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S. Lent 1.26 Gen 3:1-21, Matt 4:1-11

‘Did God actually say…?’

It pains me to admit this (fan-boy that I am) but Christian Bale’s Batman (a truly super hero) is not right when he tells Katie Holmes in Batman Begins “it’s what I do that defines me”. In fairness though, in context (we need to put everything in context to truly understand) he doesn’t really mean that, or think that. He’s being sarcastic to his old flame. Earlier, she’d caught him as Bruce Wayne, playboy billionaire, cavorting in a hotel fountain with two scantily clad babes. Slightly chagrined he says: “Rachel, all this, it’s not… me. Inside, I am… more.” And she says sardonically: “It’s not who you are underneath. It’s what you do that defines you.”

Later, appearing on a roof as Batman to rescue her and about to plunge into danger and rescue Gotham, she says: “Wait. You could die [very… breathy]. At least tell me your name.” And he growls, “It’s not who I am underneath, it’s what I do that defines me,” throwing her line back in her face, then throwing himself into the chaos. And she goes: “Bruce?”

He really needs a smarter, tougher girl, I think. A partner in crime… 😉

Don’t you think that it is who we are underneath our mask that defines us? That our outward acts are sometimes just an act concealing the inner person underneath, throwing our enemies off the scent? That who we are underneath drives everything we do? I mean, I think so!

I believe that deeds always follow creeds. I think masks sometimes serve to reveal who we really are. I think Batman’s right to make that point to Rachel with sarcasm. I think when Bruce Wayne puts on the Batman mask, he becomes what he most truly is, inside…

Because it’s not what we do, it’s WHAT WE BELIEVE that defines us. And the masks we don, the roles we play, the heroes we try to be affect that, profoundly…

This is the point of our OT reading, Genesis 3. It’s what Adam and Eve BELIEVE that defines and shapes them, underneath. What they do is a complex revelation of that to the world and themselves.

Jesus says this… in the Sermon on the Mount. He says you recognize false prophets by their fruits. You don’t gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles. Every good tree bears beautiful fruit, and the rotten tree bears evil fruit. You have to make the tree good to make the fruit beautiful and the bad trees are fit only for the fire.

But Jesus goes on to say that “on that [Ultimate] Day many will say to me: ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me you traffickers in waywardness’.”

And we do the same damn thing! As inveterate legalists (unbelief always makes us works-righteous Pharisee prigs) we think like Katie Holmes (doesn’t she seem like a bit of an air-head? A little scoldy? I could never see the appeal there). We think our works define us. But Jesus says our works WON’T work! All our missional efforts, our slavish emulations of Jesus, cut no mustard with him. When we point to our works, Jesus goes, “Ah, to hell with that!” and jumps into the chaos to save him some real desperados…

So… what rescues us from ourselves and makes us good trees, bearing good fruit? St. Paul (who says in Romans 7 his outward works don’t always show who he really is, inside) says “For by grace you are saved through faith—and this is not of yourselves; it’s of God, a gift—not of works, so that nobody may boast, for we are his work, being created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand, so that in these we may walk…” (Ephesians 2:8-10)

Adam and Eve became the devil’s work, became his seed, his spawn… 🙁

And how did that happen? Well; it starts with a seemingly innocuous question, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?’ That’s how UNBELIEF starts! But that question only seems innocent. It’s actually the beginning of an interrogation. And you don’t interrogate God! Why? Because that puts God beneath you—like some perp. It gets you ‘running the verbs’ and makes God your subject. And once we’re ‘running the verbs’, it’s all downhill from there! Because, once we contract “Main Character Syndrome”, then the show’s all about us, and God becomes a bit player, a character actor serving our interests, instead of us serving his.

Eve takes the bait when she starts… mansplaining: “He didn’t say that, exactly. He said we could eat any tree except the tree in the midst of the garden. If we eat of that one he says we’ll… die.” And the devil goes: “You won’t surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Which is to introduce the idea that God doesn’t mean what he says, but sometimes is testing us to see if we will make our own choices and be captains of our own ship… 🙁

And Eve bites on that, gives some to Adam, and he (knowing it’s wrong!) bites into it too. It is the seed of doubt, “did God actually say…?” that is the seed of unbelief making us Satan’s seed, bearing the rotten fruit of deicide.

Jesus identifies with our sin, being baptized by John in the Jordan. Immediately afterward, the devil finds him in the wilderness, goes… “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

Jesus doesn’t bite; he believes what’s written: ’man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’. That defines him…(!)

When Batman growls to Rachel: “It’s not who I am underneath, it’s what I do that defines me…” What he does is… put on a mask!: a very different kind of ‘doing’—it’s playing a role, and by playacting, actually becoming something, Someone… different. It’s something I ‘did’ when I was a boy, playing at being Batman, a dishtowel for a cape, a dime-store mask.

And you can ‘do’ this too, with Jesus. It’s Xnity 101. The apostles are always telling us: “put on Christ”!—dress up like him, because your underneath isn’t so great; your own doing will never do you… justice.

You put on Christ when his word gets in your ear, down into your heart, and makes you yearn to be… more; to be Batm… uh, Jesus! Christ’s Baptism sealed this new identity of yours, hiding it, protecting it from the world—a great Secret! Jesus’ body and blood going in your mouth lets him animate you, so that it is not you who live anymore, but Christ who lives in you.

In this Divine Service, Jesus clothes you as himself, a divine playacting that does re-define you, makes you… more, inside and out, eternally. And the Peace, surpassing understanding, guards your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Amen.