A couple of weeks ago I attempted to buy wine glasses.  I knew exactly which ones I wanted.  I knew the manufacturer I liked and the color I wanted.  I liked the their big chunky, rustic look.  After searching whenever I was out shopping I found that no one carried them in the right color.  I did see similar ones, ones that I think were made to look like the ones I wanted but something was wrong.  I wasn’t sure exactly why I didn’t like them as much but I didn’t.  They were not the real thing.  Isn’t it funny how we can tell the real thing from a fake.  We know authenticity when we see it.

In a certain way the same thing applies to human beings as well.  I think we know when someone is being authentic and someone is not.  We know when we’re not.  We know when we’re not really acting in a way that is congruent with the way we feel.  It doesn’t feel right. .  I know there have been times in my life where I’ve done something I normally would not ever do.  I let the situation get the best of me.   I forget what’s important to me and I lose myself.  I stop being authentic. 

And other people well...isn’t it a complete bummer when you know someone for some length of time and all of a sudden they do something so out of character that it’s like a shot of cold water in the face.  You’re left wondering which person is this guy.  Will the real Bill Smith please stand up!

I’ve been thinking about this authentic thing pertaining to people for a while.  It starting one evening when I went to see a preacher talk.  That evening was the first time I had heard anything about Jesus that piqued my interest in a very long time.  The preacher said in a very matter of fact  way that “Jesus was calling us to live an authentic life.” I started thinking.  I had thought that Jesus called us to live a good life.  And good for me meant moral, God-fearing and sometimes even guilt-ridden.  But authentic….I was intrigued!  I want to live an authentic life!   But to my dismay he never really explained what that was. At least I don’t think he did because by the time I stopped fantasizing and came back to the sermon he had moved on. And I still had no idea what it meant to “live an authentic life” and I especially had no idea how Jesus was calling me to do that.

From then on when I read the Bible I was on the look-out for signs of that authentic life Jesus was calling us to.  And I found them.  And I think the best place to start to understand how Jesus calls us to an authentic life is the story you just heard.  The temptation story.

There are 2 things I want to get past before we even talk about this story.  One is that hard to believe feeling that Jesus can be tempted and I ask you to forget that.  what good would this story be if Jesus wasn’t really tempted. What would be the reason for 3 or he four gospel writers to tell and me re-tell it still if Jesus weren’t really tempted.

Second, I ask that you put aside any preconceived notions you have or haven’t about the devil.  Whether or not you look at the devil as a real entity or a mythological character that defines evil doesn’t really matter.  What matters is what the story teaches us.  For me, this is a story of Good and Evil and what those two entities embody. 

Let’s look at the devil…who here thinks the devil was really concerned that Jesus hadn’t eaten in 40 days and might want some bread?  The devil is manipulative, tricky, his conversation does not match his intensions.  It kind of reminds me of Bill Cosby when he told his son, “Put down the cookie. I told you no sweets before dinner and he replies, I know I was getting it for you.”  Conversely, Jesus is real. He is confronted head on with the temptation to be inauthentic.  He is tempted to be what he’s not and to involve himself in pride, manipulation, in greed and in defensiveness.  He chooses to be real!   To me that is the point of this story.

I remember when I first read this Bible passage I was kind of shocked at the temptations. The devil in the story tempts Jesus three times.  And to be honest with you I didn’t think the temptations were that …bad.  They didn’t seem evil at all.  Perhaps that is what makes temptation…tempting.   But remember that real temptations look good. Real temptation comes from offers not to fall but to rise.   The devil would never tempt a person with offers of personal ruin.  As one famous Bible scholar says,  “All that comes in the small print at the bottom”

Our temptations are not always mind blowing moments that tear us apart.  More often they are little tugs ... shoulds …why nots… that seem harmless enough but eventually chip away at the core of who we are and the purpose we’ve set our lives to.

The first time he tries to get him to use his abilities to control and manipulate the natural order of things for his own benefit.  He says “hey, you’re hungry turn this stone into bread”.  Doesn’t seem like a horrible thing to do. Surely the Son of God would want to turn stone into bread if he could.  Especially after fasting for 40 days.  That’s as tempting as turning rain into sunshine and night into day.  And honestly turning stone into bread: surely sounds good to the hungry.  But Jesus says “No,”  he will not deny the natural order of things for his own good.  Even if he can, he will not play with what’s real.  He knows that he can walk out of the desert and find food the good old fashion way - the way God intended. 

