“An Opportune Time”

 

by Rev. Jennifer Lapinskas

For Grace Lutheran Church, Green Bay, Wis.

February 24 & 25, 2007

 

Luke 4:1-13

“And he departed from him until an opportune time.”  Such an ominous ending to our gospel reading for today.  “You may have won this time, Jesus, but I’ll be back, you can count on that.”

Of course the devil obviously thought that the time he’d chosen to begin with was pretty “opportune”.  Jesus had been alone in the wilderness, not eating, not having any human companionship, for forty days.  He was likely tired and was certainly hungry.  And he was by himself.  A great time for the devil to approach Jesus and try to confuse things.

A great time too because Jesus’ ministry at this point in the story had not yet begun.  It can get a little confusing when we change seasons of the church year.  Last week we heard about Jesus’ glorious Transfiguration, but in the passage we read from today, that hasn’t happened yet.  In fact, at this point in the story, Jesus hasn’t called any disciples, he hasn’t healed anyone, he hasn’t preached any sermons, or anything.

He’s been baptized, that much has happened.  And at his baptism the Lord spoke and told him, “You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”  So we know there’s something special about Jesus, we know that he’s God’s Son.  But what that means, exactly, remains to be seen.

And that’s what we’re catching a glimpse of with today’s reading – what it means that Jesus is God’s Son, the Beloved with whom God is well pleased.  And who better to show us that than the great adversary, the slanderer, the one who confuses things, the devil himself?

For the devil, I am sure, also wanted to know what it meant, what it means that Jesus is God’s Son.  Just what will the devil be up against with this Jesus?  So the devil did what the devil does best, he posed a few harmless “What if?” questions.

Now the devil knows that Jesus is the Son of God, these “if” questions aren’t the devil asking Jesus, “Are you or aren’t you?  I can’t really tell, ya know?  You look like a regular guy to me.”  Like a child pushing her parents buttons using the, “If you loved me you’d let me do whatever I want!” line, the devil pushes Jesus to see how far he’ll go.

“If you are the Son of God and, come on Jesus, we both know that you are, IF you are the Son of God, I can see you’re hungry, why don’t you just turn this rock into a nice hot loaf of bread?”

And Jesus, well, he could have, and who would have blamed him?  He was hungry, he hadn’t eaten in 40 days and he certainly had the power to do what the devil suggested.

And that is, of course, the brilliance and the cunning of the devil – rarely are the devil’s suggestions blatantly evil, that’d be too easy for us to spot.  It’s always something so reasonable – if you take advantage of your co-worker just this once, who will know?  Who will care?  Who will blame you?  They’ve probably done the same thing to you time and time before.

If you fudge the numbers on your tax return, claim bigger a bigger deduction for that bag of old clothes you took to the Salvation Army – who will know?  If you sneak that expired coupon in with the rest of them, who cares, the manufacturer wanted you to have that 30 cents off, didn’t they?  What’s it to them?

Jesus mulls it over in his mind – as the Son of God, should I use my power in that way, to take care of my own needs?  What will that one loaf of bread lead to?  “No, devil, scripture tells us, one does not live on bread alone...I’ll have to decline your offer.”

“OK then,” the devil continues, “you don’t want to make bread today, fine.  But take a look around you, Jesus.  Here’s the world on a silver platter, every kingdom, every land, every power and principality, it’s all yours, if you just bow down and worship me.  What do you say, old chum?”

And again, it’s oh, so reasonable.  Jesus, deposing Caesar, liberating one and all from the oppressive rule of the Romans, from the oppressive rule of all tyrants the world over.  What could possibly be wrong with that?  He wouldn’t need to turn stones into bread if he did that...he’d control all of the bread and would be able to see to it that every hungry mouth was fed the world over.

He could, but at what cost?  At what cost to himself and at what cost to the pitiful creatures he had come to save, the likes of you and me?  For the price was turning his allegiance from the benevolent Father, the loving Creator, to the ultimate trickster, the schemer, the adversary, the slanderer, the devil himself.  And truly, why on earth would Jesus actually believe that the devil even had the authority to give out what he was promising?

Jesus thinks again and responds with scripture for a second time, “Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.  Sorry devil, I don’t want any part of that offer either.”  Living by faith may be the more difficult path and it’s certainly harder than the way of instant gratification that the devil was offering Jesus and that the devil continues to offer Jesus’ followers to this day.  Living by faith may be the more difficult path, but it is the path Jesus bids us follow, the path we were created to trod, the path the Spirit will lead us down, just as the Spirit led Jesus through the wilderness and back again.

“Fine, fine,” says the devil, “Have it your way.  But I have one more thing I’d like to ask you.  If you are the Son of God, and really Jesus, it’s so obvious to me that you are...IF you are the Son of God, why not do something spectacular?  Why not throw yourself off this highest point of the Temple.  You know no harm will come to you, for doesn’t that Scripture that you keep going on and on about say in the 91^st Psalm, ‘God will command his angels concerning you to protect you and on their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone’?

“Think about it Jesus – you do that and there’s no WAY anyone will doubt who you are.  They’ll come running to you to hear you speak, the man who was saved by angels!  You’ll be all the rage, you’ll have a zillion followers and they’ll all adore you and want to be like you and listen to you because they’ll know you’re holy.  It’ll be great.  Isn’t that, after all, why you’re here?”

And what’s wrong with that, really?  What’s wrong with Jesus causing a stir?  Starting out his ministry with a bang, letting people know that there was a new kid in town and he meant business?  What’s wrong with doing something so amazing that people would have no choice but to believe in him because it’d be ridiculous, foolish not to?

Jesus mulls it over.  Psalm 91 is the Scripture the devil quoted, but he got it wrong, and I’m guessing that wasn’t an accident.  That psalm isn’t about doing things to test God, to make God prove his faithfulness, it’s about the joy of living in trust and hope that God is faithful and that that’s already been proven time and time again throughout history.

It’s been proven through God rescuing his people from Egypt, God leading his people to the Promised Land, God sending prophets to correct his people when they’d strayed, God bringing his people back from exile.

That psalm isn’t about testing, it’s about trusting that even at the darkest hour God remains faithful.  Even when the lives of God’s children are dashed upon the stones, shattered into a million pieces, they, you can trust, you can always, always trust that every single little piece is held safely in God’s hands.  That’s what that psalm is about.  That the pieces of you that feel scattered to the four winds are held gently in the hands of the God who created you out of nothing and who will send his Son, the Son of God, to his death to ensure that you can be re-created out of nothing time and time again.

Recreated out of nothing into a new life, a new hope, a new strength to face the temptations life throws at you, the opportune times the devil finds in your lives, the times when you are so tempted to be selfish, to cut corners, to cheat just a little, to despair, to doubt, to give up.