Welcome to Resurrection Parish as we continue with our Lenten message series, “Seriously, God: Making Sense of Life Not Making Sense.” This series is based on a book by the same name, and we have copies of the book in the back of the church. Please take one home for some Lenten spiritual reading, but you might have to hurry, they are almost all gone.

Last weekend the deacons introduced us to three principles that we need to keep in mind as we go through this series. First, it makes sense that God doesn’t make sense. If there is an all-powerful, all knowing being then of course he would not always think as we think and act as we would act. Second, when God does not make sense we can grow in our understanding because God has revealed himself to us through the Scriptures and the person of Jesus Christ. Third, we need to be careful not to confuse God not making sense with life not making sense.

This weekend we are going to look at when God says “No” to things that seem to be good things. For some people, it seems that all that God ever says is “No”; “you are not allow to do this,” or “don’t do that.” Unfortunately there are people who have left the Church and have stayed away because they only heard a message of God saying “No.”

There is no doubt about it, there are some “no’s” in Scripture. However, the no’s generally fall into one of three categories. We can begin to see the why behind some of those no’s. We see this played out in the Gospel of St. Luke when Jesus is tested in the desert; which is the Gospel reading for this weekend. Jesus reveals why God will tell us no by saying no to the temptations of the devil. He shows us the values of God’s heart behind the no’s and what God wants for us. 

“Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil” (Luke 4:1). Prior to Jesus’ temptation, he had been baptized in the Jordan River. The Holy Spirit came upon him and then filled with the Holy Spirit Jesus goes out into the desert to be tempted. There is too much evil in the world to not believe there is a being who intentionally wants to bring pain and suffering into the world.

So the devil tempts Jesus. Temptation does not always mean you are outside of God’s will. Often temptation comes to us when we are doing what God want us to do because there is an Enemy, someone who opposes God and us. 

“He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over he was hungry. The devil said to him, ‘If you are the son of God, command this stone to become bread’” (Luke 4:3-4). The first temptation Jesus faces is to meet a legitimate need in a legitimate way. Jesus chose to face the same temptations of the flesh we face. These are temptations we face to make our needs and desires the highest priority of life. We have needs because we are creatures. We need food, shelter, clothing, companionship, etc.

The temptation for us will be to meet those needs in a way that makes our needs the highest priority in life. When we do, we ultimately enslave ourselves to those needs. When this happens, our needs begin to drive everything in our lives. They become an addiction.

Jesus teaches us to say no to some things because they have the capacity to enslave us to our physical needs so that we start to meet them in unhealthy ways. So Jesus says no to this temptation; “It is written, One does not live by bread alone” (Luke 4:4). Jesus gives us a further reason God will tell us no sometimes to our physical needs. God tells us to say no to our physical needs because then we can meet our deeper spiritual need for a relationship with him. When we put our need for God first, then our physical needs can be met in a healthy way.

“Then he took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant. The devil said to him, ‘I shall give to you all this power and glory; for it has been handed over to me, And I may give it to whomever I wish. All this will be yours, if you worship me’” (Luke 4:5-7). The second temptation is devil worship. For most people, this temptation is not manifested by an actual desire to worship Satan. Rather, the real temptation is to compromise with evil. Power and authority were given to humanity who then handed over that power and authority when they ate the forbidden fruit (you can read about this in Chapter 1 of “Seriously, God?”). As a result, evil still has some authority or a hold on this world. The temptation of evil is to bow down just for a second, just for a moment to its power and think then you can go on with life.

The truth is that once we surrender to evil, it gets its hooks in us. It calls us to bow down again and again. Jesus shows us a different way and which feels harder at first but is much simpler and easier in the long run. He does not allow evil in at all, he makes no compromise with it. “Jesus said to him in reply, ‘It is written: ‘You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve’” (Luke 4:8).

“Then he led him to Jerusalem, made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written: He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you, and: with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone’” (Luke 4:9-11). The temptation is to win over the crowd. Jesus had come to win humanity back to a relationship with God the Father. His goal was to get people to follow him so that they would come to know the Father. The question though would be would he lead people and win hearts or use methods that would make him popular but really wouldn’t change lives.

We all like to be liked. It is part of human nature to want to be popular. If we are not careful, however, we can become enslaved to it. Rather than being true to who God has created us to be and being ourselves, we perform our way into being liked. It is exhausting having to do tricks and perform our way into people’s approval. People who are truly free and truly admired are comfortable in their own skin. They are comfortable with people not liking them and do not need to go to great lengths to please people.

This is Jesus. He teaches us to say no to the need for popularity. And he answers, “It also say, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God, to the test’” (Luke 4:12). 

God tells us “no” because he wants us to live in freedom. He wants us to live in freedom as his sons and daughters and not enslaved to our desires, the devil or demanding people, who don’t care about us. 

This week identify which of those three temptations is biggest for you. Pray for the grace to say no to them and yes to the freedom of God. This week, read chapter One – Seriously No.