Trusting God Versus Looking Out for Number One

Some of you may remember the movie The Last Temptation of Christ from the 80’s. It offers an interesting take on what the devil offers Jesus to tempt him. While he’s on the cross, the devil takes the form of an angel who comes and tells him he doesn’t have to die—he’s not the messiah after all. And she shows him the life he could have—an ordinary life, including marriage to Mary Magdalene and children. And he is deeply tempted, but in the end he turns away, just as he turned away from the devil in today’s passage. The movie makes you wonder if he struggled with giving up the opportunity to have a relationship, to have a family. Of course, some of the Gnostic gospels say he did marry Mary Magdalene—there have always been always people who claim that Jesus was married or had a relationship. But I believe he remained single, not because celibacy is a more holy way of life, but because he knew he was destined to die—why on earth would he choose to leave behind a wife and children?

We don’t really know whether Jesus was tempted by the thought of having an ordinary life, with a family. But the temptations we know about from the gospels are some of the same things that tempt all of us—economic power, political power and spiritual power. If he had not faced those temptations that plague us, it would be harder to believe that he is fully human as well as fully divine. But when he plunged into the muddy waters of the Jordan river at his baptism, it was a choice to plunge deeply into the human condition. And by following the Spirit into the desert to be tempted, Jesus experienced what we experience.

The three temptations all come down to the choice between trusting God and looking out for number one. That’s always the choice before us. That was the choice facing Adam and Eve in the Garden. Would they trust God to know what was best for them, or would they make a grab for the power they believed the knowledge of good and evil would give them? Well, we know what choice they made and we can recognize ourselves in that choice.

But Jesus responded differently—each time the devil offered him power, he chose to trust God and risk himself, instead of serving his own interests. In so doing, Jesus defines what it means to be the Son of God, and at the same time, defines what it means to be truly human. He could certainly have commanded stones to become bread—in fact, we will see him later using his power to multiply the loaves to feed the five thousand. He could certainly have jumped off the highest pinnacle and the angels would have caught him. When he was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane, and one of the disciples tried to defend him with a sword, he says, “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” And of course, if he wanted, he could have become the ruler of all the kingdoms on earth.

But God wanted something different from him. God called him to trust that God would provide for his needs, even though he was famished and had no idea where his next meal is coming from. God asked him to trust that God would be with him even though he was not invulnerable and could suffer hurt, both physical and psychological. God also asked him to trust that the path of love will ultimately prevail over the path of power and force.

Jesus chose to trust God, and in doing so, he chose not to set himself apart from us. He will not alienate himself from the poor because he refuses to use his power to accumulate goods for his own use. He will not separate himself from the rest of vulnerable humanity by choosing to be immune to pain and suffering. He renounces political power because it inevitably involves force.

How do these temptations play out for us? We don’t have the option of turning stones into bread. But we get tempted just as Jesus did, especially when we experience scarcity, to turn away from trusting God and try to accumulate goods so that we don’t go without. This is what happened to the Israelites when they were in the wilderness and God was raining down manna every day—enough for that day. God told them not to hoard it but to trust that He would provide, but they gave in to temptation and began stockpiling it—and of course, it went bad, and got maggots in it This is the same temptation that leads us to accumulate more than we need—to take more than our fair share of the world’s resources. By not trusting God, we become separated from both God and our neighbor. And we’re living in a false reality, because no matter how much we accumulate, it can all be wiped out in an instant—through tornadoes, stock market crashes, job loss etc. Our reality is that we are dependent on God. When we decide to trust God, it is a choice to cast off illusion and live in reality, as well as a choice to live in solidarity with our fellow human beings, who are also dependent on God.

Our safety is in God’s hands as well. Of course, most of us do what we can to stay safe—buy insurance if you can, eat vitamins, exercise, make our kids take drivers’ ed. and so forth. And I think God expects us to do our part and not take crazy risks. But there’s no such thing as a risk free life. You can’t live and you can’t love without getting hurt. If we give in to the temptation to try to play it safe all the time, we won’t live fully. There is also the temptation to be bitter when something happens to us—to be angry that we are susceptible to being hurt, instead of giving thanks for all the days that God kept us safe, even when we made bad choices. But if we give in to that temptation, we won’t be living fully either. Accepting our vulnerability, and putting our trust in God, enables us to live fully, in truth, and in the company of other vulnerable humans.

The third temptation has to do with political power. When my son was younger, he used to argue that he should be dictator of the world because he would make good decisions for people. That’s an extreme way to put it, but all of us have experienced some form of the temptation to exercise control over other people, to make decisions for them. We may have the best of motives, but we still take away people’s freedom when we impose our will. It’s also a refusal to trust that God is at work in everyone, and will continually lead people to grow. The path of love is to respect the dignity of each person and set aside our conviction that we know best.

Political power ultimately involves force, and we cannot make peace through the use of force. Jesus renounced all force, to the point of teaching that we should turn the other cheek rather than strike back against someone who hurts us. To renounce power as Jesus did, is to trust God that the path of self-giving love will ultimately prevail over force and domination.

Temptation is not always easy to recognize. The temptation to accumulate, to protect oneself and to use force to get our way may come disguised as common sense, the culturally or legally right thing to do. It is not unknown for religious institutions to justify accumulating, self-protection or controlling people in the name of God. Even the devil quotes Scripture, as the saying goes, and that is precisely how he tried to tempt Jesus.

But if we allow ourselves to be taken in by false promises of safety and security and control, we will end up alienated from our true selves, from God and from other human beings. Renouncing power and control and giving yourself in love is not without risk. We will get hurt. But Jesus has showed us that it is the path to eternal life.