There’s an old Gospel song tradition that speaks of the Christian life as a ride on the “Gospel Train.” But the Gospel Train not always and easy ride with perfect scenery. But you gotta get your ticket for the Gospel Train and stay aboard. The train sometimes passes through difficult terrain and life’s temptations. But just stay on board! Jesus too on his way to glory faced trials, hatred, and even temptation (yet without sin).
Today the Gospel Train pulls into “Temptation Station” and we are asked to consider life’s temptations. The three temptations faced by Jesus are surely on wide display in our own times. What are these temptations?
- Pleasure– The devil (I intentionally do not capitalize his name not because I deny that satan is a person but why give him the honor of capitalizing his name?) encourages Jesus to turn stones into bread. After having fasted, the thought of bread is surely a strong temptation. In effect the devil tells Jesus to “scratch where it itches,” to indulge his desire, to simply give in to what his body craves. We too have many desires and we too are told by the devil in many ways to scratch where it itches. Perhaps no generation before has faced temptation in this area so strongly as we. We live in a consumer culture that is well skilled at eliciting and satisfying our every desire. All day long advertisements reach into our mind to excite desire and to advise that we MUST fulfill our every desire and wish. If something is out of stock or unavailable in exactly the form we want we are indignant. “Why should I have to wait? Why can’t I have it in that color?” and so forth. The advertiser’s basic message is “You can have it all!” This is a lie of course but it is told so frequently that we feel entitled to just about everything. Some of our biggest cultural problems are problems of over-indulgence. We are a culture that struggles with obesity, addiction, sexual misconduct, greed, and an over-stimulation that robs us of an attention span and causes boredom to be a significant issue for many who are too used to the frantic pace of a video game or action movie. We have done well in turning stones to bread. To all this Jesus rebukes the devil by saying, “Man does not live on bread alone.” In other words there are things that are just more important and bread and circuses, than creature comforts and indulgence. Elsewhere Jesus says, “A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (Lk 12:15). I have written on this in another post: The Most Important Things in Life Aren’t Things
- Popularity– Taking Jesus up a high mountain the devil shows him all the nations and people of the earth and promises them to him if Jesus but bow down and worship the devil. This is a temptation to power but also to popularity for the devil promises him not only sovereignty but also glory. Since most of us are not likely to attain to sovereignty, and since temptation is only strong in those matters that seem possible for us, I will focus on popularity. Here too we face a lot of this in life. One of the deeper wounds in our soul is the extreme need that most of us have to be liked, popular, well thought of, respected, and to fit in. We dread being laughed at, scorned or ridiculed. We cannot stand the thought of feeling minimized in any way. For many people the desire for popularity is so strong that they’ll do darn near anything to attain it. It starts in youth when peer pressure “causes” young people to do lots of stupid stuff. They will join gangs, get tattoos, piercings, wear silly clothes. Many a young lady desperate to have a boyfriend and thus feel loved and/or impress her friends, will sleep with boys or do other inappropriate things to gain that “love.” As we get older we might be willing to bear false witness, make compromises etc to advance our career, lie to impress others, spend money we don’t have to buy things we don’t really need to impress people we don’t really like, be silent when we should speak out for what is right and so forth. All of this is a way of bowing before the devil since we are, in effect, willing even to sin in order to fit in, advance, or be popular. Here Jesus says, You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve. The real solution to this terrible temptation to popularity is to fear the Lord. When we fear God we need fear no one else. If I can kneel before God, I can stand before any man. If God is the only one we need to please, then we don’t have to run around trying to please everyone else. Here too I have written on this matter elsewhere: What Does It Mean To Fear the Lord?
