It’s the beginning of a new month. September has stopped. October has arrived. Think for a moment about September. How did you spend that month? What was your schedule like? In his book Freedom of Simplicity Richard Foster urges us to write down all our activities for one month.[i] Imagine recording everything you did in September. Then, Foster advises us to categorize each activity into one of the following:
- Place a 1 next to any activity that was absolutely essential. There was no way you could not do that activity.
- Place a 2 next to any activity that was important but not essential. It would have cost you, but you could conceivably have said “no” to that activity.
- Place a 3 next to activities that were helpful but not necessary. Nothing significant would have happened if you had not done them.
- Finally, place a 4 next to any activity that was purely trivial.
Foster then makes this radical recommendation: eliminate every activity with a 3 or 4. Then cut 20% of the activities with a 1 or 2. Do that, Foster says, and you’ll take a step toward simplicity.
Do you think you could do that? For October, could you completely eliminate some activities you did in September? And could you cut 20% of the other activities? If you had a list of all your activities for last month, what could you cut for this month?
We’ve been talking on Sunday mornings about cutting. Part of the genesis of this series was a recent study on simplicity.[ii] Father and son Thom and Art Rainer asked more than one thousand Americans how busy their month has been. They found that our months are too full and that we long for simplicity. The research shows we’re trying to cut in four areas. We want to cut things from our schedules so we have time for what really matters, cut things from our relationships so they are less complex, cut things from our spending so we can spend on things that make a difference, and cut from all of life so we can pursue a truly spiritual life.
But the question is, what could you cut?
To answer that question and similar questions, we’ve been immersing ourselves in the temptations of Jesus. In Matt. 4 we watch Jesus and the devil square off in the sand of the wilderness, on the equivalent of the steeple at the temple, and on the summit of a mountain. This morning we spend time with Jesus and the devil on the summit: 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'” 11Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. (Matt. 4:7-11ESV)
Just as the devil has previously taken Jesus to the holy city and placed him at the pinnacle of the temple, so the devil now takes Jesus to the top of a very high mountain. From this mountain, the devil shows Jesus “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.”
Have you ever stood in a high place like this and seen the kingdoms below? Lookout Mountain is located near Chattanooga, TN. From here it is said that seven U.S. states can be seen. In reality, you can’t actually see seven states. But on a clear day you can see the land and cities for about 100 miles. My family and I have stood at this very spot and marveled at the kingdoms below us.
Cristo Redentor is a statue of Jesus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It stands atop the 2,300 foot Corcovado Mountain overlooking the city. The millions of people and their offices and homes spread gloriously beneath that summit.
The crew of the International Space Station has a unique perspective on the kingdoms of the world. As the station circles the earth, the crew is able to see large portions of cities and lands. This photo, taken earlier this year, shows the metropolitan areas of Italy and France at night.
Imagine something like these scenes, only larger. The devil’s taken Jesus to the top of the tallest mountain and from there they view all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
And the devil says, “All these I will give you…” (Matt. 4:9 ESV). Some Christians have argued that the devil cannot deliver on this promise. These kingdoms and their glory are not the devil’s to give. But if that is the case, there is no temptation here. This is only a temptation if the devil can deliver on this promise. And to a certain degree, he can. Elsewhere the devil is called “the prince of this world” and “the ruler of this age”(Jn. 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 2 Cor. 4:4; Eph. 2:2). The devil does have authority, rule and power. The only way this scene can be a temptation is if the devil can use his authority, rule and power to hand the kingdoms of the world over to Jesus.
Consider the devil’s offer in light of what may be the most well-known verse in the Bible: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (Jn. 3:16 ESV). God so loved the world. Jesus so loved the world. The Holy Spirit so loved the world. They so loved the world that Jesus left Father, Spirit and heaven for earth in order to win that world from the devil. And now the devil provides a way for that chore to be completed. What the devil offers to give is exactly what Jesus came to get. What the devil proposes is the very project at the top of Jesus’ to-do list. Gaining all the kingdoms of the world is the most important activity Jesus intends to do.
