Lenten Discipline: Take On Your True Identity

The view from the pulpit at All Saints' Church, Birmingham

I am so excited to begin serving here at All Saints! As we saw in today’s Gospel lesson though beginning a new ministry can be challenging. Jesus fresh out of the baptismal waters began his ministry by confronting several temptations. Speaking of temptations…

What’s your Lenten discipline? Are you giving up something tempting? Maybe you are abstaining from chocolate or beer. If you are you can bring those to me by the way! Are you taking something on? Maybe you are reading Mary Bea Sullivan’s Living the Way of Love with many others here at All Saints. Or, perhaps like Jesus you are giving up the temptations to turn a stone into bread, rule over all the nations of the world, and prove your invincibility to anyone nearby. On the surface our Gospel lesson for today might appear to simply be an outlandish, God-sized template for Lenten disciplines, but friends there’s more here.

To more fully experience the shimmering treasure that lies beneath the surface of today’s Good News let’s turn to a conversation partner in the form of another Scripture lesson—one that we didn’t even hear today. I know, I know… the audacity of me as a new preacher on my first Sunday using a story you didn’t even hear in church. Well, this story you may have heard, it’s one about Adam and Eve. In the Hebrew Scripture we discover our prototypical human parents experiencing and succumbing to their own temptations. The tempter in that story was a conniving serpent who beguiled Eve then Adam to eat some forbidden fruit. Y’all remembering all this so far? Well, what we do not talk much about is a small detail from that ancient tale. 

When God discovered that Adam and Eve had eaten that fruit and were no longer naked and innocent, God was actually coming to walk with them in the cool of the evening. “They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze” is the way Genesis put it (3:8). While the story does not explicitly state this, what we observe in this evening stroll is God’s desire to connect with us humans from the very beginning. God’s yearning was to be with Adam and Eve in the verdant garden. What a fantastically beautiful image of Creation! 

Of course, when God came to be with God’s children God did not find them in their initial, virtuous state, but rather God found them hiding in their shame. They were just like children who know they have done something wrong and then go hiding under the bed so that their parent, guardian, or family member will not find them. But, God always does find us. Still, the detail worth noting on this First Sunday of Lent is that God’s hunger was to be in relationship with humans just as they were created. So now, let’s zoom back out for a second to see this story in its full effect.

Adam and Eve were made (just like the rest of us) to be in relationship with God. That’s who they were. It was their identity. However when presented with another alternative—to have the knowledge of God, to know good and evil—they choose not to live as their true selves. Instead, they decided to take things—and a thing, fruit from the tree—into their own hands. Now, we may say, “Silly Adam. Silly Eve. I would never do that. I wouldn’t disobey God. I wouldn’t blame my spouse like Adam did. I wouldn’t trust a talking snake like Eve did.” And, maybe you wouldn’t. But, this story is not simply about a couple who had a weak moment a long, long time ago. This is a story about you and me and every other human that has ever lived. Well, save for one, but we’ll get to Him in a moment. 

The temptations that Adam and Eve felt are the same temptations that every one of us feels when we find ourselves putting something else in the place of the One who creates, redeems, and sustains everything! So yes, you hopefully don’t listen to talking snakes, but I know I sometimes do listen to some other voice that says, “Go ahead, take that bite, do that thing where you’ll be put in God’s place. God’s not even watching.” And, in those moments I forget my true self. We forget our real identity that we are God’s beloveds made innately good, originally blessed. This is when temptations seem so very well…tempting.

When we do not feel and know that we are enough, when we forget we are God’s beloved children we so easily fall into temptation. We become Eve all alone believing the lie that something other than God will make us whole. We become Adam ashamed blaming someone else for our own choices. We can even become that talking serpent seeking attention manipulating others for our own gain. These temptations we face not only during Lent but throughout our lives. So, even as we give up chocolate or beer or something else, might we also take on remembering our true identities, rediscovering our true selves? How might we trust more fully that we were made to walk with God in the cool of the evening?

Well, as we zoom out even further and move from one story of Creation back to today’s Gospel lesson, we see one who trusted his identity. Jesus knew for certain that He’s God’s Beloved. What might we learn from, as last week’s Transfiguration story put it, God’s chosen one? Jesus trusted that He was the Christ, the ultimate Beloved One of God. He was certain of this. And through His living, His teachings, His dying, His being resurrected, His uniting earth to heaven he showed us our true identities too. We are God’s beloved ones—regardless of who we are, where we’re from, what we’ve done, or anything else. Jesus knew his identity so firmly that no temptation could sway Him from it. And, we can learn from Him how to trust God in this same way! To do this, let’s look at the three temptations He faced.

Jesus’ first temptation had to do with his physical state. The devil suggested Jesus turn a stone into a loaf of bread. But, Jesus knew that our physical reality is not everything. We know the truth that we are God’s beloved ones not only because of the food we consume or the clothes we wear or the street we live on… It’s not just about being #blessed. Or as Jesus said, “One shall not live by bread alone…” But the power for us comes in the next bit that was left out. “One shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” We are sustained in who we are not simply by food, but by God speaking us into being!

Jesus’ second temptation had to do with both power and worship. In this moment the devil offered Jesus the glory of all the kingdoms of the world and authority over them. To gain these Jesus would have to worship the devil. Jesus did not let this offer sway him though. Why? Knowing that he was God’s beloved meant that even gaining the whole world would not be worth losing his true self. As Matthew’s Gospel account puts it: “For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life, their identity as God’s beloveds?” (16:26, italicized section added)

Jesus’ third temptation had to do with mortality. Noticing all the Scripture Jesus was quoting the devil got wise. He took Jesus to the top of the Temple and tempted Jesus to throw himself off. Then came the verses about how God’s angels would protect Jesus and that he would not dash his foot upon a stone. (Just an aside here, note that even the devil can quote Scripture, so remind this to those who try to weaponize the Bible to advocate hate). This third temptation was not about avoiding death for we know what Jesus eventually faced even in the same city. No, this was a test to see if Jesus would trust that his identity as God’s beloved one would stretch even into death. In response, Jesus said “Do not put the Lord God to the test.” Jesus trusted His relationship with God because Jesus knew who He was. He knew who God was. He knew they were united in love. And, ultimately He knew that He was God’s beloved through ups and downs, through trials and temptations, through life and death. Jesus was God’s Beloved, and we are too. We too are God's beloved children. And while we often forget this reality, this season is the perfect time to internalize this truth, to write it on our hearts, to let it steep into our souls.  

This Lent may we remember our truest selves. May we know that God’s Word sustains us, that nothing is worth forfeiting our identity as God’s beloveds for, and that nothing will ever separate us from this truth...we are all God’s beloveds. Amen.