- Presumption– Finally (for now) the devil encourages Jesus to test God’s love for him by casting himself off the highest wall of the Temple Mount. Does not scripture say that God will rescue him? The devil quotes Psalm 91: With their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone. In our time the sin of presumption is epidemic. Many people think that they can go one behaving sinfully, recklessly, and wantonly and that they will never face punishment. “God is love!” they boldly say, “He would never send anyone to hell or punish!” In saying this they reject literally thousands of verses of Scripture that say otherwise. But they have refashioned God, and worship this idol. “God does not care if I go to Church,” they boldly declare, “He does not care if I live with my girlfriend.” The list continues to grow. The attitude is that no matter what I do God will save me. It is boldly presumptive to speak and think like this. It is true that Hell and punishments are difficult teachings to fully comprehend and square with God’s patience and mercy. Nevertheless God teaches it and we need to stop pretending that it really isn’t for real. This is presumption. I have written elsewhere on the topic of Hell and why it makes sense in the context of a God who loves and respects us: Hell Has to Be. Jesus rebukes satan by quoting Deuteronomy: You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test. We ought to be very careful about presumption for it is widespread today. This does not mean we have to retreat into fear and scrupulosity. God loves us and is rich in mercy, but we cannot willfully go on calling “no big deal” what God calls sin and takes seriously. Hence we should be sober about sin and call on the Lord’s mercy rather than doubt we really need it and just presume God doesn’t mind etc.
Our train is leaving the station soon. It is to be hoped that you and I have benefited from this brief stop and have stored up provisions for the journey ahead such as: insight, resolve, appreciation, understanding, determination and hope. The journey ahead is scenic but also difficult and temptations are a reality. But as the Old Gospel Song says: The Gospel train’s a’comin’, I hear it just at hand. I hear the car wheel rumblin’ And rollin’ thro’ the land. Then Get on board, Children, Get on board, there’s room for many a more!
Beautiful article. So true of us all.
Thank you!
This is a beautiful article, and so very true. Some of the things you mention above I did learn the hard way – but I guess that is how I had to learn, to be where I am today.
Last night at work we had way too many drunk teenagers. I think teenagers have definitely fallen into more behaviors like drinking, and sex, much earlier today than when I was a teen, and I was a teen not too long ago. All the teens had alcohol poisoning too. They were lucky to be alive, considering there were quite a few drunk drivers that got caught, as well. People don’t know their limits these days – we are in a culture where more is better. Not knowing when to say when and realizing behavior is destructive comes in all forms, as you have mentioned – sex, drinking, shopping, trying to be popular.
I guess I am lucky in a sense because growing up I was always different – I never cared about the latest trends, or celebrity crushes. My interests were (and still are) mainly horses and medicine. I never really thought to think of being an outcast from popularity as a blessing until now. Being an outcast in a sense meant that I didn’t follow the “trends” of drinking as a teen, or being pressured to have sex at a young age. But all I knew then was how I felt as an outcast – reading your post now I am realizing that this particular cross in life was quite a blessing.
Thanks for this important testimony
Thank you for this article. I find your columns to be hard hitting, thought provoking and challenging. Sadly, this is not the case with the Sunday sermon in my parish. I believe the problem might be that our priests are reluctant to offend parishoners, so a rather feel good sermon is usually presented. I can fully understand this because I grew up in the fifties and early sixties in a very Catholic atmosphere where I did not need to be assertive about my faith. I was also taught to be unfailingly polite. Now I find it to be most difficult in company to be the lone voice representing a view “not of this world” Many times I have sat in uncomfortable silence while relatives, friends, associates should have heard from me. I admire assertive, outspoken people and pray for the grace to do violence to my genteel upbringing and become more of an ambassador for Christ. Hard to change at 59 but I see myself in your comments about popularity…it seems in a way that people like me are losing to the brash, in your face purveyors of the “wisdom of this world”. Please pray for us!
My eyes see this .. my mind knows this is right … but my heart won’t accept it … I have a loong Lent ahead .. Pray for me !!!
I agree with your three P’s. Those three P’s are Satan’s strategy that is working even among the most “devout” Catholics. We find these tempations within church gatherings, among devoted family members, within religious communities. The problem is a lack of humility to admit each of us is vulnerable to these three P’s. Each person must get to know “self” to determine what his/her particular temptation is. As Judy Kahn stated we are taught to be “nice” so we are not challenging one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. I also would like to challenged by the Sunday homily. AS Father Bernard (CFR) suggested we need to be an agitator to one another (wash machine) to be cleansed. Thanks you for your blog.
Our pastor included in his homily this past weekend the temptation priests face to be “popular”. Rather than say what needs to be said to help save his parishoners souls, he says what people want to hear. (God is love….etc.) As he said if “we don’t have sin in our world, what did Jesus Christ die for?”