The devil tempts Jesus not with something bad, but with something good. There could be no greater goal than gaining possession of the kingdoms of the world. There could be no greater goal than rescuing the human race from the destructive agenda of the devil. The crime and corruption induced by the devil would conclude. The plagues and pestilence sent by the devil would cease. The infidelity and abuse inspired by the devil would end. What the devil offers to give is exactly what Jesus came to get. Jesus came for all the kingdoms of the world. He came to rescue us all from the terror of the tempter. Gaining the kingdoms of the world is the most important activity on Jesus’ schedule. The devil tempts him not with something bad but with something good.
Let’s stop and return to that exercise suggested by Richard Foster. Foster asked us to write down all our activities from September. Put a 1 next to any activity that was absolutely essential. Place a 2 next to any activity that was important but not essential. Place a 3 next to activities that were helpful but not necessary. Place a 4 next to any activity that was purely trivial. Finally, Foster urged us to eliminate anything with a 3 or 4, and to cut 20% of our 1 and 2 activities. But what could you cut?
We could start with cutting bad things. But how many bad things are on your list? How many of you have “Run over 10 squirrels in my car today” on your list? How many of you have “Steal $120 from McAlister’s today” on your list? None of us have items like these on our lists. For most of us, our month was filled mostly with good things. We were running our kids to soccer, baseball, voice, piano, tutoring, and church events. We were volunteering at Agape or HopeWorks or MUM. We were watching a pet for our neighbor. We were taking a meal to someone whose father just passed away. We might consider cutting bad activities in an attempt to simplify our lives. But the truth is that for the most part our lives are filled with good activities, not bad.
Yet it is the very abundance of those good activities which makes our lives so complex. The complexity in our lives is often caused by an overabundance of good goals. Our lives are rarely chaotic because we are busy pursuing bad things. They are frequently chaotic because we are busy pursuing good things.
How then do we do cut activities when so many of our activities seem so good?
Let’s return to this scene in which Jesus reacts to an activity which appears to be the ultimate good: 10Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'” 11Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. (Matt. 4:10-11ESV) Jesus says “No” to this opportunity. Jesus refuses to pursue the number one goal on his list—at least in this way. Why? Because Jesus realizes that any goal, no matter how good, cannot be grasped if it does not serve God. Actually, gaining all the kingdoms of the world was not the number one item on Jesus’ list. There was one goal, there was one activity which trumped everything else on the list, no matter how good everything else on the list was. What was that goal, that activity? It was this: worshiping and serving God. That is Jesus’ ultimate obsession. That is Jesus’ ultimate mission. Jesus’ ultimate obsession and mission is not to save the kingdoms of the world. His ultimate obsession and mission is to worship and serve God. And any goal, no matter how good, which interferes with that, Jesus will abandon. Any activity which threatens that activity he will cross off the list.
Listen to these words from scholar Frederick Dale Bruner: “The third temptation is the temptation to make our work God. This is the most powerful and subtle of all temptations. Jesus’ work as Messiah was to win the world. His work can now be successfully accomplished if he will just bow one knee…It is very difficult for serious Christians to distinguish between (1) their work for God and (2) God. We are constantly tempted to think that if one succeeds the other succeeds as well; and if one is defeated the other is defeated. Therefore we will sometimes do absolutely anything to keep our work for God from failing. But the moment we do absolutely anything to keep our work for God from failing we have made our work God and, perhaps without realizing it, we have worshiped Satan.”[iii]
It would have been tempting for Jesus to blur the distinction between saving the world for God and worshiping and serving God. It would have been tempting for Jesus to do absolutely anything to keep that work for God from failing. But the moment Jesus did absolutely anything to succeed in saving the kingdoms of the world he would have failed in worshiping and serving God. In what must have been an excruciating spiritual decision, Jesus did not engage in the one activity we might believe was the greatest good—saving the kingdoms of the world. He did this because there was one activity greater—worshiping and serving God. Jesus realized that any goal, no matter how good, cannot be grasped if it does not serve God.
