“The Test” by Cheri Holdridge (with an assist by Kurt Young)

In the 1983 film War Games, a very young Matthew Broderick plays a high school student who accidentally hacks into a top secret military computer system, set up to respond if the Soviets launch a nuclear missile (hmm, the US and Russia having a tense situation, everything old is new again – Kurt). It was created because the military had decided that there was a problem with allowing humans to make the decision of how to respond to nuclear strike. The high school student thinks he is playing a game but he inadvertently sets off a chain reaction that is about to result in nuclear war (The WOPR, the computer, was designed to win any game it plays, even if it’s playing with the end of the world). Spoiler alert. I am going to show you the pivotal closing scene in the movie, but it’s a 30 year movie so you’ve either seen it, or not by this point. Broderick’s character is trying to teach the computer that certain games are unwinnable. Watch the scene by copying this clip into your web browser:   http://youtu.be/NHWjlCaIrQo

“Strange game. The only winning move is not to play.” The computer learns that any move will destroy the world. The only winning move is not to play the game. My husband loves to quote this line when he is in a lose lose situation. You know, when I say: “I want you to be honest, can you tell I have gained weight.” “The only winning move is not to play.” 

The computer was being tested. It was facing the opportunity to destroy the world. It had been programmed to respond. It was being baited to respond. But it played out all the scenarios and even a computer could “learn” that none of these choices were good ones.  The computer was tested and passed it. 

Have you ever faced a test? Of course you have. We have all taken tests, in school, for professional certification, tests of loyalty or moral character. There are some tests for which you can study. They are academic, or skills based. Some tests are based on our values. Some tests are more along the lines of what we would call a temptation. You find a wallet with lots of money in it. Do you keep the money or turn it in? That is a test of our values. 

Jesus faced a test of identity. Could he live into his identity as the Son of God? Because you see he was fully human and fully God. So at any moment his fully human side could have won out, over his fully God side. Fear could have won over trust in God. Pride could have one over humility. 

Here is the story. For the first thirty years of his life Jesus grew up like all other Jewish boys and young men. We have a few stories of him being a precocious young student in the Temple, holding the attention of the rabbis at a study session. But we’ve got to think that he had some normal experiences a child and young man. 

I really wish we knew more about what he was like as a young man. I wonder what it was like for him to be a teen-ager coming to understand at age 14 that he was the Son of God. I mean, seriously! Being a teen-ager and finding your way in life is hard enough. But imagine the pressure of somehow knowing that you are somehow both fully human and fully God. Maybe he did not know that, but Mary and Joseph surely told him that he was born for a unique purpose. 

Anyway, we know that by the time he reached about age 30 he was ready to begin his public ministry. He was baptized by John, he was filled with the Holy Spirit and he immediately went into the wilderness for 40 days of prayer and fasting to prepare. This was his time of preparation for what was to come. There was a test to come, actually lots of tests and trials. So he did what he needed to do to prepare. 

Before you face a test, you prepare, right?   Whether you are taking the exam to be a Certified Public Accountant, a certified electrician, a dental assistant.  If there is a test, you prepare.  

·         have a plan for your study

·         Get plenty of rest

·         Eat a good breakfast

·         Wear your lucky pants (Kurt had to insert a picture of one of his 3 Zubaz Bengals pants he wore that Pastor Cheri was referring to in her message)

Jesus prepared by praying and by fasting. Fasting is a spiritual practice that most of us have rarely practiced. I only know a couple of people who have fasted for as long as 40 days and they were doing it as a witness for some justice issue. In the Jewish tradition, fasting means no food, drink, including water.

In fasting, when we refrain from, food and drink which meet our physical needs, then we have an opportunity to focus on our spiritual selves.  Giving up these physical things, helped Jesus to be vulnerable and to experience his total dependence upon God. God sustains everything in creation. Fasting helps put us in touch with our connection to creation and to God. 

In order for Jesus to pass all the tests of his life, he had to experience complete dependence upon God and put his whole trust in God. No holding back. This was his preparation for the testing. 

