Father Rick Bolte's Homily

A: First Sunday in Lent

The story of Jesus’ temptations is an important story for us.  First it reminds us that Jesus is human like us.  We all know that in our heads as we’ve learnt that Jesus is one person with two natures; he is fully divine and human.  But many of us imagine that mysterious combination to be God with a human body.  This notion was condemned in the early days of the church.  To be tempted means that we do not know the future.  We can’t be tempted unless we think we can get away with it, that no one will notice, and that it won’t make any real difference.  That Jesus is tempted means that he could imagine the possibility that following the evil promptings could be better for him.

The actual temptations are things we can relate to as well.  We don’t always read the Gospel in order from start to finish.  Today’s reading comes immediately after the story of Jesus’ baptism and before he has begun his public ministry.  In the Baptism story, Jesus comes up out of the water and the voice from heaven declares, “This is my beloved Son.”  Now the temptations come, “If you are the Son of God, . . .”  Jesus is invited to question whether he is really God’s son and if he thinks he is, to try to prove it.

We too are called God’s children but we usually struggle to believe it.  It seems to be part of original sin that we doubt in our hearts that we are loved by God.  Between the imperfections in our parenting and our own flawed perspective, we grow up seeing ourselves as possibly bad little boys or girls.  We believe we have to do the right things and meet the expectations of our parents, God, and others in order to become good.  We get stuck in the invitation of the devil to prove we are good and worthy to be God’s child.

We can relate to Jesus’ temptations as we often try to prove ourselves along the lines of these temptations.  As Jesus is tempted to turn rocks into bread, so we are tempted to prove who we are by what we have.  We use our homes, cars, designer clothes, and the like to signal to others that we are successful and good.  As Jesus was tempted to show off his status by jumping from the parapet of the temple, so we too use our titles and jobs to impress people – this can include volunteer work at our parish.  Jesus is further tempted to pursue political power and influence.  We can use this as well to prove our goodness as we let other know our ability to get things done and to attempt to control things.  We may even do this in a volunteer effort as we try to tell others what to do and how to do it.

Jesus resists temptation because he believes in his relationship with his Father.  He knows that he receives his value from God and that people do not always recognize other people’s real value.  He doesn’t need to prove himself to others.  Such efforts never succeed but can be a driving force in one’s life.  This is a particularly sinister temptation as we can spend all our efforts trying to be good, thinking we are doing the right and even religious thing and never find that sense of one’s own value that we’re looking for.  And it is available to us for free.

St. Paul in the letter to the Romans that we read today tells us Christ comes with acquittal, life, and righteousness.  We who are lost in trying to prove ourselves and feeling guilty because we can not are offered acquittal that is the mercy and forgiveness of God.  When we accept this love from God, we have the new life within us.  This new life transforms our hearts and we live in righteousness.  This righteousness comes not from our efforts to prove we are good but from letting go of that effort.  It is a humble realization that our only real worth is the gift we receive from God.  But that is great worth because we have a God who loves us so much.  When we know we are God’s children, we respond to that love and it transforms our lives.  Our worth is not about what we can do but simply being who God created us to be.