Pushing Against The Rock

There was this man who got very angry because this little church had rented an empty store beneath his apartment, and they begun to hold the most noisy revival services you ever heard. They were loud AMEN’S and loud PRAISE THE LORD all night long. He complained to the Landlord. He complained to the police. But nothing could be done.

Well, he got angrier and angrier and then one night, he decided he was going to get even with the people in the church. He went down to a store that rented costumes and he rented a Devil's suit. He went home and put it on. He climbed down the stairs and waited for just the right moment. And as it happened, a storm came up, and thunder rolled and lightning stuck, and the lights went out. At that moment he burst into that little church, yelling and screaming at the top of his voice!

And you know what, everyone ran out of that church, except one lady. And this man stepped up to her, tail twitching, pitch fork gleaming, and he said, "How come you are not running away like all the rest?"

And she said, "Mr. Satan, I want you to know, I have been on your side all along."

Today's gospel reading - to a great extent the readings from Deuteronomy and from Paul's Letter to the Romans are about taking sides. About putting God first in our lives. About remembering whose we are and what has been done for us. About declaring our loyalties.

I want to look primarily at the gospel reading today. At the temptation story - and try to understand a bit of what it is all about.

At first glance the temptations of Jesus seem strange. They seem so unlike our temptations - to take things, to use people, and to ignore God. They seem so odd. Make bread out of stones? Leap from the temple? Worship Satan to gain the world? We can't really conceive of these kinds of temptations being related to the temptations that we experience.

Yet the temptations of Jesus are ours for Satan is with us as he was with Jesus; he is with us not so much to get us to do wrong things - we need no help in that - but to develop in us life destroying attitudes and beliefs; to develop in us those things that will take us further and further away from God's love till one day we discover that we have no faith at all, that we are people without hope and without purpose, that we are – in short - completely lost - living only for today, living only for ourselves.

As a friend of mine on the Internet put it: Satan is interested in what we think; in what we believe about ourselves and God.

Look at Satan.
What is he saying in the temptation story that we heard today?

"If You are the Son of God ... If You are ... If You really think You are -- then can You not prove Your power through a self-serving miracle?

If you are really loved by God, can You not prove God's care by leaping from the temple?

If you really want to change the world - if that is your mission - can You not do it better in the way that I show you?

If You are the child of God , then why can't you, why don't you..."

Think about that voice for a minute. The voice Jesus heard as he wandered through the wilderness that we so often walk through in our lives – the wilderness not of sand, rock, and bush - but the wilderness of the soul.... the wilderness of a world that does not care - of a world that does not provide anyone an easy time of things - but rather is coldly
indifferent if not openly hostile to us and to what we want and what we feel

How often have we heard the kind of words in ourselves that Jesus heard at the end of his forty days of wandering - that voice speaking inside our minds and hearts - whispering quietly - but insistently:

"If you really are a child of God, would you act that way"

"If you are really are a child of God - would you not be able to overcome your weaknesses, do the good you intended, straighten yourself out?"

"If God loved really loved you, would God treat you this way. Would God let you suffer?"

"Are you really? Really a child of God? Is God really there for you? For anybody?"

"Isn't there an easier way? A better way? Better than this. Better than now?"

The voice of Satan is the voice of doubt and that doubt takes two major forms
- doubt in the goodness of God - and what is commonly called "self-doubt", that doubt that questions who we are and what we are about - not for the purpose of improving ourselves or causing us to turn to God, but for the purpose of tearing down whatever
good that may have been built up in us and causing us to wonder if there is any point in our continuing to live, or in trying to be faithful.

One of the biggest occasions of doubt that arises in the life of believers is related to the reality of temptation - and to the fact that we all too often succumb to it.

I think you all here know the feeling -

You make a promise to God that you will pray more often: - and you find yourself so busy - working - watching TV - running to meetings, that you end up praying less than you had before.

You make a promise to God that you will not be so impatient with the annoying people in your life - and you find yourself, only a few days later, yelling at one of them with more strength and energy than ever before.

You try to do something - or to not do something and you fail - and you feel guilty about it - you feel that you are a complete failure as a human being - let alone as a Christian.

Have you ever said to yourself: "If I was really who I believe myself to be - then I would not be tempted?"

