Shaped by Testing
Our theme for Lent this year is Becoming Human: Called and Shaped by Jesus. And then the title for our first Sunday as given to us by our Leader materials, the resources we are using to guide our worship planning, is “Shaped by Testing,” Please note the top of your bulletin.
Shaped by Jesus? Shaped by Testing?
This lack of alignment between Shaped by Jesus and shaped by testing caused me to wonder, “is being shaped by testing and being shaped by Jesus the same or different or what might be the relationship between those two sources of shaping?
Many things shape us, of course: our gender, our culture, our history, our parents, our location of birth, our sibling birth order, our education, our economic status, our experiences, our DNA and our relationship with God. All these things shape us.
Today as we consider the gospel story, of Jesus’ experience of testing in the wilderness and the story of the testing of Eve and Adam in the Garden of Eden we consider what it means to be shaped by testing.
What is the source of the testing, what is the purpose of the test, and ultimately, how did the experience of testing shape Eve, Adam and Jesus?
How does the experience of testing shape us?
Shaped by many things, both internal and external to us, testing is one of those shapers that comes from without. Like a stiff wind that threatens to blow away our umbrella, or our scarf and/or snatches at our coat – most testing is not pleasant.
And yet, the first verse of our gospel text as shared with us by Ariane and Siena, reveals to us that the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness. After being led there by the Spirit Jesus was tested for 40 days and 40 nights by the devil.
As an aside, you may be wondering what has become of the word temptation found in most translations of this text. First, the Greek may be translated here, either temptation or testing. The difference is subtle.
We understand temptation to mean something that seems desirable but that we know we should probably avoid for our own good or the good of others. Whether we do so or not is another matter.
To be tested is to be presented with questions or choices that depending on our answer will give some evidence of our knowledge or character.
The Old Testament is full of examples of testing. Eve and Adam in the Genesis text are tested (the word temptation is never used in that text – the word temptation is only used in the history of common Christian interpretations of this text . In another familiar story God tests Abraham when God asks him to sacrifice his son Isaac. In the book of Job, the Satan or the Accuser, presents himself before God with the other heavenly beings and suggests to God that Job is only righteous because of his many blessings and so devises a test to see if Job will remain faithful if everything he has is taken away. In this story, God allows the test.
The story of the temptation or testing of Jesus falls in line with these stories. The Holy Spirit both fills Jesus and drives him into the wilderness where he may be tested or tempted for 40 days and nights. Notice as well that the test comes to him while he is in a ritually weakened state – exposed to the hot dry wind of the Judean wilderness, alone and fasting. He is famished. Jesus probably hungers on many different levels. He may be feeling desperate for food and for company and most importantly – fresh from his baptism and the assurance by the Spirit that he is Beloved son of God, he may deeply desire to know what that identity means.
Enter the devil – the agent of the test (animated intriguingly for us by Siena)
I will include here a quick note about the devil. It is only in later medieval Christianity that this character becomes personified with horns and tail and a red jumpsuit. The idea that there was or is a cosmically evil opponent of God on equal terms to God (a personified dualism between good and evil), this idea is not Biblical in either Hebrew or early Christian writing. In the story of Adam and Eve, the agent of that first test is the crafty serpent – part of God’s creation, and in the story of Job, the satan or the accuser (both equally appropriate translations) is really just a job title for one of the heavenly beings that gathers in the court of God. Granted this is still a strange scene in the story for all kinds of reasons, but sticking to our current point, the job of the devil is to investigate, inspect or accuse. One commentator I read compares the role of the devil to that of a “cosmic ‘building inspector.’ [As the cosmic building inspector] he is the person appointed by God to inspect the structure of creation and of human lives. If there is shoddy construction, it is his job to point it out.” i Between the stories of the satan in Job and the devil in the wilderness with Jesus story, the role of the cosmic building inspector has become more malicious. In Greek, the word for the devil in the Jesus story means slanderer. However his role is still the same, he is testing Jesus to check and see whether Jesus and his newly understood and owned identity as Beloved Son of God is as solid as it seems to be. After all, if according to the prophetic predictions the Messiah is about to turn the world upside down then we would all hope that he has been truly and well tested for the job.
