FOLLOW THE LEADER

 A SERMON FOR THE 4TH SUNDAY IN LENT

I’m sure that when you were children you all played the game “Follow the Leader” at one time or other.  It’s a simple concept.   First a leader or "head of the line" is chosen, then the children all line up behind the him. The leader then moves around and all the children have to mimic his actions. Any players who fail to follow or do what the leader does are out of the game. When only one person other than the leader remains, that player becomes the leader, and the game begins again with all players joining the line once again.

In real life, we have sometimes found ourselves playing the same game.  In many situations, we find ourselves either the leader or one of the followers.  A classroom has one teacher and many students.  At our job, many people answer to the same manager.  In a nation, there are many citizens who follow the law, but only one head of state who is ultimately responsible for leading his people either in war or in peace.  And it’s that responsibility which makes being a leader a lot more difficult than being a follower.  In the game, it’s the leader who has to constantly come up with the actions he wants others to follow.  And so in life, where any type of leader in any situation has the weight of responsibility for all those who follow him.  A good leader will not lead his followers into danger.  We wouldn’t play “Follow the Leader” in the middle of the fast lane on I-75, or along the edge of the White Cliffs of Dover.  We wouldn’t take our children on vacation to the middle of a war zone, or into the middle of the desert where there’s no food or water.  And yet, our Lord did.

Why do we pray in the Our Father that God “lead us not into temptation?”  But here, seemingly, is an example where the Son of God does precisely that, leading the multitude into the middle of a desert where there’s nothing to eat.  And sure enough, many of them were tempted.

Temptation is a dangerous thing.  It could go either way.  We could resist, or we could fall.  The apostles who accompanied our Lord into the wilderness were certainly tempted in their faith, even though their concerns were for others: “Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them,” one of them points out.  And even the great St. Andrew, brother of St. Peter, is anxious that five barley loaves and two small fishes are not enough: “What are they among so many?”  The apostles, you see, were part followers of Christ, and part leaders of the people.  As leaders, they felt the burden of responsibility for bringing a crowd of followers into the desert.  But as followers, they turned to their leader for help.  They passed the buck, in other words.  As for the other followers, the great company of five thousand followers, they who were led into danger, we don’t know what kind of temptations they suffered out there in the wilderness, what kind of doubts or feelings of betrayal they were tempted with, when they found out that Christ had led them so far into the desert that they might now die there.

So did Christ lead them into temptation?   No.  Absolutely not.  Temptations come from three sources: the devil, the world, and our own fallen human nature.  Very often, temptations come from more than just one of these sources.  Take the sin of lust, for example.  After original sin, tempations against the sixth commandment are a very strong part of our fallen human nature, and get many people into trouble.  But it’s not just our human nature that leads into temptation.  The world is full of encouragement in our desire to sin.  TV and Hollywood fill our screens with images specifically designed to tempt us.  The medical profession makes money out of telling us that if we’re not tempted by lust, then there’s something wrong with us – so they provide us with expensive pills to take care of these “disfunctions.” And now, we’re told that any perverted form of indulgence is perfectly natural, and that we’re bigots or homophobes or a list of other unpleasant names if we dare to voice any opposition to the unnatural vices that now prevail.  But to get back to our point, temptation comes from sources other than from God.  Our fallen human nature and the world, as we’ve seen.  And of course the Devil, who is always lurking in the background ready to take advantage of our weaknesses and the outside pressures of the world, ready to tempt us himself.  But temptation does not come from God.  God merely gave us the great gift of free will, so that we can resist temptation when it comes, and thereby show him our loyalty, prove to him that we are indeed loyal followers.  Temptation is something that makes us want to draw away from God, so why would he want us to endure such a battle, to dangle between remaining close to him and losing him, perhaps forever?  Our free will must necessarily allow for that possibility, a possibility that is acceptable, and even desired by God, because it’s really the one sure way of testing our loyalty.

So when Christ went out into the desert and a great company followed him.  He didn’t force them to go, they followed him freely.  He knew they’d be tempted, but this wasn’t the reason why he allowed them to follow him.  And of course, he also knew he wasn’t leading them into any real danger, as he was God and knew all along that he would perform the miracle and feed them all.

Just three weeks ago, on the First Sunday in Lent, we read in the Gospel how “Jesus was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.”   This was an entirely different thing.  The Holy Ghost did indeed lead Christ into temptation, in the sense that it was necessary for the Son of God to prove that he was like us in all things except sin, that yes, he too is tempted by the devil, but unlike us, he never falls when tempted.  Our blessed Lord chose with his own free will to be led into the wilderness to be tempted, but this was not his intention when he led his followers into the desert.  Rather, it is to hear his words, words that come from the mouth of God, so that by being so strengthened in their faith, they would forever thereafter follow the example he gave when he was tempted, and not fall into sin.  “Man does not live by bread alone,” he reminds us, “but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”  And so he leads his followers into the desert, not to die, neither to be miraculously fed, but so that they can hear him speak, that they can listen to “every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

It is fitting that we, like Christ, should be harsh on our own bodies, and particularly during this holy season of Lent.  We should do whatever it takes to subject our lower appetites, like hunger—or lust—to the higher calling we have as followers of Christ.  We must wage war on our natural tendencies to self-indulgence.  But this is our own battle, and we must not presume to wage it for others.  Each of us must be in control of our own free will, not the free will of somebody else.  Because if we do that, then their will would not be free at all.  We may plead with others, we may discourage them from their sin.  But ultimately, it’s between them and God, and we must move aside, and sometimes, even, allow the sinner to go his own way and at his own peril.  We must never abandon them totally, but there comes a time when, like the apostles in today’s Gospel, we must commit them to the care of God, praying that he will feed them with the graces sufficient to inspire them to abandon their evil attachments.  It’s all we can do, but it’s more than enough.  These graces are infinite, so we should never lose hope and ask “What is so little grace among so many sinners?”

As for ourselves, simply follow Christ wherever he leads us.  When we pray that he “lead us not into temptation,” we’re asking that wherever he does lead us, we will not be tempted beyond our ability to resist.  We ask him to deliver us from evil, the evil of falling when tempted.  Follow the leader, him who though tempted, sinned not.  Follow Christ, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  His way is the only Way that leads us to the Truth.  And that Truth that proceedeth out of the mouth of God is the only way by which we will ultimately achieve Life eternal with him.