Lead Us Not Into Temptation

Matt 6:5-13, Matt 26:36-41

Jesus asks us to pray lead us not into temptation or as some translations say do not bring us to the test or the time of trial.
Being led into temptation is a strange phrase and I find myself asking how is that God might lead us into temptation. The writer of the book of James could well be answering this question when he says “God will bless you if you stand strong in temptation. No one when tempted should say, “I am being tempted by God,” for God can not be tempted by evil and doesn’t use evil to tempt others. We are tempted by our own shallow desires that entice us away from what is good.” (James 1:12-14) As part of our ‘God led but free to choose lives’ we will face temptation but our prayer is that we will not succumb to temptation. We pray that we will find strength and courage to face the temptations and draw closer to God.
Temptations as James tells us start within. I guess most people when they hear this will start thinking about some sexual behaviour, eating chocolate, or some other action that might be considered temptation. We get a hint of what we consider temptation in some of these pictures… Jesus teaches that there is something deeper going on for temptation has as its starting point turning from God. Remember at the beginning of his ministry Jesus is led into the desert where he faces a time of temptation. The word used is the same word as he uses in the Lords Prayer. Those temptations were:
1. To turn stones into bread, in other words to use his power to do something solely for himself. After fasting 40 days he was hungry. There was a quick solution offered to him which would satisfy his hunger. But he refuses. Simply taking care of yourself and using your God given gifts to take care of yourself isn’t the way of God.
2. The second temptation was to jump off a high building and get the angels to save him. It is the temptation to put on a show so that others will notice and go ‘wow’ what an amazing person. It is the temptation of self glory, of being the star of the show. But Jesus says God is the star of the show. All we are is a gift from God.
3. And the third temptation is absolute power and rule the world. To be at the top and accountable to no-one not even God. These temptations are all about our relationship with God, ourselves and each other. They are about recognizing our place as created beings who live our lives within the love and mercy of God and who are accountable to God. We are not here to gain personal glory, but to give glory to God. We are here to help build a new earth, but that won’t happen through forcing others to change. God works through invitation – through inviting people to commit to living in a way that respects others and the sacredness of life. Jesus could have turned stones into bread and fed millions, but that would have done nothing to address the deeper issue of greed and indifference – the root causes of the issue of hunger.
Facing his own death in the garden of Gethsemane Jesus invites his disciples to join him and prays from the bottom of his heart that they will not come into temptation. It’s the same word again – pierasmos. I ask myself what was at the core of Jesus’ plea? I believe Jesus was concerned for himself and for those close to him that they would buckle under the pressure and fall back into the old ways. That they would turn their backs on the difficult road of faith that he had led them into and reject the way of compassion and love that is the Way of Jesus.
We forget that for the early Christians to proclaim Jesus as Lord could easily mean death. It would certainly mean the derision and mockery of others. We forget how small the early band of Christians were, a tiny group in the Roman Empire struggling for existence, often persecuted and ridiculed. The temptation to give up or to simply meld in with the rest of society was enormous.
We don’t face death or the threat of death because of our faith. What we face is something much more subtle and possibly devastating. We face the temptation to live a luke warm faith. Our temptation, like the disciples is to go to sleep in the garden, and see a life of faith as simply about one day of the week while we live as everyone else does in our community for the rest of the time with maybe one or two minor changes. We get sucked into the way of the world, thinking this is as good as it gets.
We need to pray and pray again that we will not be led into temptation, but that we will find strength and courage to search for the true way of life seen in Jesus. Remember as you pray that Jesus prays with you as he did in the garden that we would remain faithful to God -faithful to the way he espoused of compassion. Pray that we would remain vigilant in our commitment to the building of a new earth where all things would live in right relationship with God and one another. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth. One of my hunches is that we need to be doing a lot more learning from Jesus about discovering this way and kingdom in our time, and that we need do more than committing a couple of hours on Sunday to shape and nurture this way together. We need to create spaces where we can learn together, experiment and question together, and be ourselves together. I think it can only happen in small groups where we can build significant trust and encourage one another.
We pray that we will be recued from evil, or from the evil one. Scholars are not sure which is the better translation. Many people today see evil simply as the absence of good. My experience of life would lead me to see evil as an active power in the world that worms its way into our lives as individuals and communities. A case in point I believe is the current debate about alcohol. The issue for me is not simply a matter of education and learning sensible drinking habits, but is about the power of large companies who see profit as the bottom line instead of a means of serving the common good. It is about people who believe it is all right to target young impressionable teenagers with advertising and tempting products like RTD’s so they can satisfy their shareholders with healthy dividends. We will only overcome this massive problem by acknowledging there are very powerful powers of evil at work corrupting and seducing us. Those who face personal issues of addictions in their lives will know this well. There are is a power at work which is much more than the absence of good. I believe it will take the efforts of many people with courage and perseverance to face these powers of evil, and for me it will take the empowering of God. I don’t find it easy or enjoy standing before a judge delivering my views, but I feel called by God and God gives me strength. For evil to win it simply takes people to do nothing, and for people to stop praying this prayer and its call to fight evil.
We usually conclude the prayer with a doxology, for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory. This reminds us that God will win in the world, and kingdom of heaven around which this whole prayer is based will come on earth. These words aren’t found in the earliest versions of Matthew’s gospel, nor in Luke’s version, but are found in the Didache one of the first teaching manuals of the early church. Early Christians wanted to end the prayer with a note of triumph and hope and I concur with them. We probably have this doxology included in Protestant churches from Elizabethan times. Using the King James Translation which does include these words the Protestants wanted to define themselves over and against the Catholics whose tradition did not include the words. Such is the history of our faith.
Can I yet again invite you to use this prayer in your daily walk with God. Even if you simply rattle through the prayer without much thought or pause it will re-orientate you in some way in God. But remember the words of advice that Jesus gives about praying namely to make a suitable time and space where you can close the door to the exterior world and open the door to your interior being. Prayer is not so much sending off words to God in the hope that God will do something, but allowing the words to reshape us and draw us closer to God. Saying the Lord’s Prayer is a liturgical exercise. We repeat it over and over as a spiritual discipline, and in the repetition of familiar words something happens deep within us. I know when I prayed this prayer as a youngster I often had little idea of what it meant but somehow when I repeated it each night God was with me. The words themselves take us into God – even more so if we are able to take time and ponder and reflect on the images and phrases. We pray this prayer together every Sunday with millions of other Christians around the globe. In them God will bind us together and stir us to be people who make a difference through our lives. And together at the end we say together ‘Amen’ which is our way of committing ourselves to all that has been prayed. May it be so!

Dugald Wilson 12 Feb 2012