Duels, the Devil, and Discipleship

Luke 4:1-13

On this Valentine’s Day, when and red and pink and white hearts dot the landscape, and love is inspiring us to buy gifts and posies for our sweetheart, here in this place we will consider the passionate love of God. We also witness Jesus in a duel with the devil.

What do you think of when you hear the word, “duel” – d-u-e-l? While “duel” might seem like an old-fashioned word,

The Merriam Webster dictionary defines a duel as:

·        A fight between two people that includes the use of weapons (such as guns or swords) and that usually happens while other people watch.

·         A situation in which two people or groups argue or compete with each other.

·        And of course, “to duel” would be the act of participating in a duel.

We find examples of duels in history, literature, and popular media. Which is probably why, when I think of a duel, it brings to mind flashing swords and fancy footwork.

Some of the greatest movie duels of all time include: King Arthur and the Knights of the Round table and their nemeses go to battle using swords in various movies and plays about the legend; think of Excaliber for instance, or Camelot. Inigo Montoya does some serious swordplay in a duel against the mysterious, evil “Man in Black” in The Princess Bride movie; and, Neo duels with Agent Smith in The Matrix.

There are the duels made even more fantastic through computer graphics, like the one between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader in Star Wars Episode IV, New Hope; and King Arthur versus the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. If you are a fan of old westerns, then the gun fight between Blondie and Angel Eyes in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly might be the duel that comes to mind.

Finally, if you are an American history buff then perhaps, especially during this election year, you recall the infamous 1804 duel between then vice president Aaron Burr and  the former secretary of the treasury Alexander Hamilton over political and personal issues; a duel that left Hamilton mortally wounded and Burr wanted for murder.

Throughout this season of Lent we will see a bit of “dueling” through the gospel texts. Each text will present us with a clash of wills, each clash leading to a duel of some kind. It will be up to us to determine what the clash is in each of these texts, and how it might relate to our Lenten journey.

While we may think duels are a thing of the past, as we explore these texts we will see how we engage in them still, today.

In this week’s Gospel, the duel takes place between Jesus and the Devil; the clash is over rank and its privileges. The weapons in this duel are words – scripture, to be precise, and we are the witnesses to this duel.

Jesus has been in the wilderness for some forty days and he has not eaten in all that time. While there are some who say that because of his divinity hunger had no effect on Jesus, the text itself contradicts this, for although his divinity is established, Jesus, also fully human, is described as famished.

I can’t even imagine what Jesus was experiencing. If I go four hours without eating something, my tummy starts to rumble; eight hours, and I am headachy, grumpy, and my determination to eat healthy foods is completely overwhelmed by my craving for anything that even resembles food; twelve hours, and even the leather of my shoes begins to look awfully tasty. But Jesus goes 40 days with nothing to eat.

Jesus must have been weak with hunger, and feeling vulnerable. This is the time the devil likes to engage with us the best; When we are tired, feeling vulnerable, lonely, troubled, or weak from stress or physical challenges.

In our gospel story the devil has been with Jesus all through the 40 days, testing him in all kinds of ways, trying to trip Jesus up so that he might gain the upper hand in the fight for world power and supremacy. We don’t know precisely what kinds of tests have come before, but we know that here, at the end of this wilderness time for Jesus, the devil makes one last effort, upping the ante with each test he tries.

The devil is crafty. So, while it may surprise us to realize that the devil knows scripture –it is exactly the tool he wields as a weapon before Jesus.

And so it is that this text makes explicit the argument against proof-texting – choosing verses of scripture out of context to support one’s position in an argument, rather than studying the scriptures as a whole, to see what God might be doing or calling us to do. That’s what the devil does here.

The clash over rank is inspired by the fact that Jesus is God’s Son. Twice in our text reads that the devil begins, “If you are the Son of God” - followed by a condition. A better translation of the word “if” here would be “since”, for the devil knows who Jesus is. The devil and other demons are often the first to recognize Jesus. Satan knows Jesus is indeed The Son of God.

As the Son of God, Jesus has valid claim to the highest status, in a world where status is everything. And, in the 1^st century world in which this story takes place, not unlike the world in which we live, one is expected to use their status to satisfy their needs.

But Jesus realities clash with the realities of the world and this devil. Rather than using his status and power as the Son of God to answer the devil’s taunts or fill his need, Jesus’ realities are shaped by God’s claim on him - “You are my Son, the Beloved One; in you I delighted.”

Jesus’ realities are divine; they are defined by God’s love for the world. Jesus’ realities determine that because he is the Son of God:

·        he will not be tested;

·        he will not follow the devil’s agenda;

·        and he will not use his status to serve himself;

·        He will use his status instead, to serve the world.

Because of the passionate love that God holds for all of creation, God sent Jesus to save us from our sin; to transform hearts of stone into servant hearts; to love, serve, feed, care for, and embrace all people, especially those who are generally cast aside and left out because they have no status in the eyes of the world.

God sent Jesus to turn the world on its ear in the battle for the redemption of humankind. The devil wants Jesus to betray his mission and his divinity by operating as the world operates – to care for his own needs first.