In the context of deep hunger (appetite and aspiration we might say) – not only hunger for food, but also hunger for proof of his identity as Son of God – The devil offers Jesus easy solutions. He could turn stones to bread – to feed himself and others. (He would be so popular). He could rule the world in order to satiate that hunger (oh yes, if he would first commit idolatry by worshiping the devil) and he could prove his invincibility by throwing himself off the pinnacle of the temple. In this three-fold test, Jesus refuses three times to take his eyes off God. And by so doing submits his appetite and aspirations to God. He names as priorities first, that we do not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Second, he says, it is written, Worship the Lord your God and serve only him and finally “do not put the Lord your God to the test.” And the devil leaves him alone until an opportune time. Jesus’ choices make clear that God is God and God alone.
Jesus was shaped by this test. Ironically after this test part of his ministry includes providing bread for the people, – the bread made by grain and the bread of his body. Second, his ministry directly challenges the power of the empire and third, his human body is not invincible to hunger, the pain of grief and the pain of his impending crucifixion, but the power of God raises him to everlasting Life. Jesus is fully human, but the test and the results of the test shaped the type of human life he lived and the way God was involved in working through his life.
What about the test of Eve and Adam? Interestingly their desire was born not in scarcity or a time of ritual weakness in a wilderness like Jesus, where he was buffeted by hot dry winds but rather their testing came to them during a time of overwhelming abundance. They dwelt in the Garden of Eden where they had
plenty to eat, they were comfortable with their bodies, naked though they were, and they walked in the cool evening breezes in the Garden with their God. Into this incredible wholeness, the test of these newly created human beings (nephesh charah – desiring beings) reveals a potential problem. Humans want to be like God. Our God-given divine image-likeness, animated by the very breath of God, instills in us as human beings appetites and aspirations and on top of that the free will to choose to follow those inclinations sometimes in the direction of good and sometimes in the direction of evil.
In Hebrew inclinations for good are called yetzer hatov and inclinations for evil or bad are called yetzer hara. Eve and Adam gave in to the yetzer hara in this test and the results for them were as God predicted. Desire for knowledge of Good and evil leads to death. This story names for us that being wise to the difference between good and evil and having the power to choose become the trickiest parts of being human. This test and Eve and Adam’s response shaped the type of human lives they lived. Hardship, pain and eventually death followed.
And we will continue to be tested and shaped thereby. God allows the tests, even if God doesn’t necessarily devise them. The tests inspect the soundness of the structure of our lives and our responses gives shape to the types of human lives we will live. In times of scarcity or abundance we are not immune to testing. In times of scarcity or desperation we may long to bend or break the “rules” to have our basic needs met.
But most of us I expect like Eve and Adam are tested in the midst of abundance. What are those tests like? And how will we respond?
In the midst of abundance (all the bread and more than we can eat)
and security (knowing we’re not likely to dash our foot against a stone because our retirement savings will prevent that),
and power (by virtue of our birth or life in Canada and opportunity for education), abundance and security and power – basic realities for most of us;
will our greatest tests be in those areas?
What about situations where we are called to give up something of our abundance or security or power so that the global human community might become more equal? Are we ever faced with tests like these? And if we are how are we called to respond?
Eve chose to reach for the stars. She desired more than simple abundance and as I’ve said that “more” led to hardship, pain and eventually death – all parts of what we know it means to be human. And Jesus, in contrast, he chose to limit himself, submitting his God-given appetites and aspirations to God, acknowledging God as God and God alone. The human life he led still included hardship, and pain and death, but to him was granted resurrection life and through him that offer of life extends to all of us. The one who refused to turn stones into bread became the Bread of Life for us all. Hence we are shaped both by testing and by Jesus; the one whose life and choices redeem our lives and our choices.
To conclude I want to share with you an image that came to me as I contemplated how testing shapes our lives and how Jesus shapes our lives. The image that came to me was Tom Thomson’s painting entitled West Wind. Are you familiar with that painting? The shape of the Jack Pines in this painting give evidence that they have grown amid constant battering from the cold and powerful West Wind. There is no question that this testing by the wind has had significant impact on the shape of the trees. They are permanently bent away from the wind and somewhat stunted on the side where the wind strikes them most directly. But this wind is not all that shapes them. Their God-instilled internal imperative to grow and reach for the sky shapes them and the way their roots foundationally embrace rocks and soil and water also shape them. That internal imperative to grow and reach for the stars in us is the reality of our creation in the divine image. With Jesus as our guide and Redeemer we are called to submit this internal imperative, our appetites and aspirations to God. If we are able to do so our human lives will be shaped beyond our wildest imagining.
i Richard Swanson, Provoking the Gospel of Matthew. (the Pilgrim Press: Cleveland, Ohio)