Transfiguration

Luke 4:1-13

“The Crown Without the Cross” 

     A local sheriff was once looking for a deputy, and one of the applicants, who wasn’t known to be the smartest academically, was called in for an interview.  “Okay,” the sheriff began, “What is 1 and 1?”  “Eleven,” came the reply.  The sheriff thought to himself, “That’s not what I meant, but he’s right.” 

     The sheriff then asked, “What two days of the week start with the letter ‘T’?”  “Today and tomorrow,” replied the applicant.  The sheriff was again surprised about the answer, one that he had never thought of himself. 

     “Now, listen carefully, who killed Abraham Lincoln?”, asked the sheriff.  The job seeker seemed a little surprised, then thought really hard for a while and finally admitted, “I don’t know.”  The sheriff replied, “Well, why don’t you go home and work on that one for a while?”  The applicant left and met up with his buddies who were waiting to hear the results of the interview.  He seemed delighted to tell them, “The job is mine!  The interview went great!  First day on the job and already I’m working on a murder case!” 

     In our Gospel reading for this morning it’s Jesus’ first day on the job.  And right away he’s confronted with three major temptations, the most basic temptations in life which form the foundation for all other temptations.  Through it all Jesus is faced with the dilemma if he will take the crown without the cross.

     The first temptation Jesus faced was if he would use power for the wrong purposes.  Satan begins by addressing Jesus, “If you are the Son of God.”  Now it may seem as if Satan is questioning Jesus’ credentials, but he’s not.  He knows who Jesus is.  But what Satan is trying to do is get Jesus to doubt or question himself.  If he can get Jesus for just a moment to question himself, to misuse his power, to take the crown without the cross, to turn the stone into bread, he will have won, and he will have forced Jesus into seducing humanity into obedience.  Satan is trying to get Jesus to use his power to meet the needs of human hunger and so buy their affection and devotion, to have the crown without the cross. 

     But what Satan didn’t understand is that there’s another type of hunger.  It’s the hunger for righteousness.  It’s a hunger to be in a right relationship with God.  We do not live for things but for intimacy.

     Jesus knew that we do not live by bread alone.  We live in obedience to the word of God.  And so if we come to God we come because we belong with God, not because he has something for us.  We come because our soul needs to be in his presence and not because our stomachs need to be filled.

     Jesus faced another temptation – this one to gain popularity by performance.  The devil sits Jesus on the pinnacle of the Temple and tells him to jump off.  Impress the people Jesus by doing something spectacular.

     But Jesus knew that he couldn’t accomplish the will of God by doing what he wanted.  Abraham tried to do this when he had Ishmael by his maidservant Hagar. God’s response was, Abraham I told you that Sarah shall have a son.  In time, God’s promise was fulfilled and Isaac was born, but there was a problem.  The promise of God must now be taken from the first born son, Ishmael and given to the second, Isaac.  Jealousy set in and in the end Hagar and Ishmael’s lives were ruined when they were banished from the tribe, all this because Abraham tried to force God’s promise. 

     Jesus knew he couldn’t do a right thing for the wrong reason by trying to accomplish God’s will through his own means.  He knew he couldn’t avoid the long and difficult path to accomplish the goal of bringing people back into a right relationship with God.  He couldn’t have the crown without the cross.

     In yet another of his temptations, Satan no longer flatters Jesus by calling him the Son of God, but rather comes right out in the open.  He shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and tells him that all of this will be his, if, for just a moment, he will bow down and worship him. 

     But Jesus, in facing this temptation, refuses to change the world by becoming a part of the world.  If the world comes to Jesus it must rise up to him, for he will not go down to it. He won’t be enticed by the glitter of the world. 

     The trial is now over.  Satan has failed in his attempt to bribe Jesus with fame, fortune, and power.  At this point Jesus says, “Satan, be gone.”

     The crucial question for us this morning is what does all of this mean for us?  The ultimate temptation of Jesus was that he could have a crown without a cross.  That’s the temptation that we, his followers, still face today.  We want power without painful rejection.  We want risk with no danger.  We want victory with limited commitment.

     Some Christians say that to be a Christian means that life is all beautiful.  It seems to me that the temptation of Christ is saying something quite different.  It’s saying life is a struggle; life is a wilderness experience.  And as we journey though this wilderness, we will indeed be tempted by evil. 

     So I want to remind us today that in those times when we’re in the wilderness, trying to find our way through, and when temptation comes and offers us the wrong use of power, the way to popularity, the wrong kind of partnership,  then we need to  remember that Christ was tempted as well.  But he didn’t turn the stones into bread.  Rather, he fed himself the word of God. He wanted no one’s approval but God’s.  He didn’t render service to Satan but obeyed his father in heaven.  Jesus was tempted to take the crown without the cross but didn’t.  So why would we?

                                                AMEN