Sermon - Christian Identity: Being Truly Human

 Luke 4:1-13
Christian Identity: Being Truly Human
James Sledge                                                                                                 March 6, 2022

Briton Rivière, 1840-1920. Temptation in the Wilderness,
from Art in the Christian Tradition,
a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library

I think I was in ninth grade when the musical, Jesus Christ Superstar, burst onto the scene. It was a huge cultural phenomenon, with some of its songs becoming pop hits. I had the two-album soundtrack and played it frequently. At the time, there was a certain subversive quality to the musical that appealed to a young teenager.

One song that especially appealed to me was a catchy, comic number sung by King Herod when Jesus, freshly arrested, is brought to him for trial. The sarcastic lyrics Herod sings to an unresponsive Jesus include a verse that goes,     

So, you are the Christ, you're the great Jesus Christ
            Prove to me that you're divine - change my water into wine
            That's all you need do, and I'll know it's all true
            C'mon, king of the Jews! 

Another verse issues a different challenge to Jesus.   

So, you are the Christ, you're the great Jesus Christ
Prove to me that you're no fool - walk across my swimming pool
If you do that for me, then I'll let you go free
C'mon, king of the Jews!

I share these lyrics because there was a time when I saw today’s gospel reading as a similar situation. A smug, sarcastic devil, complete with horns and pitchfork, issues challenges to Jesus. “Come on, Jesus. Do a trick for me, and then I’ll believe you really are the Son of God.”

I suppose that my image of the devil became a bit more sophisticated as I grew older, but it was not until I entered seminary that I realized the devil never asks Jesus to prove who he is. His challenges are nothing like those of Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar. The devil in this story knows full well exactly who Jesus is. His challenges don’t ask Jesus to prove anything. Rather they force Jesus to wrestle with just what it means for him to be Son of God.

There is a grammatical construction in the original Greek of our gospel reading that cannot quite be replicated in English. When the word “if” is used with this construction, it takes on the meaning, “If you are the Son of God, and we know that you are, then…” Some scholars even suggest simply translating the verse, “Since you are the Son of God…”

These “since you are” temptations are no comic and cartoonish attempts by the devil that Jesus easily brushes aside. Rather, Jesus is confronted with something of an existential, identity crisis. Just what does it mean for him to be Son of God? What sort of Messiah will he be? Will he fulfill the conquering hero expectations of the people? Will he give them what they want, what they expect? Or will he walk a different path? Will Jesus be true to his identity as Son of God, or will he trade it for something quicker, easier?

And the struggle over what sort of Messiah Jesus is doesn’t end with these temptations in the wilderness. As our scripture reading says, When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time. Jesus will engage in this struggle yet again in the garden of Gethsemane, and who knows what other moments of struggle Jesus had along the way that don’t make the gospels.

I wonder if we in the Church don’t at times face struggles similar to those of Jesus in the wilderness. According to the scriptures, the Church is the body of Christ, but what exactly does that mean. What temptations do we face that entice us? Since you are the body of Christ, do this or do that.

Perhaps Jesus’ own temptations might be instructive for us. Stone to bread? Literally this is no temptation for us, but figuratively. The Church has too often offered people fast food faith, cheap grace that entails no difficulty or cost. Simply believe the right things and all is well. No call to repentance or transformation. No call to the hard work of discipleship.

Jesus’ other “since you are” temptation is to throw himself from the pinnacle of the temple so the angels can rescue him. I’ve scratched my head on how this might apply to us, but I wonder if God seems real enough that we would think of putting ourselves at risk to test God.

But sandwiched between Jesus’ two “since you are” temptations is the invitation to make a deal with the devil in exchange for political power, and this one is all too real a temptation. In recent years we have seen many evangelicals abandon the way of Jesus in order to achieve political power, even to the point of embracing Donald Trump as a kind of messiah. But it has not been too many decades since Mainline churches enjoyed their political power and made countless compromises to keep it.

Conservative Christian author Philip Yancey, writing during the 2012 election campaign, noted how some Christians attacked Barack Obama in ways that were graceless and scurrilous and then added. “In no other arena is the church at greater risk of losing its calling than in the public square. Somehow the paramount command to love—even to love our enemies—gets lost. Seeing this, the watching world often finds itself repelled by outspoken followers of Jesus rather than attracted to them.”[1]

Perhaps here is a key to whether or not we have succumbed to the sort of temptations Jesus faced. When people look at us, are they attracted to us as the living embodiment of Jesus? When people look at us, do they see an identity that mirrors that of the Jesus we meet in scripture? Do they see an image true to Jesus’ identity as Son of God, or do they see something quite different?

Today is the first Sunday in the season of Lent, and I cannot think of a more appropriate project for this season than that of working on an authentic Christian identity, both as individuals and as a congregation. Often, people give something up for Lent, likely an expansion of the ancient tradition of fasting during Lent just as Jesus fasted in the wilderness. But Jesus did not simply fast. He wrestled with who he was called to be, and perhaps that would be a fitting discipline for all of us this season.

And if we are to wrestle with who we are, with developing a true and authentic Christian identity, then we need someone to guide us. We need someone we can use to measure ourselves, examine and wrestle with our identity.

That someone is the person of Jesus. He is our guide, our North Star, the one we look like when we are authentically Christian, which is to say, authentically human. We are created in the image of God, but the world is filled with forces that would shape us contrary to that image. Jesus must wrestle against such forces and so must we.

Fortunately, we are not alone. Not only are we created in the image of God, but we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit. That means that God dwells in us; divine power is with us to help us resist the forces that would distort our true humanity, and to help us become more and more Christ-like.

If you are a child of God, no, since you are a child of God, how will you live? What does it look like to live as authentic child of God? The person of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit dwelling within you, can show you the way.

Thanks be to God.

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[1]Philip Yancey, “Christians and Politics: Uneasy Partners,” (Creative Trust Digital, 2012) Kindle Edition, p. 16.