The Message, March 9, 2025: "The View from the Top," Luke 4:1-13

Author: Rev. Scott W. Cousineau
March 11, 2025

 

“The View from the Top”
A Message by Rev. Scott W. Cousineau
Luke 4:1-13

            I begin this morning with the story of my own visit to the Wilderness of Temptation. When I graduated from seminary, I had a pretty clear sense of what I wanted to do with my ministry. I had a pretty clear idea of the type of churches that I would serve. As is the case with many people fresh out of seminary … or college … I sent out a handful of inquiries to search committees at various churches, but none of them were interested in me.

            Then, a church reached out to me. I looked them up online and it was a very impressive church. (Similar to the Grinch’s heart … my ego grew two sizes.) We scheduled a date for my visit and interview, and I was picked up at the airport by a lovely couple in their lovely Lexus. We drove to the church through a very lovely neighborhood chock full of lovely and impressive homes. As we pulled into the driveway of the church, my ego swelled even more. The building was huge! It encompassed at least half a city block and had at least two hundred parking spaces.

            My ego swelled and swelled as we toured the church. There was an entire wing of Sunday school classrooms. The Christian Education wing included its own fellowship hall with a full kitchen and there was a playground in the yard. There was a second fellowship hall in the main part of the building that was massive, with a wrap-around balcony and a stage, and there was a courtyard nestled in the center of the building with pathways and beautiful gardens. But the sanctuary was amazing! It seated one thousand people and had gorgeous stained-glass windows made by the Tiffany Glass Company.

            Not a bad first church to begin my career!

            I met with the search committee, and they were also lovely people. I was sold! The voice inside my head was saying, “Wow! Look at this place! Look at you! They want you!”

            But there was another voice that was saying, “Hold on, this does not feel quite right.” The first voice said, “Shut up! You can do this. Look at you! They want you!” But that other, quieter, smaller voice kept saying, “Do not do it. Something is not right.”

            I listened to that first voice, the louder voice that spoke to my ego, and accepted the position. However, it did not take me long to realize that I should have listened to that other voice. I was miserable. Every day was an awful day. I could not get out of there fast enough. I served that church community for less than a year.

            Our Lenten journey begins here, in the wilderness with Jesus as he wrestles with temptation.

            I know that the framers of the lectionary have us jumping around a bit in the Gospel of Luke. This episode in the wilderness happens immediately after Jesus was baptized by John. You will recall that after Jesus was baptized, he was praying, and as he prayed the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And then, a Voice from heaven spoke to Jesus and said, “You are my Son, the Beloved. In you I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:21-22) The Voice from Heaven did not speak to the crowd that had gathered there to be baptized. The Voice did not tell them, “That is My Son.” The Voice spoke to Jesus and said to him, “YOU are my Son, the Beloved.”

            Over the centuries there has been much scholarly debate about this. Did Jesus not know that he was the Son of God until that moment? How much awareness did he have about who he was and what he was? Was God informing Jesus of his identity? Or was God making the proclamation to inform Jesus as he began his earthly ministry?

            Those questions lead us to our passage for today. “Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tested by the Devil.”

            Why? Why could Jesus not simply put on his sandals and that lovely red sash that we see in all of those paintings of him, and just set out to save the world?

            Again, there is plenty of scholarly debate about this as well. Shall I tempt you with some of it? The debate goes back to the questions we just considered. Did Jesus go into the wilderness to contemplate what it means to be the Son of God? Did he go into the wilderness to contemplate what it means to be the messiah? Was he trying to decide what type of messiah he would be? Was the Devil, Satan, The Adversary there with Jesus in bodily form? Or was Jesus wrestling with questions within his heart and soul?

            And, as is often the case, the navel-gazing nature of these questions really does not matter. It does not really matter if Satan was a physical presence with Jesus, or if he simply put the questions, the tests, the temptations into Jesus’ heart. Either way, Jesus wrestled with them. Jesus was tempted and tested by them.

            Would Jesus be the type of messiah that would use his power for his own purposes? For his own comfort? Would he be the type of messiah that would use his power to feed himself?

            Or … would he use his power to serve others, to feed others?

            Would Jesus be the type of messiah that would use his power and authority for his own self-aggrandizement? Would he use it to coerce or manipulate or compel others to follow him? Would he be willing to compromise his identity as the Son of God in order to be the servant of Satan?

            Or … would he realize that the faithfulness of the people is truly based upon genuine and intimate relationship?

            Would Jesus be the type of messiah that would test God, and use God to provide dazzling displays of power for the people? Would Jesus feel the need to prove the existence and power of God in that manner?

            Or … would Jesus display God’s power through his compassion and his humanity? Would Jesus teach the people that the path to God is humility?

            As we heard, Satan went away defeated. He did retreat … but would also reappear at a more opportune time.

            Why does the Lenten journey begin here in the wilderness? We know how Jesus responded to the questions. We know how he responded to the testing. We know that Jesus already possessed everything that Satan, the Adversary, offered him.

            The answer to the question is really about us. Why do we need to go to the wilderness?

            The word “Satan” literally means “The Adversary.” Of course, in this episode, the name changes according to which translation you read. He may be referred to as the Devil, or Satan, or the Tempter, but the interaction remains the same. The Adversary does not want us to succeed. The Adversary does not want us to win. That is the nature of being adversaries. The Adversary wants us to forget in whose image we were created. The Adversary wants us to forget what and who we are called to be.

            The Adversary speaks to our pride, our ego. It speaks to our strengths and self-worth. It speaks to our vanity. The Adversary does not tell us that we are weak, or that we are losers.

            Whether or not you believe in the physical manifestation of Satan, or the Adversary, we still wrestle with that voice. When the voice inside our hearts and heads convinces us that we are the smartest, most talented, most gifted person in the room … we should pause and contemplate whose voice is speaking to us.

            When that voice tells us … convinces us … that we are better than THEM, better than those OTHERS … we should pause.

            When that voice tells us … convinces us … that we DESERVE more than those others … we should pause.

            The Tempter or the Adversary does not come to us cloaked in a red cape, with horns and a pointy tail. The tempter looks a lot like us, sounds like … us.

            The challenge for us, the struggle for us, is to be aware of that voice that flatters us and tells us tempting lies, and then to distinguish between those whispers and the still, small Voice of God. The heart of our resistance to those tempting whispers is love. Love is always the key. We focus upon love. Love of God who has already claimed us as precious and beloved children. Love of Jesus who leads us on a path that brings us ever closer to God. And love of the rest of God’s children who are also precious in God’s sight.

            What Jesus displays for us and models for us is that our true fulfillment of who we are and who we are called to be is found in faithfulness to God.

            Let us use this Lenten season to explore what it means to live as a beloved child of God. May we listen for that still, small Voice of God speaking in our hearts telling us that we are loved, and calling us to love. Amen.

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