He finally got his chance to make the big sale. He was going into the final interview on the biggest contract he had ever written.  As he was ushered into the office of the executive buyer, an assistant brought her coffee and left. The atmosphere was cordial, and he knew he was giving his best presentation ever.  Then the assistant tapped on the door, re-entered the office and spoke briefly with the executive.  She stood and said, "I apologize, but I have to tend to a matter.  I'll just be a minute or two."  And she followed her assistant out of the room.

The sales rep looked around the beautifully appointed office.  He saw her family pictures on her desk.  Then he noticed a contract on her desk.  She had evidently been studying a bid from a competitor.  Leaning forward, he could see the column of figures, but it was obscured by a diet soda can!  He was tempted to move the can and see the bottom line of his competitor's bid.  What harm possibly could there be in reading her private information?  After all, she had left it out in plain sight, almost.  After wrestling with himself a while, he finally decided to take a peek.

As he lifted the soda can, he discovered that the can wasn't filled with soda at all.  Instead it was a bottomless can filled with 1,000 BBs which gushed out and ran all over the desk and cascaded onto the carpet. His attempt to shortcut the competition was exposed!

Not every temptation is so obvious.  Not every failure is so embarrassing.  But every temptation is a challenge. Not even Jesus was spared the choosing. Jesus overcame his temptation by putting his complete trust in God.  And by fighting with the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.  That's a good example for us.  We're so concerned about "having it all."  The kingdoms of the world.  The child of God trusts that God will provide all that he or she needs.

We are surrounded by temptations on every side. On a tight budget or watching your weight? “Dollar Menus” at fast food joints tempt us to binge on cheap, fatty, over-processed food.  The beauty of the Internet? …It contains everything.  The curse of the Internet? ...It contains everything.  At the touch of a button, good information is available.  At the touch of a button, here is an endless supply of garbage, gossip, pornography, violence, and hate.  Cell phones keep us in touch no matter where we are.  Yet cell phones tempt us to never be anywhere except on the phone.  A first car gives freedom, responsibility and great possibilities. But a first car also tempts a young driver to head places they shouldn’t, drive too fast, or show-off.

How about the temptation to gloat and glory over the fall of others? Our indulgence in this temptation keeps a swarm of paparazzi recording Britney Spears’ every move. Did you see that mile-long caravan that followed her to the hospital?  What’s up with that? Our indulgence of this temptation splashes the mug shots of celebrity drunk drivers across TV screens as though they were real news!  It brings us lurid “true crime” shows and Court-TV,  as though watching others sin somehow absolves us of our own!

            The season of Lent is supposed to be a time of repentance and renewal.  It is a time for rededication to a life of service.  It is a time of preparation for the passion of Christ.

How then has it become a time to give up chocolate, or hamburgers, or video games?  What have we done?  The temptations that the devil flung at Jesus after his 40-day-fast in the wilderness weren’t just challenges to DO something he wasn’t supposed to do. They were challenges tempting Jesus to BE someone he was not born to be!  Did you hear that difference?  Let me try again.  The ultimate temptations in life are NOT those that push you to “do” things you aren’t supposed to “do,” but to “be” a person who you weren’t made to be!

The devil wasn’t tempting Jesus to take the edge off his hunger by turning stones into bread.  He was tempting the “Son of God” to replace his table relationship to God with fast food!  If Jesus would have given in, He would not have trusted in his Father’s providential care!

The devil wasn’t tempting Jesus to jump off the temple roof.  He was tempting the Son of God to demand that the Father take action based on the Son’s desires and preferences! “You believe your Father will care for you and prolong your life.  So jump down. Make Him prove it!”

The devil wasn’t tempting Jesus with the power and prestige offered by the kingdoms of the world.  He was tempting the Son of God to intentionally orphan himself from the Father, by taking an easy short-cut to becoming the King.  One that wouldn’t have worked anyway.

Have you ever considered the odds against the devil succeeding in his temptations?  For forty days and forty nights Jesus had been alone with “the Spirit” who had led him there.  For forty days and forty nights he had been away from needy crowds, mundane concerns and tiresome commitments.  For forty days and forty nights he had been in communion with his Father in ways we cannot imagine.  After forty days and forty nights Jesus may have been “famished,” but his spirit was strong. Jesus was more truly “Himself” than he had ever been before.  The devil fails miserably not because Jesus refuses to do the things offered. The devil fails miserably because Jesus will be no one other than Himself, the Son of God!

