February 25/26
1st Sunday of Lent
Good evening / morning, St. Agnes, and a blessed beginning of Lent. On Martin Luther King weekend, a group of St. Agnes parishioners from the St. Thea Bowman Society visited Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic church, a predominately Black parish on the West End. My six-year-old son EJ was with me. In the lobby were numerous posters of Dr. King in honor of the occasion, but there was also a permanent framed poster on the wall there. It was titled, “the Fork in the Road” and it shows a man and a woman standing at a crossroads. On one side is a leafy green pathway reading to Jesus, wreathed in a rainbow and clouds with his arms extended in invitation.
On the other half of the image, is a desolate path, enveloped in
storm clouds and lightning. At the end
top is an ominous figure with a death’s-head and horns. Just like Jesus, his arms are extended in invitation. EJ kept coming back to this image, including
after mass was concluded. He stood transfixed before it. He had never seen a picture of the devil
before and wanted to know everything.
So, how do you explain Satan to a six-year-old? I must confess that I haven’t been in a hurry
to bring the topic up. I’ve been much
more interested in teaching him about the goodness of God. I am not alone here. Surveys show that Americans
are very likely to believe in God and angels, but less likely to believe in the
devil and demons.
This is not going to be a fire and brimstone sermon … yet we do
need to give the devil his due. As the 90s movie The Usual Suspects put
it, “the greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world that he
doesn’t exist.” Our tradition tells us
that the devil is real. This critical Gospel scene reminds us of the reality
of spiritual evil, personified by the devil.
He is not meant to be understood only metaphorically or symbolically. But the devil is also not equal to God in
power or importance. God permits the
devil to exist and to operate, just as God permits the existence of evil and
suffering in our present, passing world.
Interestingly, the devil only has speaking roles in three
different places in the entirety of the Bible.
Two of them are in our readings today: as a serpent in the Garden of
Eden (if we understand the animal to be the devil instead of a clever
mythological animal like a coyote), and in Jesus’s experience in the desert in
Matthew and Luke. The third place is in
the Book of Job where God and the Satan argue over the goodness of the
righteous man named Job and what motivates him.
In all three stories, the devil poses questions. He acts as “devil’s advocate” for God if you
will. In fact, the Hebrew word ha-Satan
means the accuser, which is more of a title than a name. He is a kind of prosecuting attorney in God’s
heavenly court who is tasked with roaming around the earth and testing human
beings. And testing God himself, as it
turns out. That’s the drama of Job and
of Jesus in the wilderness.
The devil usually speaks in questions, or in conditional propositions—which
are ‘if / then’ statements. To Jesus he
says, “If you are really the Son of God, then you should…” He asks Eve, “Did
God really tell you… ?” And to God the
Father, “Doesn’t Job have a reason to be so good? What would happen if…?” Sometimes these questions have a small but
significant detail changed or subtly altered from something we learned earlier
in the story. He usually plays on the fears of the person, sowing doubt on a
relationship, or gives the person an excuse to do something that they know is
wrong. With Jesus he even quotes
scripture for his own ends.
The season of Lent is meant to help us notice when the devil is
speaking to us and to recognize his subtle, persuasive voice. Through prayer,
fasting and charity, we begin to uncover those places where we are being
deceived. Where we are lying to
ourselves. So that we might say, “Get
behind me, Satan!”
More importantly, we are able to hear God’s voice speaking in our
hearts and to pursue the truth.
During Lent, we are invited to contemplate the Stations of the
Cross to participate in that devotion on Fridays. Here at St. Agnes, we have these impressively
large dioramas. They invite you to enter
into the story of Jesus’s passion. Look at
the faces of the Roman soldiers who are crucifying Jesus in these scenes. What
are they thinking?
Notice how they do not seem to be relishing their work of
torturing and killing Jesus. There is no
gleeful look of sadistic joy. No
pleasure. Not even Pilate. I imagine that most of them do not think of
themselves as evil men. If I could give
words to their thoughts they would be,
What would happen to me and to my family if I didn’t punish this
man?
Would I be able to feed myself and them? Would I keep my position?
If this man was judged and sentenced by the Roman consul, then
surely this must be a just punishment, right?
He must deserve it.
I have been ordered to do this work. It’s not my role to question my orders,
right?
And notice in these stations the absence of Jesus’ male followers,
the Apostles. All except for John ran
away. It was the women who stayed. Surely the men asked themselves, What
would happen to me if I stayed with Jesus?
Surely then I be crucified right next to him.
These questions are the words of the devil. He causes us to question the things that we
know to be true. To doubt the faithfulness of God and of those closest to
us. He asks, can we really be certain
that this person loves me? Let’s put it to the test. These people are being lied to.
And like Jesus and the people in these stations, we too are tried
and tested. It is the Holy Spirit
who leads Jesus into the desert immediately after his baptism. There is something necessary about Jesus
being tested. He also experienced doubt,
fear, isolation and loneliness, hunger and thirst. It is through persevering and trusting in God
that he is able overcome his trial. Because
God is with him. And God is with
us.
40 years in the desert prepared the people of Israel to enter
the Promised Land. 40 days in the desert
helped prepare Jesus for his ministry and the greater test during his Holy Week.
May these 40 days of Lent help prepare us for the trials of our
lives, and ready us for the joy of Easter in 40 days.
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