It Could Have Been Me

Matt 4:1-11 Gen 2-3

Have you heard of Billie Piper? I’m sure you have!

She’s a singer/TV personality type, most famous for being Dr Who’s assistant in a recent series.

Did you see that she recently got married to the son of Edward Fox – the famous actor?

This wedding, to which all sorts of celebrities were invited, took place in the parish right next door to my old one in Midhurst.

The Vicar who took the service was someone called Derek Welsman.

Have you ever heard of a magazine called OK? I’m sure you have!

It’s one of these glossy rags that print loads of photographs of things that happen in the lives of celebrities.

Well, this Derek Welsman, he’s got in there!. He’s featured in a glossy picture with his arm round Billie Piper.

Now that’s not fair. It isn’t fair at all! I used to be the senior Vicar in those parts and if I’d stayed in Midhurst – well, I can’t help thinking, that could have been me.

I could have done that wedding! I could have rubbed shoulders with the stars! I could have been in the pages of OK magazine.

Today we’re thinking about the temptations of Jesus and these were serious, stretching situations. Nothing like my petty jealousy and yet there is something about this whole matter of being tempted that links it all – a desire to become something or someone other than we truly are.

We cannot be sure when Jesus of Nazareth began to realise that he was the Son of God but some commentators will tell you that it was whilst he was in the wilderness that he began to seriously grapple with his emerging identity.

At the heart of his temptation was the same cry as mine – It could have been me.

It could have been me to be the sort of Messiah who could satisfy my hunger by turning stones into bread.

The sort of Messiah who could impress people into following Him by jumping from the temple and being caught by angels.

The sort of Messiah who could seize control of the world by making a pact with the devil.

It could have been me – he must have felt.

Instead his destiny lay in a ministry on the fringes and the margins. Misunderstood by many and causing offence to others. Largely deserted by the end of things and sentenced to a lonely, painful death upon a cross.

So many of the situations where you and I fall short, or cause other people unhappiness are when we express discontent for the situation we find ourselves in and protest that it should be different. It should be better. If only we could become someone else, everything would be for the better.

We look at other people and say  - it could have been me.

The discipline of Lent is a time to do something about all this, to divert attention away from ourselves towards God. To allow his presence to dominate the heart of our being rather than our own sense of self satisfaction.

The temptations Jesus faced were, in effect, an attempt by the forces of evil to wrench the will of the Father out of the life of the Son, so that he would end up with a life in which he had only to please himself.

 We continually face temptation to do this. To look after number one in this ruthless world of ours, to be seduced by the lure of the media which promises an endless array of alternatives as a remedy for our restlessness.

To reflect upon our first reading for a moment, the serpent comes daily into our lives, suggesting to us that the apple hanging on the tree in the middle of the garden is that which will bring us a fuller experience of paradise. Yet to partake of the fruit does the reverse. It puts paradise beyond our grasp, for we have settled for a world with ourselves at the centre and not God.

 When we give in to temptation because of our own sense of self importance, we consign the grace of God ever more to the margins of our lives, hiding in the shadows when He comes walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

The resistance of temptation seems to have made Jesus more aware of his personhood. The same applies to us.

This whole Lenten season is about creating a space for him to inhabit where our own preferences had once dominated.

In fact it’s to make sufficient space within our body, to become Christ’s body.

RH  10.2.08