Matthew 4:1-11
First Sunday of Lent: March 9, 2014
“If you are the Son of God,” the tempter says. If you are the son of God, then why don’t you
turn these stones into bread, leap from the highest point of the temple, rule
over all the nations? If you are the Son
of God.
“Son of God” was a title that had been used in various ways: King David and all the Davidic kings were each
called “Son of God.” “Sons of God” could
also designate angelic beings – members of the divine counsel. And, probably most importantly, in Jesus’
day, the title Son of God was given to the Roman Emperor.
And in this passage, I think Matthew is laying out a battle
over what it means to be the Son of God.
And here the battle gets played out dramatically between these two
characters: Satan and Jesus. Satan
offers one idea of what it means, and Jesus – three times – rejects it.
And think about what Satan is offering…aren’t they the things
given to kings and emperors…to the Son of God?
Jesus has been fasting for 40 days, and Satan comes along and
basically says, “You’re hungry…use your power as the Son of God to turn these
stones into bread.” Or put more
succinctly, “Eat. You have the power to
eat, so eat.”
That’s the thing: Kings
are always satisfied first…they are fed first, they are given shelter
first. No matter what is happening with
people in their kingdom, the king never goes hungry. People may be starving to death, but the King
never goes hungry. So come on, Jesus, if
you’re the Son of God, eat for goodness sake.
The Son of God doesn’t go hungry.
Then, the tempter invites Jesus to jump off the pinnacle of
the tower on the temple to prove he will be attended by angels who will protect
him…protect his life. He’s the Son of
God, so no one is going to let him
die.
And of course the people who surround kings and emperors are
all obligated to attend to them – to protect them…their lives…at all
costs. So come on Jesus, if you’re the
Son of God, let everyone wait on you and care for you.
Finally, the tempter invites Jesus to rule over the people –
with complete power – to do whatever he wants with them. And of course that’s the whole point,
right. You are the Son of God so be the
Son of God…the king, the ruler.
Son of God was a term of extraordinary power, and if you
claimed it for yourself it was because you had the power necessary to be at the
pinnacle of the world. And when you are,
when you are the Son of God, the ruler of all, you are given all sorts of
things: enough of everything to be fully
satisfied , safety from all who would harm you, and incredible power over the
people who live in your realm.
And we can understand this.
We have our versions of these rulers today: Those who have power in our world rarely have
to worry about the necessities of life – no matter what’s going on with other
people. And that’s how it should be,
right? You’ve done your part, made your
fortune, you should get the reward in return – you should get to eat all you
want.
And if you work your way to the top, you have people who work
for you; you pay them whatever you want - no
matter how much or how little – and they are to be loyal to you…protect your
interests.
If you play by the rules, pull yourself up by your
bootstraps, you can work your way up the ladder – and with each rung you are
given power over those under you. The
more you have, the more you can control things: people, politics, the
environment.
In other words, being powerful comes with all kinds of
goodies – all kinds of rewards and protections.
It’s an exchange – you have power, you get all of this in return.
But that’s Satan’s version.
Jesus rejects it whole stock.
“Eat your fill,:” Satan says. “No,”
Jesus says, “if you are the Son of God, you give
up any guarantee that you will be always satisfied. You certainly give up any notion that you
should be satisfied before anyone else.”
“You’re the Son of God,” Satan says, “the angels will attend
to your every need.” “No,” Jesus says, “if
you are the Son of God, you give up
any claim on having a blessed life where people – or God for that matter – are required
to care for you.”
“You’re the Son of God,” Satan says, “ so rule the people
like the Davidic kings of old. It’s all
yours – right there for the taking.” “No,”
Jesus says, “if you are the Son of God, you give
up power over others…completely.
Look at all that Jesus gives up. And he doesn’t do this just to annoy Satan. He does it to redefine for everyone what a
Son of God is like. What it means to be
God’s Son here on earth.
And so here we are: we
choose to be Children of God – as Christians we become, as Paul writes, adopted
into the family of God. And what do we
do with this?
Well, too often we think things are set up like Satan would
have it:
If I’m a good Christian, my life will be blessed – God will
supply my every want.
If I’m a good Christian, I will go to heaven and never die.
If I’m a good Christian, I can handle power…I will use it for
good.
But if we are children of God, and live that out as Jesus
models, we actually give all that up…all those guarantees, privileges and
rewards.
If I behave like a child of God, I don’t expect to get goodies
from God in return. I will not
necessarily be fed first…I feed others.
I don’t expect my life to be easy going and carefree.
