TRISTAN SHERWIN

Here’s my longer sermon notes from this morning’s, Metro Christian Zoom meeting. You can also follow our series via our YouTube channel.

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Last week, Helen gave a fantastic introduction to our new series, the Upside-Down Kingdom [blog link, YouTube]. As Helen beautifully put it last week, ‘The Kingdom of God is not about Heaven, but about God’s rule on earth, both in the future and in the now.’ This Kingdom is unlike other kingdoms—its priorities and values overturn the priorities and values of other kingdoms, and in the coming of Jesus, God has launched this Kingdom; God has pressed the reset button.

We’re continuing our exploration of this upside-down kingdom this morning, by having a look at what God’s Kingdom does with power.

Now, I know I’m nearly forty-one years old, and I should have grown out of this by now, but I’m a huge fan of superheroes, and our family enjoys watching the Marvel Cinematic Universe (we’ve also thoroughly enjoyed the recent WandaVision television series). For those who have taken time to talk with me about the deeper, less-trivial things of life, you’ll be aware that I’m a huge Spider-man fan. To be like Spider-man would be a prayer come true. God has not answered that prayer yet, but I’m thinking of ‘stepping out in faith’ and buying the costume … 😉

Joking aside, we know God is powerful; all-powerful. It’s part of the job description, and, to quote the Genie from Disney’s Aladdin, God really does have ultimate cosmic power!

And yet, what Jesus does with power is often at odds with what we would do with power. As Eugene Peterson points out, ‘[Christians] love to hear that God is powerful and that he rules; [but] they are not as enthusiastic when they discover the means by which he exercises his ruling power.’[i]

We’re going to take a look at that this morning, and what better place to begin with than the start of Jesus’ own public ministry, and to an episode in Jesus’ life that occurs just before the account that Helen read to us last week.

READ: LUKE 3:21-23, 4:1-12 (NLT) (You can also read this story in Matthew 4:1-11)

THE STARTING PISTOL

There is a lot in here, lots that I won’t be able to cover this morning. So I apologise in advance.

As a bit of background, Jesus is about to begin his public ministry. But before his public announcement in the synagogue (Luke 4:14-30), there’s this famous story of the temptation in the wilderness, and before this, there’s this episode of Jesus being baptised by John in the river Jordan. During that baptism something important happens; there’s this voice from Heaven that says, ‘You are my son.’ (see Luke 3:22b).

Those words are an echo of Psalm 2:7 (many bible translations do drop a footnote in this baptism scene indicating that a few old manuscripts do quote Psalm 2:7 here word for word).[ii] In Psalm 2:7 God speaks over the king saying, ‘You are my son. Today I have become your father.’ In other words, there’s a vocation that is being given at Jesus’ baptism: Jesus is being called the ‘Son of God’. And the title ‘Son of God’, along with the sort of hopes expressed in Psalm 2, are important for understanding what follows in the ‘Temptation’.

Now when we hear ‘Son of God’, we automatically jump to the second person of the Trinity, and the Godhead, and to Jesus being divine, the only begotten son, God of God etc., but that’s not what this title is about. That’s not to say that Jesus isn’t divine, or part of the Godhead (so please don’t stone me) but this title is about Kingship.

It’s about being the Messiah—the One that Israel hoped would come and deliver them from oppression, and, in their current plight, from Roman rule and occupation. Psalms, like Psalm 2, expressed this hope for a true King, a God-given King, for One who would both represent God and be a conduit for God’s power and rule, One who would finally bring about God’s Kingdom on earth.

At the time of Jesus, there was plenty of speculation about what this Messiah would be like and how they would operate. Even before Jesus, there had been a number of people claiming to be the Messiah, and there were some more after Jesus’ time: with a number of them leading violent military coups against Israel’s oppressors. I’m saying this because Jesus’ baptism and ministry don’t take place in a vacuum, as if nobody had any ideas about the Messiah. Everybody had expectations about the Messiah, and Jesus would have been aware of these expectations.

This declaration of being the ‘Son of God’ is like the starting pistol to Jesus. Now is the time to begin. So Jesus, led by Spirit, takes time out to prepare himself for the ministry ahead, to think about what form this vocation will take, to wrestle with the question of how his Messiahship be displayed, because there’s plenty of options.

Luke wants his readers to wrestle with this question, too. Luke has already built up our own expectations within the nativity scenes through the songs of Mary (Luke 1:46-55) and Zechariah (Luke 1:67-79): God has come to press the reset button! We’re also wondering how God will turn the tables over. How will Jesus deliver people (both Israel and the world) from the grip of the real enemy? How does the Kingdom of God operate in order to bring about liberation from Sin, Death and the Devil? How will Jesus become King, what route will he take?

