The Rev. Canon Anne E. Kitch
Deuteronomy 25:1-11 + Romans 10:8-13 + Luke 4:1-13
Welcome to Lent! If the purple vestments and veiled crosses aren’t enough to mark the change of the liturgical season, to further set the mood today we pray the Great Litany. Originally the word “litany” just meant prayer or supplication. But it has come to mean a specific kind of prayer: a series of short petitions followed by set responses. The basis of the Great Litany can be traced back to the time of Henry VIII. It was one of the first prayers published in English (rather than Latin) and was intended to be said in procession. In our Book of Common Prayer it is called the “Great” Litany to distinguish it from other litanies in the BCP (of course, it is also really long).
It begins with an invocation of the Trinity. Next follow biddings addressed to our Lord Christ. We pray first for deliverance from all kinds of evil—spiritual evil, physical evil, and social evil. Next come a series of petitions in which, like our prayers of the people, we ask God to hear our prayers for all sorts of people and conditions. Perhaps one or more of these biddings or petitions captures your attention today. But I want to focus on one of the biddings for deliverance—or rather one that reminds us by what we are delivered: “By the mystery of they holy Incarnation; by the holy Nativity and submission to the Law; by thy Baptism, Fasting and Temptation, Good Lord deliver us.”
This petition reminds us that Christ’s saving power was manifest not only on the cross, but in his earthly life as well. Just what specifically did Christ’s baptism, fasting, and temptation do for us? When Jesus came to be baptized by John in the Jordan river, he was just one of a large crowd of people. Like everyone else that came, he too was drawn to John’s call to this baptism of repentance. It is a moment of revelation when he shows his solidarity with the people and as the Spirit descends on him his identity as the Son of God is proclaimed. How will he reconcile the two? We have difficulty understanding and explaining just how Jesus is both human and divine. How do you think he felt? Episcopal priest and spiritual writer Martin Smith suggests it was an issue for Jesus as well, “Everything depends on whether Jesus can reconcile his sense of uniqueness as Son of God with his vocation as Son of Man to compassion and solidarity with needy, failed humanity.”
Immediately after his baptism, that same sprit takes him into the wilderness. It is a testing ground, a place of learning. In the wilderness he fasts in response to his baptism. In order to understand and assimilate this revelation of self, Jesus employs spiritual discipline. He engages in a self-emptying spiritual cleansing. Throughout his ministry, Jesus takes the time to pray and worship and attend to his spiritual life. Even Jesus needs the discipline.
Jesus’ fast in the wilderness is a serious one—he eats nothing for forty days. And he is famished! He felt the lack of food. It cost him something to fast. He hungered as we do. In the wake of his revelation as Son of God he did not leave his humanity behind. This becomes the focus of his temptation: can he reconcile the tension of knowledge of self? Can he remain God and human? Can he follow his vocation? The temptations are real. He is not am impervious God, but a human being who gets famished.
Satan appeals first to these needs. Relieve your human hunger—but by using super power. If Jesus does this, then he loses his humanity. He will feed his mortal hunger by supernatural means and thus not be hungry. Jesus refuses. Satan next appeals to the desire for authority. Be an earthly king, under the divine rule of Satan! But if Jesus chooses this, loses his divine authority by limiting his rule to an earthly kingdom. Again he holds steady, remains in the tension of human and divine. For the final temptation, Satan takes him to the temple, to the place that will be the site of his betrayal and final death-march. The third temptation is not to die. Jump now and the angels will catch you. You don’t need to die. More to the point, you don’t need to die on the cross. You can skip all that. But if Jesus skips death, then death is not conquered. Without the cross….
See each temptation tries to draw Jesus away from who he is by denying his humanity, or giving up his divinity, or forsaking his vocation and most difficult task. We too are tempted not to be who we are. We are tempted to deny our humanity and believe we are not frail, that we can be perfect or control all things. We are tempted to deny that we are made in the image of God, and to believe that we are worthless. We are tempted to assume we have nothing more to learn about who we are, or what we have to offer. We are tempted to remain disconnected from self and assume that since we are functioning, all must be well. We are tempted to skip the wilderness journey and ignore Lent.
When the devil leaves Jesus in the desert, we are told that he departed until an opportune time. Jesus was not done with Satan. Jesus was not done being tempted to be less than who he was. Jesus was not done discovering all he could be, was not done living into his vocation. Neither are we. By thy Baptism, Fasting and Temptation, Good Lord deliver us. From temptation to be less than we are, Good Lord deliver us. From our desire to skip the wilderness journey, Good Lord deliver us.
Amen.
Copyright © 2007 by Anne E. Kitch
(Martin Smith, A Season for the Spirit p. 11)
