Worship Service for 2/22/26 at Onaway United Methodist Church

Matthew 4.1-11 The temptation of Jesus

Ever had to prove you are who you say you are?

Maybe you had to show your ID or answer a line of ridiculous questions about your past, like spelling your mother’s maiden name, remembering the street you lived on when you were 3 years old, or perhaps you had to select a bunch of pictures that had bicycles? Somehow proving who you are requires the knowledge of whether a motorcycle is considered a bicycle. Proving your identity can be a complicated matter. And I don’t know about you, but it makes me a bit impatient.

What if you were asked not to prove who you say you are but who someone else says that you are? Someone who knows what you are capable of and wants to see it for themselves. Someone who knows you can do something that you have kept secret for a long time.

One of the most important things to keep in mind while reading this passage from Matthew is that the devil knows who Jesus Christ really is. The devil is a believer in the Son of God. He is not asking the Son of God who he is; he is asking the Son of God to misuse his power for his own gain. The devil wants Jesus Christ to show off what he can do. The Devil wants Jesus to make his own life easier by using the Power of God for himself rather than for the glory of God. So the devil tempts him.

Why do you go hungry when you have the power to feed yourself?

Why would you keep your feet on the ground when you could fly?

Why are you poor when you could own everything to the ends of the earth?

For every challenge, every temptation, Jesus responds with a passage from Deuteronomy. The book where the Hebrew people learn how to live. It contains important chapters like how they have been Chosen to be children of God, how being obedient to God’s commands is a blessing, A warning not to forget God in times Prosperity, the Consequences of Rebelling against God, and the receiving of a new set of tablets bearing the Word of God in the Ten Commandments. Rules that the children of God, the Chosen people, would need to follow. Jesus’ responses to the devil’s temptations are a reminder that our lives are not our own, but they are lived for the glory of God.

Jesus wasn’t asked who he was; the devil already knew that. The temptation was to try make him prove it. To take advantage of what he had been given. The challenge for Jesus was in waiting until the right time to do what he had been sent to do.

I have written a lot of sermons this week. Thought about many more. I wanted to preach about social justice, identity, equality, inclusion, fighting against oppression and discrimination, and removing stigma around mental health. There are so many topics that I am incredibly passionate about that fit to this passage. And, I was tempted. I was tempted to try to prove I am who I say I am.

None of those sermons felt right after I finished them. I was missing the mark. This passage isn’t about proving who you say you are; it’s about not proving who others say you are. Not falling into that trap. Choosing humility over justification. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean need to do it right now.

It’s often tempting to try to prove ourselves when we’re challenged. Especially if it’s a subject matter is something we’re a little sensitive about. As hard as we try to be emotionally sound, we’re just humans. A little bit of antagonism can go a long way with us.

This passage exemplifies two human temptations: stroking our own egos and delayed gratification. To every thing there is a season. The devil knows who Jesus is. Jesus knows who he is. They both know now is not the time for him to prove himself, that will come later. To demonstrate his power for personal gain would be a misuse of what God has given him.

The time will come when Jesus will feed thousands with a few loaves of bread and some fish. That will be his time to make bread.

The time will come when a man will be brought down through the ceiling, and a woman will fall at Jesus’ feet to be healed. That will be his time to lift others up.

The time will come when he will ride into Jerusalem on the back of a peace donkey, draped in purple robes, and people will wave palm branches, shouting at him, “Hosanna in the Highest! Save us!” That will be the time that he will be treated like a king.

Now, is not that time. Today is not the day for the message I want to give. Today we are told… wait. Your time will come.

Funny words to say to a congregation whose mean age is, let’s be conservative and say over 70, isn’t it? Your time to demonstrate the power God has placed in you has not yet come.

There are probably days you want to give up and cry out. “Lord, just take me now? What have I left to live for?” There are days when everything hurts, everything feels too hard, your mind isn’t what it used to be, your eyes do not see what they used to see, your ears do not hear what they used to hear, so how can this person have the nerve to tell me, “My time has not yet come?”

