February 10, 2008 At Saint Mark in Norman, OK
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 + Psalm 32 + Romans 5:12-19 + Matthew 4:1-11
Since the average age in this parish is 33, I realize that when I think about the days when I was 16 and 17 years old, most of you were not even born. I was that young once, and to the terror of my parents, I bought my own car. More often than not, when I would leave home for work, school, or to take my sister somewhere in that car, my father or mother would stand at the door and shout: “Remember who you are.” At the time I thought it was silly. Did they think I had amnesia?
A simply kind of Gospel wisdom brought that memory back to me as I sat with this piece of Matthew’s Gospel. As always, Matthew has one eye on the Old Testament and one eye on the New. His experience of Jesus and his memory are thoroughly conditioned by the stories, images, and the revelation of Israel’s experience with God.
They went to the desert, and their temptations in that 40 year span of time centered on food and water, the protective presence of God, and whether or not God was really God; a God beyond their control. In other words, it was about trust in God.
So, Matthew has Jesus go to the desert, but not before he gets in the Jordan for Baptism and has his revelation about his identity.
Now think of the Israelites who did not go into the desert until they passed through the water of the Red Sea. In that desert, during those 40 years, they developed their identity as God’s People, but time after time, temptation after temptation, they forgot who they were.
Jesus is now baptized. He knows who he is, and he goes to the desert for 40 days, and temptations begin.
Temptation is something we could all talk about. Everyone ought to be an expert. Temptations have an advantage over us. They are there first. They lie in wait, and they get to make the first move. When temptations finally make their move, it’s usually quick. We rarely have enough time to think it through, consult, and consider all the implications. Speed and pressure are in temptations favor. There is almost always this sense that we need to do it now. If we don’t, we may not get another chance. Later when we look back, we realize that if we had just applied the breaks, things would have been different. Temptation has the upper hand, and we end up saying to ourselves: “How did I get into this?”
Of course, there are different levels of temptations. Looking up from dinner with the desert cart parked by your table is not the same as looking up from your desk and seeing another’s exam answers right in front of you, or suddenly realizing that you could make a few adjustments on your tax table or the books at work and come home with a few more bucks in your pocket. Either way, temptations whether they are big or small are always about identity: who we are.
This forty-day season slows us down a bit and puts on the brakes. With the Triduum ahead of us – those three days when our identity at the table of the Lord, at the foot of the cross, and at the waters of baptism establish our identity, we have time to remember who we are as sons and daughters of God. Temptations are attractive because they appeal to a fantasy; to something we are not but wish we were. So it seems as though we can have it all, or have what we always wanted: a life of good fortune, a life always satisfied, a life without injury, or a life or power.
How could we possibly remember who we are when these things are offered? Eve and Adam know this story well.
Slow down. We move too fast. Fantasy that leads us away from the truth is the threshold of temptation. Knowing who we are, remembering who we are makes the difference. In Matthew’s 40 day story Jesus does not use some divine power to resist and control temptation and the tempter; he simply remembers who he is. We can do the same.