Deuteronomy 26: 1–11; Psalm 91: 1–2, 9–16;
Romans 10: 8b–13; Luke 4: 1–13
This is the homily prepared for St.
John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker to be delivered on Sunday,
March 6, 2019.
“THE SAVING SEASON BEGINS”
(Homily texts: Deuteronomy 26: 1–11 & Luke 4: 1–13)
Since
we stand at the leading edge of this holy season of Lent, let’s do some
connecting-of-the-dots to understand more fully just what this season is all
about.
It
is, in truth, the beginning a “saving season”, in which our Lord goes about
redeeming us from our wayward and sinful ways, just as God’s people in ancient
times experienced God’s saving acts. (Our Old Testament reading appointed for
this morning is nothing more than a recitation of God’s saving acts in bringing
His people out of slavery in Egypt into the Promised Land.)
The
process of dot-connecting has something to do with numbers. Or, more
specifically, the number forty. It also has to do with the link between time in
the wilderness, a time alone with God in an inhospitable place, a place where
one becomes vulnerable to various kinds of dangers, including the danger of
succumbing to suggestion.
At
the beginning of each season of Lent, year-by-year, we encounter the scriptural
text which lays before us Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, a time which –
the Gospel writers Matthew, Mark and Luke – tell us was forty days long.
It’s
no accident then, that the Church designed this season of Lent to be forty days
long. (This season is forty days long, minus the Sundays in this season, for
each and every Sunday of the Church Year is a celebration of the Lord Jesus’
resurrection. So it is that we say we are, today, in the First Sunday in
Lent, not the First Sunday of Lent. This means that our Sunday
celebrations take on a somewhat “Lenten-flavored” hue, for Lent is suspended on
these Sundays, even if we are surrounded in some ways by the differences that
Lent brings with it.)
Important
things happen during periods of time that are either forty days – or forty
years – long.
For
example, the waters of the Great Flood increased for forty days. (See Genesis
7: 17.) Moses was on the mountaintop with God, receiving the second set of the
tables of stone upon which God’s law was written (see Exodus 34: 28.) It’s
worth noting that Moses neither ate nor drank during those forty days. God’s people wandered in the wilderness for
forty years before entering the Promised Land.
In
each of these situations that we have cited, the period of forty days or years
marked a changing point in the turn of events.
Which
brings us to Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness for a period of forty days,
during which He did not eat, and during which He was tempted by the devil.
The
temptation experience marks the preparation for the beginning of Jesus’ earthly
ministry. In the same way that the Great Flood destroyed much of God’s
creation, only to result in a rebirth of that same creation, so, too, does
Jesus’ temptation result in a burst of new life. Just as Moses’ time with God
on the mountaintop result in the giving of God’s law, so, too, does Jesus’
temptation result in a new understanding of God’s law. Ancient Israel’s
wanderings in the desert turn out to be a time of preparation, a time when
those who had disobeyed God in the wilderness by making and worshiping the
golden calf were prevented by death from entering the Promised Land, so, too,
does Jesus’ temptation destroy the old ways of relating to God, in order to
bring each one who comes to God in faith through Jesus Christ to the new
Promised Land.
Things
that happen in the Bible with the number forty attached to them are events that
mark a change, a turn in direction, leading to something new.
Another
thread is present in Jesus’ temptation, which should capture our attention.
It
is Jesus’ success in meeting the nefarious ways of the Evil One, besting him in
a contest of wills.
Go
back with me to the Garden of Eden, and recall the Evil One’s temptation of Eve
and Adam. There we read (Genesis 3: 1 – 13) some commonalities with Jesus’
temptation:
- An appeal to food: Eve is tempted to eat of the fruit of the
tree in the midst of the garden (Genesis 3: 6). Jesus is tempted to turn stones
into loaves of bread (Luke 4: 3).
- An appeal to power: Satan tempts Eve by suggesting to her that
she will be “like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3: 5b). Jesus is tempted
by the offer to control all the kingdoms of the world (Luke 4: 6).
- A misuse of Scripture: The Evil One tempts Eve by twisting what God
had said (Genesis 3: 5), The Evil One uses the words of Psalm 91: 11–12 to
suggest that Jesus will not suffer harm.
Where
Eve (and Adam) failed, Jesus succeeds.
In
the process, Jesus’ victory over temptation and over the powers of the Evil One
mark the beginning, the turning point, in victory over sin and death. One way
to see all of Jesus’ ministry is to see each event and each encounter with the situations
He faced as a string of victories over sin and death.
You
and I, as we enter this holy season of Lent, may use this time as a turning
point in our relationship with God. We can claim Jesus’ power to overturn the
wiles of the devil and to claim our Lord’s victory over the things that would
separate us from God (as Adam and Eve’s sinfulness did). By Jesus’ victory, we
may also claim victory, and begin anew to live in a close and enduring love
relationship with God the Father through God the Son.
