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The Written Word
The Light of the Ages
Job 2:3-7,9-10 NEW MILLENNIUM
A Courtroom Drama
The Defender said to the Accuser: "Have you really looked at my right-hand man, Job? No one on earth like him, I’m telling you! He’s a stalwart, upright guy, who reveres God and is scrupulous in his behavior. He still maintains his principles, even though you tricked me into causing his ruin without any reason whatsoever.”
“Skin for skin!” the Accuser replied. “Anyone will give everything to save his or her life! You may have caused his ruin, but now reach out and hit him where it really hurts. Ruin his health and he will surely curse you right to your face.”
“That’s not something I will do,” responded the Defender. “But I’ll let you have a ‘go’ at him, only you must spare his life.”
So the Accuser when out of the courtroom and caused Job to be afflicted with painful sores all over his body, from head to toe.
Job’s wife said, “Are you still going to hang on to your Principles? Why don’t you just curse God and die?”
“You talk nonsense, wife! We were willing to accept all the Good that came our way. Should we not be willing to accept this?”
Even in the midst of all this trouble, Job still refused to speak contrary to his Principles.
The Light of a Teacher of Truth
C. S. Lewis
“No [one] knows how bad he [or she] is [until trying] very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A [person] who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because he was the only [one] who never yielded to temptation, is also the only [one] who knows to the full what temptation means?the only complete realist.” Inclusified
The Light of the Master Teacher
Luke 4:1-13 NEW MILLENNIUM
1Right after his baptism, Jesus—full of the Spirit—went off into the desert 2to spend the next forty days in prayer. During this time of testing he didn’t eat, so at the end of this period he was hungry. 3The Accuser said to him, “If you’re the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
4Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘People don’t live on bread alone.’”
5The Accuser led him up to a high place, instantly showing him all the nations of the world, 6saying, “I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7So if you worship me, it will all be yours.”
8Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship your Sovereign God; serve God alone.’”
9The Accuser led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you’re the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10For it is written: ‘God will command angels to guard you carefully; 11they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
12Jesus answered, “It says: ‘Do not put your Sovereign God to the test.’”
13The Accuser, having finished all this tempting, left him to await another opportunity.
The Good Word
In the comic Born Loser, the husband is unable to fall asleep and says to his wife: “May I ask you a question, Gladys?”
“Oh, what is it?” she answers.
“Is your love for me beyond temptation?” he asks. “Say, Paul Newman was trying to woo you away, would you still love me?”
“Of course dear!” Gladys replies, “ And I would miss you very much, too!”
 Today’s Gospel is the story of the temptation of Jesus. According to Dr. William Barclay, it should more accurately be called “the testing of Jesus.”
A few weeks ago we read about the baptism of Jesus? The story continues as Jesus leaves the river Jordan to go out into the desert. This ‘going out’ is similar to our own Native American culture where youth go on a Vision Quest.
The ancient natives of the continent of India practiced the art of looking into a bowl of water in order to see the Self, to discover who one really was. That’s what Jesus is doing in the desert, ‘testing his mettle’.
The expression ‘testing one’s mettle’ is a variant spelling of metal, used by Shakespeare as ‘to test or prove the stuff of which a person is made.’ Jesus is ready to start his public ministry. But first he must prove himself, to show the “stuff of which he is made.”
May I parenthetically say: Many good people have bad things to say about temptation, missing the point entirely. Life is filled with all sorts of opportunities to test one’s mettle, or—as they say in Olympic sports—to prove one’s ‘personal best’. That’s a good thing when we rise to the occasion and do our very best!
Back to Jesus’ story, which takes on a mythical aura, just like it does in the Book of Job, where heaven is a courtroom and God is judge, while Lucifer is prosecuting attorney and Job is his own defense attorney.
 In our Gospel story, Lucifer is again cast as the prosecuting attorney, and Jesus is his own defense attorney. It’s almost like Perry Mason, only two thousand years earlier!
The prosecution puts forth the first argument: “If you’re the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
Of course Jesus is hungry. Part of his self-imposed initiation rite was a lengthy fast. But he doesn’t need to prove himself in order to eat. So he counters with: “It is written: ‘Humanity doesn’t live on bread alone.’”
He need prove nothing to the Accuser. Neither do we have to prove ourselves to our accusers in order to live full, rich lives. The prosecuting attorneys of life may try to trick us on this one. “Are you gay or straight?” they may ask. “Are you on our side, or are you a wicked sinner?”
