page 2
I continued to run all morning, nourished and energized by the satisfaction of my strong need for the solace the wilderness always gave me. Eventually, however, I grew tired and hungry and decided to turn back. Less than a mile into the return journey I came to the last of the crossroads that had marked. Just as I had planned, when I surveyed the two choices, the two possible routes home, I saw in the dirt the two sticks I had carefully placed there. Yet, instead of seeing the sticks as the arrow I had intended to create, instead, lying in the fine gravel path, lay a cross. I ran on. And a mile or so down the trail, I encountered the next crossroads, and it too revealed the way home with a cross, a cross lying in the dirt. And at each uncertain intersection along the way I found that I had, unconsciously, marked the way with a cross. Two crossed sticks, over and over again, showing me the way home. I left behind me a trail of tears.
It was a life altering experience. But a question remained in my mind, a question that I still ponder. Once you have decided to follow the cross. Where does it lead? If your way is being guided by the cross, what does the path look like?
Maybe there are a few clues in today's lesson. Maybe we can gain some insight into what the way of the cross looks like by examining what Jesus found wasn't the way - by looking at what was offered to Jesus and what he rejected. Let's examine the gospel reading and think about the context. The gospel of Luke was written sometime in the last third of the first century of the Common Era - perhaps some 40 or 50 years after Christ's death. This was during the reign of the Roman Emperor Caligula, notorious for his great cruelty and for his intention to destroy the Temple in Jerusalem. It is almost always useful, when looking at the New Testament to remember that all the events described took place within the context of the Roman Empire. And that the intended readers of almost every letter, parable, story, saying, poem, chronology, and historical account were the people that existed on the margins of that empire. The Romans were the rulers, the political, social, and economic leaders of the day. The intended audience for that collection of different types of literature that we now call the New Testament was the Jews and the Gentiles who feared, paid tribute, and hated the Roman occupiers.
Biblical scholars have long suggested that the model for Satan in today's gospel reading was the Emperor Caligula himself. Certainly, he was rightfully hated. He was evil incarnate, if you will. For in fact, it was the Roman Emperor's claim to divinity, together with his efforts to destroy the Temple in Jerusalem, which made him such a reviled figure among the Jews of the day. Equally despised was the Herodian client King Agrippa I. King Agrippa was a Jew, but a Jew that had been placed in a position of authority over his fellow Jews by Caligula. This was the Roman method of governance - to choose a ruler from within an occupied country. They would place in a position of authority someone whose loyalty was divided. Someone who was a part of the indigenous culture, but who took his orders from Rome. Agrippa was a sell out.
The New Testament scholar, N.H. Taylor suggests that the antitype of Jesus, in this story of temptation, is not Satan but, Agrippa, the one who accepts territory, land, patronage as a reward for paying homage to the Emperor. King Agrippa - the sellout. In the second temptation, the devil led Jesus to the mountain top and showed him all the kingdoms of the world. The Greek word for kingdom used here in Luke doesn't refer to wilderness, to mountains and meadows, but to the inhabited world, a world of commerce and agriculture and industry, more specifically, to the Roman world. The devil offers Jesus authority over a stretch of the Roman Empire, if only he agrees to bow down and worship him.
It's not hard to see the connection. Think of the devil as the evil Roman Emperor Caligula, and imagine that what was is being offered to Jesus is the same thing that was offered to King Agrippa, a chance to enjoy the power, privilege, and wealth that comes with betrayal of one's people and an embracing of the Empire. Unlike Agrippa, Jesus responded to the devil's offer by citing scripture, "Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him." It was Jesus rejection of an offer to be a part of the established order, the Empire, and it led him, ultimately to death on the cross.
So where does that leave us? When we read the Bible, we're tempted, I think, to identify with those Jesus' followers for whom the writings were originally intended. The marginalized, the poor, the alien, those who lived squalid, uncertain lives in the midst of Roman plenty. To that end we often spiritualize scripture, turning descriptions of the hard cold realities of life - lives where the ability to turn a stone into a loaf of bread would mean fending off starvation for another day. Instead we talk about spiritual hunger and our thirst after righteousness, when a third of the world is really hungry and really thirsty for a cup of clean water.
But where does that leave us when we are faced with the realization that we are citizens of the Empire? The temptation that Agrippa faced isn't exactly the one we face. It is true that we are, individually, confronted daily with the opportunity to accept or reject the consumerism, the shallowness, the "me first" attitude of the dominate culture.
But the choice has another, larger, dimension, because we as Americans, are the dominant culture, we are the new Romans. And we face a question that has plagued Christianity since Emperor Constantine converted to the faith. How do you follow the cross, when you are part of the Empire?
Today is the first Sunday in Lent. This movement into the season of Lent is the church's symbolic way of going into the wilderness. In the wilderness Jesus was tempted to use his power to satisfy his own hunger; he was tempted to exchange his destiny for the devil's offer of authority, fame, and money. It was because Jesus way through the wilderness was marked with a cross that he was able to overcome the temptations that confronted him. We are guided through our 40 days in the wilderness with a cross as well, and sustained by the hope of resurrection.