February 21, 2010 Romans 10:8b-13 Luke

4:1-13 “Tempted to Want

It ‘Our Way’”
Dr. Ted H. Sandberg

In 1969 Paul Anka wrote the words to “My Way.” It begins: “And now the end is near/ And so I face
the final curtain,/ My friend, I’ll say it clear,/ I’ll state my case of which I’m certain./ I’ve lived a life
that’s full,/ I’ve traveled each and ev’ry highway/ And more, much more than this./ I did it my
way.”1
Frank Sinatra, as you probably know, made the song famous. In fact, Sinatra almost made it his theme
song, not only of his music, but his life. The song talks about regrets and mistakes that have been
made, but these errors and missteps haven’t diminished the pride with which Sinatra took in doing
things “My Way.”
It’s not only Sinatra who made that song his theme, however. Much of America society has adopted,
if not the song, then the attitude for its own. We pride ourselves on doing things by ourselves and in
our own way. We like to think of ourselves as independent. The picture of the rugged pioneer
crossing the prairies seems to have been etched in our collective unconscious as our role model. The
so-called self-made man is our hero. As a nation, we tend to do things “My Way,” either seeking to
isolate ourselves from the world, or else act as the world’s police force. When we do seek to act with
other nations, there is strong opposition within our country. We seem to prefer “going it alone,” doing
it “Our way.”
Of course, you know, and I know, that no one is totally able to do things their own way, especially in
today’s world. Perhaps much of the longing we feel for the life of the early settlers comes from the
knowledge that it can never be that way again – if it was ever that way in anything but the movies.
We’re all dependent upon one another – for the food we eat, for the homes in which we live, for
protection against crime and fire, for health care, and the list goes on. Essentially, we’re dependent
upon someone for nearly everything in life, or else we’re building upon the foundations others have
provided for us throughout history. Even Sinatra, proudly claiming to do things his way through the
song, was dependent upon Anka for the words he sang. None of us totally do things “My Way.”
Indeed, we actually do very few things, “our way.”
Yet even if in reality we do little by ourselves, still we seem to think we’re independent,
accomplishing great things on our own. In so doing, we’ve succumbed to the same temptation Jesus
faced while he was in the wilderness. We’ve taken to making our own bread, ruling over one another,
even claiming to heal ourselves or one another, and some actually believing that we’re doing this by
ourselves with no help from God. Whereas Jesus refused the devil’s offer of power by continually
pointing to God as the source of life and power, too often, we’ve even failed to credit the devil for
what we claim to have done by ourselves.
Now you may claim, and rightly so, that the main temptation Jesus faced didn’t pertain to being an
individual, but instead was to accept the devil’s offer of the world, and in the process, recognize the
devil’s contention that the world belong to Satan and Satan could do with it what Satan chose. If Jesus
had said, “Yes, I’m awfully hungry. I’ll turn the stones into bread as you suggest,” he would’ve

1 1. “My Way,” Songwriters: Revaux, Jacques; Anka, Paul (Eng Lyr); Thibaut,
Gilles; Francois, Claude © CHRYSALIS STANDARDS, INC
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accepted the devil’s suggestion that he should bribe people into following him. If he’d said, “I’ll
worship you so that I’ll be able to rule the world fairly and justly,” he would’ve compromised with the
devil, and even more, agreed that the world was rightly the devil’s. Or if Jesus had said, “Yes, I can
leap from the temple and not be hurt,” he would’ve yielded to the temptation of giving the people
sensations which in the long run, don’t prove anything. As Barclay says, “Jesus saw quite clearly that
if he produced sensations he could be a nine day wonder; but he also saw that sensationalism would
never last.”2 Jesus did not yield to the temptation to do things the devil’s way. Jesus continually
pointed back to God and said, “I will not live according to the devil. I will live as God commanded.”
Do we do this? Sometimes. We do try and live as God commands. But often times, we think that if
we do things “our way,” then we must be doing it “God’s way.” This is true, especially when we
believe we’re doing things with the purest motives, and for the best reasons. Don’t we sometimes get
our best wants and wishes mixed up with God’s wants and wishes? The world is filled with hungry,
starving men, women and children, almost as much now as it was in Jesus’ day. Why didn’t Jesus
turn the rocks into bread and feed all those starving people as we’d want to do? That would’ve been a
dream come true, wouldn’t it? Isn’t that what we’d do? But our way is not God’s way.
The governments of the world were as corrupt and evil then as they are now, maybe even more so.
Rulers had absolute power over all their subjects. Justice was basically an unknown term. Greed was
the order of the day. How many of us wouldn’t want Jesus to rule the world? Wouldn’t Jesus rule
with fairness and compassion? Wouldn’t Jesus set things right? Wouldn’t we want Jesus to be our
President, even our King? Yet our way, our will, was not and is not God’s will.
And don’t we all cry out for proof that God is God, and that Jesus is the Son of God? Wouldn’t we all
like to say, “Well, all you have to do is read the history books of that day to know that Jesus was truly
divine. All you have to do now is to give your tithes to the church and you’ll never worry about
money again. All you have to do is attend church regularly and you’ll never be sick again. Wouldn’t
we like to know for certain, without a shadow of a doubt even in the furthest recesses of our minds,
that Jesus is with us today? But again, God’s way is not our way. The things you and I want, the
things we believe would be good for us and good for the world, don’t always fit into the way God has
chosen to act.
What then are we to do? We’re to tell the old, old story again and again and again. We can never
hear the Word of God enough. We’re to read and study and meditate upon the Scripture in order that
God’s way might become clearer to us, and in the process hopefully we’ll be better able to recognize
our ways as our ways, and not get mixed up and think we’re obeying God. And we’ll find that in
doing things God’s way, we’ll accomplish more for more than when we do things “our” way.
Have you ever wondered why the Exodus from Egypt is repeated so many times throughout the Old
Testament? Over and over and over again the people are told how God called Moses to go into Egypt
and face the Pharaoh. Had we read the lectionary’s OT reading from Deuteronomy 26, we’d have
been given the whole history of the people: “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down
into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and
populous. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, we
cried to the LORD, the God of our ancestors; the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our
toil, and our oppression. The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched

