Lessons of Lent: Temptation or Obedience?

We have begun our Lenten Journey.  We are marked by the Cross of Jesus.  We are presented with the Lessons of Lent: Temptation or Obedience.

The Temptation Story in the Gospel of Matthew 4:1-11 presents us with two opposing choices:   God in Christ (OBEDIENCE), or Evil (Satan, Leviathan) (TEMPTATION).  Our response indicates how we will respond to today's challenges.

Obedience to the TEMPTATIONS of Evil-Satan-Leviathan are, according to Matthew: 1) Eating well, filling our bellies, enjoying a satisfying meal, becoming obese physically and personally; 2) Celebrity, doing magic to the applause of spectators, glorying in fame; 3) Power and wealth, political influence, villas by the sea, mansions beside the lake, private jets, and all the perks of position.

On the otherhand, OBEDIENCE to God and the Way of Christ are: 1) Food for the stomach, mind, and heart: FOOD OF THE WORD; 2) Refusal to focus life on fame and self-glory; 3) Choosing to worship God, to place God in Christ at the Center of life, trusting that God will guide and provide according to God's gracious will.

What follows this story is Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.  The Way of OBEDIENCE is the Way of the Sermon on the Mount.

OBEDIENCE to the Word, to God, to Christ, to the Cross calls us to compassion, empathy, justice, mercy, peacemaking, nonviolence, suffering for others, love of enemies, honoring marriage and relationship, inclusion, celebration of diversity, seeking reconciliation, forgiveness, generosity, prayer, humility, creation care, concern for the common good, and discipleship.

Yielding to TEMPTATION brings greed, profit at the expense of people, war, violence, abuse of power, self expression for the sake of self, waste of resources, environmental scourging, arrogance, abuse of bodies, racial and gender prejudice, economic inequality, neglect of the least of these, pre-occupation with pleasure to the exclusion of concern for the common good, and purposeful infliction of pain for the sake of self protection and love of power.

Specifically, the TEMPTATION side is exemplified by the rush to institute VOTER ID laws in order to exclude the votes of the most powerless and vulnerable.  RIGHT TO WORK laws will further depress the earning power and safety net of the middle class.  Prevention of GAY MARRIAGE will deny the civil rights of gender choice.  The TABOR amendment (Taxpayers Bill of Rights) will strangle budget and tax reform and funnel more money to the upper 1% to the detriment of support for education, infrastructure, and health care.  Intrusion into WOMEN'S HEALTH ISSUES such as contraception and abortion rights, through invasive procedures is a violation of privacy and the dignity of choice.  Further TAX-CUTTING for the upper 1% and failure to hold businesses financially accountable for OFF-SHORING their wealth, will lead to more education cuts,  infrastructure neglect, more unemployment, continued erosion of the middle class, and continued rise in poverty. Chipping away at OBAMACARE will prevent more people from receiving necessary health care.  Eliminating REGULATIONS and preventing the VOLCKER RULE from going into effect will further unplug the dam of careless speculation which led us into this economic hole.

TEMPTATION is about ABUSE OF POWER for the sake of the POWERFUL.  Temptation scraps the Sermon on the Mount.

Yes, we all yield to temptation.  Yes, we all have mixed records of obedience.  Yet, God's grace calls us  to yield to John the Baptist's call for repentance, and repentance opens us to obedience.  Again and again and again.  We can start over.

Lessons of Lent.

Peace!

Ron Letnes