THE TEMPTATION

All those trees in the garden are theirs for the asking except one. And Adam and Eve couldn’t avoid that one lousy tree. They couldn’t accept any limitations.

Like Adam and Eve, we, too, can be ungrateful for what God gives us. Ingratitude is the genesis of all our sins. Our fall was and is that we aren’t satisfied in what we have, and who we are. We want more. We want to be in total control.

We speak of “temptations” in the plural, but they all come down to one basic temptation: to be like God. We don’t want to take God’s place. We simply want to be like God. Which is to say, we’ve got problems with our status as human beings. It has too many limitations.

That’s the fundamental temptation we face. It sneaks up on us because we don’t put it in those stark terms – I want to be like God. We simply want to get around some of the things involved in being human. The core of being human is having to “die” – figuratively or literally. When we were in our mother’s womb, we didn’t want to leave – to die to the world within her womb, and be born into this world. No wonder we cried.

The temptation isn’t simply to try to be like God, but to have a false image of God. Let’s see what it’s like to be like God.

Perhaps we picture God as enjoying one long vacation. It’s the easy life. No worries. No problems. No troubles and tears. No waiting for anything. To be God is to be all-powerful, and we can use that power to get anything we want with a snap of our fingers. We just sit around and let all creation sing our praise.

But the God revealed to us in scripture is not that kind of God. Now the scripture uses metaphors – there’s no other way of talking about God. The image of God that comes through in scripture isn’t a God who is on one long vacation. Scripture tells of a God who is like a father or mother who worries about the children…a God who loves them, really loves them, and is sometimes hurt by their failure to love in return.

We really don’t know what it’s like to be God, but it isn’t necessarily one long vacation.

What we do know about this God is that God became a human being. God isn’t just paying us a visit. Jesus became one of us, and Jesus fully accepted his humanity, the human condition, showing us that sometimes one has to die to oneself in order to get to life.

Now isn’t that something? Here we are, constantly tempted to reject our status as human beings, and wanting to be like God…and here is God becoming a human being.

And Jesus really did become one of us, like us in all things but sin. He sure did, because what’s the first thing that happens when he begins his ministry? The devil comes and tempts him to get around the limitations of his human status.

The devil says: You don’t have to go through all this human stuff. You are the Son of God. So if you are the Son of God, change these stones to bread. If you’re hungry, eat! If you feel like it, fling yourself off the temple. You can do anything you want. Take over all the kingdoms of the world. You are the Son of God.

Jesus rejected the temptation. He stood strong as a full-fledged human being. He accepted all the limitations of space and time and power. Jesus said, Let God be God. It's enough to know that God is with me. I will take the human path to fullness of life.

The temptation is always there to be someone other than who we are. But as the holy rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said, When I meet God in heaven, he will not ask me if I was the best Moses or the best David. He will ask if I was the best Abraham Joshua Heschel.

God knew that our human weakness was/is to try to be who we are not, so he sent us Jesus. Jesus taught us to see and to live fully who we are, saying to us:

You want to be like God? Well you are. You are God’s daughter, God’s son. You have God’s life within you. Let God’s life grow within you by living as God’s son, God’s daughter. It may seem to you sometimes that living that way is to die. But I’m telling you that this is the way you are born more fully into God’s life. Come follow me, and I’ll show you. Imitate me and you’ll be like God.

v  Don’t be greedy. Be lavish in giving your time and goods to others. Live the largesse of God.

v  Don’t be violent. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.

v  Don’t be spiteful. Be merciful as your heavenly father is merciful.

v  Don’t be frightened. God is with you always, to the end of time.

Jesus didn’t just teach all this. He lived it.