“A Single-Minded Devotion”

Luke 4:1-13

In his daily devotional for February 17 Max Lucado wrote, “Christian service, in its purest form, is nothing more than imitating [Jesus]. To see his majesty and to imitate him, that is the sum of Christianity.” That’s what being a Christian is all about: imitating Jesus, walking in the way of discipleship, following in the way of the cross. It is important that we hear that, remember that, and then do that. There is no better time than this first Sunday in Lent to be reminded of it.

In his commentary on today’s text N. T. Wright summed up the life and ministry of Jesus this way: “Jesus maintained a single-minded devotion. His allegiance to his Father overrode immediate bodily desire; it ruled out an easy but costly short cut to his vocation (to be the Lord of the world; it forbade him, by seeking a proof of his status, to challenge the word [the Father spoke] at his baptism. For him, worshipping the one he knew as his Father was larger and richer than all these.”

If we’re going to imitate Jesus, then we will need to imitate his single-minded devotion to his Father and his mission. That means that we should heartily resist the temptation to do the ministry of our Lord on the Devil’s terms. The Devil always offers us really wonderful looking shortcuts to discipleship, shortcuts that appeal to our desire for easy answers to hard questions, quick fixes to difficult situations, and less painful options to sacrificial living. He offers us popular, crowd-pleasing, socially acceptable methods for carrying out the ministry of our churches. And just as Jesus did during his confrontation with the Devil after forty days in the wilderness, we must reject them all.

Jesus refused to be the ruler of earthly empires. He did not allow himself to be sucked into the role of a mighty warrior. He turned his back on political expediency as he refused to buy loyalty with bread. He spurned the opportunity to become some sort of razzle-dazzle wonder worker. Turn stones into bread? Never! Worship the Devil in exchange for the kingdoms of the world? Not hardly! Throw himself from a great height in order to show folks how much God loved him? Nope! Jesus did not take short cuts. He turned his face toward a cross that awaited him in Jerusalem and walked steadily in that direction.

It is no accident that he used the words of Deuteronomy in response to the Devil’s temptations. The central concern of Deuteronomy is full-fledged faithfulness. “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone’.” There is more to life than the satisfaction of physical appetites. “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him’.” There is only one God, and he is to be our ultimate concern. “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test’.” Do not ask God to display specific signs of his love for you, or as the old Janis Joplin song put it, “Show me you love me [by giving me this, that, or the other.” God is not some celestial Santa Claus.

The season of Lent is a journey back to full-fledged faithfulness, a journey that must be traveled with a single-minded devotion. Traditionally Lent is our annual walk with Jesus through the wilderness, a walk in which we more fully learn to imitate him. It is a season of introspection, self-examination, and repentance. Sometimes it involves fasting and giving to the poor. It is a time when we repent of our sins as a way of focusing on our need for God’s grace.

Let me say that last line again, only this time with an intentional emphasis on a particular word: “[Lent] is a time when we repent of our sins as a way of focusing on our need for God’s grace.” It is not a time for pointing out the sins of the world as we favorably contrast our righteousness to that of our supposedly less holy neighbors. Lent is a time to confess our failures to imitate Christ in our daily lives, our less than full-fledged faithfulness, our moments of surrender to temptation, our willingness to settle for easy answers and quick fixes, and our lack of single-minded devotion to God.

In an article that I downloaded from the web, Dennis Bratcher approached Lent from an angle I’d never considered. He wrote, “I have heard the passage in 2 Chronicles 7:14 quoted a lot: ‘… if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land…’ a careful reading of the passage will reveal that the prayer that is called for here is not intercessory prayer for others; it is a penitential prayer for the faith community, for us, God’s people, to repent.”

In this context the words from II Chronicles do not serve as some call to national righteousness that we trot out once a year in hopes of returning our nation to its Judeo-Christian roots. It’s not about America, or any other nation; it is about the church – God’s people – the Body of Christ – the new Israel. To use again the words of Mr. Bratcher, “… it is our wicked ways from which we need to turn, we are the ones who need to seek God’s face.”

This brings us back around to Max Lucado’s February 17^th devotional: “Seeing Jesus is what Christianity is all about.” It is in Jesus that we see the face of God as we behold God’s Living Word. An honest look at Jesus tells us just how un-Christ like we really are. The life, ministry, and words of Jesus are the measuring stick by which we measure our faithfulness. A close look at his life, ministry, and words will tell us whether or not our response to temptation is anywhere near that of Jesus in today’s text.

The bad news is that left to our own devices we can never perfectly imitate Jesus. None is righteous, no not even one. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The good news is that ours is a God of grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness. He has come in the person of Christ to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. If we are willing to be honest with God – and ourselves – as to our lack of single-minded devotion and full-fledged faithfulness, our God is willing to forgive. To quote the title of a book I read long ago, U-turns are allowed. We can repent. We can turn and walk away from sin. We can turn and not only walk toward Jesus, but walk with Jesus.

Essentially that is what Lent is about: making spiritual and behavioral u-turns. It’s not about punishing ourselves or depriving ourselves. It’s not about wallowing in our guilt and self-pity. It’s about saying and meaning, “Lord have mercy on me a sinner,” accepting his forgiveness, and getting on with our walk in the way of Jesus. It’s about remembering that our journey through Lent is not only a journey toward the cross, it’s also a journey toward Easter and a celebration of the Resurrection.

Lent does have its somber overtones. Penitence and humility are serious business. Seeking the face of God is not a task to be undertaken lightly. However, smiles are permissible during Lent. So too are laughter and celebration. Walking with Jesus is not supposed to be day-in, day-out form of drudgery. We are no less penitent if we eat a doughnut, go to a movie, watch TV, or read a good book. And for goodness sake, we must never equate Lenten devotion with being a sourpuss. Christians are a resurrection people, a community of the saved, healed, and redeemed. We are supposed to repent of our sins not stoically wear them like some modern day scarlet letter. And by the way, for those of us who feel a need to be oh so liturgically correct, it’s okay to have flowers in church during Lent. It’s okay to sing songs of joy and praise.

It has been said that angels can fly because they do not take themselves so seriously. We don’t have to journey through Lent like the young man Jimmy Buffett described in a song: “He was impressive, young and aggressive, saving the world on his own.” Jesus didn’t stand around after his battle with the Devil and pat himself on the back for being so single-mindedly devoted. He went out, recruited some disciples, and got on with God’s work. And every step of the way he humbly acknowledged his need for his Father’s help.

We do not walk through Lent alone anymore than Jesus journeyed to the cross alone. One of the major reasons for Lent and its call for penitence is to remind us how dependent we are on God’s grace. We don’t have to conquer the world, or the Devil, or Lent on our own. We don’t have to be aggressive or even impressive. All that’s required is some honest humility about how sinful we are, along with a willingness to acknowledge that God is in charge.

So when we’re tempted to think that this Lenten business is all about us let us remember that it is about the worship and adoration of God. It’s about a single-minded devotion and full-fledged faithfulness to him. It’s about imitating Christ and putting the Devil in his place. Amen.