2 2. Barclay, William, The Gospel of LUKE, The Daily Study Bible Series, Revised
Edition, The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1975, p. 44.
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arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; and he brought us into this place
and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”3
The people are reminded of their history so they won’t forget what God has done for them. They’re
reminded of their history because if they weren’t, it wouldn’t be long before they were taking credit
for having rescued themselves from the hands of the Egyptians and for having conquered the Promised
Land all by themselves. They’re reminded of their history, because otherwise they’d soon begin to
believe that they’d accomplished all that had been done on their own, with no help from God. Their
history is repeated again and again because they forget very quickly that it was God who made them a
great people, God who rescued them from their captivity, God who gave them the land, God who kept
them free, and God to whom they owed everything they possessed. The primary reason for repeating
the history of Israel so often not only in the OT, but in the New Testament as well, is to remind the
Israelites, and to remind us, that God has done these things for us – not the devil, and certainly not
us, but God.
Lori Brandt Hale tells of how her 3 year old son heard the story of Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness
during a lenten children’s liturgy.4 After hearing the story, he and the other children went to
Children’s church. That afternoon, her son asked her, “Hey, mom, what do you know about the
devil?” While tempted to answer from a theological perspective, mom eventually asked, “What do
you know about the devil?” Her son responded, “Well, the devil talked to Jesus.” (Good answer from
a 3 year old.) He went on. “The devil was mean.” (Interesting perspective on the devil. Can the
devil be evil without being mean? Something to think about.) Anyway, Hale says that her son,
“leaning closer to me and dropping his voice to a loud whisper, said, ‘if we were at a store, and you
and Dad were in one aisle, and I was in another aisle, and ‘ – his hushed tones became downright
conspiratorial at this point – ‘there was candy...” He paused for effect. “The devil would say, ‘you
should take some!” (A good definition of temptation.)
Mom then asked her son, “Honey, if the devil said, ‘You should take some!’ What would you say
back to the devil?” A genuinely sweet grin lit up his entire face and without hesitation he replied,
“Oh! I would say thank you!”
Unless we hear the story of Jesus Christ again and again and again, we too may find ourselves saying
“Thank you” to the devil. Unless we’re reminded again and again and again that Jesus calls us not to
do things “My Way,” but God’s way, we too may say “Thank you,” for the candy that the devil all too
willingly offers to us.
This season of Lent that we have entered offers us the opportunity to focus on the way of Jesus Christ, to open
our hearts to hear God’s message, to read the story again and again and again. Some religious traditions ask
their members to give up something for Lent, to remind themselves of what Jesus gave up for us. I propose
that we, instead, do something extra, something we may not usually do. Read the Bible a little longer each
day. Pray a little longer each day. Meditate on God’s ways a little more each day. Because it’s important for
all of us to hear the story again and again and again so that we can remember that our ways are not God’s
ways, and so that we can learn what God’s ways are so that we can better follow God. Amen.

3 3. Deuteronomy 26: 5b-9

4 4. Hale, Lori Brandt, “Luke 4:1-13: Theological Perspective,” Feasting on the

Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, Year C, Volume 2, David L. Bartlett
and Barbara Brown Taylor, General Editors, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville,
KY, 2009, pp. 44, 46. Story and parenthesized comments based on Hale.
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