February 21, 2010
The Bad Guy - Luke 4:1-13
Pastor: Luke Maybry
DownloadPeople make fun of Christians more because of their belief in Satan than because of their belief in God. I have no way to prove that, but I would be willing to bet that every caricature, cartoon, and joke told at Christians’ expense focuses more on Satan than God. For many churches, it’s a fair criticism. Some churches talk more about Satan and how he’s going to get you, than they talk about Jesus and how he has already saved you. And then some churches, like most Presbyterian Churches, like this Presbyterian Church for that matter, never mention Satan at all, or the devil, or evil. So which is it? We have a hard enough time molding our lives around Jesus. What do we do when we throw Satan in the mix? And, given that we do believe there is only one God, maybe in three persons, but only one God, what do we do with Satan? What do we do with evil? And maybe even more basic, does Satan, does evil even exist?
Before we turn to the Bible, let’s just look around and think about it. I have been following the current health care debate, and I’ve noticed a few things. One side says to leave our health care system alone, that it’s fine and that changing it, in fact, would even devalue human life. Never mind that a recent study by Harvard Medical School found 45,000 deaths every year associated with a lack of health insurance. Never mind that 10 million children in this country are uninsured. Never mind that, according to the World Health Organization, the United States ranks 37th in health care quality and efficiency, in between Costa Rica & Slovenia. Way to go, America! Out of 31 industrialized nations we rank 30th in infant mortality rates. And yet our health insurance premiums rise by double digits every year. 40% of Presbyterian Churches cannot afford a full time, called pastor anymore because they cannot afford health insurance. Don’t tell me that everything is just groovy with health care in America.
But on the other hand, the other side pushing this overhaul of health care hardly seems innocent. 86.7 million Americans do not have insurance. And we’re going to provide them insurance without raising taxes and without increasing the already record deficits that our children will have to pay. In short, we’re going to do it for free. Somebody is not being completely honest with us about that. Meanwhile, we, the American people, are more likely to tune into “Dancing with the Stars,” than we are to get involved in the debate. Washington may be fiddling while America burns, but so are we. Now how do you explain all that without concluding that there is another player on the field besides democrats, republicans, and people who like to watch dancing?
Still not convinced? Look in your mirror. How many times have you earnestly tried to change your life just to stay the same? How many times have you tried to get along better with somebody, just to end up back in the same rut. If you’re honest, completely honest with yourself, you have to admit that there’s something about that rut, about that argument, about that broken relationship that you like. On some level, we don’t want wholeness. “I do not understand my own actions. I do the very thing I hate… I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. I do not do the good that I want to do, but the evil that I don’t want to do.” That ought to sound familiar. It comes from Paul’s letter to Rome, in which he describes himself, and myself, and yourself. There’s some other force at work out there – call it Satan, or the devil, or evil – that has a hold on every one of us. Simple observation tells us that.
The Bible also tells us that. The very first thing that happened to Jesus after his Baptism is that he got sent out to the wilderness for 40 days. That’s not very glorious, is it? This is not last week when Jesus was transfigured up into heaven. There’s no glory in the wilderness at all, just frustration, and anger, and loneliness, and hunger, and temptation. This is Jesus when no one is looking. This is Jesus without the halo around his head. This is Jesus. Of all people, Jesus runs smack dab, head first into Satan.
We all look very good right now. We always do on Sunday mornings. We put on our nice clothes and our nice faces to come to Church. Part of that is very noble. This is no ordinary day and this is no ordinary place. We put on our very best to come here to worship God. And we leave those parts about us that are not all that nice at home. Part of the whole point of this robe is to cover me up. You don’t want to see me, really. And I don’t particularly want to see you, not all of you anyway. Because we’re not always this nice, now are we? We get stuck in the wilderness sometimes and things get dicey fast. We all, everyone of us, have to face a few demons. Becoming holy does not change that. In fact, the very first thing we read in this passage is that Jesus was “full of the Holy Spirit,” and yet in spite of that, maybe in some ways because of that, he was tempted even more. Temptation itself is often an indication of strength and not weakness. The more like Jesus we become, the greater the temptation can become.
And to make matters worse, the bad guy is very good looking. We almost always portray evil and Satan to be very ugly, in which case evil would be easy to resist. If you really do have two voices in your head all the time, one is noticeably beautiful and the other is terribly ugly, who would chose the ugly one? But in fact, even if we are in our right minds (which is debatable) evil looks just wonderful. When the snake met Eve in the garden, he offered her a chance not to become a snake, but to become God. How attractive! Satan tempted Jesus three times in this passage, all three of which would have led to very noble things. Satan told Jesus to turn stones into bread. Imagine how many people Jesus could have fed by doing that. Satan offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, in an instant. Imagine how many oppressed people Jesus could have freed. In the last temptation, Satan gave Jesus a chance to prove who he really was, for the whole Church to see. In some ways, the devil gave Jesus a chance to save the church, on his terms of course. Now all those are noble, even if we do have to worship Satan. Evil always looks like a great alternative. Rick Warren asked John McCain when he ran for President how he would deal with evil. John McCain said that he would face it and defeat it. That’s great and all, but how would you know what to defeat? And even if you did know what to defeat and even if you alone could defeat it, if you ended up bragging about it, you’d be defeating it for all the wrong reasons. And we all know that the only thing worse than doing the wrong thing for the right reason, is doing the right thing for the wrong reason. All of which is to say, when it comes to us versus evil, we’re going to lose big time, every time.
It’s interesting to note here that Jesus never once used any of his own words to fight temptation. Jesus simply quoted Scripture. Jesus knew the Bible, and that knowledge was enough to keep him perfectly obedient. It’s also interesting to note, of course, that the devil used Scripture, too. Like anything else, we can use Scripture, and indeed have used it a few times, for evil purposes. But, when we really look at it, and study it, and pray over it, it alone is sufficient for us.
Lent is a time when we acknowledge Jesus’ journey to the Cross, to his death, and of course to his resurrection. Part of that journey included temptation. Part of that journey meant facing evil face to face. Evil exists, friends. It’s nowhere near as ugly as we think it is. It’s often hard to distinguish from what’s good in the world. And we all have this inclination towards it. We are all hopelessly addicted to it. Yet despite that, there is hope for us. It really is possible for us to resist evil in all of its ugly forms, and even in its beautiful forms. Jesus was tempted, but Jesus didn’t cave into it. We don’t have to either. We too can put on the armor of Christ, as Paul tells us, and put evil in its place.
Which is in the “Loss” column. Evil is officially history, because Jesus has defeated it. But it is not buried yet, and it can still kill us. So, when we leave this place, and even in this place, we will be tempted by evil. Any questions or comments about that? Does anybody doubt that? Satan has a hold on us. If we don’t have a healthy respect for that fact, if we think we’re immune to it, if we think that evil only infects them, then we’re in real trouble. There really is a bad guy out there, call him Satan, the Devil, evil, who has a strong hold on all of us. But God has a hold on us, too, and God’s hold is stronger. God has given us a few tools to win this battle. God has given us Scripture. God has given us each other. God has given us his very own self. So get ready for some combat this week, and every week. There’s a war out there, really. There’s a war in each one of us. May we all go out there and be prepared to fight it, to meet the bad guy (regardless of how good and noble and attractive and easy he looks), and may we rejoice that it is possible now to come home with a victory.
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