As the Union Pacific Railroad was being constructed, a trestle bridge was built across a large canyon in the West. Wanting to test the bridge, the builder loaded a train with enough extra cars and equipment to double its normal payload. The train was then driven to the middle of the bridge, where it stayed an entire day. One worker asked, "Are you trying to break this bridge?" "No," the builder replied, "I'm trying to prove that the bridge won't break." In the same way, the temptations Jesus faced weren't designed to see if He would sin, but to prove that He couldn't.  To give Him the opportunity to be Himself so one day who He is would be who we are!

The temptation to be less than you are, to be less than what God has made you to be, is the Great Temptation that underlies all other temptations in life! Jesus’ life, death and resurrection give us a new relationship with God. Because Jesus took his identity all the way to the cross, even overcoming temptations, we have the gift of a new life in Christ!  God has called us to be God’s beloved, to be his sons and daughters - redeemed, reborn, forgiven. Even for all failures to temptation.  God calls us to be this true self - to allow Christ to live his resurrection life through us, making us more the original, one-of-a-kind person God created us to be!

During this season of Lent, instead of “giving up” some indulgence, some temptation to “do” something (eat, drink, party) …What if we were to “take on” something?  What if we were as individuals to “take on” the identity of Christ?  What if we were as a group to “take on” the identity of a Christ-body community?

Few of us would enjoy living in the Puritan culture in the New England colonies of the 17th and 18th centuries. When we picture someone who is “puritanical” we envision a scowling face, a figure dressed in black and probably carrying a threatening hickory switch. We envision that Puritans were so straight-laced they squeaked, had no sense of humor, forbade fun, and had a fondness for the stocks, whips, prisons, and nipping any and all “sins” in the bud before they had a chance to even think about blooming. At least that is the common reputation of “Puritans.”

But even though the culture Puritans created was stiflingly strict, at least according to our relaxed standards, what they were really trying to do was create a society that made it as difficult as possible for people to sin. Outlawing all those distracting temptations was done in order to let the people concentrate fully on who they truly were—the Body of Christ.

Yet, while the Puritans tried to make sinning hard, they also realized people would sin. After all, our sinful nature is the reason we needed a Saviour in the first place, isn’t it?   Every Puritan child learned this first in the textbook called The New England Primer: “In Adam’s Fall, we sinned all.”  Puritans made it as hard to sin as they could, but they also made it as easy as they could for those who did sin to be restored to the community. The Puritans practiced reconciliation that would enable those who succumbed to temptation to be welcomed back. Those who fell were not attacked, but helped back up and hugged back to life!

What a difference our world is today! We make it as easy to sin as we possibly can, our every moment bombarded with images that tempt and invite us to “fall.” But then when someone does succumb, what do we do? We reel back in horror…“How could you! Shame on you!  Depart from me.  Get out of here.” We make it as hard as possible for them to be forgiven.

During this season of Lent, what if we decided to “take on” rather than “give up?”  What if, instead of “giving up” criticizing others, we “took on” the forgiving of others and the loving of others?  What if we were to resolve that every person we would encounter this Lent we would find some way to love them: with a smile, with a compliment, with a word of forgiveness, with some word of encouragement?  Because of the way you and I were forgiven.

What if we were to seek out and “take on” those who have fallen, those for whom temptations to be other than what God intends for them has claimed a triumph?  What if we were to “take on” the mission of loving certain people ignored by others?  What if we were to become an encourager to embolden others to be what God created them to be?

Rich Mullins has been called “the poet laureate of the contemporary Christian music world.”  You might recognize a song of his we often sing: “Our God is an Awesome God.” Mullins lived humbly among the Native Americans, and was killed returning to his mission in a car accident one storm night in 1997. When admirers would ask him to sign a picture or a CD, he simply penned these words:  “Be God’s,  Rich.”

This Lent, instead of “giving up” chocolate bars, let’s “take on” a mission!  And the ultimate mission in life?  The mission that Jesus fulfilled in the Scripture text for this morning: “Be God’s.”  Preach Gospel.  Amen.

Portions of the sermon adapted from Leonard Sweet’s sermon of the same title.