingdoms of the world.” Well, wasn’t Jesus sent to be a king of kingdoms? Isn’t it just good political strategy to capture all of the delegates to win the party’s nomination as soon as possible?
Then finally, the devil said, “Jump down from the top of the temple.” People in those days thought that the Messiah would show himself to be God’s anointed one by appearing at the pinnacle of the temple. What could be wrong with being the kind of Messiah people expected? And how about getting all that media coverage with a bit of flair and drama?
On the surface, these things are attractive. Jesus could have been tempted to start his ministry this way. On the surface, he could have said, “I couldn’t help myself but to give the people what they want.” Feed them and they will come in droves. Be the kind of Messiah that the people want and expect from you. Still do what God has called you to do, but let’s do it the way the devil suggested. It’s okay to take a hotel towel, they don’t mind. It only costs them $3.
But Jesus said, “No.”
Why Temptations
Jesus, the Son of God, could have easily resisted temptations but he didn’t. And according to Scriptures, Jesus who was “full of the Holy Spirit” was led “by the Spirit” in the wilderness. The Holy Spirit was behind the temptations that Jesus endured in the wilderness. What then can be the purpose behind temptations; whether it’s for Jesus or for us?
Jesus was tested to show that he was indeed the Son of God. When Luke traces Jesus’ genealogy all the way back to Adam who was first called, the Son of God, we know that Adam, the first human being did not stand up to the test. He failed when he and Eve had the choice of choosing the way to be obedient and follow God or to go and follow their own idea of self-importance.
Jesus was tested for his faithfulness to his identity as God’s unique Son and his willingness to live a fully human life, to live as Adam was created to live but did not.
The second reason why Jesus was tested and tempted was to be an example for us. Seeing how Jesus handled temptations, we can learn how to handle temptations in our own lives. We can learn how to say “No” to the devil and resist choosing an alternative option that is not true to our identity and purpose.
The third reason why Jesus was tested and is the most important reason is because he knew that we human beings are not very good about resisting temptations at all. There is something about us that makes temptation almost irresistible.
Jesus knew that when Adam and Eve were tempted, they gave in. They just couldn’t help themselves when it came to eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge.
Jesus knew that when God’s people in the wilderness were tempted to believe in an idol, they gave in. They couldn’t resist the temptation to build a golden calf. Jesus knew God’s people couldn’t help themselves.
Jesus knew that when King David, a man after God’s own heart, saw Bathsheba, he gave in. He couldn’t resist the temptation of lust and infidelity. Jesus knew that poor David just couldn’t help himself.
Jesus knew that when you and I face temptations today, Jesus simply as an example of one who resisted temptation would not be enough. It may help us to try harder. But when push comes to shove, and when it seems that almost everyone who stays in a hotel takes a towel for souvenir, we are not very good at saying no.
Our Temptations
We do pretty good with the really bad things like when we need some money, we don’t go and rob a bank or when someone disagrees with us, we don’t murder him or when we are mad at our spouse, we don’t abuse him or her. We don’t do those things.
It’s the smaller things of life that are difficult for us to resist. The little things like what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. The little things like juicy gossip. The little things like having one more cookie when we are watching our weight. The little things like making someone feel that she or he is not a human being. The little things like diverting our loyalty and focus from our loved ones. The little things like we can have it all. The little things like we are in charge here. The “little” things that in God’s eyes are big things—self elevating, cruel words, anger and hate, we don’t do very well. When we come face to face with those little temptations—more often than not, we give in. We just say, “They won’t miss just one of their little hotel towels.” Jesus knew that we just can’t help ourselves.
What the temptation of Jesus is really about is the Son of God struggling with what is necessary because we so often give into temptation ourselves. Jesus is God’s Son, the God who came to be born in human flesh and to be tempted as we are. It is about Jesus who stood in the place of all God’s people down through history then and now, who have been tempted and just gave in. It is about the Son of God who was faced with a choice. Jesus had to decide whether to be a popular and successful Messiah according to the expectations of the people or to do his ministry according to God’s way.
Jesus chose God’s way that led him to death on the cross because it was the only way to help people who just can’t help themselves when it comes to giving in to temptation.
One of the things that we seem to be unable to help ourselves from doing is that we tend to be quick to judge. We think that we have answers to all of the questions of life and so we self-elevate ourselves and forget that we are only human beings and mere followers of Christ trying to be faithful to his word and deeds. We are more like Paul than we would like to admit. Paul struggled internally when he said in Romans 7,
For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold into
slavery under sin. I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do
what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
Paul realizes that even though we now have Christ in our lives and in the world, that in our human existence, we still have the temptation of the flesh that causes us to “do what we do not want and don’t do what we should.”
In John 8, we have the story of when Jesus met the woman caught in adultery. While Jesus was teaching, the scribes and Pharisees brought the woman and made her stand before all of them.
The officials said according to the Law of Moses, we should stone such women. They asked Jesus what he had to say about this so as to test him. Jesus bent down and started to write something on the ground with his fingers while they kept on questioning him. Jesus then stood up and said to the scribes and Pharisees, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Jesus once again bent down and started to write on the ground and one by one, beginning with the elders, they all went away leaving only the woman standing before Jesus. Jesus straightened up and said to the woman, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go on your way, and from now on do not sin again.”
Perhaps one of our greatest temptations that we succumb to is to be quick to judge when we forget that we too are sinners and are in need of God’s grace, mercy, and forgiveness.
God’s Forgiveness
The Gospel lesson for today is about the kind of God we have. The kind of God we have is one who came in human flesh and decided to do his ministry according to God’s way. In the temptations of Jesus, Jesus’ choice is that he would give up his life on the cross. By doing this, he would do something about our weakness when it comes to temptation. Jesus did not do away with the things that tempt us when he went to the cross. All the little big things that entice us to make ourselves look good, things that make us self-righteous, things to seek personal gain at the cost of others well-beings—still are there, and sometimes we just can’t say no. We can’t help ourselves.
If Jesus was only a good teacher whose example would show us to try harder when it comes to doing all the little things that God hates, Jesus would not be enough.
We might be able to say, “No,” now and then but we know that we will ultimately give into our temptations again. Jesus being only a good example is inadequate to forgive us for the sins we do. And we all have sinned and still sin.
Instead of choosing what the devil offered as an alternative to God’s purpose for Jesus’ life, Jesus chose God’s way. What he did on the cross to save us, we couldn’t do for ourselves. On the cross, Jesus announced an amnesty program for all of us who are unable to resist temptation and says to us, “I know that you have hotel towels, but go now and sin no more. I know that you have this log in your eye when you were quick to judge, but go now and sin no more.”
Jesus knows that we can’t help ourselves when it comes to giving into temptations and that we have come up short in the eyes of God on what he had planned for our lives. The passion of Christ on the cross is that he died for you and for me so that we may be forgiven. Go and sin no more.
Let us pray.
Gracious and merciful Lord, we pray today for the forgiveness of our sins when we have given into temptations. Teach us to be righteous and not be self-righteous. Help us to be loving and understanding and not be hateful and mean-spirited. Lord, we are all in need of your forgiveness and through our commitment to following your ways, transform us to become a compassionate people. Amen.