Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be always acceptable in thy sight. Oh Lord, our strength and our Redeemer.

Near the beginning of the gospel story, we read that Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit for 40 days in the wilderness, tempted by the devil. Jesus overcame all those temptations, but all through his life, he was tempted. For the account ends, you remember with the words, the devil departed from him until an opportune time.

Jesus' overcoming of temptation throughout his life, is every bit as important for us as the overcoming of death at the end of his life. The temptations which he faced are the temptations which face us all, just as the death he died, is a death which faces us all. And we believe that in overcoming those temptations, Jesus overcame them, for us.

At the obvious level, the temptations which Jesus faced were very much his own. Just as, on the obvious level, the temptations you face are very much your own. Jesus' temptations had to do with his vocation to be God's Messiah. If you are the Son of God, Satan said, with biting irony at the beginning of each one. If you are the Son of God, turn these stones to bread. People are hungry, they have to eat. Hundreds of people. Thousands of people are starving while we talk and pray, why should they die? You have great power, if you are the Messiah. Turn it to some good. Nobody will pay any attention to your religious teaching. As long as he's hungry. If you are the Son of God, feed the people.

No, you won't buy men's hearts with bread? You won't persuade them to believe you by filling their bellies? All right. I'll give you the nations of the world then. Power is what counts anyhow, not comfort. I'm glad you passed up that first offer. Men will go hungry for power and glory. You've got the power. Put me in charge of it. Let me show you how to use it. A few alliances, a bit of compromise here. A little violence there. No one is Simon pure in this world. We all know that. Nothing worthwhile is ever accomplished without pain. Why, you could establish an order that would last a thousand years. Wouldn't that be worthwhile? Men would bless your memory. Listen to me. I'll put you at the top.

If you are the Son of God, lead the armies. No? You won't compel men to believe in you by force? You won't persuade faith by twisting arms? All right. You're more stubborn than I thought you were. But I'll show you the best trick of all, it will put people in the palm of your hand. Try just a little miracle. Let just a little divine glory shine through that human disguise of yours. Rumble a few thunderbolts. Cast yourself down from the temple. You know God's not going to let you get hurt. Wise up man. You can teach and preach until you're blue in the face. But you'll have to do something dramatic to capture the attention of the press and the media. Then people will listen to you.

How's for a miracle? No? Love, you say, is the only way to win the hearts of men? If that's what you really think, I can't do anything for you. But I'll tell you this much. You're not going to get very far. You're on your way out. We have corrected thy work, says Dostoyevsky's Grand Inquisitor, to his silent Christ. We have corrected thy work and founded it upon miracle, mystery and authority. Miracle. Stones turn to bread, and power used willfully. It's the tempter’s way. Jesus rejected all three ways. When he had finished, it's hard to see that any way was left open to him, except the way out of existence, the way of the cross.

Well, you say, that's the Messiah's life. And those are his problems, but they're not mine. Let's see, though. Let's press them. It may turn out that at a second, deeper, less obvious level they are our temptations. Maybe they are the temptations of every man as he struggles to assert and maintain his humanity. Isn't it true, for example, that you and I are tempted by material ease. Come on down on that Yellowbird to warm sands and luxurious comfort. Buy the newest car, wear sharp clothes. After all, you can't do anything useful in this life if you're tired and hungry all the time. No one will pay any attention to you if you're ragged and dirty. So, work hard. Turn some stones to bread. Let the world minister to your need for comfort. You will find it will be glad to.

One reason why people over 30 seemed to the young to have turned their backs on ideals and high purpose is because we've given in to this temptation. But the temptation to luxury is not the most insidious temptation. Many of us would go hungry for the sake of wielding influence or exerting power. If you want to get something done about civil rights, or poverty, or the police system, or the welfare system, you have to play the power game. Where's the leverage? Where are the votes? There's no point in taking a stand against the powers that be unless you have some power of your own. People with the highest ideals often compromise them in order to get power. In order to accomplish something rather than nothing. Don't think it isn't a temptation.

Then, I suppose the nearest that any mere mortal can come to casting himself from the temple is to make himself a martyr. And if you don't cave in to the desire for luxury, and if you won't play the power game, what a powerful device martyrdom is to get your own way, to dominate. You may have watched families wrecked by one member who plays the perpetual martyr. It's perhaps the one indirect, plainly costly, and terribly plausible way to force your will on someone else. Don't think it isn't a temptation.

When Jesus resisted his temptations, he resisted also at the same time, temptations which hound every man, the Messianic temptations, our human temptations, written with large capital letters. One way, and I think it's a powerful and suggestive way, to talk about Jesus' life and mission in this world, is to say that he was sent to live as a man should live in a world which conspires in every possible way to deflect him from that goal. To be the Son of God, and to be truly human, are opposite sides of the same coin.

Humanity after all, Adam, is created in the image of God. When Jesus cast off his temptations, only one way through life was open for him. It led him to his cross. Jesus' vocation to be a man led him inexorably to his death. Think about that. The normal processes of life extrude him, he is the perennial outsider. Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. If we have more than a fingernail grasp on the threshold of life's structures, maybe it means that at some point, we have compromised our humanity.

Something like that seems to be a near implication of the gospel, as it is, of some of the current protest movements. What can we say then? We'll say something like this. Jesus overcame temptation for us, as he overcame death for us. In this last case, which is the more familiar message of Easter, his victory doesn't mean that we don't have to die. His victory for us means that we face death with confidence. Death doesn't have the last word. Death has no more dominion. It's life that has the last word. So, when Jesus overcame temptation, he did it for us. That's one of the things that faith in Christ means.

And of course, we still encounter temptation. Temptation to fall short of our being human, be sets every man, woman and child every day of the week. But because Christ overcame temptations for us, we can face our temptation, as we can face our death, with a confidence born of His victory. And that confidence means for example, don't drop out. Our existence wherever and whenever you find it, is not very favorable to the human enterprise.

The pressures we meet, for indulgence, for violence, for playing God, are strong and virtually irresistible. Don't drop out of life for that reason. Christ's victory over our temptations has freed us to stay in, to stay with the structures of existence. Whether it's conservatives, liberals or radicals is a wholly different issue. Christ's victory over temptations has freed us to stay in and to do what has to be done with bread and power, and charisma. You will pick up a vocation like that without cost. You'll get dirty hands, to take the title of a play by John Paul Sartre, but you can rely on the forgiveness of God.

The temptations of Christ are for us. They mean that you and I can accept the pain and guilt of relevant action in a very imperfect world. They mean that hope and forgiveness are for us. They mean that the ultimate reality in this world is a merciful and loving God, whose power is for us.

Let us pray. O Lord, we beseech thee, mercifully to receive the prayers of thy people who call upon thee and grant that they may both perceive and know what things they ought to do and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfill the same through Jesus Christ, our Lord. O God whose son, Jesus Christ, was tempted as we are in all respects, and did not sin. Grant that we may so profit from his victory and accept His forgiveness, that we may live our lives in this world obedient to Your will with a quiet mind. We ask it in His name, Amen. And now unto God's most gracious mercy and protection, I commit you the Lord, bless you and keep you. The Lord, cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord, lift up the light of His countenance upon you and give you his peace. This day and forevermore, Amen.