Readings:
Sermon:
It was Oscar Wilde who once said, ‘I can resist everything except temptation.’ It’s a great play on words, typical of the man. Being devilish is a role that Wilde played with relish, and he knew the effect of what he said would have on his correspondents. So, when a cabbage was thrown at him by the 9th Marquess of Queensbury, the enraged father of his lover, Wilde apparently said ‘Thankyou. Whenever I look at it, I shall think of you.’ In this, he’s living up to his own saying – ‘Always forgive your enemies,’ he said; ‘nothing annoys them so much.’
Wilde might well have had our bible passage in mind when he made his temptation quip. The devil, though, is deadly serious in tempting Jesus; he’s after the ultimate prize, the ultimate desecration, he wants to claim Jesus’s soul. He’s saying ‘…go on Jesus, give in, don’t resist; the Spirit has left you with me, you’ve been abandoned. Go on, lighten up! Give in!’
There are quite a few differences between the life of Jesus and that of Oscar Wilde. Jesus has never had a play running in the West End, but then, Oscar hasn’t ever saved the world, so it’s a choice thing, really.
And they react differently to temptation. In the set of temptations that Jesus encounters today in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is respectful, considered, logical and decisive whereas, Oscar, like the rest of us might well be, is provocative in his replies. Jesus at least gives the Devil the courtesy of hearing what he has to say. How many of us, when provoked, and when faced by conflict or temptation, can do the same? Do we act respectfully, like Jesus, or do we go into combat mode, like Oscar?
Luke shows us that Jesus is hungry – but nevertheless, when tempted by food, Jesus sticks to what he knows is right. He knows where the real food is to be found.
Jesus is offered worldly riches when he’s in a desert place – and yet, he knows where to give thanks and praise – not to material things, but to the peace and love that only God can give us – actually, that God has already given us, if only we might reach out and take it.
Jesus is then asked to prove his belief – you can feel the Devil running out of ideas, can’t you – by throwing himself into God’s hands in times of peril, to check if God is all he’s cracked up to be. But Jesus knows that this is exactly what God doesn’t demand – he will never ask us more than we are able to give. Living in Christ is to realise that we are already good enough for God. ‘Do not put your God to the test,’ says Jesus, because God never puts us to the test, and we can at least afford Him the same courtesy – he loves us for what we are, not what someone else says we should be. That’s the whole point of the living, loving God.
So, nice try, Devil, but you’ve totally misunderstood what God’s all about – and so much for the ‘wiles of the evil one’, I thought he was a bit better than that at being bad; we all saw straight through him. And so, he slinks off to await ‘a more opportune time,’ which will come on a Friday in a few months’ time, in his encounter with Judas Iscariot at Passover.
We should end with just Jesus but, sorry folks, I’m going to bring Oscar in too. Although their reaction to temptation is very different, both Jesus and Oscar seem to understand that they need a whole-life view to make them complete. Oscar once said, ‘Perhaps I can only understand the glory of the heights through being mired in the depths.’ Such regret, for such a brilliant man, loved by God for who he was, I find it really sad. He converted to Catholicism on his deathbed - a prodigal son, a lost sheep, indeed.
But where they come together is in Oscar’s saying – ‘Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.’
Amen, and amen to that lovely thought.
Questions:
- How did Christ tempt you to come to him?
- How do you keep love in your heart?
- Oscar once said ‘Who, being loved, is poor?’ Is Christ’s love enough to make you rich?