Authentic people respect what is real.  I think in our society what’s real is an interesting topic.   If we can change reality and make someone believe it that is as good as it being real.  Spin…After all we live in the culture of spin. People make speeches and other people tell us what they meant.  Why do we need that?  Doesn’t it start to make the impression that what’s important is the commentary afterward.  What’s so bad about re-telling a story so that more people are on that side?  Do we do that in our lives?  Do we manipulate reality to our benefit?

Then, the devil tells Jesus that he will give him power of all the kingdoms of the world if he will worship him.   Now why on Earth would the Son of God come to the world if he wasn’t going to try to rule the world anyway?  How could you have so much power and not want to be powerful?  At any expense!! Would Jesus submit to the evil of the world in order to do good in the world.  Why not take the world from the devil?  Why not take political control from rulers who are oppressive, sounds great to those who are oppressed!

But Jesus says, “No”.  That’s not the way he’s going to do it.  This is His purpose and he is going to own his own life.  It’s not something the devil can give to him.  At any cost,   Authentic people own their actions and their responsibilities.  Making other people responsible for your life, your tasks and your happiness takes you way off track.  

Third, he tells Jesus to throw himself off the temple in Jerusalem because God will save him, right?   And what’s wrong with making sure you’ve got the security you think you do.  What’s wrong with making sure the person who says he loves you really does. And after all, jumping from the temple sounds good to those longing for proof of God’s love and power. 

But Jesus says, “No”.  Jesus says he will not test God.  Jesus’ relationship to God is one of Authenticity.   Authentic people have honest relationships.  And that is a tough one.  Most of us have so much baggage that it’s hard to relate to one another without putting up airs and defenses.   How often do we manipulate and try to control other people?  I had a person in my life that used to call me when she new I wasn’t at home…I figured out finally that she was seeing if I’d call her back.  What a waste of time for both of us.  How much time we humans waste plotting and planning and playing with people.  It takes us far from who we are.

When we give in to those types of temptation it slowly eats away at who you are. We become inauthentic.

And in all three times the devil attempts to define Jesus. We know that because he says “If you’re the Son of God”(more accurately translated “since”).  This is not to challenge his identity.  The devil accepts who he is,  Rather he is saying, “Since this is who you are, this is what you should do.”  In this one story we see Jesus address the issues he is confronted with time and time again in many different forms by many different people.  And here in the desert we get our first hint of what Jesus’ identity means to Jesus.

He doesn’t let the devil define him. No matter what is offered him. In this story we see the future.  We see how he will behave for the rest of his life.  We see in his action and his conversation…the core of who he is.  And that is why he is an authentic person.  It is the core of who he that is at the center of every choice he makes.   And that core is the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit entered him, led him to the desert and was the power that gave him the strength to chose to walk away.  When Jesus asks us to be his followers he is asking us to be as authentic like him.  He is saying to us that we are born who we are, but in each moment we chose to honor it or chip it away.

I am reminded of something I heard about people who work in banks. Someone once told me that the best way for a new bank teller to recognize counterfeit money is not for them to get a lot of exposure to counterfeit money. There are too many different forgeries that people can attempt. Instead, the best way for someone to tell real money from fake is to spend a lot of time handling real money. They get used to the way that it looks and the way it feels.  They come to know it so intimately that that they no longer have to consciously think about it and no longer have to look at each and every piece that comes to them. They develop an instinct for what is real, and when they do that, it is much easier to know when they run into a fake.

I think the journey for us a followers of Jesus is to get so in touch with our core.  In touch with spirit that wants so desperately to live at the core of our existence that we see instinctively, without the shadow of doubt, know what is fake when we see it .  But like the bankers that only comes with getting to know the real thing. ,

We get to know the real thing by coming to church, by prayer, by reading the Bible, by meeting in small groups.  Any time you are learning about Jesus Christ you are touching what is real. A life so authentic and pure that evil could not penetrate.