At the end of 40 days, so the story goes, The Devil, or some sort of evil came to Jesus. Honestly, he could have been so delirious it could have been a dream. When we read stories like this, we need to remember that the Bible was written to teach us truths. And the stories in it were handed down through an oral tradition for a long time. And think about it. The only person who was there, was Jesus. So this story came to us, because Jesus told it to someone. There were no TV cameras or voice recordings. We could do a whole study about what might or might not be literally true in the Bible, but for now, suffice it to say, Jesus had some encounter with what he called “evil.” 

Evil tested Jesus. Evil said: “Why don’t you make it easy on yourself and turn some stones to bread?” And Jesus said: “It takes more than bread to stay alive. I live on God’s word.”  I think Jesus is telling Evil – “I am not going to play your game.”  That is round one of the test.

Round two – Evil takes Jesus up on top of the Temple in Jerusalem and says to him: “Since you are God’s Son, jump. The angels will catch you so that you won’t so much as stub your toe on a stone.” You see Evil is trying to get Jesus to give in to pride and prove how powerful he is. But Jesus will not play the game. He quotes scripture and says:  “Don’t you dare test the Lord your God.”

That takes us to the third and final round.  “Evil took him to the peak of a huge mountain…. He said, “They’re yours—lock, stock, and barrel. Just go down on your knees and worship me, and they’re yours.”

“ Jesus’ refusal was pretty short: “Beat it, Satan!” ….“Worship the Lord your God, and only him. Serve him with absolute single-heartedness.”  Evil leaves and the angels come and minister to Jesus.

It’s a strange game. The only winning move is not to play. Evil tries to get Jesus to give in to his physical hunger. Evil tries to get Jesus to give in to the human desire for pride and for power. Even in his physically weak state, Jesus is stronger than ever. His season of prayer and fasting has taught him that he belongs to God. His trust is in God. He can stand up to any Evil one. Jesus can pass any test. 

And so my friends, we are entering a season of 40 days called Lent leading up to Easter. This is a season for us to be vulnerable with God and to put our complete trust in God. Some of you may be choosing to fast from something that you love during this season. It can be anything that you depend on: a food you love, Facebook, television, the radio in your car. Abstaining from that physical thing is an invitation to open ourselves to God and to be vulnerable. The silence in the car is an emptiness that we allow God to fill. 

We are preparing ourselves for a test too. The test is daily life. The daily life of living as followers of Jesus. Because you see the tests will come, they come every day. The tests dare us to put our trust in ourselves and our abilities. You see, we tend to put our trust in our accomplishments and the uneasy sense of self-worth we get from them. Because, of course, the self-worth we get from some accomplishment does not last. We will always need the next “fix” in order to prove that we are worth something.  

And so then we put our trust in pleasing other people, but when those people leave us for some reason, then we feel worthless. 

So then, we put our trust in money and things that money can buy. We hope that if we surround ourselves with comfort we won’t be afraid. But there will always be someone else who has more stuff. 

But what if we look to Jesus for our example? What if we put our trust in God? Because God never goes away.  God never lets us down.  

What if we believe the promise that we are enough because God loves us and we don’t have to accomplish anything to prove we are enough? 

What if we put our trust in God and shared our money with those who have less, because it feels good to share? What if we find our affirmation not from pleasing other people in a way that ties us up in knots, but just by being in community with other imperfect people who are trying to live in the way of Jesus. 

I’m told that “when Martin Luther felt … plagued by doubt, fear, or insecurity, he would sometimes shout out in defiance, echoing Jesus’ words today, ‘Away with you Satan! I am baptized!’” (David Lose, in Working Preacher).   We are claimed by God in our baptism. We belong to God and we are enough.  

So I invite us to enter into this season of Lent, with Jesus, ready to meet the tests that life will bring to us. When evil comes along and dares us to put our trust in ourselves, let’s be ready not to play that game. The only winning move is not to play with evil. Let’s be like Jesus and put our trust in God. Amen.