ALWAYS
There is a powerful little video that’s been making the rounds through computers all across the country of late. The video was produced by Angel Network LLC whose mission is – and I quote – “Inspiring the world one soul at a time.” The video is entitled, “Interview with God,” and it presents magnificent pictures of God’s glorious creation in the background. While I do not possess the technology to reproduce that here, I can at least share the words of the interview with you. Listen now to the words of an imaginary – but profound – interview with God.
I dreamed that I had an interview with God. “So you would like to interview me?” God asked. “If you have the time,” I said. God smiled. “My time is eternity. What questions do you have in mind for me?” I asked, “What surprises you most about humankind?” God answered…
· “That they get bored with childhood. They rush to grow up and then long to be children again.
· “That they lose their health to make money, and then lose their money to restore their health.
· “That by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live in neither the present nor the future.
· “That they live as if they will never die, and die as though they had never lived.”
God’s hand took mine and we were silent for a while. And then I asked, “As a parent, what are some of life’s lessons you want your children to learn?” God replied with a smile…
· “To learn they cannot make anyone love them. What they can do is let themselves be loved.
· “To learn that it is not good to compare themselves to others.
· “To learn that it takes only a few seconds to open profound wounds in persons we love, and it takes many years to heal them.
· “To learn to forgive by practicing forgiveness.
· “To learn that there are persons who love them dearly, but simply do not know how to express or show their feelings.
· “To learn that a rich person is not the one who has the most, but rather, the one who needs the least.
· “To learn that two people can look at the same thing and see it differently.
· “To learn that it is not always enough that they be forgiven by others, but that they must also forgive themselves.”
“Thank you for your time,” I said simply. “Is there anything else you would like them to know?” God said, “To learn that I am here…always.”
There are likely a hundred different directions I could go with a sermon introduction like that. But for now, I want to focus on one particular statement. The question was asked, “As a parent, what are some of life’s lessons you want your children to learn?” One of God’s responses was this: “To learn that a rich person is not the one who has the most, but rather, the one who needs the least.” Again, “A rich person is not the one who has the most, but rather, the one who needs the least.” Keep that thought in mind as we move to the passage we read from the gospel according to Luke.
The scene is the wilderness near the Jordan River. Jesus had just been baptized by John the
Baptist himself. Then, led by the Holy Spirit, Jesus retreated into the wilderness too fast for forty days. He needed to spend some time in prayer with God. There, as our passage tells us, he was tempted by none other than the devil. The devil said to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” He was tempting Jesus to prove his divinity. He was tempting Jesus with bodily needs. To which Jesus replied, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’”
Then the devil tempted Jesus with worldly power if he would but bow down and worship him. He gave Jesus the chance to rule the world, to which Jesus simply said, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’” Then the devil took Jesus to the pinnacle of the Temple and told Jesus to throw himself down…just to see if God would rescue him from the fall. Jesus replied, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” At that, the devil departed from him until, as it says, “an opportune time.” In other words, it was like the devil was saying to him, “I’ll be back!”
The devil tempted Jesus with bodily needs in a time of great bodily need. Recall that he hadn’t eaten in forty days. That would have killed me! The devil tempted Jesus with wealth and power and fame, something that can likely lure even the best of us. Finally, the devil called upon Jesus to prove the existence of, or his favor with, God. And in each of these situations, Jesus reigned supreme. To each of these offers, Jesus withstood the temptation.
How did Jesus do it? It occurs to me that the answer just might be in that phrase we noted from the interview with God. Do you remember it? “A rich person is not the one who has the most, but rather, the one who needs the least.” Jesus was rich, but not because he had great possessions. No, Jesus was rich because he had very little need. Food or wealth or power had no influence on Jesus because they were not high on his list of priorities. Jesus had something even better inside.
Harry Emerson Fosdick put it well in his book, The Manhood of the Master. He writes:
Only by a stronger passion can evil passions be expelled, and…a soul unoccupied by a positive devotion is sure to be occupied by spiritual demons. The safety of the Master in the presence of temptation lay in his complete and positive devotion to his mission: there was no unoccupied room in his soul where evil could find a home. He knew what Dr. Chalmers called “The expulsive power of a new affection.”
When Ulysses passed the Isle of Sirens, he had himself tied to the mast and had his ears stopped with wax, that he might not hear the sirens singing – a picture of many a man’s pitiful attempts after negative goodness. But when Orpheus passed the Isle of Sirens, he sat on the deck – indifferent – for he too was a musician and could make melody so much more beautiful than the Sirens, that their alluring songs were to him discords. Such is the Master’s life of positive goodness – so full, so glad, so triumphant – that it conquered sin by suppressing it. Have you such a saving positiveness of loyal devotion in your life?
The answer, my friends, is prayer. What do you suppose Jesus had been doing for those forty days in the wilderness without food? He’d been praying to God. The depth of his prayer life was what became “the expulsive power of a new affection” to him. The richness of his relationship with God was what enabled him to overcome temptation because he needed nothing more. Ladies and gentlemen, the very same thing can be true for us.
As we begin yet another season of Lent, I would encourage you to strengthen your spiritual life. A good daily devotional guide will help. Worshipping God on a regular basis will help. Taking the time to attend the adult education class will help. We are called to be disciples of Jesus Christ. The root of the word “disciple” is also the root of the word “discipline.” I know you have other things to do in your lives. Discipline yourselves to include some faith work.
If you can do that, you will actually find yourselves becoming richer because you will find that you need less and less. What’s more, you will likely find yourselves being mysteriously drawn closer to God as well. After all, the way God concludes that interview is true. God is here…always. Amen.
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