A wandering Aramean was my father, he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien. So begins one of the nearest things we have to a creed in the Old Testament. The faithful Israelite takes some of the first fruits of the harvest to the priest and recites these words a brief history of what God has done for his people. It is the story of a wanderer who becomes a resident alien reduced to slavery, oppression and exploitation. He cries out to his God, and is rescued and brought to an ideal homeland. It sounds like a great success story. And certainly Moses as he dictates this creed asserts their possession of the land. And the faithful Israelite’s first words to the priest recall God’s promise of this land. And yet the creed itself makes it clear that the land is a gift there is no triumphant assertion of eternal ownership in the words of this creed. The gift of the land is to be responded to, by giving back to God its produce, accompanied by a recitation of what God has done for the wanderer. The question remains open about whether the wanderer might one day have to set out on the road again a road into exile. So we might say, in this simple act of worship a word and a deed, a story and an offering, stand between the Israelite and exile.
As Paul in Romans reflects on what new thing God is doing for the world in Jesus Christ the importance of a spoken word is seen again the word of faith the confession that Jesus is Lord. In contrast with what we have just read in Deuteronomy, Paul seems to make the word and the deed one thing. This is not the recital of a story before a priest; it is the declaration of an exclusive loyalty before the world. What Paul seems to be saying is that it isn’t enough to believe certain things faith isn’t a purely internalised attitude. Nor is faith something that can as it were be owned up to simply by good deeds. There has to be an act of coming out’ as a Christian if faith is to make a difference to us. This is not perhaps a thought that would appeal to a Nigerian archbishop but it may be the best way of understanding what Paul is getting at, when he says, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord, you will be saved For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.’ Acknowledging publicly that one is a Christian involves taking on board a whole load of unfortunate identities as though one were to say I’m a Christian, but of course I’m not that sort of Christian. Nevertheless for Paul such an acknowledgement is an important stage in our growth from alienation to liberty. To say, Jesus is Lord’ is to resign the illusion of control and to recognize a source of value outside oneself. And it opens up in us the possibility of a new identity taking shape in us the Christ in us, which is the restoration of what we were meant to be. It is hard to find the time and place to admit our faith and it is also hard because such a coming out’ will put us back in the wilderness with Jesus, confronting the accusing voice of Satan. Do you really mean it, is this how you want people to see you, is it worth it?
Jesus is in the wilderness because that is where the Spirit wants him to be. He may just have heard, at his baptism, the voice of God cherishing him as the beloved Son but now he must be here and confronted by the voice of Satan, the voice of an inner conflict. The first conflict is between two types of hunger; Jesus is hungry spiritually he is in the wilderness praying and he is physically hungry and physical needs have a tendency to win out over the spiritual because in many ways they are easier to satisfy. It is easier to plan the day than to sit empty and unplanned before God; it is easier to be distracted than to sit and to know nothing. It isn’t that Jesus doesn’t value bread he has many lively meals with many people, so much so that his enemies call him a drunkard and a glutton. But real hunger needs satisfying with the bread of heaven and that has to be waited for.
Just as a response from those he meets, has to be waited for. Satan offers him power and authority automatic control people who will be instantly converted who will understand and obey. No argumentative, unconvinced, uncomprehending, frightened disciples upon whose response he simply has to wait in the vulnerability of a freely offered love. His answer to Satan is similar to what went before worship open attentive waiting on God, while the world makes up its mind.
After he had successfully occupied the Rhineland against the advice of all his experts, Hitler announced, I go the way that providence dictates with the assurance of a sleepwalker.’ Such confidence is close to what Satan suggests to Jesus in the final temptation. Providence will always take care of you the angels of God will always protect the sleepwalking Jesus even if he falls off the pinnacle of the temple. But that is not how providence works. God does not provide a safety net for our stupidity. Faith in God doesn’t put God to the test seeking a false reassurance. Jesus destiny is not to leap of the temple but to stay on the cross. In Gethsemane when Jesus accepts that the cup of suffering cannot pass from him he puts his trust in a God who will catch him in the end but at a point far lower than he would ever want to fall.
In the end these three temptations turn out to be the most bizarre of all Bible Studies. Satan uses the word of God to turn Jesus against God it is a salutary reminder of the ungodly uses to which Scripture can be put. And in each case Jesus reasserts the need to remain open, trusting and patient before God.
The wandering Aramean places his offering of first fruits before the priest and tells his story; the Pauline convert confesses his loyalty to Christ before the world his offering is himself; Jesus chooses worship over power he will not use God to answer his needs he will let God use him to answer the needs of the world. As we approach the altar today to make the offering of ourselves this is the pattern we become part of, the story we enter.
As it was for the wandering Aramean, so it is for us; in this simple act of worship, a word and a deed, a confession of faith and an offering of ourselves, stand between us and exile in an alien world without meaning.