IF YOU ARE … ?

Lo and behold, as Jesus is in the midst of contemplating what course he’s about to take, along comes Satan. The text isn’t clear on the form Satan takes—it doesn’t say if he’s bodily standing next to Jesus in a red leotard holding a pitchfork, or whether he’s just an audible whisper on the desert wind, or even a thought that attempts to press itself into Jesus’ train of thought.

All of those are probable, I suppose, but whether Satan is physical, audible or psychological isn’t of interest to Luke. The only form Luke wants us to give attention to is the form of these temptations, as each of them is an alternative answer to the question Jesus is thinking through.

Notice how each temptation starts, ‘If you are the Son of God?’ Again, this isn’t about divinity, but Kingship. Satan’s placing before Jesus alternate ways of being King, ways of becoming King, ways of being recognised and acclaimed as King. Satan’s chipping at the core of Jesus’ vocation, trying to persuade Jesus that, ‘If you are the Messiah, if you are the King that is promised, if you want people to realise who you are, if you want to conquer people’s hearts, then why don’t you do this… why don’t you do that.’ ‘Just feed the masses, and they’ll love you. Dazzle them with some great feat, and they will applaud you. Or just assert your authority and take control.’

The crazy thing is, they’re all plausible and attractive routes to follow. These options, to some people, would make sense, and, with the exception of worshiping Satan, all three are backed up by the use of the scriptures. Satan is employing the famous ‘the Bible clearly says’ approach.

Furthermore, these courses would, in some way, achieve the end goal Jesus has in mind, if that end goal is solely about title and rank, and ruling any old kingdom. But it’s not, it’s about bringing and proclaiming the Kingdom of God, and these methods don’t align with the nature of that Kingdom.

Time does not permit me to explore these at depth, but, as a quick review of these temptations, we could summarise them in a number of ways. We could label them, Crusty bread, Circus’ tricks and Coercive force. Or we could label them, Prosperity, Popularity and Political Dominance.

What I would like you to see, is that at the heart of each of these temptations is the allure to be spectacular, prestigious and powerful. In other words, Satan’s suggestion is this, ‘If you’re the King, then use your clout and authority as King to either woo people to adore you, or bribe them to follow you, or bully them into surrender.’

It all boils down to technique—the seductive suggestion to Jesus is that all you need to do is manipulate people into making a decision by either impressing them or by intimidating them. ‘Just impose yourself.’

Now on the face of it, that might not strike us a bad idea. After all, these very techniques are still around today, and, to an extent, they produce results.

Humanity has bought into Satan’s methods of Wooing, Bribing, and Bullying since the beginning. These ancient methods of manipulation, of coercing people, are all over our modern world. Our world is awash with propaganda, showmanship, technique, spin, gimmicks, power plays, character assassinations, pulling rank, etc. We are prone to do anything and everything we can in order to “persuade” people to do what we feel they should be doing and to believe what we feel they should believe. I’m not just talking about politics, or corporations, or advertisements for products like shampoo or the latest car; these forms of manipulation can occur in our families, our work places, our friendships and, sadly, even within the church.

Some people believe the old lie that the end justifies the means; that it doesn’t really matter how we go about something, as long as it achieves the end goal. We justify it because we think that if it gets people to be healthier, if it gets people to vote for this or that, if it leads people to Jesus, if it gets people to be obedient to Jesus… then the how doesn’t matter. But that’s the seductive lie—that’s Satan’s lie in this portion of scripture. Of course it matters!

It matters because it’s not what we build but how we build it that speaks. It’s how we build something that reveals to people the true nature of what it is we’re building. Our methods display what we’re really building. People see what we’re really actually preaching.

To give an example—pointing out a weakness of my own—I hate that I shout at my kids sometimes. It’s an exercise in futility, not because it doesn’t get results, but because it does get results. When they don’t do what they should—whether that’s getting a wash, changing their clothes, or treating each other with respect—then at some point, after trying to talk to them, I’ll get frustrated and start to shout. And it appears, on the surface, to work, as they’ll go and get a wash etc. But it doesn’t work, because my children aren’t actually learning about the importance of hygiene, or about honouring one another. What they’re actually learning is that shouting at people gets them to do what you want. All I’m teaching them is how to impose their will!

Again, people see what we’re really preaching. Our methods show people where our faith really lies, and it shows the culture of what we’re building.