Next, the devil showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, feeding him the lie that if Jesus would just worship him, the devil would reward him with this real estate. Jesus is clear in his response – there is only one LORD God, and worship and honor belong solely to God.

Finally, the climax of the story: Jesus is led up to the highest point in Jerusalem – the pinnacle of the temple. From there he could see as far as the eye can see. The devil gives Jesus one last test – since you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here. Let’s see your angels come flying to your assistance. Let’s see them catch and preserve you from danger. Let’s see God come to your aid as the scriptures have promised.

The devil isn’t just testing Jesus, he is also taunting and testing God. The devil figures that if God is watching, surely he will send his angels to save Jesus. The devil’s argument is that God HAS to save Jesus: To prove Jesus’ identity; to confirm his divinity; to preserve Jesus’ mission on earth.

The thing that the devil doesn’t get is that God does not have to do anything. He has already declared the identity and divinity of Jesus, to the disciples. Jesus denies the devil’s final test. While God does not have to do anything, Jesus will not do anything the devil asks.

It is God’s agenda that Jesus will follow, and not the other way around.  

It is God’s agenda that we follow, too, not our agenda for God. God’s agenda shapes the journey and ministry of Christ. God’s agenda is to save humankind from sin and death; to turn the status quo upside down; God’s agenda includes lifting up the lowly and bring down the mighty and the haughty. God calls all of us to follow this agenda too.

Jesus is about doing God’s will and the devil doesn’t like that, is threatened by it, and will do anything to defeat it in the world. In order to tap into God’s strength and to align himself with God’s agenda, Jesus prays. We see Jesus praying a lot, in fact. Including before and after challenges and tests along his way.

During the season of Lent, we acknowledge, more than at any other time, that a duel is taking place here, in our world, in our lives, and in our hearts. We feel it when we turn our backs on the homeless person on the street. We feel it when we do things we shouldn’t in order to gain status for ourselves, and we feel it when we don’t do the things we know we should, because it is inconvenient or unpopular.

This duel between rank and its privileges still rages on. It rages on the streets as we face temptation to ignore the will of God that all people be fed, educated, and allowed to work in meaningful jobs. The duel persists as many forms of injustice pervade the landscape. The duel rages as we struggle to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the refugee and rule the world with justice, faithfully serving God in our encounters with humankind. The duel underlies our stewardship decisions; how should we spend our wealth; how do we use our resources; how might we speak of or treat other people? 

Ultimately, Jesus demonstrates his confidence in God’s will. Jesus shows us what it is like to trust in God, as he remains focused on his mission of salvation for the whole world. As we embark on our Lenten journey, let us pray for the courage, strength, and confidence to follow Jesus, To turn to prayer and discernment as the weapons to better fight the duel between the kingdom work we are called to and the testing we face in the midst of our journey. Let us thank God for the passionate love that caused him to send us Jesus, the Son of God, the Beloved and perfect foil for the devil’s plot to claim us. 

The Devil Made Me Do It

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 ~ Lent I, 2014

        Back a few decades ago, a black comedian by the name of Flip Wilson made popular the phrase, “The devil made me do it,” in a comedy routine of his. The phrase became a modern catch-phrase, for light-hearted denial of responsibility for any wrongdoing. Wilson performed routines in which he built a story around this phrase on his own variety show, on the Ed Sullivan show, and in several other venues. “The devil made me do it” as an iconic phrase really caught on.

        Over the past few decades, several songs have been recorded and released, given this same title, “The Devil Made Me Do It”, in every genre of music from gangsta rap to rock to country-western, addressing situations from criminal liability to substance abuse to behavioral and relational indiscretions.

In 2009 it was widely reported when a 62-year old Washington state woman who was arrested and charged for stealing $73,000 from her church treasury told the detectives who questioned her, “Satan had a big part in the theft.”

And earlier this year the Huffington Post published a tongue-in-cheek analysis in the form of a fictional dialogue between the Devil and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. This followed a New York magazine interview, in which Justice Scalia reportedly revealed that not only did he believe in the devil, but he thought most Americans did, too.  The Huff Post piece reflected on some of the legal decisions Scalia wrote on last year, supposedly from the viewpoint of this belief.

A cursory glance at our scriptural texts today might also lead us to believe that all temptation and misdeeds indeed come from the devil. Through the centuries this kind of belief has led to interpretations and teachings that every evil is inspired and enacted by the devil and agents of the devil, which has led in turn to some historic atrocities, like the witchcraft trials and the Spanish Inquisition.

Today we’ll consider our Genesis text in particular, in light of some misconceptions that muddy our understanding of our relationship with God, evil and sin.

Our reading this morning starts toward the end of the creation story. God has been busy, taking the chaos, that formless void, and separating out waters and creating dry land, establishing boundaries between them. Nowhere does the text say that what God created was a perfect paradise, as we often think of the Garden of Eden. But God did create and establish a vast assortment of elements, creatures and things; God made sun and moon, stars and planets, and set them all in their courses. And what God created was good, it was very good, and God was pleased by it. It was balanced. It was blessed by God. But it was still lacking something, and so finally, God created man and woman.

