"Six Flags Over Jesus"
By Dr. Mickey Anders
First Christian Church
Pikeville, Kentucky
February 21, 1999
Text: Matthew 4:1-11
He had finally got his chance to make the Really Big Sale. He was going into the final interview on the biggest contract he had ever written. As he was ushered into the office of the executive buyer, an assistant brought her coffee and left. The atmosphere was cordial, and he knew he was giving his best presentation ever.
Then the assistant tapped on the door, re-entered the office and spoke briefly with the executive. She stood and said, "I apologize, but I have to tend to a matter. I'll just be a minute or two." And she followed her assistant out of the room.
The sales representative looked around the beautifully appointed office. He saw her family pictures on her desk. Then he noticed a contract on her desk. She had evidently been studying a bid from a competitor. Leaning forward, he could see the column of figures, but it was obscured by a diet soda can.
He was tempted to move the can and see the bottom line of his competitor's bid. What harm possibly could there be in reading her private information? After all, she had left it out in plain sight, almost. After wrestling with himself a while, he finally decided to take a peek.
As he lifted the soda can, he discovered that the can wasn't filled with soda at all. Instead it was a bottomless can filled with 1,000 BBs which gushed out, and ran all over the desk and cascaded onto the carpet. His attempt to short cut the competition was exposed.
Not every temptation is so obvious. Not every failure is so embarrassing. But every temptation is a challenge. Not even Jesus was spared the choosing.
Our Scripture for today describes the story of Jesus' temptation in a rather straightforward manner. Jesus is led into the wilderness by the Spirit of God for the purpose of being tempted by the devil. After a period of fasting, Jesus is challenged by the tempter to demonstrate his power by commanding stones to become bread. Jesus refuses by answering with a quote from Scripture. Then the devil takes Jesus to the top of the Temple and challenges him to demonstrate invincibility by casting himself off the Temple. Again Jesus refuses by answering with a quote from Scripture. The third time the devil takes Jesus to a very high mountain and challenges him to claim authority over all below. One last time Jesus refuses, and again it is by quoting Scripture. Finally the devil leaves, and Jesus is ministered to by angels.
This story is placed at the beginning of Matthew's gospel because of its importance. The temptations are like a table of contents to all the decisions that he would make, the miracles that he would work, and the teachings he would utter. They become for us a revealing interpretation of the man and his ministry.
This testing served a necessary step in Jesus' preparation for what is to come. The temptation is something Jesus must pass through. This is a story of preparation. In part, it functions to establish the credibility of Jesus. All his years of preparation needed to be checked out.
This was a practical exercise, on-the-job testing, so to speak, so that Jesus himself could be assured that he could stand up to the future tests to be imposed upon him - the greater tests of crucifixion and death that were ahead!
The writer to the Hebrews summarizes the importance of the temptations when he says, "Because He Himself has suffered and been tempted, He is able to help whose who are tempted" (2:18) He was tempted in all points even as we are, and we are tempted in all points as he was.
The first temptation is the Bread Business. Jesus had been in the wilderness for 40 days so he was obviously hungry. Satan's first strategy is to go for the obvious -- tempt Jesus with material self-indulgence.
But Jesus renounced the terrible tyranny of things and refused to forsake
the Cross for a bake shop. To him, the Kingdom of God could not be
ordered out of a catalog, but rather must be found through sacrifice and
obedience.
As famished as he was, Jesus knew more than hunger for food; he knew
also hunger for God's Word and God's purpose.
We are not unfamiliar with the temptation to self-indulgence. We think along these very same lines. We have to survive. Our needs need to be gratified - preferably instantly.
Now I must admit that I have never been tempted to turn stones into bread because I could never do that. But I have been tempted to turn chocolate into fat. I have been tempted to turn a work day into a play day. Now those are real temptations of self-indulgence.
