I found a quote this week that asks, "Why is it that opportunity knocks only once, yet temptation bangs on the door constantly?" Temptation is all around us, and it seems to multiply our choices as time goes on. Of course, some people may not see the multitudes of temptations because their lives are so messy. They have so much garbage piled up around them and in them that they can't see evil tempting them. They take advantage of most temptations that come their way because that's the way they have always lived their lives and they don't know the difference.

I suspect, however, that there are few people who are oblivious to temptation and the difference between right and wrong. Most people may not be able to adequately identify every temptation and every sin, but deep in their souls they know something is dreadfully wrong. Life is not meant to be lived this way; life has to be better and purposeful. That's why people search for meaning in their lives and for a higher power like God to help them and save them. They are trying to find a way out of their human predicament.

That's where we disciples of Christ come in. We are given opportunities to share Christ and God's love with others. In proclaiming the Good News of Christ's death and resurrection to save souls, we invite people to meet and to follow the Christ we follow. It is through Christ that people can discover a better way to live life and a means through which to hear and to know God. And it is through Christ that the messes and garbage piles of lives can be cleaned up and lives can be ordered into a new way of living.

Yet I think we Christians are sometimes dishonest as we proclaim the Good News of Christ's salvation. People whose lives are all messed up may be led to believe that once they accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, everything magically changes: the garbage piles of their lives disappear, sin is no more, temptation no longer comes knocking. Imagine their surprise when they wake up the next morning to find that they still live in the same world as before their conversion. They still have to deal with addictions; their broken relationships still have to be fixed; sin is everywhere they look because sin is easier to see; temptation still knocks on their door, only now they recognize so many more of the temptations. Somehow conversion, surrendering their lives to Christ, didn't fix everything, didn't get rid of the temptations of evil and sin. So now what? They begin to think, "Did anything really change? Did life really get any better? Where do I go from here?"

This is where the story of Jesus' temptation gives us insight. Jesus has just been through a remarkable experience: his baptism. It was an experience where he was commissioned as God's chosen one, where his identity as messiah was confirmed, where he promised total obedience to the will of God. This was where his life was meant to be. This was the identity that he had been given and now intends to live. He chooses to be faithful and obedient to God. Life will now be lived with the fullness of meaning and of purpose. This is who Jesus was meant to be: the Son of God.

As he leaves his baptism to reflect upon and pray about his relationship with God, Jesus is confronted with sin and evil in the form of Satan questioning what has happened and tempting him to prove himself. How does Satan begin? "If you are the Son of God..." If? Satan dares to question his identity? "If you are the Son of God?" Isn't that what Satan still says to Christ's disciples? "If you are followers of Christ..."

One of the worst ways we attack people is to question their identity. We tell people who have dedicated their lives to a profession or to relating to their families in a loving way or who live their lives in a particular way that they have done a lousy job or they don't know what they are doing or talking about. We call them names or falsely accuse them of something totally opposite of who they are or what they do. We show no respect for others or question their dignity. We hit at the heart of who they are and the meaning and purpose of their lives.

Satan says to Jesus, "You're not really the son of God, are you? But if you think you are, then prove it to me by doing some miracles." In other words, the tempter questions the truth of his identity, that he is the son of God, and then provokes him to prove Satan wrong by violating his covenant with God.

"If you are the son of God, then turn these stones into loaves of bread." Satan knows very well who Jesus is and what his power is all about. But Jesus won't play Satan's game. For he quotes scripture: "People do not live by bread alone, but by doing the will of God." Score one for Jesus.

But the tempter never gives up. "Okay then. If you are the son of God, then throw yourself down from the top of the temple," and not to be outdone by Jesus, Satan also quotes scripture, "God will send down angels to save you from hurting yourself." You see, God's enemies also know scripture, which is why every Christian needs to read and study the Bible. How are you going to know if what someone claims to be quoting from the Bible is indeed true or the right interpretation? Jesus has an answer to that provocation, too. "Don't test God." Score two for Jesus.

Then Satan pulls out his ace card: " Here are all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and wealth. Bow down to me and they are yours." Pretty generous for someone who doesn't own anything, who graciously gives away something he doesn't really have. But Jesus has had enough: "Get away from me. I only worship and serve God." A clean sweep for Jesus.

Notice what has happened here. Even Jesus, who does not have any mess in his life or any garbage crowding him, is tempted. Satan invites him to abuse his identity as the son of God, to become someone other than who God has called him to be. Satan has pushed him to use God rather than to be used by God. But Jesus is not going to play Satan's game or to listen to his lies and half truths. Jesus knows that being the son of God means faithful obedience, knowing and doing God's will. Ultimately, it is being loyal to God that defeats Satan and his temptations.

But there is something else that Jesus' temptation story reveals. Jesus is the rightful interpreter of scripture, not Satan. To take that one step further, the world around us is not the interpreter of scripture either. To be told that something is all right when we know it's absolutely wrong is misrepresenting how life ought to be lived. Jesus did not use the power that he obviously had, rather he quoted scripture to give the true evidence of his identity. And that identity is contained within his obedience to God's will. That's another reason for reading and studying scripture: so that we can respond Christlike to temptation and sin. Jesus could have done everything that Satan asked him to do, but then it would have been Satan controlling Jesus and encouraging him to misuse his power. You see, the power that God gave Jesus and the power that God gives the disciples of Jesus is not meant to used for Satan or us, it is to be used for God. We are called to be obedient to the will of God and to no one else, and we find that will in our scriptures.

If we are to honestly help those who are searching for God's grace and looking to the salvation of Christ Jesus, then you and I need to acknowledge that our lives are also messy and piled high with garbage. Our conversion hasn't saved us from sin and temptation knocking at our door, just as it won't anyone else. So the task of discipleship is to prepare ourselves through the scriptures, worship and the sacraments, prayer, and other spiritual disciplines to work through our struggles with temptations to show others how to overcome their struggles with temptation. We show and encourage them that if Christ can do this in our lives, then Christ can do the same thing in their lives.

We are never going to get away from temptation, but we can defeat temptation, with the help of God in Christ. Remember who you have been called to be: children of God and disciples of Christ. Use the scriptures to discern the will of God so that you may act Christlike, telling evil and sin to go away. Don't ever think that you can play evil's game and get away with it.

A few years a go, my wife and I were in New Orleans walking down Bourbon Street in the early hours of the evening before the crowds gathered for their parties and debaucheries. A young street hustler approached us and started talking to us. In a few minutes, he challenged me, "I can shine your shoes without shoe polish and a brush. If I can, you have to pay me $20." I knew it was a hustle and I knew I should walk away. But there was nothing going on and we were going back to our hotel for the night, and he was such a likeable guy. So I said, "Okay. I don't think you can do it." He did, and I just had to laugh at the creative way he did it and pay him his $20. I was just reminded that you can't beat a street hustler, and you can't beat Satan at his own game. Don't play it.

Also remember: God is using you to bring others to Christ. It is through Christ's disciples that people who are slaves to sin and temptation can discover release and freedom. Let us prepare ourselves by knowing our scriptures, by living God's will, and never agreeing to playing the devil's game. Only when we live obediently to God's will can sin, evil, and temptation be defeated, not by our power, but by the power of God through Christ Jesus.