THE REVEREND WILLIAM O. DANIEL, JR., PHD 21 Main Street — Geneseo, New York 14454 Phone: 585.358.8338 — E-Mail: [email protected]

“Man does not live by bread alone.” “Feed men first and then ask for Virtue.” These are the words spoke to Jesus by the Grand Inquisitor from Dostoyevsky’s, The Brothers Karamazov. There are “three powers alone,” he says, “able to conquer and to hold captive for ever the conscience of [man]— those forces are miracle, mystery and authority.” In a lengthy, one-sided conversation with Jesus, the Grand Inquisitor complains of a God who refuses to gain the trust of humanity through miracles, wealth or the exercise of power. The story is situated around the 16th Century when the Inquisition was at the height of its authority, and Jesus has returned to earth for a visit. As he walks the streets of a city where the church wields all power, people begin to flock to him, recognizing immediately who he is without anyone ever mentioning that it is he. A blind man is healed, others are healed from various diseases when they touch his garments, and a child is raised from the dead—the same miracles Jesus had performed in the 1st Century. The Grand Inquisitor is passing by, sees these events unfold, and motions to the guards standing nearby to have Jesus arrested. Living Bread and the Bread of Ashes: Sermon Preached in Saint Michael’s Church, Geneseo, New York, February 14, 2016

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The Grand Inquisitor visits Jesus in the jail and looks at him saying, “Is it you? Is it really you?” It is then that the Grand Inquisitor rehearses the temptations that Jesus faced in the wilderness, and how impossible were those temptations. They signify for all time, says the Inquisitor, every temptation known to man—hunger, authority, and power. And the Inquisitor goes on the say to Jesus, ‘If you had just turned that stone into bread,’ all would bow down and worship you. “Choosing ‘bread,’ you would have satisfied the universal and everlasting craving of humanity,” says the Inquisitor, the craving “to find some one to worship… for man seeks not so much God as the miraculous.” Lent is such a troublesome season in the Church. We begin these 40 days by rubbing ashes on our foreheads and hearing the words, “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.” In other words, remember that you are going to die. There, aren’t you glad you came to church this morning? Yet it is more than this. I remind my children each year on Ash Wednesday that we

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put ashes on our foreheads so that we never forget that without Christ we are just ash. Without the gift of life that God communicates to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit we are no more than the dust that covers our feet. The ashes, therefore, remind us that because of Christ we are more than these bodies that will eventually fail us; we are more than our aches and pains; we are more than the fleeting powers of this world. The devil tempts Jesus in the wilderness, and does so, says Luke, after Jesus is exhausted from wandering in the wilderness for 40 days. It is, however, the Spirit that leads Jesus into the wilderness. Notice that it is not the devil who takes Jesus out to be tempted; rather, these temptations are set forth by God, which is perhaps more unsettling than it is encouraging. “If you are the Son of God….” These are the words that precede each temptation, which suggests to us that there really is but one temptation—the temptation to trust in the limited power we have in this world, the power over appetite, politics, and death.

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“Turn this stone into bread.” This is the temptation Israel faced in the wilderness, which Moses rehearses with the Israelites before they enter the promised land. In Deuteronomy 8, Moses reminds the Israelites that God provides all that we need, and that it is the word of the Lord that feeds us. Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 8.3 in his reply to the devil when he says, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” Next the devil tempts Jesus with the authority over all the nations of the world, a temptation that has overcome many rulers and nations throughout history, always leading to their demise—think of the Romans, Napoleon, Peter the Great, the Ottomans, and many more. “Worship me and I will give you authority over the kingdoms of the world,” and Jesus once again quotes from Deuteronomy 10: “You shall fear the Lord your God; him alone you shall worship.” It is the last and final temptation that cuts at the heart of our humanity: who holds the power over life and death? It is this final temptation, when the devil takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the

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Temple, that helps us to see that the three temptations are one, for here is the real twist that often goes unnoticed by biblical scholars. It is this that Dostoyevsky’s Grand Inquisitor refuses to passover unnoticed: “When the wise and dread spirit,” he says, “set you on the pinnacle of the temple and said to you, ‘If you would know whether you are the Son of God, then cast yourself down….” The temptation is for Jesus to prove that he is the Son of God, but interestingly, Dostoyevsky shows us that the temptations in the wilderness have everything to do with whether or not Jesus himself trusted that he is God’s Son. ‘The only way to really know that you are the Son of God,’ says the devil, ‘is to throw yourself down and have the angels rescue you from death.’ The devil quotes from our Psalm today, Psalm 91: “For he shall give his angels charge over you… lest you dash your foot against a stone.” ‘If you are the Son of God, nothing will happen to you.’ And again in reply, Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” It is here that we begin to understand what Paul is saying when he writes in his letter to the Philippians regarding Jesus,

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Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited… (Philippians 2.5-6). What is crucial for us to recognize in the temptations is that Jesus never acknowledges the validity of any power or authority that is not from the Father—not even his own. We are reminded that we become slaves to the things we consume—food, drink, houses, entertainment, technologies, you name it—when our lives are organized by that which does not sustain the soul. We become slaves to wealth and power when we acquire them at the expense and detriment of others. And, we become slaves of death when we seek only to preserve our life. Until we recognize the limitations of earthly power and authority, we will continue to succumb to temptation and remain enslaved by false desires. Yet the wisdom of the wilderness is this: God thinks more highly of us than we do of ourselves. God will not remove temptations from us, because God in Christ gives us the

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strength to overcome temptation. Will we trust God and the power that he gives, or will we limit ourselves to food that nourishes only for a time? Will we settle for dust and ashes, or will we live by the Word that comes from the Father—Christ, our only mediator and advocate? Amen.