Happiness in all the Wrong Places
Luke 4:1-13
In the coffee shop awhile ago I happened to catch a snippet of conversation that a couple of people were having about winning the lottery. One said that a friend had won a lottery worth a million dollars last week. He went into work, told the boss off and quit. “Wow” said the other person. “How I would like to be able to do that!” They next talked about what they would do if they won a few million dollars. The impression that I got was that through this money, they would find true happiness and fulfillment. This would be all that they needed to make life worth living. That certainly is a big temptation to think that happiness is found in the abundance of wealth.
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With that conversation on my mind I read over the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness and he began his life work, and I realized that his temptations are those common to humankind.
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(1) We are all tempted to think that true happiness will be found if all our physical needs are met. If we have food on the table, the latest style of clothing in our closets, an elaborate roof over our heads we will be happy. The trouble is even if we have all those things, we seemed to want more, and that hunger for more material goods in the world is never satisfied. With the more that we have doesn’t make us any happier.
The Dalai Lama in his book Ancient Wisdom Modern World in reflecting on his travels in the world points out exactly the opposite. He, strangely enough, had the distinct impression that those living in the materially developed countries, for all their industry, were is some ways less satisfied, less happy, and to some extent suffered more than those living in the least developed countries. The poor may suffer more physical pain and suffering but are least anxious about life. He points out that in one of his trips to the West, he was a guest of a very wealthy family which lived in a large well appointed home. He says:
Everyone was charming and polite. There were servants to cater to one’s every need, and I began to think that here, perhaps, was proof positive that wealth could be a source of happiness. My hosts definitely had an air of confidence. But when I saw in the bathroom, through a cupboard door that was slightly opened, an array of tranquillizers and sleeping pills, I was reminded forcefully that there is often a big gap between outward appearance and inner reality
Jesus statement is true that we do not live by bread a lone but by every word of that proceeds from God, and that word is Love. I think of something that Mother Teresa of Calcutta said about our need to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, and provide for the homeless. She pointed out that the hungry are no only hungry for bread but hungry for love. The naked are not only in need of clothing, but for human respect and dignity. The homeless suffer not only for want of a room of bricks but homeless because of rejection. We cannot be truly happy without knowing love.
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(2) We are tempted also to believe that having power and control in our world and communities is what will make us happy. However it is often pointed out that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. There are those that strive to get to the top no matter what price has to be paid by those around them. Also, political and religious regimes in their exercise of power and control can become quite oppressive and the individuals experience very little freedom. In the extreme those in power tell them what to believe, how to act and what to think. There is very little opportunities for people who live under such conditions to grow into wholeness and reach their potential as human beings.
Jesus knew that the use of political or religious power to control people’s behaviour by setting up more rules and regulations for them to observe was not the road to true happiness. He answered his tempter that God only was he to serve. To serve the way of God was to serve what Love demanded and to enable people to truly become what they were meant to be.
Martin Luther King Jr. has a notable observation:
As long as there is poverty in the world I can never be rich, even if I have a billion dollars. As long as disease are rampant and millions of people in this world cannot expect to live more than twenty-eight or thirty years, I can never be totally healthy even if I just got a good check-up at the mayo Clinic. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the way the world is made. No individual or nation can stand out boasting of being independent. We are interdependent.
He said in another speech that Jesus has given us a new norm of greatness that of serving. To be great is to serve. We are happy and fulfilled when we serve the needs of others.
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(3) We are tempted to think that happiness lies in our certainty about the world and our place in the world. A sign or miracle will give us that certainty we need to know that God exists. There was an interesting piece by Frederick Buechner in The Magnificent Defeat. He asked, “What if God were to write in the sky by rearranging the stars, “I exist” so that everyone in the world could see. What if it was written in a different language each night. It would be a spectacular demonstration. People would gaze at it with wonder and awe. Then, a little child might say one evening,” So what?” Eventually people would tire of the message because they would be asking the same question, “What difference does it really make in our lives?. The message would soon fade away. Buechner says:
We all want to be certain, we all want proof, but the kind of proof that we tend to want -scientifically or philosophically demonstrable proof that would silence all doubts once and for all -would not in the long run, I think, answer the fearful depths of our need at all. For what we need to know , of course, is not just that God exists, not just that beyond the steely brightness of the stars there is a cosmic intelligence of some kind that keeps the whole show going, but that there is a God right here in the thick of our day-by-day lives who may not be writing messages about himself in the stars but who in one way or another is trying to get messages through our blindness as we move around down here knee-deep in the fragrant muck and misery and marvel of the world. It is not objective proof of god’s existence that we want but, whether we use religious language or not, the experience of God’s presence.
Jesus knew that the some spectacular demonstration would not bring him or any other people satisfaction. He answers the tempter that to test God’s power was not the answer to life’s happiness and fulfillment, but the experience of spiritual presence. In reality humankind seeks a sense of inner peace not outward demonstrations that give us nothing that is lasting.
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Yes, Jesus’ temptations are our temptations. We are tempted to think that the abundant life has to do with more and more material goods, a sense of power over others, and demonstrable certainty about the overall meaning of life. None of these things in the long run bring us the happiness, satisfaction and fulfillment that we really seek. It is in knowing giving and receiving Love that we hunger for. It is serving others
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