“Lead Us Not into Temptation, but
Deliver Us from Evil”
Matthew 6:13; Luke 19:40
Jesus teaches his disciples to pray:
Lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil
And then he
turns around and rides right into Jerusalem-
certain death at
the hands of evil men for him
and the
temptation of betrayal for his disciples.
Remember
when Jesus originally talked about going to
The
disciples tried to dissuade him except Thomas
Who
said “Let us also go,
that
we may die with him”
The first step in understanding this
part of the Lord’s Prayer
Is
the understanding that we are not Jesus.
It
seems like a simple observation but we do
get over
confident in our faith sometimes,
thinking we can go anywhere,
do anything and we have this
halo of
protection about us.
All
we have to do is remember the temptation of Eve
in the Garden
of Eden
and the
temptation of Jesus in the wilderness
to realize we
are more like Eve than Jesus.
When
Eve encountered the serpent in the garden
She
made two mistakes:
First
she exaggerated the command of God:
You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree
that is in
the middle of the
garden, nor shall you touch it,
or you shall die.”
A
careful look at the command of God
had nothing to
do with touching the
tree but rather eating.
When
we make the commands of God rigid
And
legalistic we wander into trouble.
Secondly, she tried to resist temptation
alone.
God
didn’t create us as loners but as communal creatures
Who
find strength and clarity with one another.
I
just helped the Presbytery conduct a workshop
Called
“Appropriate Relations in Ministry”
Where
we taught pastors and educators
And
youth leaders how to create
appropriate and safe
boundaries
for ministry.
In
the workshop we learned that when we think
That
we are immune to temptation is the very time
That we fall into temptation.
When
we are aware of our weaknesses
And
when we are in accountable communities
is when we a most free of temptation.
When we look at Jesus response to the
temptations of Satan
We see that Jesus took God’s words seriously but didn’t expand
Them based on fear to be more restrictive then they were.
Man cannot live by bread alone but by every
word
that comes from the
mouth of God.
And
Jesus was never alone, he is always in the communion
Of the Triune God- Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Immediately
before the temptation
We
see the evidence of his communion
At the baptism of Jesus.
God
the Father affirms the son: “Thou art my
beloved Son, in thee
I am well pleased.”
The Holy
Spirit is always with Christ
“The Holy Spirit descended upon him
in
bodily form like a dove.”
The Lord’s Prayer doesn’t say that we
will never be tested.
The
word we translate as temptation, peirazein,
not only means
To be
tempted, but also to be tested or tried.
Abraham was tested, Moses was tested, Job was tested,
Peter,
Paul and Thomas were all tested
But
the testing is to strengthen them for service.
Martin
Luther once said:
“We cannot help being exposed to the
Assaults
but we pray that we may not fall
And perish under them.”
It’s
like the obstacle course Stuart showed us
At the
It
had walls to climb and streams to forge but it wasn’t called
An obstacle course but a “confidence course”.
The
intent was for the participants to succeed
Not
to fail, to be built up not torn down.
And that’s what we are praying for
in this
petition of the Lord’s Prayer.
We don’t desire the tests or
temptations of life
But when we encounter them we
are not alone,
We pray for the
support and courage
And confidence of God.
Back to this
Triumphal entry into
On first
blush it seems like Jesus is not taking his own advice
Nor following his own prayer,
but in reality he is
acting out the very prayer
he prayed with
the disciples and the prayer he prayed
for the
disciples in John
“While I was with them, I protected them in
your name that
you
have given me. I guarded them, and none
of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scriptures
might be fulfilled. But now I am coming
to you and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made
complete in themselves. I have given
them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the
world, just as I do not belong to the world.
I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to
protect them from the evil one.”
As Jesus enters into
he is entering
into every scary and difficult situation
we might ever
have to face in our lives:
Betrayal
by a friend, a break of trust by a colleague,
Disappointment
in our faith community,
Unjust
trial by civil authorities,
Desertion
by his friends,
Abandonment
by everyone,
Loss
of all our material possessions,
Ridicule
by people,
Physical
and emotional agony
and death on a
cross.
In other words, no matter what happens
to us,
No matter what test, trial or temptation we encounter
We
are not alone- God has not abandon us,
our savior
Jesus Christ has gone before us,
and Gods Holy Spirit is leading us
out of temptation and delivering us
from the evil we
encounter there.
Amen