Countering the Temptation to be Served

Pastor Joe Fuiten, March 12, 2006

Luke 4:1-13 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread." 4 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone.'" 5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 So if you worship me, it will all be yours." 8 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'

In this Lenten season we are with Jesus in the wilderness. This period of voluntary humbling is forty days in length because Jesus fasted for forty days. I want to consider the second temptation of Jesus.

It is shocking to hear the devil make a promise to Jesus of authority and splendor. The devil said authority and splendor belonged to him and he could give it to anyone he pleased. Jesus did not argue with this.

The Apostle John wrote: 1 John 5:19 “We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” We know the time when that control will end. Revelation 11:15 has that: The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever."

At the very least we know who has it now and who will have it in the future. We also know when the authority of Satan was broken. Paul has that in Colossians 2:13-15 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

It would appear that this temptation is an effort to shortcut the cross. Jesus could have the rewards without the pain of the cross. His cold and hunger would be over right now. The wilderness of Judea is cold in January. They sometimes get snow. When you are fasting you often get cold because your metabolism drops. He was cold, hungry, and in the wilderness alone. There is a lot to leave behind and all of it is bad.

" 8 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.' Ironically, Peter put a similar temptation in front of Jesus when he said that Jesus would not die on a cross. Jesus answered him "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." (Matthew 16:23)

The temptation to desire to be served is powerful. When you speak of authority and splendor you speak of being served. If you have a lot of authority, you tell people to do things and they do them. Splendor suggests great wealth. It also brings with it capacity to get people to serve you.

The fact is, even without great authority and wealth, the desire and temptation is the same. We all want to be served. We would rather not serve. At least the inclination does not come naturally or easily.

I can almost hear people settling it. “Whew, this one is not about me. I am no ego-maniac trying to get people to serve me.” But wait, I wouldn’t be preaching this sermon if I didn’t think it applied to anyone. May I suggest this is an almost universal area of failure?

When we talk about Lent we are talking about the voluntary humbling of ourselves both in our physical bodies and in our service to others.

Let me suggest some applications for consideration. Probably one of the most difficult adjustments in marriage is to accommodate to another person. They have their schedule, their way of doing things, and their lifestyle. You cannot get these things all figured out before marriage. So you wind up waiting for the other person to change. I tell people that if they can survive the first year without damage, they have a pretty good chance of making it. The reason for difficulty is that we don’t naturally prefer to serve. We prefer to be served. We think the other person should make the change and fit in with us. We say, “just worship me on this one,” hoping to pursuade them to our way of doing things.

In politics it has become particularly bad. When you see the Congree and the President pushing and shoving, it is often over authority. Executive privilege or Congressional oversight are the words they use but it is about authority.

In everyday life, we expect a certain amount of deference to our opinion. When it isn’t followed, we are offended. They have encroached on our authority, the place we think we should have.

The usual response causes problems. James 4:1-3 describes the problem. What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

Paul talked in Corinthians about the problem of sectarianism. We have our preferences and we are willing to divide even the House of God to accommodate our personal desires.

This tendency is so universal. We want what we want and after a while we get even better at knowing what we want. It is one reason why second marriages have such a hard time. When you first get married you are a lot more flexible and humble. As you get older, you get more confident in yourself and more fixed in your preferences. Marriage requies a lot of adjustment. The older you get the more you want other people to adjust, not yourself.

The Lenten season helps us to learn to say no to ourselves as we voluntarily humble ourselves. Normally, we love to eat. We have made it an artform. Starbucks wouldn’t exist except for this quality. It’s not like the coffee we used to drink on swing shift at Western Kraft. Instead of eating, we fast voluntarily. We are saying no to ourselves and yes to God. We become better people for it.

Normally, we try to figure out how to get people to do things for us. In Lent, we serve those who are not powerful, the poor and the hurting. We learn something in the process. We learn to humble ourselves and to treat others as better than ourselves. We put into practice the song I learned as a child: “Jesus and others and you. What a wonderful way to spell joy.”

The temptation is always to serve ourselves. That’s what Jesus was tempted to do. Jesus resisted the temption and won a great victory. If you will voluntarily humble yourself, you will set yourself up for victory as well.