But when these kinds of worldly appetites are sated, we still have a gnawing emptiness in our lives. God has to remind us again and again that life is not just bread. What looked so wonderful to us turns out to be little more than cotton candy that melts away into nothingness in our mouths and leaves us hungrier than before.
I think this temptation of Jesus holds a message for the church too. The Church must be interested in more than bread. In our wonderful zeal and social consciousness, most churches work hard at ministering to the needy through such organizations as Helping Hand. We pat ourselves on the back and say we have done well. And we have. But the church is more than an organization for social welfare. We must never become so involved in feeding bodies or even building houses that we neglect the greater business of calling people into a relationship with God.
It is a good thing to offer people Wonder Bread, but we need to also offer them the Bread of Life. Jesus said, "One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God."
The second temptation was the Show Business.
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.'"
Satan was tempting Jesus to coerce a cheap response from his followers by the using the spectacular to draw them. Would Jesus rely on dramatics to win friends? Would he try to prove he was the Messiah by methods which were not worthy of God? These were unworthy ways to establish the sovereignty of God.
I believe this may be THE temptation which confronts the church today. Satan wanted our Lord to go into show business. He refused, but I can't help but wonder if many churches today haven't unwittingly obliged Satan.
About three months ago, a woman came to my office to talk to me about some problems she was having. I had been her pastor seven years earlier. As we broke the ice with small talk, she updated me on the whereabouts of her two children.
It turned out that her daughter, who had been in junior high when I was her pastor, was now a Bible student in Memphis. Both her mother and I were pleased that the daughter had developed such an interest in the faith.
But she told me that the daughter was having a bit of a problem finding a church that she was happy with. She had attended a mega-church in Memphis but she didn't really feel comfortable there. The church was so big that it looked like a shopping mall surrounded by acres of parking lots. Thousands of people attended the church. The sanctuary was so large that the pastor's face had to be shown on gigantic TV screens on each side of the sanctuary. The services often featured special events like their living Christmas tree which was a multi-media extravaganza.
The daughter just couldn't get used to attending such a big church. Once when she was describing to her mother what it was like to attend that mega-church, she said, "It feels like I am going to Six Flags Over Jesus."
"Six Flags Over Jesus!" What an insightful commentary on the showmanship which has been incorporated into many churches today.
We've got too much of Madison Avenue and not enough of the Kings Highway. Six Flags is big on thrills excitement, entertainment and rides.
Jesus would remind us that we are supposed to be running a lifeboat not a showboat. He rejected doing the spectacular for its own sake. When he performed a miracle, it was out of compassion not exhibitionism.
Yes, he could have called 10,000 angels. Instead he walked alone by the Way of the Cross.
The last temptation was about the Political Business.
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all
the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, "All
these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.
In this temptation, Satan appealed to Jesus' ego, to that lust for the power every human possesses.
Christianity should get into everything, of course, including politics. But politics should not get into the church.
You can have it all on easy terms.
The world is full of lures.
You have to dominate and exploit.
You have to learn how to win with intimidation.
To step up in this world you have to step on somebody.
God's ways of loving enemies and giving of your life do not work.
We are tempted to desert God for the tried and true ways of Satan.
The last temptation is the least subtle. Satan offers Jesus the whole world in exchange for worshiping him. Again, we think we would never be tempted to worship the devil. But the devil comes in many forms.
It frequently comes in the form of the almighty dollar. Money itself isn't evil, but our love of it is. We lust after it, long for it, do all we can to earn it, get it, and keep it. When we can't let go of it and give it away, when we can't use it to help God's people, then we know it has become our god. Then we know we have yielded to the temptation to worship something other than God.
Sometimes the devil comes in the form of alcohol or drugs. It
seems innocent enough at first. We like the taste or we like the
feeling and then gradually, slowly we become addicted. A chemically
dependent person lives to drink and drinks to live. The bottle or
the needle has become their god.
We can worship success, we can worship another person, we can worship
our independence and freedom. There are all kinds of things that
can cause us to yield to Satan's temptation to worship someone or something
other than God.
