Sermon preached by The Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
The First Sunday in Lent
“Son,” ordered a father, “Don’t swim in that canal.”
“OK, Dad,” he answered. But he came home carrying a wet bathing suit that evening.
“Where have you been?” demanded the father.
“Swimming in the canal,” answered the boy.
“Didn’t I tell you not to swim there?” asked the father.
“Yes, sir,” answered the boy.
“Why did you?” he asked.
“Well, Dad,” he explained, “I had my bathing suit with me and I couldn’t resist the temptation.”
“Why did you take your bathing suit with you?” he questioned.
“So I’d be prepared to swim, in case I was tempted.”
This fanciful story is told by H. King Oehmig in Synthesis for the First Sunday in Lent. We have only 36 days of Lent to go. For those of you who have given up something for Lent, have you found yourself tempted? I’ve given up chocolate, and every Lent I find that what I give up I especially crave during that time. Linda keeps chocolates in a candy jar in our living room and I find myself looking over there at the jar every time I pass through! I haven’t succumbed, by the way. But I don’t carry chocolates around with me just in case I want one and decide to yield to temptation!
This past week once again a national figure has made a confession for all the world to hear. Tiger Woods exposed his soul to his family, friends, and fans, acknowledging that he has let everyone down in the way he yielded to temptation. He confessed that he alone, through the bad choices he made on many occasions, has hurt his wife, his children, his mother, his friends, his fans, and the people who looked up to him as an example. He confessed that money and power, of which he had an abundance, went to his head, deluding him into thinking he somehow lived by a different set of rules from the average person. He confessed that he had strayed from the values his mother had taught him as a child through the Buddhist faith. He expressed tremendous sorrow at what he has done and pledged to start afresh living as a man of integrity, stating that he realized that words were not enough, that he had to prove by his actions that he meant what he said. And he admitted that he needed help in making the necessary changes in his life.
Tiger Woods’s confession and repentance are a poignant example of human failing and of how God works in our lives to bring us back to him. I believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is at work in this man, even though he doesn’t acknowledge him or even recognize him. My hope is that somehow he will come to know the One who is the way, the truth, and the life and that he will know the reconciling love and mercy of God, most fully revealed in our Savior and Lord. His repentance is certainly a good start.
Those persons who are especially gifted are targeted by Satan and his dominions, for in their ability to do much good, they also have the capacity to do much harm. That’s one reason we need to pray fervently for those in authority over us, in both the religious and the secular realms. The temptations for those in authority are great, for power can go to a person’s head, and he or she can easily abuse that power for personal gain and self-promotion; and often can get away with it, at least for a time.
The devil doesn’t necessarily have to get involved for some persons to use their gifts for their own selfish ends and in disobedience to God. Satan can leave sociopaths completely to their own devices. But with others I believe he is very active in using a person’s weaknesses in order to make him or her fall. Yes, I do believe in the Devil, or Satan, as well as in other spiritual forces of evil, whose objective is to lead us as far from God as possible, hurting as many people in the process as possible. With C.S. Lewis, I believe that the Devil’s greatest accomplishment in the modern era is convincing people that he doesn’t exist. It makes his work that much easier.
On this First Sunday in Lent, we are given a glimpse of the kinds of temptations which our Lord Jesus faced. Here is a man with tremendous ability and with all of the power of God behind him. He could use his ability and power to his own ends or he could use them for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. The kinds of things that the Devil tempted him to do he would do later on in the service of God. He would change water into wine and he would multiply the loaves and fishes. All of the kingdoms in the world would indeed be his, but in the realm of the Spirit, and not by selling his soul to the Devil. And miraculous displays would be a regular part of his ministry in giving sight to the blind, cleansing lepers, and even raising the dead, but they would not be for the purpose of self-promotion.
Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, yet he never succumbed to the temptation. He never sinned. The way he dealt with temptation is instructive for us all, as we meet the Tempter. First of all, he acknowledged the temptation. He didn’t try to deal with it by attempting to convince himself that it wasn’t real.
Secondly, he was grounded in faith. Jesus worshipped regularly with the people of God, he prayed fervently; in this instance his prayer was buttressed by fasting. And he knew the revelation of God in the scriptures. In other words, he had tremendous resources with which to meet the tempter.
Finally, our Lord Jesus used Holy Scripture specifically in fighting Satan. Because he knew the scriptures, he could counter temptation through quoting the Word of God.
Jesus didn’t deny the reality of his temptations, facing them squarely. He was grounded in his relationship with the Father. And he used scripture as a weapon to fight temptation. These things work! They are part of how God’s grace works in our lives in fighting temptation, whether we’re talking about eating chocolates during Lent or the kinds of things Tiger Woods encountered in his rise to fame and fortune. And we have another weapon in that fight: the Presence of our Lord Jesus Christ to guide, strengthen, and support us.