Singing Sheep. Did you see the singing sheep in the Honda Ridgeline Truck commercial during the Super bowl? Three sheep are off-loaded from the truck and then one starts singing Queen’s song, Find me Somebody to Love. The entire herd joins the chorus. The rancher returns and they all quiet down, bleating and chewing. We then discover that the truck bed has audio capabilities. More importantly the sheep are in search of something they don’t have but want… Somebody to love. They are surrounded by sheep, an entire herd, but they want more than they have. These creatures that naturally follow, the wooly friends who can only sleep when all is right and safe with no predators around, they are consumed by wants. They are tempted by what they do not have. Does this sound like anyone you know?
Marketing is all about exploiting temptations and wants. Trying to get us to think we need more data, bigger trucks, better beer. Thank God we have entered into the season of Lent; a 40 day journey (excluding Sundays) that allows us to examine ourselves, our values and our wants in light of our Christian faith. Jesus was tempted by the devil for forty days, Moses wandered in the wilderness for forty years and we come to this time of reflection examining our temptations and wants. Temptation is the state of being tempted to evil, like Jesus was tempted by the devil. Another definition of temptation is something you have or want to do. I was tempted to buy another pair of shoes even though I do not need them, but I want them. In the Psalm David speaks of want; specifically thou shall not want. We all know that is easier said than done.
Max Lucado in his book Traveling Light describes, want like a prison. “You’ve seen her prisoners. They are ‘in want.’ They want something. They want something bigger, nicer, faster, thinner. They want….Are you in prison (of want)? You are if you feel better when you have more and worse when you have less. You are if joy is one delivery away, one transfer away, one award away, one makeover away. If your happiness comes from something you deposit, drive, drink, or digest, then face it- you are in prison, the prison of want” (pg. 29-30). The outcome of being in want is discontentment. It is a burden we carry around and one that creates fertile soil of temptations.
Think of times in your life when you have been unsettled, stressed out, something was not quite right: your job was not going well, your relationship had hit a rough patch, your health became a worry. It is only when we are discontent that we even think about temptations. If you are happily married you don’t look at anyone else. Friday, on the Today Show, in honor of Valentine’s Day, they interviewed couples who had been married for 50 years asking them their secret and a wife said, “When I look at my husband I still see the sexiest man in the world.” Discontentment had not become a burden for this couple. They had not fallen prey to the grass is always greener. When we are discontent the grass is always greener. We look at what others have and compare ourselves. We always compare their picture perfect outsides to our insecure insides and we fall terribly short. So when David speaks of the Shepherd making him to lie down in green pastures he is saying fall prostrate to the blessings of your God, the one who has given you everything. Lucado wrote, “David has found the pasture where discontent has gone to die.” It is as if he is saying, “What I have in God is greater than what I don’t have in life.” (Traveling Light, pg. 30) Remember David was living in a desert, arid and dry; much like our desert of discontent. The solution for both is to follow your Shepherd to the green pastures and lie down and surrender to God’s constant care.
Jesus abided in God’s constant care. He stood firm when faced with temptation even though he had every opportunity to become discontent. He had been in the desert 40 days without food and was famished. The devil had tested him at every turn; he was tempted by hunger, isolation and a weakened physical state. Discontentment did not fall upon him. He rested in the care of his Father; he rested in the green pasture, he rested in the love of God. What Jesus has in God is greater than what he doesn’t have in life.
Yet the devil challenged Jesus with three very familiar temptations, ones we face all the time: Personal need, place in the world and the power of God. Hunger is a strong personal need, a driving force, so the devil starts by asking Jesus to turn stones into bread, reminiscent of Moses and manna in the wilderness. Jesus clings to God rather than personal need of food. When offered all authority and kingdoms, Jesus rests in his place with God worshipping and serving him alone, never tempted by the riches of this world. How often do we seek our place in the world more than trusting God’s pastoral care? Finally, the devil tries to get Jesus to test God’s power. Don’t we do that sometimes? God if you get me out of this mess, I will be in church every Sunday. God if you are real, then take this burden from me. We test God’s power even though Jesus tells us not to. Or we depend on our power more than God’s. Personal need, place in the world, the power of God these create much temptation in us, even though God values different things.
A man once went to his minister for counseling. He was in the midst of a financial collapse.
“I’ve lost everything,” he bemoaned.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that you have lost your faith.”
“No” the man corrected him, “I haven’t lost my faith.”
“Well, then I’m sad to hear you have lost your character.”
“I didn’t say that,” he corrected. “I still have my character.”
“I’m so sorry to hear you’ve lost your salvation.”
“That’s not what I said,” the man objected. “I haven’t lost my salvation.”
“You have your faith, your character, your salvation. Seems to me,” the minister observed, “that you’ve lost none of the things that really matter.” (Traveling Light, Max Lucado, p. 33)
When we are in want, we lose sight of what really matters.
We are so focused on our needs we forget why we should not be “in want.”
Want leads to temptation and temptation leads to not trusting God.
Want is a prison that keeps us from the promised green pasture our Shepherd provides.
Want is us holding our need, our place, our power higher than God.
What you have in your Shepherd is greater that what you don’t have in life.
The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. AMEN