God set them in the garden, this wonderful, diverse and rich creation, and gave them work to do. They were to till the ground and keep it. In return God would freely provide for them out of it. God, who is full of grace and love, would fill all their needs. And at the end of chapter 2 (verse 25), just before the second part of our text picks up today, we are told, “And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.”

If we fast forward to the verses just after our assigned reading ends, right after the couple’s eyes “were opened”, the next words we read are, “They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” (Chapter 3, vs. 8 & 9)

What in the world happened between “and they were not ashamed” and “I was afraid,…..and I hid myself”?

Enter the wily serpent. Although we often think of this snake as an evil satanic figure, the text simply refers to the figure as “serpent.” In the Ancient Near East, the serpent was seen as a symbol of wisdom, though Genesis 3: renders the serpent as “crafty”. This cunning creature brings alienation between humans, and between humans and their god by bringing on doubt, fear, and distrust. The serpent instills in the man and woman a loss of focus and identity.

In the garden, the serpent encourages them to doubt; to count on their own “wisdom” rather than on God and God’s wisdom. The scene unfolded something like this:

When Eve told the serpent how God had said they could eat from any tree but one, the serpent scoffed. “Surely you don’t believe that, do you? I mean, really! You think that if you eat that fruit you’re going to die? Come on now. You’re too smart to believe that, and speaking of smarts – if you do eat this fruit, you will gain all the knowledge needed to succeed in life. Then you’ll be rich beyond measure. Surely you are too smart to believe God meant that literally!”

How easily Satan shifts our thinking to believe that our human wisdom surpasses God’s word and promise.

Pondering the serpent’s words, the woman and man forget who they are and whose they are. I say they, because although tradition has it that Eve was convinced by the serpent and then brought temptation to Adam, this text makes it clear that the man was present all along. Eve took the fruit and ate and then offered it to her husband who also decided to eat. There is no claiming “The devil made me do it!” They each ate of their own accord.

And so, they each succumb to the serpent’s taunts. They each forget or disbelieve or distrust God’s promise that God would see to their needs. The moment that they ate of the fruit they became aware of their vulnerability – of their nakedness. They understood their profound failure to trust in God and depend on God, the only thing God ever really demanded from them. The consequences are immediate. In a moment of time they go from freedom to frailty, from confident, trusting dependence on God, to stumbling and falling into an abyss of shame and doubt and failure. The result is that they are compelled to hide from God. And we have been hiding ever since.

For, isn’t that still our story? Temptation so often comes at the point of identity, where we fail to claim our full potential as human beings and as children of God. We forget that we are God’s children, made in God’s own image, and that God desires our attention, our dependence and our full devotion. We fill our days with busyness, and fail to till the soil of God’s creation; we fail to till the soil of compassion, almsgiving, embracing at risk children, clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, embracing those who may challenge us or be different from us. Instead, we cling to sin, a powerful force that arises from God’s good creation. And we discover that knowing good from evil doesn’t mean we will always choose the good, and resist temptation to do evil.

Our creaturely vulnerability and brokenness have distorted God’s generosity and beneficence. “The devil made me do it” may be our cry, but the reality is that it is truly through our willful rejection of dependence on God, that we have repeatedly created corrupt and inadequate systems of power and dominance.

We have forever transformed the creation and garden of God’s delight into a broken and struggling planet, where earth, sea and skies suffer from the abuses we have heaped on them. Even the church is not immune from seeking power over sacred relationship with the divine. Our human vulnerability leads us to live in fear of failure, of intimacy, of relinquishing perceived power, of offering one another forgiveness.  

And yet, even after the fall, in the creation story we see glimpses of God’s grace enfolding God’s creation. God continues to create “good” – not perfect, but life-sustaining good. In verse 21 of Genesis 3 we are told that “… the Lord God made garments of skins for the man and for his wife, and clothed them.” Seeing their vulnerability and their shame, God’s grace is made evident in God’s continuing acts of creativity and renewal.

Since the time of creation and the fall, God has continued to pursue the hearts of God’s people. God has sent prophets and judges, has continued to provide for God’s people, even giving manna in the desert, water from a rock, and finally, the messiah, born of a human mother in a human birth, who lived and died so that the powers of evil and death would be forever vanquished. May it be so.

In Jesus, God has the last word. In the cross of Christ, God destroys death forever. There is no greater power. Our fear, our identity crises, our vulnerability, our failures, and our struggle with dependence all cause us to experience pain, disappointment and despair in life, but ultimately leads us back to Jesus, through whom God grants us new life and frees us to begin anew.

Let us pray. Lord Jesus, who saves us from our fear and failure, be with us this Lent as we explore more deeply your incomparable love that is poured out on the cross for us. Embrace us as we struggle with sin and guilt, and lead us to a broader understanding of your continuing creative and saving work. Grant that we may know and do your will despite the distractions and temptations in the world, and bring us at last to the peace and light.

Amen.