Have you ever said to yourself: "If God was real - if I was real - then I would not be doing what I am doing?"

Self doubt - soul destroying doubt. It is a common thing. Like the other doubt that Satan throws at us - the doubt that says to you when you are in trouble: "If God really cared, then I would not be in this mess".

God does care. God cares like a parent cares for his or her child as they are learning to walk.

First God holds our hands and calls to us to move toward him, then, as we gain strength God let us go, but is there to catch us lest we fall and to encourage us to encourage us to walk and to learn how to do the many other things that make life so good.

Temptation is a reality of the Christian life. It is there for two reasons.

The first reason is this: Satan does not want us to succeed at being God's people.

I mean imagine a world where Christian's actually lived like Christ? And did what he did? All the time! This is not a pleasant thought for those who love darkness. And it leads to a spiritual principle that I really want you to take note of - and that is this:

THE CLOSER YOU GET TO GOD THE STRONGER THE TEMPTATIONS YOU WILL FEEL.

or to put it another way: The devil never attacks those who are already on his side.

The second reason for temptation is this: God wants us to choose Him freely.

God does not want you or anyone else to be obedient robots, he wants us to be whole human beings who freely love him and others to be people who in every way are made in His Image.

And that requires something for us to choose, something for us to do, something for us to believe.

There was a man who was asleep one night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light and the Saviour appeared. The Lord told the man He had a work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might. This the man did, day after day.

For many years he toiled from sun up to sun down, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock pushing with all his might. Each night the man returned to his cabin sore and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain.

Seeing that the man was showing signs of discouragement, Satan decided to enter the picture placing thoughts into the man's mind such as; "You have been pushing against that rock for a long time and it hasn't budged. Why kill yourself over this? You are never going to move it?" Satan said many other things like this, giving the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure.

These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man even more. "Why kill myself over this?" he thought. "I'll just put in my time, giving just the minimum of effort and that will be good enough."

And that he planned to do until one day he decided to make it a matter of Prayer and take his troubled thoughts to the Lord.

"Lord" he said, "I have laboured long and hard in your service, putting all my strength to do that which you have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not even budged that rock a half a millimeter. What is wrong? Why am I failing?"

To this the Lord responded compassionately, "My friend, when long ago I asked you to serve me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all your strength, which you have done. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to me, your strength spent, thinking that you have failed. But, is that really so?

Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled, your back brown, your hands are callused from constant pressure, and your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you have grown much and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. Yet you haven't moved the rock. BUT YOUR CALLING WAS TO BE OBEDIENT, TO PUSH AND TO EXERCISE YOUR FAITH AND TRUST IN MY WISDOM.

This you have done. I, my friend, will now move the rock."

Each of us is called to be obedient, to push and exercise our faith and to trust in God's wisdom.

In the doing of this it is not a sin to be tempted - indeed often it is part of God's plan for us - that same plan that led to the Spirit driving Jesus out into the wilderness where he was tempted.

Nor is it a sign that we are lost, that we are beyond hope, when we succumb to temptation and do those thing we ought not to do and fail to do those things we ought. For that to be so would mean that the cross of Christ was to no avail and that his sacrifice on our behalf means nothing.

And that most certainly is not the case. God's word does not come back to him empty. His love is not without power and impact and effect. As a loving parent helps his or her child back to their feet when they stumble and fall so God helps us backs to our feet when we fall and call out for help. Over and over again - until we finally are strong enough to go onto the next lesson.

What God wants from us is not that we be perfect - but that we strive to be that way - that we give it our best shot - and keep on trying.

What the devil wants is that we give up - for he has no victory when we do wrong things - for he knows that God will forgive us when we seek him. What the devil wants is that we give up entirely and that we abandon faith in God and the idea that what we are made in God's image for a purpose and a reason.

Don't give up. Have faith. Remember, as I said at the beginning when I told that little joke about the man who dressed up as Satan to scare all the good church folk who were making noise - it is all a question of whose side we are on.

God is on our side - the devil is not.

Do not give up faith in God because of the temptations you feel - nor because of the ones you give in too - but instead get up on your feet, turn afresh to God, and begin walking once again, remembering the word that God has given us the word of faith that says simply and clearly - "if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Saviour and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."

May His name be glorified day by day. Amen.