Let’s return to our list of activities from September. It’s filled with a lot of very good activities. But here’s what we learn on this summit: all of those good goals which so busied and complicated our September are not our final and full purpose. Our primary purpose in life is to worship and serve God. And if any goal, no matter how good, interferes with that goal, we must cut it from our list.
- A father may work 80 hours a week so that his children and wife can have a nice house and a good education. But if that worthy goal keeps him from nurturing his own soul and causes him to become an absent father, it must be abandoned.
- A woman may volunteer at the local school, the local hospital, and the local prison. But if she ends up burnt out and then loses her faith in God, she’s missed what life is really about.
While we are involved in a lot of good things, some of those good things do not serve God. They inflate our sense of value and esteem. They serve our own desire to be applauded. They serve our own wish to be needed. But they do not serve God.
Imagine going through that long list of September’s activities. Imagine asking of each activity: Am I involved in this out of a desire to worship and serve God? Does this goal allow me to reach my ultimate goal? Is there anything about this activity which interferes with my service to and worship of God? I suspect our lists would get much shorter much faster with those questions in mind. And I suspect the answers to those questions would lead us to simpler lives.
Richard Foster writes that before we can experience outward simplicity, we must experience inward simplicity. If our minds and hearts can just focus on one thing, that will then express itself in an outward life that is similarly focused—a simple life. That is what Jesus demonstrates here. Jesus demonstrates the ultimate inward simplicity. There are not many good things vying for Jesus’ affections or energy. There is only one thing: worshiping and serving God. And because that is Jesus’ only inward focus, he is able to respond appropriately to everything in his outward life—even the very good things.
Though not necessarily spiritually driven, I’ll close with the story of a man who struggled through a similar process—abandoning something very good for one thing even better. For seventeen years, Jim Lo Scalzo was a photojournalist for U.S. News and World Report.[iv] He covered assignments in 60 countries, winning many awards and accolades from his peers. But he writes in his memoir that his award-winning journalism came with a price. His frequent travels abroad left his wife a stranger to him. While he was in Baghdad covering the U.S. invasion of Iraq, his wife was heading to the hospital with her second miscarriage. Lo Scalzo hated himself for what he felt was desertion. Eventually, he decided, it was time for a change. Thus when he was given the opportunity in 2004 to cover John Kerry’s presidential campaign, he declined. He writes in his memoir: [T]his time, for the first time, it was so easy to back out—not a guilty concession but what I truly wanted …. [H]ow silly this effort. This stress. Seventeen years of it. Not time wasted but time overplayed, trying to inflate a finite ability through sheer force of will. He could say “No” to this very good activity. Not out of guilt. But because it’s what he truly wanted. He later writes of the inward change that led to his ability to say “No”: It was about accepting a simple truth: In the world of photojournalism I would always be a man of minor accomplishments. But in the field of fatherhood—to one little boy, at least—I had a chance to become legend.
It begins with inward simplicity. A decision that only one thing will be the one true focus of your heart. That one thing? Serving and worshiping God. We then apply that one focus to everything else in our life.
Ask yourself: What does it mean to worship and serve God? And if I started with an empty sheet and a new month in front of me, what would that look like in my life?
[i] Richard Foster Freedom of Simplicity Revised and Updated (HarperOne, 2005), 108-109.
[ii] Thom S. Rainer & Art Rainer, Simple Life (B & H Publishing, 2009).
[iii] Frederick Dale Bruner Matthew Volume 1 The Christbook (Word, 1987), 112.
[iv] Jim Lo Scalzo, Evidence of My Existence (Ohio University Press, 2007), 317.
