Timshel
First Sunday in Lent
March 10, 2019
As Oscar Wilde, the British novelist and playwright famously said, “I can resist anything but temptation.” Some of you know that I have a friend Gayle, and we talk to each other pretty much every day. Sometimes we talk about what we are up to, sometimes it is about the kids, sometimes it’s moral dilemmas, and this week it’s been about temptation and corruption. I don’t need to remind you of what has been in the news over the last few weeks, but there have been quite a lot of disturbing examples of people who made very bad choices. Corrupt choices. Gayle had been listening to the podcast about Dirty John, which is about a really bad guy who pretended to be good guy. He was a scam-artist, a stalker, and a liar. Gayle has a capacity to watch and listen to this sort of stuff which would keep me up at night. We have very different viewing habits. At one point in the Dirty John podcast a psychologist is interviewed, and he makes this disturbing claim – that everyone is capable of corruption and atrocious acts. Gayle found this unnerving – and she called me to tell me when she was trying to puzzle this out, she said “I asked myself, is this really true? Is everyone really capable of corruption and evil?”. And she added, “I just can’t see you, Sarah, becoming a person like Dirty John.” It’s nice when your friend thinks that about you, right? I think the same about Gayle too.
But it is an interesting question – do we really know what any of us are capable of? Can we keep our moral compass facing the right direction?
This is what is so fascinating about the story of Jesus’ temptation in the desert. Corruption is clearly nothing new. It’s as old as human history – and we get a glimpse here of some archetypal temptations.
The devil first tempts Jesus with bread – symbolic of the temptation of hedonism, that is – will Jesus use his powers to satisfy his own hunger?
Then the devil shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and says – “all this can be yours, my friend – if you just worship me.” It is of course a metaphor for materialism and wealth.
And then the Devil says – “Jesus, throw yourself off the pinnacle of the temple – you have the power not to come to harm.” This temptation is about egoism– in other words, will you, Jesus use your power to dazzle and impress people? Or will you do what is right and use your power to feed, teach, heal, and save people?
And Jesus resists all three – hedonism, materialism, and egoism. He resists all the pathways towards corruption.
Now what this story demonstrates is that Jesus could be tempted – this could have gone either way – but he stays faithful to his purpose. In Hebrews 4:15, not one of our texts for this morning assures us, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet he did not sin.” Now you could say, “well, that’s easy, he is the Son of God, after all. He’s got the DNA to avoid sin and corruption.” But we must remember – as well as being completely divine, Jesus is also completely human. He was tempted in every way as we are.
So, what does that mean about us? What does it mean about our DNA? What about our ability to choose between good and evil?
Well here’s some good and bad news. God has given us the power to choose. The first chapters of Genesis, the very first book of the Bible, are about the gift of freewill. Adam and Eve’s eyes were opened after they ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge – in the Christian tradition this is the story of “The Fall” – a story that tries to explain why we are imperfect and why we suffer. But here is the interesting thing – in Judaism, as I have been told, this is the story of God’s gift of freewill to humanity. It is the story of when we were given the freedom to choose to do good or to do evil.
This theme comes to a head, a few chapters later in the story of Cain and Abel –just before Cain kills Abel – out of a fit of jealousy. Let me just back up for a minute. In case you are unfamiliar with the story – Cain was a farmer, and Abel kept flocks. Abel offers God a firstling from his flock as a sacrifice. And Cain offers fruit from the ground for his sacrifice. God “has regard” for Abel’s offering. And God has no regard for Cain’s sacrifice. Cain is upset, understandably so. The bible doesn’t really say why God does this. But what is the important point is that God says to Cain “If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.” Translated into modern English God says, “Why are you angry…if you do well, won’t it be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.” This last phrase is really important theologically. What God is saying is that Cain can master sin – he need not be ruled by it. There is an important Hebrew word here “Timshel” which means at its heart “you mayest” – which means you may and you can rule over sin. So, what scholars suggest the heart of the story is, is that people have the ability to choose good over evil – in other words, we have the ability not to give into our so called “destiny”, or our emotions, or our desires, and instead we are capable of doing what is right.
At the end of the day, we all have choices.
Steinbeck, who based his book East of Eden on the story of Cain and Abel and especially on this single Hebrew word Timshel had this to say on the matter:[1] The account of Cain and Abel is about, “individual responsibility and the invention of conscience. You can if you will, but it is up to you. This little story
[from the Bible]
turns out to be one of the most profound in the world. I
always felt it was but now I know it is.”[2] End quote.
Unfortunately, this story, and the understanding of free-will, does not make figuring out why people make bad choices any easier or clearer– other than the making bad choices is the tragic side of free-will.
So, we take from Timshel what we can – that God has made the humanity great because we can choose to do great things – especially when we do it in the power of the Lord and for the glory of Christ. But what we also learn as we travel through the journey of Lent, to the glorious resurrection of Christ from the grave, is that God has also offered us remission of our sins, and redemption for our souls. We are forgiven. And for both of these things, for free-will and for salvation, we can be very grateful.
So, during this
season of Lent when we are encouraged to take time for self-examination – take time
to consider what might be the temptations for you – where are you vulnerable to
sin? If this story about Jesus was a story about you – what would be the three
temptations that would force you to draw on the strength of God to
overcome? Just like when Jesus was at
his weakest, he had scripture close at hand to help him make the right
choice. So, knowing where we are weak can
help us either avoid those situations or circumstances
where we face the most temptation, or be prepared to fight temptation when we
face it.
[1] If you are interested in reading more of Steinbeck’s examination of the word, you can read about it in Chapter 24 part II of East of Eden
[2] John Steinbeck, Journal of a Novel
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