It’s the same with winning people to Jesus, or shaping people into Christlikeness. We’ve all experienced it, I’m sure. We’ve all witnessed that some Christians believe that it’s OK, in order to “shape people”, to impose themselves and their beliefs. So they threaten, demean, and interrogate. They can be argumentative and harass people, or seek to embarrass, shame or humiliate others. They can laden people with guilt, and bully, and troll, and trample on others (especially if you prefix it with the words, ‘I’m saying this in love…’). And in their eyes, it appears to give results, people respond. But it doesn’t work. It’s futile, because you’re not teaching Christlikeness—even if they adopt the behaviours and beliefs that you felt they should adopt. All you’ve done is prop up satanic reasoning; all you’ve taught others is that trolling, and bullying, and insensitivity, and shaming, and being a jerk have the power to transform lives. And they do transform lives, but not for the better, regardless of what morals they adopt. All you’ve shown is how to impose your will. All you’ve done is helped them to place their faith in the way that Satan runs the world.

There’s a new version of this around today: Cancel Culture. It’s rife. And whilst I admit that some people say and do stupid, inappropriate and malign things, cancel culture is not the answer. Ostracising others, demonising others, ‘cancelling others’ is not making the world better. Yes, injustices and prejudice need to be ‘called out’ and responded to, but cancel culture isn’t bringing about change. We’re just fighting hate with hate, and prejudice with prejudice. So, although we claim that our goal is to generate a more loving and equal society, the methods we adopt are actually building the very opposite.[iii]

Our methods show the real nature of what we’re building. Again, and again, it’s this same satanic, seductive mechanism—‘Impose your will.’

Satan has duped humanity for centuries with this thinking, even Christians, seductively whispering to us, ‘If you really want to see God’s Kingdom come, then why don’t you do this… or why don’t you try that.’ ‘Push your ministry’, ‘Push your gifting’. ‘If God has really gifted you that way, if that vision really is a vision from God, and people don’t see it, then why don’t you do this to make people take notice.’ And although we may not recognise it, it’s always a power play, a means of imposing our will.

TEMPTED AS WE ARE

Hebrews 4:15 reminds us that Jesus was tempted in all the ways we are, and as we watch this scene in Luke 4 (forgetting, for a moment, that we know were this story goes) we’re wondering, maybe, if Jesus is going to fall into the same snare. Will he just manipulate responses from people—will he just woo people, bribe people, or force people into the Kingdom? Or will Jesus find another route to win human hearts and, in so doing, break the snare that Satan has entrapped humanity within?

Out of love and loyalty (obedience) to the nature of God’s Kingdom, Jesus rejects every one of Satan’s distractions and shortcuts. It’s not just that he’s rejecting Satan—please see this—he’s rejecting these very methods as valid patterns for living and ruling. Even if an angel had come to Jesus in this account and offered these options, I believe Jesus would have still said no, because none of these ways expresses the Kingdom of God. And as you continue to read the gospel accounts from this point forward, Jesus continues to reject these patterns—even when they’re suggested by his own family, friends and supporters[iv], and even when his own life is in danger.

If Jesus is going to defeat Satan, then he’s not going to endorse Satan’s message. If Jesus is going to build God’s Kingdom, then he’s not going to use Satan’s methods. Since the beginning, Satan has seduced humanity into grasping for power. Generation after generation has spun around that axis, producing sins of violence, greed, and oppression. But Jesus, in his presentation of the Kingdom of God, is going to offer an alternate axis to spin around. Instead of grasping for power and imposing himself over others, Jesus is going to exhibit the power of self-giving, self-emptying love.

When we think of where Jesus goes from here, when we think about his main modes of proclaiming the Kingdom—his means of getting people to think about it, experience it and change their minds about it—then we see that Jesus sat with people, and not sat over them. We see that Jesus served people in compassion and love, and avoided doing the spectacular for the spectacular’s sake. We see that Jesus didn’t just feed people, or dazzle them, he spent time being the Word of God among them, and he really loved to tell stories that would invite others to think about what God was like.

One of my favourite writers describes the motion of Jesus through the gospels like this: ‘[Jesus moves] from power to powerlessness, from greatness to smallness, from success to [perceived] failure, from strength to weakness, from glory to disgrace [in the world’s eyes]. … Some people wanted to make him King. They wanted him to show power. They wanted to share in his influence and sit on thrones with him. But he consistently said “no” to all these desires and pointed to the downward way.’ [v]

You see, if Jesus had followed Satan’s 3-step plan to success, then he would have avoided the hallmarks of the world-changing power of God’s Kingdom: Service, Solidarity, and Co-suffering love.

Unlike cancel culture, and bully Christians, and shouty-parents (like myself), the means of God’s Kingdom matches with its message. God doesn’t smash and grab his way to power. God doesn’t use war to bring peace. God doesn’t impose his will, he shares his life, and invites people to partake of that life.