Our answer might be: “I don’t have to prove myself to you. I’m a child of God, and I live by everything that God gives me, including my gender, my sexual orientation, my capacity for love and my good looks!’”
The prosecution was trying to get Jesus to claim special status; Jesus chose rather to identify with humanity, with those who experience hunger and pain, disappointment and discouragement as well as the joy of living! Point one for Jesus.
The prosecution—Hamilton Burger, I like to call him—points to all the nations of the world, and then proposes argument number two: “I’ll give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours.”
Jesus knows that all this power doesn’t belong to a mere prosecuting attorney. It belongs to the judge! So he replies: “It is written: ‘Worship your Sovereign God; serve God alone.’”
Why should we fall for the idea that anyone on earth could rob us of our power? If we are connected to the Source of All Good, then our power is the emanation of that Power which is All Good. It belongs to the Judge, who shares it with all of us.
Two points for Perry Mason, er, Jesus. Now attorney Burger—Ham Burger, get it? —comes back with argument number three. He takes Jesus ‘on location’, so to speak, to the top of the Temple. The prosecution is taking the defense right onto holy ground. “If you’re the Son of God,” he says, “throw yourself down from here.” Then he again quotes scripture out of context, saying: “It is written: ‘God will command angels to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
What’s the point, Jesus is thinking? Surely God will take care of me. Why in the world do I need to prove that? So he answers: “It says: ‘Don’t put your Sovereign God to the test.’”
At this point the prosecution leaves the courtroom in shame. Jesus can quote scripture just as fast as he can, and much more accurately and honestly. The defense wins. Jesus has proven his mettle without having to prove any of the ridiculous arguments put forth by the Accuser.
By proving nothing, he proves everything. He never rises to take the bait. He refuses to be drawn into the battle. He just stands in the truth of ‘who he is’, and no one can get him to do anything else.
Even when put on trial by Pilate several years later Jesus refuses to ‘take the bait.’ His refusal costs him his life, but in the end he doesn’t even lose that, because he stands in the truth of ‘who he is’ and God raises him from the dead to prove it conclusively.
Here’s the whole point of this courtroom drama: Jesus is who he is, and when he stands in that truth, he is victorious. If Jesus is our Great Example, then we learn that we must stand in the truth of ‘who we are’ and we will always win the case.
That’s why the Apostle Paul says to the Romans: “Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Trouble and hardship? Persecution? Lack of food or clothing? The threat of war? No! In every one of these things we are winners because of the One who loves us. I’m thoroughly convinced that nothing—death nor life, the present nor the future, positive or negative spiritual influence, things high or low, not a thing in all the Cosmos—nothing can ever come between us and the love of God that has been made real to us by Jesus our Master." Romans 8:35, 37-40
Why can Paul say this so assuredly? Because just a few verses earlier he declares: “Spirit speaks to us deep in our hearts and tells us that we are God’s children. And since we are God’s children, we will share God’s treasures—for everything God gives to Jesus the Christ is ours, too.” Romans 8:16-17
As the Union Pacific Railroad was being constructed, an elaborate trestle bridge was built across a large canyon in the West. In order to test the bridge, the builder loaded a train with enough extra cars and equipment to double its normal payload. The train was then driven to the middle of the bridge, where it stayed an entire day. One worker asked, “Are you trying to see if we can break this bridge?”
“No,” the builder replied, “I’m trying to prove that the bridge won’t break.”
In the same way, the temptations Jesus faced weren’t designed to see if he would fail, but to prove that he was strong in himself and needed never fear failure.
Nor should we fear failure. Life is not just a testing ground determining our future fate. It is the drama of our lives—sometimes poetic, sometimes painful—making us who we are. Some learn the lesson and rise to greatness; others keep going over the lesson again and again.
Here’s the lesson: We are to stand proud in the uniqueness of who we are as God’s daughters and sons. We have no need of other identification, and especially any label put on us by others. We have nothing further to prove. This gives us the power—the Christ-presence, the Spirit—to do every-thing we’ve been called to do, and be everything we’ve been called to be.
Just imagine what we can accomplish when we demonstrate through our humanity that we are simply divine.
And that’s the truth!
The Final Word
I can’t give credit for these two quotes as they are attributed to ‘anonymous’. But they are good common-sense wisdom:
Opportunity may knock only once,
but temptation leans on the doorbell.
The road to success is dotted with
many tempting parking places.
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