March 29, 2015
Matthew 4:1-11
“Lead Us”
Rev. Dr. David A. Davis
Do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil. Trial. Temptation. Test. “God is faithful, and God will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing God will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.” That’s I Corinthians 10. The Apostle Paul. Testing. Temptation Trial. I Peter 1: “In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable , is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” The Book of James: “Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love the Lord. No one, when tempted, should say “I am being tempted by God” for God cannot be tempted by evil and God tempts no one. But one is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it.” Trial. Temptation. Testing. That night in the garden when the disciples couldn’t stay awake even though Jesus asked them to. Jesus said to them, “Stay awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit is indeed willing but the flesh is weak.” The time of trial. The time of testing. The time of temptation.
This one petition in the Lord’s Prayer is not a summary of the New Testament witness when it comes to trial and temptation. It is not a theological thesis statement on testing, faith, life, and the providence of God. It is a petition. A prayer. It is not a philosophical statement on the problem of evil. It’s the teaching of Jesus on prayer. Pray then in this way: do not bring us into temptation but rescue us from evil.
Of course Jesus had his own recorded, iconic experience of temptation, trial, testing. Here in Matthew just before the Sermon on the Mount; the sermon that includes the Lord’s Prayer. According to Matthew, Jesus was led up by the Spirit in the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Scholars point out that the Lord’s encounter with the devil here, it follows a familiar pattern. Pattern being the order of the temptations: hunger, putting God to the test, false worship. It is the same pattern from the Hebrew Bible and Israel wandering in the wilderness. The timeless wilderness connection affirmed all the more by the response of Jesus; by his defense, his quotes from Deuteronomy. As one commentator points out, those wilderness trials, before they were his, they were Israel’s. Feeding yourself first. Putting God to the test. Creating and worshiping false gods. Before they were his, they were the trials of God’s people. And after they were his, they are the trials of God’s people. Jesus in the wilderness. It’s a prototype of sorts. An example with a capital “E” of the testing that comes in the world’s wilderness. Not just this temptation or that temptation; one vice, another sin. No, it is a portrayal of how the principalities and powers of darkness tear away at the very core of what it means to be God’s people, God’s children. Jesus and his wilderness testing, It is the role model, the prototype, the archetype, the veritable definition of obedience and faithfulness for a child of God.
And on this Palm Sunday, we find ourselves yet again somewhere along the pathway as Jesus rides on. As he goes up to the city that was in turmoil. A city full of swirling chaos; where the forces of evil are out to destroy him and the kingdom that comes with him. The city where shouts of “Crucify him” will reduce any “hosanna” to a faint echo of yesterday. Turmoil. Chaos. The taunts. The mocking. The jeering that will surely come. “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” A wilderness taunt that Jesus has heard before. It’s Palm Sunday and Jesus is in full obedience. His faithfulness on display for all to see as he rides on. Jesus is heading into an urban wilderness to be tried, tested, tempted; tested by death itself. He still rides on… “though he was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on the cross.” (Philippians)
Pray then like this, Jesus said, Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. This petition in the Lord’s Prayer is about more than one temptation, one vice, this sin or that one. It’s not the sound track for a morality play. Without question, prayer is essential when it comes to humankind battling the ways of the flesh. Anyone in a 12 step program will attest to the importance of prayer. Any parent who watches their high school student pull out of the driveway on a Friday night understands the necessity of prayer. A couple celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary will give witness to the effectiveness of prayer in their lifetime of fidelity and faithfulness to one another. A business person rises to offer gratitude for the role of prayer in daily putting on the whole armor of God in the ongoing test between what’s right and what’s wrong. The prayer lives of God’s people are full to overflowing with the plea of helping us in the battle against the way of all flesh. In the thick of one of those brutally honest conversations with God Almighty, a whole lot of other words, groans, and cries, and pleas, and shouts are going to be offered before you get to “Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil.”
Every Sunday when we have communion, the serving teams meet in my office. They get themselves organized. Look for a substitute or two if necessary. When everything is ready, and the start of worship has drawn near, we pray together and as those elders and deacons are heading out of my office I almost always say “Be careful out there.” It is a silly quote from an old television show, “Hill Street Blues”. The commanding officer, after the morning briefing, would say “be careful out there” on every episode. It has been pointed out to me that the one morning I didn’t say “be careful out there” was the one time anyone can remember when we had a significant stumble and spill. It’s a symbolic exhortation to communion servers, and then to worshippers heading out, the people of God being sent into the world. “Hey, let’s be careful out there”.
The petition of the Lord’s Prayer that includes trial, testing, temptation, and evil, it’s a “help us be careful” out there plea. Not just be careful in terms of sin, morality, and our good and bad choices, but be careful in terms of obedience and faithfulness. Being mindful of who God in Jesus Christ has called us to be. Being reminded that powers and principalities are at work in very real ways tearing away at your life and mine, tearing away at the core of what it means for us to be children of God. The petition, it is a weekly, daily, a few times a day plea to God that God will empower us, shape us, and lead us in service to the gospel. You don’t just stumble upon this language in the Lord’s Prayer. It comes just paragraphs after Jesus’ own wilderness testing. It comes firmly embedded in the gospel narrative that follows him to all the way to the cross. Pray then like this; that we who are so surrounded in the world’s darkness, that we might somehow, someway reflect the light of his obedience and that everything that works against the kingdom of God here on earth might cower at the power of him who is at work in us.
This petition of the Lord’s Prayer, it may get worked over more than all the others as translators, commentators, you, me, as we all try to understand and find meaning. But through it all in this part of the prayer and in the whole prayer for that matter, no one ever questions the plural part. Us. Our. We. Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil. It has a striking plain sense to it when you stop and ponder the plural. It’s not about your trials, temptations, tests, It’s about ours. The children of God. The body of Christ. God’s people. It’s about our faithfulness and obedience amid the world’s turmoil. God’s own people amid the world’s testing, the world’s temptation, the world’s trial. Marked at our baptism. Nurtured at his table. Claimed at the cross as God’s own. God’s people. “You are God’s people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of the one who called you out of darkness into God’s marvelous light” (I Peter).
To stand here along the way watching him ride on is to be drawn in once again to his complete obedience and his incomparable faithfulness. To watch him ride on is to be spellbound once again by his perfect love. To watch him ride on is to have the breadth of his life and teaching and action, it all passes before your eyes. His words, his healing touch, his broken heart, his own tears, his embrace of the sinner, his poke at the pious, his challenge to the rich, his abiding concern for the poor, the sick, the grieving. It’s all right there as he rides on. To watch him ride on toward humanity’s wilderness, with the cross being fashioned on the horizon, is to be reminded afresh of the powers and principalities of darkness that still work to destroy him and the kingdom that comes with him. To watch him ride on is to realize what’s left along the way, all’s that left as he rides on, it’s not palms strewn along the way, it’s not the cloaks tossed in the road. What’s left after the parade has passed by, what’s left is us. We’re sort of all he has left. Us and the Holy Spirit (thank God). It’s us. We’re God’s people.
Claimed, shaped, saved, sent yet again by his complete obedience, his incomparable faithfulness, and his perfect love. And as he rides out of sight, as it all starts to sink in, someone somewhere in the Body of Christ, calls after him, hoping that he can still hear as he is way up that hill.
Jesus! Hey Jesus, save us from the time of trial! Deliver us from evil! Hosanna!
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