I Can't Do It

We are now in the season of Lent which started Wednesday for our Ash Wednesday service. A lot of people that I have talked to have decided to give something up for Lent while some others have decided to add something to their lives during this season. Part of the reason that we give things up and take things on is a direct connection to this text we have today. We see that Jesus fasted during those forty days and also during that time he was tempted by the devil.

I don’t know of anyone who fasts during the season of Lent, but giving up something that we usually have or do on a daily basis that we could do without is a way of understanding what it was like for Jesus for forty days. I have already shared with some of you that I am giving up coffee for Lent. I have been drinking more coffee in the last couple of years than I have in the past, and while it’s not a lot of coffee I have been noticing and thinking about how much I have each day. Since it has been on my mind I felt that was a way that God was calling me to give that up for Lent as my Lenten discipline. Ash Wednesday was my first day without coffee and Thursday wasn’t so bad but Friday I had a minor dull headache all day. It wasn’t a horrible headache, but I know that it is from no longer taking in caffeine each day. I’ve given up coffee before so I am familiar with the dull ache.

One of the things I have been looking into is a hot beverage alternative to coffee to see if maybe drinking something hot that isn’t coffee will fill that morning drink that I am no longer having. I’ve got some ideas I’m working on to replace the coffee and we’ll see how it goes.

On Friday, when I first got my caffeine withdrawal headache, we were down in Bullhead doing some shopping and one of the places we went was Target and at the front of the store by checkout was a Starbucks. I don’t know if it was the headache or something subconscious but as we walked by I swear I looked longingly at the store and as I realized I was doing that, the thought, “that sure sounds good right now” popped into my head. I couldn’t believe it! My own thoughts and subconscious were trying to betray me and tempt me into drinking some coffee to get rid of my headache. Then I thought about how this was only day two of my 40 days of giving something up for Lent and I had 38 more to go, and that as tempting and strange a feeling as it was to realize I was staring at the Starbucks like that, it must have been incredibly different and more difficult for Jesus during his 40 days in the wilderness with the devil.

As I realized what was happening, it brought me back to a class that I took in seminary. Every January we took a 3 week-long intensive course. One of those courses that I took was on the 7 Deadly Sins. One of the topics that we talked about in relation to the 7 deadly sins, was about the temptation to commit not just one of the 7 deadly sins, but any sin in life. It is through temptation that the tempter works through the world. We don’t see the tempter coming up in a bodily or spiritual form and trying to get us to do something like we do in today’s text, so it might be difficult for us to relate to this text, but through that class we discussed the ways in which these things still happen. The tempter doesn’t make us do things and there are times in which the tempter doesn’t have to do anything other than let us do that work on our own.

We talked about how simply letting life happen we can enter sin all by ourselves or with just a little help from other people. In fact, while I was in this class I had an encounter that helped me to realize this very thing. I was on my way to go see a friend in the apartments across the street when I saw a woman who’s car wouldn’t start. I stopped to help her. I did what I could and tried to get her car jumped from another person’s car but it wouldn’t take a charge. So either it needed more power to charge the car or it wasn’t the battery that was the issue. She kept asking me to do more for her so I told her I would use my AAA account to help her get her car towed somewhere if she wanted, but she didn't’ care fo that idea and she wanted me to do something else. I told her I was out of options, and she started to get really upset with me. I felt like I had done the best that I could, so I wished her luck and headed to my friends house. The whole way over to his house I couldn’t help but think that I wasn’t going to ever stop and help a person with their car again.

That is exactly what we talked about how the tempter works in the world today. There isn’t anything he really has to do except either let things play out or plant the subtle thought that all people are like that or all situations are going to end up that way and then we make up our minds that we aren’t going to do things like that again. I believe we are tempted to think this way all the time that when a bad situation happens that all situations are going to end up that way and we won’t get ourselves involved that way again. And that is when the tempter wins.

Jesus is so much more than that and so much more than us. Jesus is tempted in the wilderness and at the end he is tempted 3 last times. The first time he is tempted to feed himself by turning stones into bread, then he is tempted to be given all the kingdoms of the world to rule over, and finally he is tempted to prove his sonship to God by calling upon the angels to come and rescue him in a time of need. Jesus is able to resist the devil at all these temptations and teaches us an important lesson through them.

First Jesus shows us that the best way to resist temptation is to use scripture or at least be rooted and steeped in scripture so that we can remember what the Bible may say or teach us about a certain situation we find ourselves in. It is through God’s word that we can understand what God desires for us and from us instead of listening to what the world would tell us how to handle things. After all there is nothing wrong with turning stones to bread and eating when you are hungry or to help feed someone else, but the more important thing is that we don’t live by bread alone. In fact, the second part of the scripture Jesus quotes is that we live on the word of God. Just as we have been talking about how important it is to be rooted in scripture.

And second, I believe that it helps us understand that it is Jesus alone who was able to resist all the temptations he faced in his life and I don’t just mean the ones here in the wilderness. Jesus resisted temptation throughout his ministry and most importantly seen in the garden at the end of his life where he is tempted by himself in the garden to not be crucified, but says in the end that it is God’s will not his and he will do God’s will which was to die and rise again for our sake.

These two points show us that no matter how hard we try to do our best and to live a good life we are still only human and in need of a savior. It is Jesus who was able to resist all temptation and who was able to pay the ultimate sacrifice of his own life so that we could be forgiven of our sins, those sins that we commit when we do succumb to temptation. Jesus shows us that he is able to resist and he is able to save. It is all through Jesus that we see and know life everlasting. It is through Jesus that we know that through all our imperfections we are loved by God through him. Give thanks that our salvation is not based on our ability to resist temptation, but on God’s eternal love for each and every one of us. Amen.