When that happens surrender is what is required. In any of the 12 step groups the third step is always, "We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him." To escape this temptation we need to surrender and turned our life over to God.
Scripture is quoted.
In each of the exchanges with the devil, Jesus responds by quoting
a text out of the religious tradition. Dr. Julian McPheeters, President
of Asbury Seminary and a firebrand evangelist, used to say, "If you
want to see the devil run, shoot him with the gospel gun!"
The repeated phrase, "it is written" highlights Jesus' response to the devil.
It is his reliance on the strength of tradition that enables him to resist. Interestingly, however, Jesus is not the only one to use Scripture. After the first exchange with the devil, in which Jesus answers the challenge with Scripture, the devil himself begins to quote Scripture. Clearly, simply quoting scripture is not the answer to all woes.
Jesus had, at his weakest moment, passed the rigors of the most taunting of tests. Material, spiritual, and political enticements were not enough for Jesus to abandon His cause.
You and I are not Jesus. We deal with these allurements every day to a lesser degree. We want more than bread! We are eager to manipulate others as well as to try that tactic with God! We seek control over others lest they have control over us! Are these not common, everyday issues with us?
Although we may make many bad choices, if we listen to the counsel of Scripture we will make fewer wrongs ones. If we understand the intent and spirit of God's Word, and not just know a few of its passages, as does the devil, we will make better choices.
Jesus passed the test. He did not yield. He took the hard
road knowing it lead to a cross. He did not test God -
he simply obeyed. He did not worship Satan, but worshiped
only God.
A London newspaper sought the help of its subscribers in addressing the problem of evil. Readers were invited to send in their responses to the question, What is wrong with the world today? The best response of all was also the briefest. It read, Dear Sir, I am. Yours faithfully, G.K. Chesterton.
Chesterton understood that the responsibility for the world's problems and the solutions to the pervasive problem of evil are not to be found in any myth or philosophical system. Rather, the blame must be assigned much closer to home: like Chesterton, each of us must accept the fact that the face that looks back at me over the bathroom sink each morning is the culprit. (Patricia Datchuk Sanchez, What is wrong with the world? Celebration, 28)
Temptation Is an Enticement to Use a Short Cut to Reach a Desirable Goal. Temptation is NOT sin. But yielding to temptation IS sin. And sin never, never, never makes good on its promises. There are no short cuts to truly desirable goals.
A workman went to his big boss one day and said, "I'm tired. I think I'll take my retirement benefits and hang it up. It's been great working for you."
The big boss looked disappointed, and said, "I really hate to see you go. I was hoping you could do at least one more big job for me. Will you, just one more?"
Reluctantly the builder agreed to build a house for some important client of the big boss. It was a big house, a lot of work-on a golf course, with a lot of detail. But the man's heart really wasn't in it. He threw the house together in record time, and cut corners on material and labor wherever he could. He saved the boss a lot of money, but it wasn't really his best work and he knew it.
Imagine how he felt when he turned the keys over to the boss, and the boss gave them right back, and fished around in his briefcase and gave him the title and deed to the property on the golf course. "This is my gift for you!" he said. "Thanks for all your good work across the years!"
Then the builder wished he hadn't been in such a hurry. He wished he hadn't cut corners and taken short cuts just to get the job done.
Life is like that. Exactly like that. We become the product of our own integrity in following after God. Or lack of integrity. We become exiles from innocence when we try to take short cuts to being like God. Or, following our Savior, we use the promises and the commandments of God to resist the tempter's power, and we begin to share in Christ's righteousness.
This is the first Sunday in Lent. It is a good time to ask God for His help in deliberately drawing closer to Him. I don't know about you, but I don't want to try to get away with building a shoddy house. I know I'm going to have to live in what I build.
When you are tempted - remember Jesus. He resisted temptation
and passed the test so that you might be able to do the same, not out of
a duty to follow the law, but out of love for a Lord who loved you enough
to resist the temptation to avoid the cross.