AUDIO RECORDING of The address by Rev. Mark Reid - Belfast Mission to Seafarers

TODAYS SUNDAY SERVICE WAS RECORDED AT BANBRIDGE

​Luke 4:1-13 – The Temptations of Jesus


This past week my brother sent me a meme over whats app…. It was an old medieval painting with an image of a devil or demon sitting on a man’s shoulders whispering into his ear: And the caption that accompanied the image were the words: 

“Good! Good! … Now use your wife’s fabric scissors to open that card-bard box. She’ll never know.” 

Today is the first Sunday of Lent.  Lent is a season of reflection, of turning inward to examine our own lives and our spiritual journey. The Gospel reading for the first Sunday of Lent is traditionally the account of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, a story filled with rich symbolism I believe that speaks not only to temptations in Jesus’ life but also to the deeper spiritual struggles that each of us faces. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus enters the wilderness for forty days, fasting and wrestling with the forces that seek to divert him from his path. It is a passage rich in symbolic meaning.

As we consider the context of the passage within the narrative of Luke’s Gospel, we find that the passage comes immediately after Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan, where the Spirit descends upon him, and a voice proclaims, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you, I am well pleased." In Luke’s telling, Jesus, described by Luke as "full of the Holy Spirit," is then led into the wilderness. This transition is important. Baptism represents an affirmation of identity, an identity that is then tested in the wilderness. Like Jesus, we are all God’s beloved… but that is something we all need to discover, and in discovering it, it also needs to be tested. 

In Matthew, Mark and Luke’s Gospels, this story deliberately echoes the journey of Israel through the desert after their liberation from Egypt. Just as Israel was tested for forty years, Jesus is tested for forty days. Yet unlike Israel, which often faltered in its trust in God, Jesus remains steadfast.

Comparing Luke’s and Matthew’s versions of the temptations of Jesus we find that both Luke and Matthew present three temptations (which Mark’s Gospel doesn’t do), but Luke and Matthew  arrange them differently. In Matthew’s account, Jesus is firstly tempted to turn stones into bread, then to throw himself from the temple, and finally to worship the devil in exchange for worldly power. Matthew ends with Jesus standing atop a high mountain, rejecting dominion over all the kingdoms of the world.

Luke, however, reverses the last two temptations, concluding instead with the temptation at the temple in Jerusalem. This is significant because Luke’s Gospel gives special importance to Jerusalem as the place where Jesus’ mission will culminate. The shift also suggests that Luke sees the spiritual temptation of the ego as the heart of the matter – the seeking after the self-glorification of the ego. Temptation to political power is just another symptom of this for Luke. 

This passage I believe needs to be read not a literal history, but rather as a symbolic journey of the soul, a universal story of testing and transformation. Indeed there are many who would suggest that the temptations as we read them in Luke and Matthew were always meant to be read symbolically (not as literal history), in which the writers of Luke and Matthew were seeking to express in story form the deeper values of Jesus and the kinds of temptations that all people will ultimately face in the journey of life in this world.  And perhaps at this point a note on the devil in this passage is important. Here again we don’t need to treat the devil as a literal figure.  The devil in the story can be read as representing the temptations of our lower nature that resists and often undermines the call of our higher spiritual nature.  Bryant Magill writes that “The worst bullies you will encounter are your own thoughts”.  We have enough bad thoughts coming from our own lower nature without having to interpret the devil in this passage literally – although some might debate this.  

Getting back to the three temptations in the passage, we find that they correspond to fundamental, archetypal struggles we all face:

Firstly, the Temptation of Bread corresponds to the struggle with material needs -  Jesus is hungry, and the devil tempts him to turn stones into bread.  

This speaks to the basic human longing for security, comfort, and survival. But Jesus replies, "One does not live by bread alone." This suggests that while material needs are real, they are not the whole of life. A deeper hunger, the hunger for meaning, purpose, and connection must also be fed. In the western world, where we are obsessed above all things with profit margins and financial security and where people are financially wealthier than at any other time in history we are also seeing a plague or a pandemic of meaninglessness, depression and other mental ill-health. Jesus words speak deeply into this crisis in western societies – “One does not live in bread alone”.  A deeper hunger, the hunger for meaning, purpose, and connection must also be fed.

Wends and I have been catching up in recent weeks on Ben Fogle’s New adventures into the wild – showcasing people who have given up the comforts of modern living and finding a much deeper sense of meaning and joy living a life of greater simplicity – not always living easy lives, but living deeper, more joyful lives. Living examples that one does not live on bread alone. 

