Sunday 14th February
First of Lent
Job 1: 1-12
Matthew 4: 1-11
Satan doesn’t show up much in the Bible. However, in the garden of Eden, the book of Job and the temptations of Jesus he has a starring role.
In Christian mythology Satan ( the word means adversary) is a looming, ominous presence. When on full display has a pitchfork in hand, horns on head and forked tail! Goodness knows how that reputation grew, but some Christian centuries were obsessed with satan as the father of lies.
They lived in a imaginary dualist universe in which God and satan were at war struggling for control. An unseen world full of demons. A world in which sickness and disease were often attributed to the malevolence of satan and his minions.
C.S. Lewis in the preface of “ The Screwtape Letters” – fictional correspondence between a senior and junior devil wrote :
“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.”
Tempted by Evil
The famous story of Jesus’ temptations sets the scene for Lent. The text does not have a cloven foot in sight. Matthew tells us Jesus “was led up by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil”. Quite possibly this is an inner experience in which Jesus is hallucinating after forty days of little, or no food?
Much is symbolic in the text. 40 days is the biblical code for a long time, echoing the forty years that Israel wandered in the desert in search for the promised land. The devil appears three times each with a different suggestion that Jesus prove God.
Turn stones to bread. Throw yourself from the temple. See the riches of the world and take them for yourself – only worship me. Each time Jesus responded with his willingness to trust God alone. He resists and resists and resists until the satan is frustrated and vanishes into thin air – the testing is over and his public ministry begins.
Wrestling with Evil
Whether, or not there is an actual satan ( and I don’t think so) evil certainly is real. Satan is a personification of a universal human experience – struggling to do the right thing and resisting actions which degrade and debase humanity.
Last Monday night about 10 people from this congregation participated in the “Let Them Stay” rally. About 6000 people were present, a small drop in the population of Melbourne. What was the point? Protesting against the dehumanising decision to send 267 refugees back to Nauru.
There were many others who would have liked to be there, or whose views were represented by all who chanted Let Them Stay.
267 – children and adults – just a drop in the refugee bucket. The United Nations Refugee Agency estimates that “globally, one in every 122 humans is now either a refugee, internally displaced, or seeking asylum. If this were the population of a country, it would be the world’s 24th biggest.”
In Australia six cathedrals and fifty churches and one mosque declared they would offer sanctuary to these 267 refugees. It caused brief attention in the media news cycle. Daniel Andrews and other state leaders offered to house these refugees in opposition to federal policies.
It is unlikely that the moral call for sanctuary has any power other that influencing the minds and decision-making of Parliament. It certainly won’t change the conditions and needs of all who flee their country seeking a new future, and then tasting the ashes of refugee camps.
This is a complex and very difficult issue. Protecting borders, deterring people smugglers, deciding who is a genuine refugee … and then, from time to time, you might see on a brief news report the devastation wreaked in Syria at war. Cities bombed, buildings shattered, families devastated, people fleeing for their lives – the impact of evil by human decisions and hands.
Making Choices
Jesus was in the desert forty days and nights. He wrestled with his vocation. He chewed on the scriptures. He deeply pondered his experiences as a boy and young man in Nazareth. He wondered over his baptism, and the descent of the peaceful dove. This was a time of making choices .
Deep into his fast came the vision of the satan, promising him that all would be well if he were to prove himself through transforming stones, taking political power or showing that he had the enduring protection of God.
These are not our temptations, but there is no doubt that there times in history, and times in our own spiritual journey that we have to decide how we count the cost. What is entailed in following the way of Jesus when there are moral issues which make us feel uneasy?
I can’t say that the mistreatment of 267 refugees is the defining moment for the church in Australia, but it brings us face-to-face with evil results, despite the intention of political parties.
Doctors, aid workers, employees of the company ( formerly known as Transfield) have all spoken out about appalling conditions and circumstances.
I wrote to Transfield last year concerned about a report that employees were told to keep silent about their concerns, and those involved with churches were to desist. I spoke with the Transfield media representative and it was politely clear that he wasn’t going to help. My letter was ignored.
At the rally – and I am not all that keen on rallies – there was a diverse collection of people. They are often characterised as ‘lefties’, greenies, bleeding heart liberals, do-gooders.
Well, maybe … but I am mindful of a hymn we often sang, a hymn based upon the parable of the sheep and the goats
When I needed a neighbour, were you there …
and the creed and the colour and the name won’t matter, were you there?
When I needed a shelter, were you there …
and the creed and the colour and the name won’t matter, were you there?
When they put me in prison, were you there …
and the creed and the colour and the name won’t matter, were you there?
(TiS 629)
We sing hymns like this – and then choices come knocking and we have to decide where we stand. Is the Law of Australia or the confession Jesus is Lord our first committment?
It’s always ambiguous. Moral choices cause an inner struggle. We feel torn, uncomfortable, and want to close our eyes and ears.
The German pastor, Martin Niemoller, memorably expressed this dilemma:
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
He chose to resist the Nazis and spent seven years in a concentration camp.
One in every 122 people in the world is a refugee – a staggering statistic!
Many countries are struggling to protect their borders – and in Europe this is much more difficult than in Australia.
There are many concerns and challenges in this tsunami of people, but … for those who seek to be disciples of Jesus we need to see the stranger as a neighbour, the face of Christ in the refugee as we wrestle with moral choices in the desert of our times.
Rev David Carter