Because the Bible says so, not me. First, we must suffer. We must be pushed to our limits. We don’t just end things when they get hard. We don’t just seek quick fixes and easy answers. We don’t just live on bread alone. We do not test our God.

What we do is worship the Lord our God and serve Them alone. We do things on God’s time, not our own, knowing that our time to act will come.

Psalm 32 tells us “Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Happy are those to whom the LORD imputes no iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit. While I kept silent, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah.

Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, I will confess my transgressions to the LORD, and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah.”

Right now, we wait. Selah.

There is a reason we do not translate this word, Selah. The reason is simple. We don’t know for sure what it means. There are a few possibilities. It may be related to the Hebrew word calah, which means “to hang” or “to measure or weigh in the balances.” Or it may be rendered from two Hebrew words: s_lah, “to praise”; and s_lal, “to lift up.” Or, it might be musical notation like this stylized “Z” that simply means “rest.”

Selah is a time to not yield to temptation. It is a time to pause. A time to wait. A time to take a breath. A time to contemplate. A time to praise. A time to… rest.

Strange to think of Jesus going through the trials in the wilderness, or desert, pending your translation, but that’s what it is. A time to rest. A time contemplate his purpose here on earth, away from the responsibilities of his daily life, and to the disciples and ministry that are to come. A time to suffer, take a deep breath, and trust God.

Waiting can either be waiting, as our psalmist puts it “like the hand of god weighing heavy upon us, while our strength is dried up by the heat of the summer,” or waiting can be like “a hiding place preserved from trouble, surrounded with glad cries of deliverance.” The choice is ours to make. The choice is ours to either carry a heavy load of burden while we wait or to hand all those burdens to God and enjoy a time of waiting as if we are taking a vacation to the beach.

I told you that I wanted to preach a different sermon today. I wanted to preach my message to you, my passion, my words, my stories, because the desire to point out others’ iniquities and tell them how to live their lives is strong, is it not? If you know a way that would make someone else’s life easier, their pain more bearable, their way straighter, do you not want to tell them? Do you not want to seize the moment to really show others what you are capable of even if they consider it rude, over-bearing and your advice unwanted and unwarranted? We do so love to tell others how to live their lives don’t we?

Selah. Now is not the time. Now is the time to take a breath, contemplate the implications of your words and actions, and think about not what you want to do or say but what God wants. After you take a moment to rest, and breathe that breath of life in, right down to the bottom of your lungs, confess your sin, then you can do what God wants instead of you want.

We have entered into the most important liturgical season of the Christian year. The season of Lent. The time before Passover, the time before Easter. A time traditionally used to empty all the old from our household to prepare for the new. A time to stop carrying the burdens that are weighing you down before God. A time to take a deep breath. A time to let yourself be hungry and thirsty. A time to let yourself fall. A time to let yourself go without. A time to remember who you are and that you don’t have to prove that to anyone. A time to trust.

The time will come soon enough for you to demonstrate what you have, what you know, and what you can do. A time to show the world what God has made you capable of, for His glory, not your own. Now is the time to cast your ego aside, ask to be forgiven for your selfishness, and to worship God, serving Them alone.

Proving we are who we say we are, unless we need to log in to our bank account, is generally not in our or anyone else’s best interest. People are going to make judgments about us that we have no control over. No amount of proof we are able to provide in that moment is ever going to change their mind. The only thing we can do, is not engage.  Not give in to that temptation to make ourselves look good.

The burden of proof is not ours to bear to the world. God knows who we are and what we are capable of. God alone knows when the time is right for us to demonstrate what They have given to us. That time will be to God’s glory not our own.

Just because you can do something does not mean that this is the time to do it. Just because you know something does not mean that this is the time to say it. Now is not the time to yield to temptation. We need not defend ourselves right now. God will take care of that. Now is the time to choose how we wait.

We can wait in suffering, buried under the burden of sin and scorching sun. Or we can choose to alleviate those burdens, by confessing our sins, asking for forgiveness and hiding in the shadow of God, where we will be surrounded with glad cries of deliverance. The choice is yours to make. Selah.