Matthew 4:1-11

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’ ” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”  Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’ ” Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

Matthew 5:21-26

“You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder,’ and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’  But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment, and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council, and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire.  So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

Temptation and Anger

This week has been a very busy week in the life of our church. We had two extra services this week. We had the Ash Wednesday service last Wednesday. And then we had a funeral service yesterday. And so, I wanted to thank you. There was a lot of extra work to do this week. Having those extra services made more work for everyone. And I was so proud of you all. I was proud of our church because we handled it well. In fact, we did more than just do well. We went above and beyond. And the visitors who came to our church really felt the love and compassion that we shared with them. I was so proud of you, and I wanted to tell you that. So thank you.

This morning we take a look at two readings from Matthew, as we continue our yearlong study of Matthew’s Gospel. First, the temptation scene in chapter four is a traditional reading for Lent. Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness where he fasts for forty days and forty nights. Notice the connection to ancient Israel. Remember Matthew wants to connect his Gospel to ancient Jewish Scripture because he is writing for a Jewish-Christian audience. So Jesus goes into the wilderness and this parallels the ancient Israelites wandering in the wilderness for forty years. And, Christ’s forty days of prayer in the wilderness are our model for Lent in that we take these forty days before Easter to pray and fast. And as it was for Jesus, there will be temptations for anyone observing prayer and fasting during Lent. I understand that some of you have decided to cut out carbs or abstain from sugar for Lent. And no doubt, there will be temptations.

The central question in the wilderness temptations is one of control. Who is in control of Jesus’ actions. Will he allow God to be in control? Or will he allow Satan to be in control? And I think we can all relate to this dilemma. We all have conflicting voices in our inner dialogue, don’t we? Conflicting voices that whisper to us. “You know you shouldn’t do that.” “But I want to.” “You better not. It’s wrong, and you know it’s wrong.” “Oh, but nobody will ever know. It will be ok.”

Right? There is this inner struggle going on. There are temptations. And yet, we know better.

The apostle Paul wrote about his own inner conflict in Romans 7:

¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin. ¹⁵ I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ¹⁶ Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ But in fact it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me. ¹⁸ For I know that the good does not dwell within me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do the good lies close at hand, but not the ability. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me.

²¹ So I find it to be a law that, when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. ²² For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, ²³ but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. ²⁴ Wretched person that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, with my mind I am enslaved to the law of God, but with my flesh I am enslaved to the law of sin.

Now, this text from Paul is complicated. But basically, he is expressing frustration with himself because he feels divided, he feels internally conflicted: “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.”

Can you relate? It seems like Paul almost has a sense of self-hatred. He writes, “For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.” We can hear voice crying out in frustration, “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”

So, you see, if you are struggling with something, struggling with temptation, know that you are not alone. By the way, one of the temptations is trying to control things. But we don’t control things. Things happen in our lives that we do not control. We are complicated creatures, us human beings. I think it’s so important to recognize that we all struggle in this way. For the apostle Paul to write such powerful self-disclosure was an act of generosity. He shows us ourselves, in his own frustration.

But thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! he writes. There is forgiveness. There is the possibility of redemption. But I just love Paul’s honesty and his humility here. He shows us what it is to be human. He shows us our human dilemma. And he shows us that we can be forgiven through God’s grace.

So this issue of temptation is very important. There are always temptations. The struggle with temptation is part of our spiritual life, part of our discipleship.

This morning I was driving to church and I was thinking about all the various sorts of temptations. Temptations can be subtle. For example, driving. There’s the temptation to push, you know? Just to get ahead. To get a few minutes ahead. To push the speed limit just a little bit. Or to ease through that stop sign without really stopping. But isn’t this silly?

It’s a dynamic I call “Wanting to be where we’re not.” I’m here. But I want to be over there. I don’t want to be here. I want to be over there. I want to be ahead of myself. You know? It’s a form of the grass is always greener, which is essentially greed. Never being satisfied with where I am now. And the problem with this is that we are never satisfied.

What are some other temptations?

To criticize others, even in our own thinking, to criticize others.

To condescend. To look down on others.

To meddle, in other words, to not mind my own business. To tell somebody how they should be living. But also, here is the opposite side of that coin:

To not meddle. In other words, to avoid doing something that maybe you should do. Maybe you should step in. And that’s a form of indifference. “I don’t care. It’s not my problem. I’m not going to step in.”

