Lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from Evil. This is how we most often hear the conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer. Save us from the time of trial or perhaps do not bring us to the time of trial may resinate in the common ways we hear and know this pray. It is an earnest plea, a deep pleading for intervention, salvation, deliverance and rescue from a community that had every reason to ask it. Matthew and Luke write to communities oppressed by Rome, familiar with sham trials and they face persecution on multiple fronts.

Understanding this language, “Do not bring us to the time of trial” in Luke along with the bonus content of “but rescue us from the evil one” in Matthew calls us to find it in the text. These words and this sentiment is echoed in three different stories.

First, at the very start of Jesus’ ministry, after his baptism when the spirit descends and a voice echoes delight in this child from on high, Jesus is whisked to the wilderness. The Spirit sends him out, drives him out and during his 40 days for ruffing it, just like the Ark, he is tempted (Luke 4: 1-14, Matthew 4: 1-11). Jesus is tempted by the evil one. This presence of personified brokenness and hurt is sometimes named the Devil, the Adversary, Satan. Perhaps we don’t personify evil all the time, but you know what the Devil does, Quotes Scripture. That’s right no mention of a blue dress or horns or a pitchfork or a really dark trench coat but the dude knows some scripture. The Evil one is into quoting the Bible and his manipulations sound, pretty reasonable if you listen. Jesus is tempted to use his gifts in a way that does’t line up with his sense of God’s love. Hungry? Turn that desert stone into bread. Prove God loves you, Jump. Risk it all. What would it hurt but Jesus says, “no.” The temptation that gets right to business is the Devil offering Jesus power. Be Caesar. Be King. The temptation to ego and power and privilege happens right there. Jesus is tempted to use his power, his leadership, his gifts…just like everyone else. Jesus says, “No.” Jesus knows who he is, he is rooted in his tradition and clear on his purpose. The temptation to use his gifts for any other purpose, in any other way that one of love; he won’t do that.   

Deliver us from the time of Trial. Save us from the Evil One. Lead us not into temptation.

The second the language of trial and temptation, a plea for salvation echos is in the Parable of the Sower. Matthew 13 and Luke 8 place on Jesus’ lips the story of a wildly reckless sower tosses seed everywhere. Some grows to flourishing, it landed in rich soil avoided the birds and put roots deep but other seeds don’t fair so well. Trampling feet and feasting birds…make life ruff for seeds on the path. The language that echos the trial and temptation of the Lord’s Prayer, happens to the seeds that fall on the rocky soil. Jesus says these are the people who receives the word or presence of God’s love with joy but they are not rooted and fall away when trouble and persecution comes. They have not reached roots deep into the soil, they didn’t work around the obstacles and they don’t get the nourishment that waits in the rich earth; so when it’s to hot or the storms of life come, they fall away. These are not the kinds of trees you see growing out of the side of a mountain, they don’t have roots to anchor and nourishment to support. The flourishing seeds have their roots, they dive in and they have pulled the nourishment from the depths, they are rooted and connected. That’s what we are called to be in this prayer. People who root, who find a way into the nourishment of the soil that inspires us to grow. We need roots to stand in the trials and temptations and struggles. Jesus is rooted in his tradition, he knows the prophets and the poets and the songs that keep his people awake to being the folks God created them to be.

Deliver us from the time of Trial. Save us from the Evil One. Lead us not into temptation.

The final echo of trial and temptation is in the final moments of Jesus’ life. Jesus is praying in the garden as the shadows of violence are closing in on his ministry. He has marched straight for the seat of power, during the high holidays and while Rome is there to actively subdue any talk of freedom just incase the ancient story of leaving bondage in Egypt echos once again. Jesus is the mirror that the powerful don’t want to see. He is the plum line of Justice they don’t want to be measured against and so he knows what is to come. He is praying in this moment of tension, longing for this cup to pass and when he emerges, the disciples have fallen asleep. “Watch and pray so that you may not enter into the time of trial (Matthew 26: 41 and Luke 22:40). Jesus wakes them, empires them to stay focused  and “Pray that you may not come to the time of trial.” Jesus will face a sham trial and the violence of the state. Those disciples eventually stay awake, stay in it, are rooted and stretching until at last they to face trial.

Deliver us. Rescue us from the time of trial. This prayer invites the individual but it is not the salvation of one person that guides this part of the prayer. This is the work of staying centered, staying rooted, knowing who you are and how you are called to use your gifts in the world, even as the trials and struggles threaten. This is individual work and it is communal. Matthew and Luke say rescue us…not just me or my friend.

And this takes real work. First in knowing who you are, understanding your real temptations. Perhaps it is saying to little and sometimes it is saying to much. Using privilege to dominate rather than stand in solidarity. Perhaps our temptation is to hold our money and our talents not as gift but as control. Perhaps its ego that dives up or perhaps its false humility. That’s what makes it work to figure out. We are asked to show up for hard and holy work in the world, when the diagnosis is bad or the news is heartbreaking. Which means that sometimes staying home one night might be a flaky act of privilege and another night it may be much needed sacred rest. This individual work of growing roots matters not just to us but to the whole community. That is the temptation Jesus faces from the start with how will you deploy and develop your gifts and not just for you.

Perhaps we are called to look at the trials and to hear the calls for deliverance all around us. There are sham trials yet today, money and power influence justices and law yet today. Privilege and ego and empire haunt us all still and so we pray lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

May it be so. Amen

Questions to ponder and journal

• Consider your temptations? What are they?

• Consider how you might stretch your roots into soil? What is might be nourishing and give you extra strength in the storms?

• What are your gifts and who do you offer yourself into the world?