Sermons from Moorpark Presbyterian Church

Lead Us Not Into Temptation

by Dave Wilkinson

James 1:2-3, 12-16, 4:6-10, Matthew 6:9-13

June 4, 2000

The two cowboys face the sad task of burying their dead friend out on the lonesome prairie. As they pat the dirt down over the body, Slim says: "It just ain’t right to stick ol' Fred in the ground without a few words. I'm gonna say the Lord's Prayer."

Wichita says: "You don't even know the Lord's Prayer."

Slim says, "I do too. 'The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.'"

Wichita looks at Slim in amazement and says: "Well I'll be struck by lightnin'. I didn't think you knew it."

That's not our problem. Most of us know the Lord's Prayer very well. If you grew up going to church, you may have said it well over two thousand times. If you grew up Catholic and said "Our Fathers" as part of the rosary, the count may be closer to ten thousand.

Now, in all of those times, have you ever stopped to look at this prayer -- and especially at the part which is our focus this morning? What does it mean when we pray to God and ask Him: "Lead us not into temptation"? Have you ever thought, "What am I saying here and why am I saying it?"

The reason you have that nagging thought is because you already know, that the Bible clearly says that God does not tempt. You know that James 1:13 says: "Let no person say when he or she is tempted, 'I am tempted of God.' for God cannot be tempted of evil and He does not tempt anyone."

Since this is true, why do we pray Sunday after Sunday: "lead us not into temptation" -- since leading us into temptation is one thing the Bible promises us that God does not do and will not do.

The reason this is complicated is because of the Greek text. In Greek, the same word, "parotil" can refer either to a direct temptation to do evil or it can refer to a trial, a testing. In Greek it’s the same word so we need to understand the context.

For example, James uses the word "tempt" in two different ways within the space of a few verses. In James 1:2-3 we read: "Count it all joy when you experience various trials because you know that the testing of your faith produces patience." Here James refers to tests that God originates or permits -- like the test that came to Abraham -- or the test that comes through persecution for the sake of Christ. James says that in and through these experiences, God strengthens our faith. We are told to rejoice in such testing.

But just ten verses later, James uses the exact same word to speak of another kind of testing. This is in James 1:13 that I just quoted. "Let no person say when he or she is tempted, 'I am tempted of God.' for God cannot be tempted of evil and He does not tempt anyone." James adds: "But every person is tempted, when drawn away by his own lust and enticed." This is the temptation to sin. This is not at all from God. We are never to blame God for our sin and we are never to blame God for our weakness. When we are hit with temptation, as opposed to testing, we are not called to rejoice in it. We are called to triumph over it.

In the Lord’s Prayer, the prayer for safety in temptation comes immediately after the prayer for forgiveness. Forgiveness deals with the past -- the forgiveness of our past and our forgiveness of others for their offenses against us. But this new petition deals with the future--the temptations which are yet to come. And they will come.

The reasons they will come is because we have freedom to choose for God or to chose against God. In the whole created order on earth, only we decide on major questions of good and evil. The animals don’t do this.

For example, if you take a bird and put it in a room where there is a cat -- even a tame, loveable cat -- the bird is there and the cat catches the bird and eats it. You become angry with the cat. Baaad Kitty! But why should you be angry at the cat? You did not tempt the cat because the cat is not aware of the bird's right to life. It is unaware of the moral good and evil question. It follows its instincts and its instinct is to go after the bird. We are different. We are aware. That's why we can be tempted in this moral sense. And Jesus tells us to pray for help. He says that we need help because of the enemies we face who seek to tip the balance in the moral realm.

The temptation Jesus points us to in the Lord's Prayer -- and calls us to pray for deliverance from -- is not a test from God. It is not even primarily an outgrowth of our own natures. It is a temptation that comes to us directly from the evil one. We know this is the focus because Jesus connects the two in His prayer -- "Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil"-- or, literally, "deliver us from the evil one." We’ll look at this phrase and what it means in detail in a later sermon.

But for now, recognize that the issues are real.

A great German pastor named Helmut Thileke preached on this text the day after the Allies occupied Strasbourg toward the close of World War II. Thileke spoke to his congregation -- people who were only beginning to grasp the complicity of the German people in the Holocaust. He said: "The petition, 'lead us not into temptation' really does show us that life is dangerous, that it is something that can trip us up and ruin us where we can stake everything on the wrong card."

Thileke continues: "In one of his expositions on this petition, Luther once said: 'We are beset before and behind by temptations and we cannot throw them off.' Now Luther, we know, saw the world filled with devils who were clutching at him, and in his drastic way he even threw his inkwell at them. Now perhaps we may wag our heads over such a view of life and say, 'what a poor medieval fool! After all, our modern enlightened world has emancipated us from this superstitious, specter- haunted twilight. Or," Thileke asked his German congregation, "Do the words stick in our throats because in this apocalyptic hour we are beginning to understand what Luther saw and what we have forgotten how to see? Just because we do not see a thing or have forgotten how to see it does not mean that it no longer exists."

The issues are real.

'Lead us not into temptation." We can rephrase this petition and also say: 'let nothing become a temptation to me. For everything, absolutely everything, can become temptation--not only particular urges and addictions which we may submit to and which prompt us to put a damper on God's word, or even more cleverly, to declare it irrelevant (why should God have anything to say about my ambition or my sexual desires) but also the greatest things can become temptation to us.

What is it, for example, that appears in Luther's hymn 'A Mighty Fortress' as the most dangerous competitor to the kingdom of God? It’s not primarily the sexual urge or envy or hatred or some vice, but rather the great things in life -- goods, kindred, and life itself. In other words, the possessions we may lose (or the fear of poverty and dependence); the loss of reputation (or the fear of ostracism and public disapproval) or the fear that something may happen to us or to those we love--these are the real competitors.

Our prayer is that when we are assailed by temptation and when evil desires are aroused, that we will have the grace and strength to resist. We pray that the voice of Christ through His Word will sound stronger in our ears than the voice of the tempter. That’s what James says in 4:7. In this passage James speaks of the assaults we receive from the evil one. And then he says: "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you." We are called to submit and resist.

What does it mean to submit to God? It means to surrender ourselves to God's will. This is why the petition, "lead us not into temptation" comes after we pray: "Hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done." We can only resist the evil one after we submit ourselves to God.

After we submit, how do we resist? The answer is: by God's word--just the way Jesus did it when He was tempted in the wilderness.

In the Greek text special stress is laid on the word "into." It is a translation of the Hebrew "lidhe" which means "into the hands of." So the expanded version of this petition is something like this. "I know that temptation must come, for there can be no life with free will without temptation. But when it comes, do not abandon me to it--do not deliver me helpless into its power." This is similar to Jesus' prayer for His disciples in John 17: "I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one." This is not an impossible request to be exempted from temptation but a prayer not to be abandoned helpless and unarmed to its attack and power.

We face temptation. It comes to us from many places and in many forms. And Jesus tells us to pray that we will not be abandoned to its power. And as we pray this, scripture assures us that our pray is both heard and answered. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:13: "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to people. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with every temptation will also provide a way of escape, that you may be able to endure it."

That is the answer to our immediate need -- to know that we aren’t helpless and that we can endure. Our Lord is faithful. His faithfulness is shown by what the bread and juice on this table represent -- a body broken for us, blood poured out for us.

So go ahead and pray the prayer Jesus taught you. He will answer it.