So temptations are tricky. They can cut both ways. Here’s another one:

Trying to be perfect. Perfectionism. Not being willing to make a mistake. Not being willing to look like an idiot. Concern for how we are seen. Our image.

Now, remember, I’m preaching to myself, too. This is not just for you. Like, I was thinking this morning, my sermon is really not very polished this morning. And I’m not good at extemporaneous speaking. I know I’m not because I get myself into traffic jams of thinking, and my thoughts spin ahead of my words and then I stop making sense, and I know I do this. But I’m taking a risk here. I don’t have a polished sermon so, …

A man in the congregation says, “Pretty good so far!”

Thank you! Thank you! All right!

You know, I’m sort of stepping out of my comfort zone because that’s my hangup (one of them), I’m a perfectionist. But it can really be a problem sometimes. So there’s my confessional.

There really is a lot to explore here. Temptations are really kind of fascinating. I mean, what is driving all of this? We could really take a look at it. But we have to be honest with ourselves.

Sermon on the Mount continued

Our second reading is from the Sermon on the Mount. We are studying the Sermon on the Mount as a window into the mind of Christ. We are still in chapter five. Remember, in the past two weeks we talked about salt and light, and we talked about the Beatitudes. And this morning we take a look at Jesus’ teaching on anger. This is right out of the Sermon on the Mount.

Anger is such a powerful emotion. Isn’t it? And we can do so much damage with anger. You know, I think there are different kinds of anger. Sometimes, anger feels like a slow burning fire, you know, like some glowing coals at the bottom of a fireplace. They are glowing hot, but they are not burning flames. So this is a kind of smoldering anger, a slow burning anger. It’s there all the time in the background.

And then, there is the kind of anger that is more like a raging forest fire. It’s very strong! It’s a raging fire! It’s out of control!

With anger, we can do so much damage. I have certainly seen this in my own life. Just a few words, spoken in anger, can demolish a relationship. And it can never be rebuilt. It can never be recovered. I have learned this lesson the hard way. I suppose we all have to learn this lesson the hard way.

Turning Words

You know, sometimes you might find a friend who offers you some words that are so helpful, they immediately put out the fire of anger. I remember once, many years ago, I was a young man. And I was so angry with my father. I was so angry. It was a smoldering kind of anger, a slow burning anger. Every time I thought about my dad, I got angry. I felt that my father had not been a good father. I felt that he had let me down. That he had abandoned me, you know? Abandoned me just when I needed him the most, when I was in high school. He just wasn’t there. He was home, I mean, he lived at home with us. But he wasn’t there somehow. He disappeared into depression and alcoholism. And he wasn’t there when I needed him.

And so for years after that, I was angry with him.

But then later, when I was 35 or so, one time I was talking about this to a friend, and my friend said something that changed my thinking. He gave me some turning words. You know? Turning words. He gave me some words that turned my thinking around. He said, “Maybe your dad was just doing the best that he could.”

And those were the turning words I needed to hear. Maybe your dad was just doing the best that he could. He was just doing the best that he could. It helped me let go of my anger. It helped me not be bitter anymore. And I was so grateful for those turning words from my friend because carrying that kind of anger, that slow burning anger, that smoldering anger, carrying that in your heart is like carrying poison. And it will poison everything else. It will ruin your life. It will make you miserable.

So what are some of the causes of anger? Here’s just another list off the top of my head.

Not being able to accept. To accept where you are in life, to accept what is happening. Not being able to accept.

Not getting what you want. You know? Not getting what you want. You want something, but you get what you don’t want. It makes you angry.

Feeling stuck. Feeling like your life just doesn’t work somehow. Things are just not working.

Or what about self-hatred? Self-loathing? You hate yourself. You never feel good enough. No matter what you do. It’s a cause of anger.

Being angry at getting sick. Nobody wants to get sick. But we all get sick.

Being angry about getting older. Huh?

Being angry because your life did not turn out the way you wanted it to.

So let’s think about these things. Let’s take some time to really look at these things because God does not want us to live with poison. God wants us to live with love and compassion in our hearts. And this is abundance, when we can get there. This is where the best of life is. This is where the Kingdom of Heaven is. This is where we can heal our anger. This is where God can heal our anger. When there is love and compassion in our hearts.

May it be so for you on this day.

Amen? Amen.