On the temptations

Here is the text of the homily I shared with the gathered community, a meditation on the temptations of Christ and a few suggestions for how they can help us to live as disciples today.

God’s tears

A few days ago, we began the journey with Christ toward the cross, and the Resurrection.  Throughout these forty days, the Lord wants to prepare us, like he prepared the disciples so that the crosses we must bear do not stop us from understanding our trials as a part of the journey to the fullness of life.

The book of Genesis reminds us that our journey began when the Lord God formed us from the dust of the ground, and breathed into our nostrils the breath of life.  Those of you who are parents can perhaps remember the moments when your children were born, when they first drew breath, when their first cry pierced your ears and filled your soul with overflowing joy.  This must have been what it was like for God to see the first of his human creations come alive, and since that moment, he has continued to experience that joy each time one of us comes to life.  I wonder if God sheds tears of joy.

Parents need to provide nourishment for their children from the moment of their birth, at least until those children are able to provide for themselves.  Parents also need to establish certain rules because they love their children and want to protect them from harm, but children always find ways to test the rules, don’t they?  You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden.  Have you ever noticed that if you tell a child not to do something, that is exactly what he or she will want to do, and then they will try to blame someone else for having made them do it?  Notice that as soon as they ate the fruit of that tree, there were consequences: their eyes were opened.  I wonder if God shed a tear of disappointment when he discovered that his beloved children had broken the rules.

Once some things are broken, they cannot be put back together.  Thankfully some things can, but there is always evidence to tell us that they have been broken in the past.  Saint Paul was referring to the sin of Adam and Eve when he told the Romans that sin came into the world through one man, but the story didn’t end there.  The pieces were put back together.  We still see evidence of sin in our world, but we also see evidence of the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness which is the healing remedy given to us by God through Jesus Christ.

It wasn’t a coincidence that Jesus was tempted by the devil: we all are, but Jesus shows us that it is possible to recognize the serpent in our midst, and it is possible to turn away from his temptations.  The devil is constantly at work, tempting us to believe that we don’t need God, that it is possible to eat the fruit of the tree without dying, that we have the power to turn stones into bread, that we can put God to the test just as children put their parents to the test, and that material wealth will satisfy every longing.  Lent is a time of grace, another opportunity for us to recognize that the devil’s promises are hollow, that we do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.  Adults understand the fact that children should not put their parents to the test, since the rules are put in place in order to protect them so why do we have such trouble understanding that we should not put God to the test because he has only ever wanted to protect us from harm?

Perhaps it isn’t possible for God to fully restore us to our first innocence: that jar was shattered long ago, but the pieces have been put together again.  There are still cracks that refract the light, evidence of the wounds that have been inflicted, but thankfully, God has never left his people alone, so when the devil tempts us to think that we can find true happiness in the splendour of this world, it is possible to resist because we know that Jesus has done it before us.

Lent is a time of grace, an opportunity for us to rediscover the immense joy that comes from knowing that we are all God’s children.  As we gather here to worship him, and as we strive to serve only him through living lives of service to others, may we come to know the joy that once brought a tear to God’s eye, and that still brings tears to ours.