Secondly, the Temptation of Power speaks of the struggle with control and influence - The devil character in the story offers Jesus dominion over the kingdoms of the world in exchange for worship. This is the temptation of power, of bending the world to our will. Thinking that if only the world did things our way, we would all be happy. It is a temptation that nations, institutions, and individuals face constantly. Jesus’ refusal reminds us that true authority is not found in domination, and the desperate effort to control life and others, forcing others to do what we want, but in integrity and service.

Thirdly, the Temptation of Spectacle, the struggle for recognition and ego -  The final temptation in Luke’s account takes place in Jerusalem, where the devil urges Jesus to throw himself from the temple and prove his divine status. This speaks to the temptation of self-importance, the desire to be seen, validated, and admired. Jesus resists this temptation, refusing to manipulate or demand recognition. His path will not be about spectacle and the assertion of his own self-importance and desire for glory but about humility and faithfulness.

What is fascinating about these archetypal temptations as described by Luke and Matthew is that they don’t focus on the sins that Christians have traditionally focused on:  Sex and riotous living. That is not to say that those can’t be potential problems in people’s lives. What Luke and Matthew are suggesting however is that there are deeper sins of the spirit that even respectable people in society can engage in that are more insidious. In fact in Luke’s Gospel, the traditional sinners of society found great solace in the presence of Jesus. They found in Jesus a new beginning and a love that drew them out of their dysfunctional lives and dysfunctional behaviour.  By contrast, those who had a real struggle with Jesus were those clinging onto economic, political and religious power and authority , respectable people for whom religion had strengthened their egos rather than diminished their ego’s, and high ranking political figures like Herod and Pilate for whom the love of power had undermined the deeper values of the heart and the spirit. And thirdly, those for whom the fear of insecurity had led them to hoard money.  Luke’s Gospel highlights the dangers of religious, political and economic sin far more than the dangers for example of sexual sin and substance abuse, as destructive as these can sometimes be when abused and misused.  

For Christians today, I believe that this passage invites us to deep reflection not on supernatural battles between good and evil but on the inner conflicts we all face. Lent can be seen as a time to explore our own wilderness, the places of struggle within us where we are most especially tempted by security, power, and ego, but also any other lesser temptation that has the potential to undermine the wholeness of life for ourselves and others.  What hungers drive us? What powers do we seek to control? Where does our ego demand recognition? And how might we, like Jesus, respond with humility, wisdom and integrity?  
Amen.

AUDIO RECORDING of Sundays Service

Luke 6:39-49  Building Foundations of Integrity and Compassion

In our passage from Luke’s Gospel today, we find Jesus offering a series of profound, almost poetic images: the blind leading the blind, the speck and the log, and the house built on rock versus sand. These images speak to universal human experiences that go across cultures and different religions, offering us a wisdom which resonates with all people who seek to live with integrity, compassion, and purpose in life. 

In the first image, of the Blind Leading the Blind, Jesus asks, “Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit?”

This image invites us to reflect on the nature of leadership and guidance in our lives. It’s not about physical blindness but about spiritual and moral sight, about insight and the lack of insight. Who do we follow? What values and truths guide us? Are those we follow trust-worthy… 

In our fragile and often chaotic world, it’s easy to follow voices that echo our fears or flatter our egos. But real wisdom, true insight, comes not from superficial understanding but from deep reflection and self-awareness. This is why in many traditions, from Christianity to Buddhism, the call is first to wake up, to become conscious of our inner life so we can see the outer world more clearly.

There is something about this image that I believe also speaks deeply into our Non-Subscribing tradition. In the Constitution of our Church as framed in 1910, we are reminded of the sacred right of private judgement that God has given each of us, and that free enquiry is essential to the extension of religious knowledge.  Ours is a constitution that therefore does not require blind faith. Echoing the warning of Jesus of the dangers of the blind leading the blind, ours is a tradition that invite every person to weigh and test everything for ourselves so that each of us follow the dictates of our own conscience.   When we are asked or pressured to over-ride the dictates of our own conscience and that sacred right of private judgement, then we are in danger of falling into the trap. Now that doesn’t not necessarily mean that the dictates of our conscience are always correct. Our non-subscribing forbears were right to emphasize the fact that God can and does speak through our own consciences, but even this requires discernment… because sometimes our conscience can be informed more by the dictates of the culture we grew up in than the voice of God.  But equally it needs to be said that when we fail to listen to the voice of conscience within, we are in danger of falling into the trap of an empty and a blind faith that leads not to inner integrity of heart but to falling into a pit of meaninglessness out of touch with our own inner sense of what is right and true – out of touch with our own inner sense of meaning and purpose in life. 

