Homily for the First Sunday of Lent, Year A

What Kind Of Messiah Is Jesus? 

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the First Sunday of Lent, Year A

St. Bridget Catholic Church, Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, February 26, 2023

During his public ministry, Jesus was called a teacher, and he was indeed a teacher. He taught a lot. He has the message of eternal life. However, he was not primarily a teacher. Littered on virtually every page of the Gospel is the Lord’s ability to perform miracles, signs and wonders. His mastery over the forces of nature was one reason why great crowds followed him. But he was not primarily a wonder-worker. Jesus was first and foremost what John the Baptist said “the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world.” Everything else about Jesus revolves around this very idea. In the temptation of Jesus, which is the Gospel story for this Sunday, the Devil offers Jesus three shorter alternatives to lure him away from his central mission which is to die on the cross. The Devil chose these temptations because he knew that Jesus would not primarily be a social crusader, or a miracle worker, or a political revolutionist. Jesus would be the Lamb of God who has come to deal decisively and definitively with the sins of the world. 

Before the first temptation occurred, Jesus had fasted for forty days and forty nights, and consequently was hungry physically. So, the Devil approaches him and says, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” It is natural that the Devil’s temptation will be in that direction because Jesus was hungry. But the deeper question here is, what kind of Messiah will he be? If Jesus is the Son of God, which means he has divine power, why won’t he be a Messiah who provides bread for hungry people? Why won’t he focus on his immediate needs and that of those who suffer? And in the course of Jesus’ ministry, he did feed the crowd. The account of him feeding hungry crowds with bread and fish is found in all the four Gospels. He was indeed concerned about the physical needs of his people. By extension, the Church which is the mystical body of Christ is also concerned about people’s physical needs. Think about the various works of Catholic Charity, St. Vincent De Paul, and other Catholic institutions around the world. We do care! But Jesus’ central focus was not the physical needs of people and it should not be so for his Church. Why? Because unless the problem of sin is dealt with, no amount of physical and material well-being will bring us salvation. In addition, unless the problem of sin is dealt with, the very things that lead to the exploitation of the poor will persist. Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich who are insatiably greedy. Responding to the evil one, Jesus says, “One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.” What does that mean? Being fed by the divine word is more important than being fed by physical bread. Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with meeting people’s physical needs. Jesus’ first temptation is to become a social worker and not a Messiah who dies so that sin might be dealt with. The temptation facing the Church today is to become a social worker Church that primarily feeds people bread and not the word of God. 

In the second temptation, the Devil takes Jesus to the parapet of the temple and says, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will command his angels concerning you and with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” The Devil is good at quoting the Bible, so be careful when people quote the Bible to you. Ability to easily quote the Bible is not a strong indication of spiritual authenticity. But what’s the Devil saying in his second temptation? In that era, the temple was the center of Israelite life. It was the focal point of politics, of culture, and of course religion. So, to be at the parapet of the temple was to be at the top of the society. It was to be in the spotlight, on everybody’s mind and be admired by all. Add to it, to now perform wonders in that place will make one the most glamorous figure. It will make someone the most famous person for a very long time to come. Now, at the depth of his humanity, Jesus must have felt a pull in the direction of self-promotion and to fame on worldly terms. Of course, in the course of his public life, Jesus did perform signs and wonders. He did travel far and wide in the Holy Land making himself known to everyone. He was a very public figure. For three years, all attention was focused on him. But at the climax of his life, he was displayed not as someone performing wonders or showing off to the crowd rather as a crucified criminal. He was not displayed in the most glamorous manner, but as a crucified criminal. Up and down the centuries, by what sign does his mystical body, the Church continues to announce him to the world? Precisely by the sign of his cross! His fame will come from the  sacrifice of the cross. What good will fame and prestige do if we are overwhelmed by sin? So, Jesus’ primary role is not to be a glamorous figure, but to be the suffering Savior. 

For the third temptation, the Devil takes him to a very high mountain and shows him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence and then says to him, “All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.” Again, in the depth of his humanity, Jesus must have felt the urge to seize all earthly power, to become a worldly king like David or Caesar Augustus. In moments of goodwill, we might say: if only God’s Son can grab all the levers of power in the world, all will be well. Of course, Jesus did become a King when Pontius Pilate wrote, “Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews.” He will become a King but not in a worldly way. Who controls the kingdoms of the world? The Devil! That is why he tried to offer it all to Jesus. But Jesus knew that ceasing power without dealing with sin won’t do anyone any good. To grab the levers of power without addressing the underlying problems of sin will definitely produce more anguish, more injustice and more suffering. So, Jesus resists this temptation to become a worldly king. He is not primarily a social worker. He is not primarily a wonder-worker. He is not primarily a political operator. Rather, he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.