What is most tempting? Talk Amongst Yourselves

It is officially, today, Lent, the season in which we prepare for 40 days and nights to follow Jesus to the cross and then, His Resurrection . This week's preaching text, St. Matthew's Gospel 4:1-11, is about the temptation of Jesus in the desert by the Devil. It is a familiar text to most of us. There's a version of it in all three of the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke). One way or another we've heard it in church more than once. It is an interesting text in that the Devil, or the "Tempter" tries to provoke Jesus with really one thing: the human need to exercise ultimate power. It is the same thing the Tempter in the form of a snake dangled in front of Adam and Eve in Genesis: Go ahead, eat the fruit and ". . . you will be like God. . . "! In Matthew's text, the Tempter keeps saying, "IF (my emphasis) you are the Son of God, THEN __________. . ." . Every time, there is an issue of power: IF . . . then --turn stones into bread and eat for you are famished. IF . . . .then jump from the Temple and prove your own omnipotence. IF . . . you worship me, then you can have -- all the money and control in the world. And, every time, Jesus meets the temptation with Scripture. Every time, he stares into this human frailty, and fills it with the Word of God. Finally, Satan goes away, to return later . . . much later. At the foot of the cross, the Tempter's faceless voice rises once again, "IF . . . you are the Son of God, come down from that cross . . . ".
What is it about power and control that is so tempting to us? WHY do we need to "be like God"? It was a foregone conclusion that Jesus, as the Son of God, could resist this kind of evil. Yet in his humanity, he clearly knew and understood our weaknesses, particularly this kind of weakness -- to power and control. Ultimately, it was this sin that crucified him. Talk amongst yourselves, and let me know your thoughts.
And, have a blessed Lenten season.
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