If I behave like a child of God, I don’t expect people to
serve me, or honor me, or protect me…in other words, if I am a child of God, I
must give up my privilege.
Finally, if I behave like a child of God, I don’t expect to
get to control things, rule over others, no matter how good my intentions.
Giving up security, privilege, and power: That’s what it means to be a child of
God. Sounds fun, right?
I think we do fall into the trap of believing that if we are
behaving as a child of God – if we are doing something “good,” we get to have
some control. We think it’s okay to have
privilege and power because we’re Christians and we use it for good, right?
We all know the dangers that arise when we give to others
from our place of privilege. When we
give to others from our place of security, privilege, and power. Yet we good Christians do this all the
time. We give, we care for, we welcome
people – all of which is good – but do we do it with all the attending goodies
that Satan offers, or as children of God like Jesus imagines?
Too often, I think, we fall into Satan’s trap. We help and are generous, but only when all
of our needs – and all of our wants – are met first. We help and are generous, but are not at all
willing to shed our privilege, make ourselves insecure, to do it. And we help and are generous, but believe
that gives us control and power over others.
This last one is most insidious, I think because we’re not
really aware of it. I see it all the
time, in myself and in systems of care, and I see what happens as a
result. I believe that if I’m giving my
hard earned money, or my precious time, or my acceptance to someone, I should
be in control of outcomes. I should get a say about that person’s life. And if they don’t do what I expect, I can withhold
these things.
To see this, think about it from another perspective. Mostly, if I follow the law, I get a pass on
people trying to change my behavior – even if it’s bad or hurting people. And even if someone calls me out on something
– even if someone pressures me – I can, if I choose, ignore them, because I
don’t need anything from them; I'm pretty much self sufficient. Yet we
set up lists of expectations for behavior in order for people to get what we
have.
This means we help people, “who help themselves.” This means we don’t give money if they are
just going to spend it on cigarettes.
This means we welcome people, but only if they behave as we do. This means we attach strings to our
care. We require a worthy story before
we respond. We screen people to make
sure they have the possibility of moving out of poverty – who won’t squander
the help. This means we assume the
people worthy of our care are those who can go to school, get a job, and
eventually be productive members of our society.
The result, of course, is that there are entire groups of
people we think it’s okay to despise; to look down upon; to judge; to excise
from our lives. And that, of course,
makes people feel despised, looked down upon, and judged, which is not, last
time I checked, a healthy recipe for flourishing as a human being.
Most of us have power – power that comes from privilege. Just as Jesus had power…the power that comes
with being the Son of God – a pretty privileged place at that time. Somehow, Jesus shed that privilege, shed that
power, took a different place in the system.
In essence, Jesus decided to become just a child of God like all those
around him. No better, no worse.
It’s fair to ask “why?”.
It’s fair to ask, “was he right in doing so?” It’s fair to ask “did this make him
effective?” Could he not have had a much
bigger impact if he had taken all that power and used it for good?
Well, I think Jesus thought that truly caring for others and
having power are mutually exclusive things.
Efficacy did not seem to be his goal.
Maybe that’s frustrating, maybe it’s irresponsible, but he didn’t do
what everyone expected him to do as the Son of God: Take over the throne and save all of Israel
from the tyranny of Rome.
So, what do we do? We
are children of God.
Well, I don’t exactly know how to give up my privilege. Privilege is evil that way –it just comes
with the territory of, for me, being white, middle class, neuro-typical,
American. And I don’t always know how to
give up my power: I have resources that
others need, so I have the power to give them or not.
I think one small, though at times incredibly difficult,
thing we can do is to give up our assumptions about what we get in return for
being generous. I think we can give up
the need to control how others act – give up our expectations of others that we
feel we deserve to have.
I say this as someone who hasn’t figured this out yet. I don’t want to downplay the complexities
involved in all this. What is the line
between not using my power over others and letting others hurt me, or take
advantage of me…or others? What about
enabling people? I struggle with these
questions almost every day – certainly every week. I have a meeting this very afternoon where
this question will be front and center.
And I most likely fail at this pretty much every day or every week.
But, at the very least, it seems to me power over others,
which sometimes we can’t avoid having, is to be handled extremely carefully and
with great humility. And probably we
should err on the side of seeing someone as a human being that doesn’t deserve
our attempts to control them.
“If you are the Son of God…” Satan says to Jesus. “If you are children of God,” we hear from
the tempters of society. “It’s okay to
be secure, privileged, and powerful.” Jesus says, “Actually, it means you give all
that up.” Amen.