As one theologian put it, ‘The point is this. If you want to know what it means to talk about God being ‘in charge of’ the world, or being ‘in control,’ or being ‘sovereign’, then Jesus himself instructs you to rethink the notion of ‘kingdom’, ’control’, and ‘sovereignty’ themselves, around his death on the cross.’[vi]

UPSIDE-DOWN

You can see why Eugene Peterson says that not many Christians are as enthusiastic when they see how God exercises power. It’s not what we would do with power, and it’s not what we would want God to do with ultimate, cosmic power. In fact, when I think about my own prayer life, I can often echo Satan’s sentiments into God’s ears. My prayers often reflect Satan’s reasoning and not the cruciform way of Jesus.

We often want God to impose—we often want God to woo, bribe or bully his way into the world. And maybe, if we’re honest, we want that because it would then permit us to also impose ourselves, and it would allow us to avoid the real Kingdom ethos of service, solidarity and co-suffering love. It would be an easier road to impose; to impress or intimidate people through spectacular events and programmes. But these methods keep us at a distance from the Kingdom work of being with people and taking the care and time to walk with them through the earthiness of life’s struggles. However, Jesus left us with little doubt that the way he lived is the way he offers to his disciples: ’The disciple is not superior to his teacher.’ As Dietrich Bonhoeffer famously said, ‘When Jesus calls a man, he bids him come and die.’[vii] It’s about laying ourselves down, not puffing ourselves up.

The goal of our lives is not to be powerful, spectacular, or even famous. The goal is not to build a platform or an audience, or to have influence over people. That doesn’t mean we can’t have ambitions and goals and dreams. I’m not saying you have to refuse a promotion, or you can’t be a manager, or even an actor. I’m not saying that we have to become self-loathing creatures, or people who lack conviction. Jesus was neither of those things.

But the goal is not status—it’s Christlikeness. It’s service to others, solidarity with others, and suffering with and on the behalf of others. It’s this costly way of self-sacrifice. It’s the cross-shaped, downward path that has the power to change the world.

Again, to us, this sounds upside-down, and it kicks against the siren calls of a culture that consistently tells us to be ‘someone’; be spectacular, be influential. Even in Christian circles, we innately lean towards those voices that call us to impose ourselves, and our gifts and visions. The temptation is real. I guess the temptation is real because we really like having our ego stroked.[viii] If we honestly explored our motivations, it’s real because we believe, more in the methods of Satan than Jesus. It’s real because we’ve swallowed the idea that unless we impose ourselves, and grasp at power, then we’re not really living at all and we can’t really make a difference.

But if we learn to listen to Christ, and learn to let go of trying to forcefully take our lives, and if we seek to give our life and follow the upside-down pattern of Jesus’ Kingdom, then we’ll actually, according to Jesus, find true life and we’ll be signposts of that true life to others (Luke 9:23-25).

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[i] Eugene Peterson, Reversed Thunder: The Revelation of John & the Praying Imagination, p.118-119.

[ii] Time doesn’t allow, but I feel it’s also important to note that the next verse of the Psalm (Psalm 2:8) is echoed within Satan’s second temptation in Luke 4:6, ‘Only ask, and I will give you the nations…’.

[iii] Again, I want to stress that injustice and malign systems do need to be called out—I’m just not convinced that cancel culture is actually changing the culture, but is merely imitating it. For two great, but differing, views on the impact of cancel culture, then the following two articles provide much to think through: https://time.com/5735403/cancel-culture-is-not-real/, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54374824

[iv] Some may add at this juncture, ‘but didn’t Jesus perform signs and wonders?’ Yes, but Jesus performed miracles out of compassion for people not as a means of dazzling people with spectacle. Additionally, whenever people asked Jesus to perform miracles to prove who he was, he flat out refused (see Matthew 12:38-42, 16:1-4, John 6:26-32. Also, Herod wasn’t pleased that Jesus wouldn’t perform a miracle for him, in Luke 23:8-12). That’s not to say that Jesus’ miracles weren’t ‘signs’ of who he was—they were, but the motive behind them was not about self-promotion, but of demonstrating the in-breaking of God’s Kingdom.

[v] Henri Nouwen, The Selfless Way of Christ: Downward mobility and the Spiritual Life, pp. 31-32.

[vi] Tom Wright, God and the Pandemic: A Christian Reflection on the Coronavirus and its Aftermath.

[vii] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship.

[viii] Back in the 1960’s, the theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr suggested that the reason we seek out power is to overcome our own insecurity: ‘[M]an is insecure, and he seeks to overcome his insecurity by a will-to-power’. Reinhold Niebuhr, The Nature and Destiny of Man: Volume 1, Human Nature, p.189.