A look at the gaps in the lectionary.
This week: the gap between Epiphany 1A and Epiphany 3A.
The text: Matthew 4:1-11.
I’m going to make this brief. The Temptation of Jesus is essential to understanding this week’s story.
Our slight detour into John brings us back to Matthew at about the same spot we left it. John had just baptized Jesus in the Jordan. Then Jesus is compelled into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. That’s the portion the lectionary skips over—saving it, of course, for Lent.
We certainly all know the drill with the lectionary. And when we kick off Lent hearing Jesus resist the cunning of the devil, we get a really good introduction to the Lenten experience.
But in giving ourselves this wonderful theme for Lent, we are stripping our sense during this ordinary time of what is actually at work in chapter 4. What it is that draws Jesus to these fishermen, inviting them to fish for people.
And, in a really important way, why this vision of discipleship contrasts dramatically with what we heard last week from John.
True Power
As Stanley Hauerwas writes:
“The new David is not one whose purple is immediately evident, but rather his power can be found only in his crucifixion. It will take new eyes and ears to see and hear the truth proclaimed through the cross.”
The Temptation isn’t simply a story of Good vs. Evil or God vs. Satan or even the will to resist vs. giving in. It is the story of ego, power, and the will to have your way. Which means this is a story of resisting idolatry. The sort of shortcut to human power to fulfill a personal desire, which makes it an attempt to replace God.
It is the story of rejecting the impulse to fight fire with fire precisely because God has already given us water.
The willingness of Jesus to call these fishermen is the embodiment of this will to share power and avoid the trap of authority. But it also reveals what is at stake in discipleship is the same impulse. For if we are to be disciples of Jesus, we must see that the sword brings no true peace. And our refusal to use that kind of power is essential to the path of discipleship.