I'm Sorry, You're Just Not That Special

Brad Sullivan

1^st Sunday of Lent, Year A

Sunday, March 9, 2014

St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
Psalm 32

Romans 5:12-19
Matthew 4:1-11

If ever someone could have said that he was special and the regular rules just didn’t apply to him, Jesus would have been that guy.  He was the Son of God, the very Word of God who had become human.  Jesus could walk on water, multiply food, bring the dead back to life, change the weather with a word.  It seems he could pretty well do whatever he wanted and he had been declared beloved of God by a voice from the heavens.  It seems Jesus could pretty much do whatever he darn well pleased. 

He didn’t do so, however, at least not in the selfish way we tend to use that phrase.  What pleased Jesus was to do the will of God.  Jesus could have broken any rule, any law, he could have done anything, and the tempter knew this, and yet Jesus bound himself to following the ancient wisdom of Scripture.  Jesus was special and yet he still knew the ways of God applied to him. 

Back in 2009, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford had an extra-marital affair, lied about it, and then said, rather lamely, that he had made a mistake.  Pulitzer prize winning writer, Leonard Pitts, of the Miami Herald, wrote the following:

It isn’t the cheating I’m complaining about…No, what incites this diatribe is those four words of putative explanation: “I made a mistake.” There is to them a connotation of honest error, unwitting miscalculation, accidental omission and “Oops, my bad.” They allow the offender to appear to accept responsibility for his offense while at the same time, minimizing it. He just misjudged. It just happened. He was just careless, inattentive or forgetful. He couldn’t help it.

…[Well] if I put my hand into a fire because I’ve never seen fire before and I get burned, that is a mistake. If you see me get burned and then put your hand into the same fire, that’s not a mistake. That’s an idiotic calculation that somehow, the rules do not apply to you. (http://www.chron.com/default/article/Pitts-I-made-a-mistake-excuse-1741407.php)

I assume Governor Sanford had heard at some point the wisdom of scripture that cheating on your wife is not the way to go.  He chose not to follow that ancient wisdom of scripture in favor of other continually reoccurring, rather selfish wisdom that basically says, “If it feels good, then do it.”  That’s the wisdom that Adam and Eve followed in eating the fruit that God commanded them not to eat.  The fruit was a delight to the eyes, and so they ate. 

Notice that Adam and Eve were not faithful to God and they were expelled from the garden.  They had punishment.  Jesus, on the other hand, was faithful to God and came out of the wilderness strengthened and blessed.  From then on, everything was peaches and cream for Jesus, without anything bad ever happening to him…yeah, ok, not so much.

Here’s the thing.  We’re not going to escape the wilderness.  We’re not going escape times of trial or suffering.  Hard times will come.  Temptation will come.  What we do with and how we respond to those hard times, those trials, is what will bring blessing or curse. 

When we’re in the wilderness and the tempter is offering us solutions, our challenge is that the immediate solutions offered at the time may certainly look like they would work.  We can become blinded to anything other than “get me out of the wilderness.”  With the Mark Sanford example, I would assume he was having problems in his marriage.  He was in the wilderness, and he was probably blinded to anything other than “get me out of here.”  The immediate solution offered by the tempter?  New woman.  It seemed to get him out of the wilderness.  Forgetting that he wasn’t special and that his this solution wouldn’t work without terrible consequences, Governor Sanford listened to the tempter and took his solution. 

When we’re in the wilderness, we need to open our eyes, to take time and pray and think.  Does the immediate solution, being offered follow in accord with the ancient wisdom of God given through scripture?  Will we be causing others harm by how we’re choosing to get out of the wilderness?  The wisdom of Jesus would say if you have to harm others in order to exit the wilderness, then you probably need to wait on God for a different solution.

We know and understand this ancient wisdom.  Many around us do not, and many of us during our times in the wilderness tend to forget.  It is hard to think clearly while in the wilderness.  Part of our calling is to offer the ancient wisdom of God to those who don’t know it, have forgotten it, or just can’t see it because they’re stuck in the wilderness.

Some time ago, I was talking to a mother of a young, unmarried woman, not in Bay City.  Realizing that she couldn’t take care of the baby, the daughter was likely going to give the baby up for adoption.  The mother felt this was the best solution as well, and she was still, understandably, distraught over her daughter’s pregnancy, feeling that there were no good solutions.  She was at the time right in the middle of the wilderness. While no solution seemed like a good one, I asked her if any of the solutions were redeemable.  Could God bring redemption to the situation over time?  That reminder of God’s redemption, the mother told me, was what she needed to hear.  God’s redemption was what she couldn’t see at the time, stuck in the wilderness.

Jesus, following the ancient wisdom of scripture, had faith to see his situation in the wilderness as redeemable.  Jesus trusted in God to bring him out of the wilderness.  Jesus was special and could have turned rocks in to bread to eat, but humans can’t do that, so Jesus didn’t either.  Jesus was special, and God would certainly not have let him die if he had jumped off the temple.  Heck, Jesus could have turned the ground into a pool of water, but humans can’t do that, so Jesus didn’t either.  Finally, Jesus certainly wasn’t going to bow down and worship Satan, a part of creation, rather than worship the creator. 

During his time in the wilderness, knowing he was special, Jesus acted as though he wasn’t.  During his time in the wilderness, not knowing when he would be able to leave or what exactly would happen, Jesus trusted in God to redeem him…which gave him strength to trust in God to redeem him upon the cross as well.

During our times in the wilderness, the temper will come to us as well, telling us we are special, that the rules don’t apply, that this time, the stupid and harmful things which countless others have tried and failed at before will work.  They won’t of course, but the tempter will be mighty convincing. 

Before you get to the wilderness, study and live the ancient wisdom of scripture.  Study and live the way of Jesus.  When you are in the wilderness, call on others to be in the wilderness with you, at least to have a voice of support to help counter the voice of the tempter, and to help remind you that God can redeem the seemingly unredeemable wilderness in which you find yourself.  Follow the ancient wisdom of God given in scripture.  Believe in God and follow in his ways, even and especially in the wilderness.   Amen.