Ours is not meant to be a blind faith… where we blindly follow what we are told, even if it is from a minister or someone else we see as an authority.  The faith of a Non-Subscriber should require of us that we be willing to put everything to the test in order to discover for ourselves what we believe with all our hearts to be true. 

The second image that Jesus refers to in this passage is the metaphor of The Speck and the Log when Jesus says to his disciples:  “Why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?”

This teaching follows on naturally from the point that has just been made, as a counter-balance inviting us to question not just others but also ourselves. It points to the very human tendency to judge others while being blind to our own faults. It’s a universal experience, we spot the flaws in others more easily than in ourselves. And one of the ways we do this is by comparing own own strengths to another persons weaknesses, while being blind to our own weaknesses and failing to acknowledge fully the other persons strengths. But Jesus calls us to a deeper honesty, to look inward before we look outward.

This isn’t about harsh self-criticism but about humility and honesty. It echoes the Buddhist idea of Right View, seeing ourselves and others clearly, without distortion. In the Buddha’s 8-fold path, which is essentially the path to living a noble life, in which we minimise suffering for ourselves and others, the first step on this 8-fold path is what the Buddha called: Right View.  If you have a distorted view of life, filled with misinformation, then it is going to cause all sorts of problems for ourselves and others, causing all sorts of suffering. But if we have a clear view of life, seeing life as it is and not as we think it should be, seeing ourselves as we are, not as we imagine ourselves to be through rose tinted glasses, then we are able to navigate through life much better.  The rest of the Buddha’s 8-fold path in a sense flows from Right View… if we have a right view then from it quite naturally flows Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Conduct, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Attention, and Right Balance of Mind.   

For Jesus in Luke’s Gospel, having a clear view of life requires being deeply aware of our own foibles, our own weaknesses and even the very human tendency towards self-deception. This is about having a deep honesty and self-awareness of both our strengths and weaknesses which enables us to have a clearer sense of the strengths and weaknesses of others.  And to this end, Jesus tells a parable later on in Luke’s Gospel, where he tells of a respectable and self-righteous Pharisee who pats himself on the back for being such a good person, and then contrasts the Pharisee with a despised and morally compromised Tax collector who has become aware of his own failings and simply prays: God be merciful to me a sinner.  It is a parable that suggests that as soon as we start thinking of ourselves as morally superior to another we are on dangerous spiritual territory. As soon as we start wondering why other people are not like me, it might be a warning to look inward once again and see what failing or weakness I may have missed or forgotten about in myself.  

When we acknowledge our own imperfections, we become more compassionate toward the struggles of others. We recognize that we’re all walking this difficult path of being human together.

The words of Rumi speak deeply into this truth: “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”

And Bryant Magill writes: “You will be a beautiful person, as long as you see the beauty in others.” 

Finally, Jesus speaks of building a house with strong foundations. It’s a simple but powerful metaphor. Life will bring storms, this is certain. Pain, loss, confusion, these are inevitable. But the strength of our inner life, the depth of our values, determines whether we stand firm or collapse.

To build on rock means to live with integrity, to not just hear the call to compassion, justice, and love, but to live it. It’s about aligning our outer actions with our inner truths.

Building a house with strong foundations is also about building our lives not on things of a temporary and fleeting nature.. what the New Testament calls ‘this world’, in other words, the outward world of form.  If our trust is ultimately in the outward world of form which is constantly shifting and changing then we will ultimately have not real rest for our souls.  To build on a solid foundation, we have to move beyond the world of form, to that which is formless and unchanging, the deeper inner realm of the Spirit. 

Our Non-Subscribing forbears tended to emphasize on deeds over creeds…. 

So, what does it mean to live these teachings today?

It might mean pausing before rushing to judgment, asking: What’s the log in my own eye?

It might mean questioning the voices we follow, whether political, religious, or personal, and asking: Do they lead with wisdom and compassion, or are we blindly following?

And it definitely means returning to our foundations. What are the core values you build your life on? Are they sturdy enough to hold you when life gets hard? What might it mean to trust in the Higher and Deeper Wisdom of God that is not rooted in the world of outward form, but the inner realm of the Spirit? 

May we each take that step today, toward greater awareness, compassion, and a life built on the solid ground of truth and love.