One of the things that I most remember thinking as I walked out of class on the last day of the last year of my seminary training, was “Thank heavens that I will never have to take a test again.” I looked back over 12 years of public school, 4 years of college and 3 years of earning my Masters degree and what I saw was a long list of tests, each one more excruciating and exhausting than the last. Never again, I thought would I sit in a classroom, listening to a teacher prattle away about some topic or another, then conclude by saying, “I hope that you’re paying attention. Because there will be a test on this.” “Never again,” I thought, “will I ever have to hear those awful words again”.And that was a pretty good feeling.
And I feel fairly certain that pretty much every person here today who has completed their schooling can relate to the feeling of freedom and joy that I was experiencing as I walked down the hallway to our apartment thinking “Hallelujah, no more tests!!!”The truth is, that no one that I know likes tests. We might understand their purpose. We might even be able to accept tests as a necessary evil brought about by our teachers’ need to have some sort of quantifiable measurement of the degree to which we are comprehending the material that he or she is dishing out. But at the end of the day, one thing remains true. Nobody likes tests. And so, as I walked to my apartment on that cold December day in 1989, I felt like a free man.
But little did I know as I walked down that hall, that just because I was done with tests, I was far from finished with being tested. For once I was out of school, it was out of the frying pan and into the fire of my first church. There I had to learn how to be a pastor. I had to take on the challenge of leading a congregation. Through hard experience I learned how many hurting people there are in the world as folks began to call me for personal counseling and hospital visitation. I quickly discovered the schitzophrenic life of the parish pastor as I was called to lead a Bible Study, take the youth group ice skating, and lead a board meeting all in the same day. In sort of a mirror image version of the popular movie from a few years ago, there was even one Saturday when I spent my day off performing two funerals and a wedding. My seminary career might have been over, but my education had just begun. And I might have been done with tests, but I was only just beginning to be tested.
And we’ve all had this experience in life. Change the names, the places and the circumstances and at the end of the day, we have all had to face a variety of tests in the school of life. Professional and personal; big and small, every day of one’s life is filled with a series of tests or challenges that must be faced. You choose a career and there is a learning curve involved from the moment that you walk in the front door.
You get married and you soon discover what for richer or poorer, in sickness and health is all about. Just ask Nancy, she’s put up with me for 21 ½ years. I think perhaps she deserves some sort of Baptist sainthood or something.
Then you have children, thinking how wonderful it will be to bring these little bundles of joy into the world. Then you get home to the wonder and delight of dirty diapers, sleepless nights and endless trips to the pediatrician. And that’s to saying nothing about the other times of personal testing that come our way as we go through life. The illness or death of a loved one, divorce, job loss or transfer, children growing up and moving out, these and so many more are the kind of tests that we can expect as citizens of the planet earth here at the start of the 21st century.
As our scripture lesson this morning reminds us, Jesus knew a thing or 2 about testing as well. If you were in worship a couple of weeks ago, you might remember me describing the story of Jesus’ wilderness temptation as the defining moment of his ministry on earth. After his baptism, Jesus realized that he was the Son of his Holy Father in Heaven. He now knew that he was the Messiah. However, what he didn’t know, until after his time in the wilderness, was just what sort of Messiah he was going to be.
The tempter came and said to Jesus, “Raise a mighty army and declare yourself to be the king of the world.Force the people by the power of the sword to be your followers.”Then he said, “Climb up to the top of the temple, and miraculously float to the ground supported by the wings of angels. Show the people the sort of thing that you are capable of, and they will line up by the thousands to see what you will do next.” Then the tempter said, “Take these stones and turn them into bread. Feed the world, and see the sort of adoration and devotion that the people will offer to an individual who can give them an endless supply of 3 square meals a day for free.”
But that wasn’t to be his way. It was there in the desert that Jesus began to realize that his way was not going to be defined by fame, fortune or power. His way was going to be marked by forgiveness, humility, and servitude. His way was the cross.
Try to imagine, if you can the powerful temptation that Jesus must have felt to follow one of the shortcuts offered him by the tempter in the wilderness. Hungry and tired after 40 days of fasting, it would have been so understandable for Jesus to give in and take the easy way out. But instead, he willingly took on the pain and sorrow of his calling. And as a result, he brought salvation to the world. Jesus not only survived this period of testing, he discovered the inner strength that is available only through obedience to the will of God.
This is why William Barclay in his commentary on this passage insists that we refer to this incident not as the temptation, but rather the testing of Jesus.“Now here is a great and uplifting truth. What we call temptation is not meant to make us sin; it is meant to enable us to conquer sin. It is not meant to make us bad, it is meant to make us good. It is not meant to weaken us, it is meant to make us emerge stronger and finer and purer from the ordeal. Temptation is not the penalty of being a man, temptation is the glory of being a man. It is the test which comes to a man whom God wishes to use. So, then, we must think of this whole incident, not so much the tempting, as the testing of Jesus.” Barclay.
The temptations that Jesus faced in the wilderness tested his resolve, and his willingness to walk the difficult road that his Heavenly Father had placed before him. It was in the wilderness that Jesus discovered who his Heavenly Father wanted him to be, as well as the strength that would be required to enable him to become that person.
And that is why it is so important that we understand this reality as we face the inevitable tests that life places on our own individual path. For you see, even as no logical human being longs for testing and trials in their lives, what we discover is that it is the very process of going through these difficult times that enables God to make us into the people that he wants us to be.
In 2001, Rudy Giuliani was the mayor of New York when one of the worst disasters in the history of the world was visited on his city. As you all know all too well, at about 9’O clock on the morning of September 11, two hijacked airliners crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade center. These strategic blows caused the eventual collapse of both buildings and the death of nearly 3,000 innocent civilians. Despite criticism that was later directed his way, the strength and leadership that Mayor Giuliani’s response displayed on that fateful September morning, and in the hours, days and weeks that followed, forever solidified his place in American History. Strange as it is to say, the most horrific event of Rudy Giuliani’s life proved to be his greatest moment. Like Jesus, hungry and tired in the wilderness, Giuliani’s test helped define who he was, and who he needed to be, a man of compassion, leadership and strength.
And the same can be said of you and me. As they say, whoever “they” are, “that which doesn’t destroy us, only serves to make us stronger.” There is no doubt that as long as we are walking the face of this earth there are going to be an unlimited number of testings and temptations that are going to come our way. However, as long as we remain faithful to God’s will during those times, so long as we listen to the voice of God and follow after the guidance and direction that is offered us, we too will discover a degree of character and a power of will that is beyond anything that we have ever known before.
Like our teachers trying to get us to sit up and pay attention in class, Jesus story from the wilderness reminds us that in the midst of life’s challenges and difficulties, we too need to stay strong and rely on the will and wisdom of God to show us the way, because if there’s one thing for sure, it is the certainty that in the school of life there will be a test.
Amen.
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