First Sunday of Lent, 2020. Year A.
Readings: Matthew 4:1-11
Its been quite a couple of weeks.
Floods, war, pestilence – there is starting to be a bit of an end of the world feeling in the air.
Which in the first week of Lent, when our minds are supposed to be turning towards eschatological themes, is appropriate.
Lent is a time of self-inspection, and reflection because we should be thinking about how we will ultimately stand before our maker, when the Kingdom of God is made complete.
The Spirit sends Jesus into the wilderness for 40 days in order to be tested.
The analogy is the 40 years that the Israelites spend in the wilderness of Sinai, being tested by God before they can enter the promised land.
God signs a covenant with the Israelites, and then tests them to see if they are worthy.
Similarly, God has recognised Jesus as his Son, and is now testing him to see if he is worthy.
Why does Jesus need to be tested though? He is as much God as God. And yet at the same time he is also fully human, like the Israelites, and all of us.
The Israelites had a pretty mixed record when it came to passing God’s tests.
Jesus passes them all with flying colours.
Extending the parallel, all the scripture he quotes here is from Deuteronomy. The fifth book of the Pentateuch, and the repository of many of the laws and advice given out during those 40 years in the wilderness.
But why does Jesus need to be tested?
Why indeed do any of us need to be tested by God?
Surely God, our maker, who knows every hair on our head, has no need for this? He can see our past and our future; he plumbs the very depths of our souls, and rises with the heights of our passions.
An ordinary maker does need to put his creations to the test, in order to see how well he has made them; how well they perform.
A gunmaker must proof his guns, least they explode dangerously when used.
But God is no ordinary maker.
Why then the need for testing?
This is one of those big questions. There is, for us, with our imperfect senses and reason, no definitive answer to it, beyond the starting position of ‘God wills it’.
And yet it is one of the blessings of having been given both reason and Spirit, that we can at least ask these questions and talk about answers to it.
The answer from the new atheists would just be – ‘That’s the way the world is. You can’t argue with an uncaring, impersonal universe – you just have to accept it and put up with it.’
In many ways, that is pretty much the same answer as ‘God wills it.’
But we can go beyond this.
Scripture, tradition and reason all encourage us to ask the question ‘Why?’
We are not going to find the definitive answer, at least not here and now. But in asking, and answering these questions, in affirming what we believe about God; because the ways we answer these questions will teach us a huge amount about how we understand God, we will also understand a huge amount about ourselves.
Maybe God tests us, not so that He can find out about us, but so that we can come to know ourselves better? And also so that we can come to understand Him better.
As Jesus says, quoting Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 16, ‘you shall not put God to the test’. We should not be putting God to the test, but by being put to the test ourselves, we develop our own understanding of God.
What we will see will only ever be a reflection of ourselves, rather than God in his infinitely, but that will show us what about ourselves we value most.
Even the devil, in the gospel passage, shows us more of himself than God in his tests for Jesus. Instant gratification of hunger and thirst; a desire for self-glory, and temporal rulership. This is what the devil thinks is power, not what God knows is power.
God, of course, sees and values all of us, in our entireties.
So is that the reason why there is pain, and suffering and sin in the world?
Jesus could have ended it all with a word or a wave of his hand.
The devil offers him all the kingdoms of the world, if he will fall down and worship him. Jesus rejects him, because only God is worthy of worship; but he doesn’t really need the devil to offer him the kingdoms of the world.
They already belong to him, and he could reorder them with a word.
But that is not God’s plan.
Again, during the passion, he will be tempted to deviate from God’s plan, and then, as now, he will resist the temptation.
But why is God doing this the hard way?
Both for His Son, and for us.
Again, one of the big questions.
And not one that we have been able to answer definitively, even after two thousand years of Christian theology. And thousands more of Jewish theology before and in parallel.
The answer is that we can’t yet know, but we should continue to ask, and debate and question.
The study of salvation, Soteriology, is another area where what we think God has and is doing says more about ourselves than about God.
Why do we need to be saved; why did Jesus die; how is Jesus related to our salvation; why can’t God just save us anyway?
It really forces us to think what we mean when we say God is just, or loving, or righteous.
When these human words and concepts are applied to the divine infinity, it has a way of showing us how limited our understanding really is.
We can quickly get into all sorts of topics here – election, grace, pre-destination, justification, atonement, deification, free will.
I’m not going to, especially from a pulpit, because these are not topics that should be taught, but topics that should be explored.
Christianity is not a set of answers, or a destination – it is a journey, with God as the destination.
We never stop learning, and reasoning and changing our minds.
All the way from being children learning our bible stories, through confirmation, and onwards. I was talking to a fellow ex-student at St Mellitus during the week, and while I don’t miss the essay deadlines, I do miss the stimulation of debate and being forced to read and expand my frontiers.
Nowadays, I have to create the time for that myself, and that’s always much harder.
The wonderful thing about writing sermons – one of the wonderful things, that is – is that again, I have to engage with God, and really think deeply and pray over a passage of scripture that I may have just skated over before.
I’ll start on Monday with one idea. By Friday, I will have written something completely unexpected.
This evening we have two groups starting their first session preparing for confirmation.
The word confirmation has something of a finality to it, but actually its just another step on a journey of exploration and inquiry.
Its not a ‘ticking the box’ exercise, but a chance for people to ask questions and think deeper about their faith, together.
And everyone will gain something from it. There are no leaders, or attendees – just a group of Christians, gathered together, exploring what Christ means to them and the world. Very like the groups that Paul describes in his letters.
So, Lord, we ask your blessing on all those who gather this evening in confirmation groups.
May you grant them the courage of your Son
And the joy of your Spirit
That we may come together in your name
In order to deepen and widen our love through you and our faith in you.
Amen.