Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday NO EXEMPTION FROM TEMPTATION 3/28 & 4/1/07

“Lead us not into temptation”? Couldn’t Jesus have chosen a better way of wording this, a sort of improvement on the original version that might read: “Father, please keep temptation away from us”. The Lord’s Prayer is consistent with what Jesus told His disciples as they gathered in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation”(Lk. 22:46) Jesus was, obviously, concerned about the power and reality of temptation in the lives of all who choose to follow Him.

This petition of the prayer is an acknowledgement that temptations are inevitable, even for the children of God. Judas gave into temptation for no more than 30 pieces of silver; Peter gave into temptation, 3-times denying even knowing Jesus. Reading the Old Testament, we know how David, Aaron, and Moses faced and fell to the power of temptation. We see, hear, and read in our day of otherwise moral, ethical people giving into temptations…within the Church, individual families, businesses, government, and schools. Jesus Himself was tempted, so on what basis might we expect to be exempt? As we confess at the start of worship, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves”…and, I would add, only ourselves!

Wouldn’t it be easier for us to simply ask God to keep all temptations away from us, making us temptation-free? Perhaps, but this is not the Lord’s Prayer, although it might be our own! Jesus does not pray that His Father God would somehow divinely deliver His disciples from the temptations of this world, but that God would keep them from the evil one (Jn. 17:15) . As Jesus obediently gave His life for you and me and, later, ascends to the Father, Jesus places His followers right back in the middle of the world He came to save. When we are redeemed, God does not recreate us to be robotic…we are not sequestered from sin, nor “cabined, cribbed, or confined” in a kind of self-imposed isolation or narrowness. Being a person of faith does not minimize, much less eliminate, the temptations and trials in our daily lives. Martin Luther was so often tested by temptation, that history records, Luther threw a full inkwell at Satan as Luther believed he saw Satan in a corner of his study! Non-believers face temptation, too. But, without the Holy Spirit, they more likely fail to recognize them as such…perhaps considering temptations as “options,” alternatives, or possibilities!!

Jesus commissions us to be His “light” in a sin-darkened world. Jesus calls us to be “salt”, seasoning a bitter world. The Greek word for “temptation” means two things: (1) a “trial” or “test” of our faith, as when circumstances may tempt us to question, wonder, or doubt God. I believe God does “lead” us into such experiences to strengthen our faith and, as with a silversmith, “burns” away the impurities. Let us remember what we read in James 1:2, 3, and 12/ “Whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance… blessed is anyone who endures temptation.” What good is the baseball pitcher’s arm never exercised, the brain never used, the ship never sailed, the faith never tested?

(2) A second definition of temptation is “seduction,” times when what we know about God is contradicted by no less than Satan, in some form. When the truth of God’s Word is made to look unreal, untrue, and unworthy of our faith and trust. Jesus includes both kinds of temptation when He taught us to pray this petition.

Though tempting, throwing inkwells, good intentions, and human will-power are no match for the demonic ways of the devil. Regarding Satan, Luther wrote, “On earth he has no equal.” When tempted, there is only one defense…Jesus Christ. The blow-by-blow account of how Jesus sparred with Satan in the wilderness can be “music” to our ears. Satan brought against Jesus every force at his disposal…from cheering crowds to cold-hearted crucifixion… and Satan called forth every demon from hell and, on that Friday we call “Good,” Satan claimed victory. But, when Jesus cried out from the Cross “It is finished!” (Jn. 19:30) He spoke of our redemption and His fulfillment of the very reason God sent His Son from His side in heaven to our side on earth!

Jesus has put “teeth” into our prayers by giving us His victory over temptation in advance and He urges us to sharpen those “teeth” with our faithful use of His Word and the blessed Sacraments. Temptations surely come, but we can face them with the “precious three”---God’s Word, the Sacraments, and prayer. As long as Christ is truly in us and fighting with us and has already achieved the victory for us, “Our Father” makes this promise: “God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13) May all in worship say “Amen”. AMEN