Tenth grade English class: that was the year we studied American Literature. So, no Canterbury Tales, no Shakespeare… but we did read Mark Twain. And one of the stories we read by Mark Twain was The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg.
In this story, the fictional town of Hadleyburg prided itself on being incorruptible. The citizens of Hadleyburg were honest to a fault. They did all they could to distance themselves from any and every temptation, and to remove all temptations from their children, so that no one would be, well, tempted.
But one day, a stranger came to town, and he had a bone to pick. He devised a scheme that was so ruthless, that, in the end, the 19 most upstanding, reputable men in town, and their wives, all end up giving in to temptation, and they all get caught lying and cheating as a result.
The ensuing scandal drew great attention, because everyone knew of Hadleyburg’s incorruptible reputation. How shocking it was that such a scandal could take place in Hadleyburg, of all places!
In the end, the people of Hadleyburg learned an important lesson.
With all the prominent citizens of the town disgraced and humiliated, the town was given permission to change its name, and to change its town motto. The motto had been, “lead us not into temptation,” but the new motto now read: “lead us into temptation.”
This story left a mark on me, in part because, in the tenth grade, I didn’t quite know what to make of it. I grew up going to church, and every Sunday I prayed the Lord’s Prayer, just as we do here, which means every Sunday, I prayed: “Lead us not into temptation.” I wasn’t sure how it could be that being led into temptation could be a good thing, something you’d want as your town motto.
Several decades later, and I’m still pondering how and when it might be a good thing that we face temptation… I’m still wondering about the role temptation plays in our lives, how temptation can be our downfall, but how, sometimes, facing temptation can also make us stronger.
I wonder if Pope Francis has had similar thoughts. A few years ago, he declared that the wording of that part of the Lord’s Prayer should be changed. It wasn’t right, the Pope said, to pray, “Lead us not into temptation,” because it’s never God who leads us into temptation. Or, as Rita Mae Brown said: “Lord, lead me not into temptation, I can find the way myself.”
A better way to pray it, according to the Pope, would be to pray: “Let us not fall into temptation, or, let us not give in to temptation.”
But is the Pope right, that God never leads us to temptation?
In our scripture story today, Jesus came out of the waters of baptism, and right away, the Spirit whisked him off to the wilderness, where he faced temptation. And this temptation is one of the key events in Jesus’s life; the story appears in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
And it certainly does appear that this temptation, at least, was part of God’s plan. God’s Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness, to face temptation…
It never occurred to me until this week, but the story The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg reminds me of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. That’s the 1971 film version, the one with Gene Wilder, which is the one I’m most familiar with, because it came out the same year I was born, and I watched it many times as a child, even though I found it haunting and disturbing.
Now I realize: temptation is a big part of that story. Isn’t it? The five children, when they tour Willie Wonka’s chocolate factory, are all tempted to steal his secrets. In the end, Charlie is the only one to resist that temptation.
Was it good that these children faced temptation? Was it a good test of their honesty and integrity? In Mark Twain’s story, not one citizen of Hadleyburg was able to pass the test, but in Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, one person did pass the test.
The stranger who corrupted the town of Hadleyburg says in the story: “The weakest of all weak things is a virtue which has not been tested in the fire.” In other words: temptation makes us stronger. If we don’t face temptation, we remain weak. If we’re not tested, we won’t become strong. If we don’t stare our temptations in the eye, and face them, then we won’t develop the strength we need to live our lives with honesty and integrity.
It certainly seems that Jesus wasn’t ready yet to begin his ministry, until after he spent time in the wilderness, facing temptation.
So, yeah: I can’t help but wonder about how it is that temptation can be a good thing, a help, something that makes us stronger; and I can’t help wonder about when it is that God might actually lead us to temptation, to the test, so that we can learn and grow from that experience…
One of the fruits of the Spirit, listed in the book of Galatians, is self-control. I know several people who are into fitness and life-improvement who tell me that ice baths are a great way to rejuvenate your body and test your self-control.
And you can go on social media and look up fitness influencers, and you’ll see lots of them willingly, voluntarily, immersing their entire bodies in tubs and barrels filled with water and ice; and as they do, they do it with controlled breathing, as calmly as they can, controlling their instinct to yell or scream or jump quickly back out of the water.
It’s all about self-control. It’s all about overcoming one’s urges and instincts—and if you can do that by immersing yourself in a tub of ice water, then think of how strong your self-control will be in other life situations.
I admire their discipline. I, meanwhile, have already asked if there’s a heater in our baptistry, because when I baptize people, the temptation to scream or to jump right back out if the water is too cold is not a temptation I think I could resist.
But I do understand how, for some people, an ice bath can help them build their self-control, and I understand how that can help them in other situations.
Last Wednesday at the noon small group I lead, the topic of cell phones came up, and how some people are so addicted to their cell phones. Some of us really have no control over how often we are on our phones. The temptation to constantly be on our phones is one we cannot resist.
And some people I know choose to take a break from their cell phones, or from certain social media sites, either for Lent or for some other period, because they realize they have lost all self-control when it comes to such things, and they need to regain some of that control.
It makes me wonder what tests of self-control might be helpful to us. Maybe, for someone, testing their self-control in an ice bath helps them know that they can exercise self-control in other areas of their life. Maybe it even helps them control the temptation to be on their phone too much…
So why did Jesus teach us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation?”
Bible scholar John Dominic Crossan, who wrote a whole book on the Lord’s Prayer, has looked at the context of that prayer and the situation of Jesus’s first-century life, and he believes that this line in the Lord’s Prayer is specifically referring to the temptation to use violence.
One of the temptations Jesus faced in the wilderness was the temptation to use armies to carry out his will, to establish the kingdom of God on earth. That was, after all, how every other kingdom on earth was established. They were established by force.
As a society, that is one temptation that we find so hard to resist. Right now, as we speak, violence is being committed all over the world. Violence is being committed on a massive scale in places like Gaza, but also in homes and neighborhoods much closer.
Our society is so addicted to violence that even events that are meant to be joyful and celebratory, like the Kansas City NFL team’s victory parade, are marred by violence.
How can we as a society stop giving in to that temptation, the temptation to commit violence? Is there some kind of test that can help us achieve the self-control we need to resist?
Is it better to face our temptations, than to ignore them? Is that why Jesus spent that time in the wilderness?
I’m afraid I’m not going to offer you an easy answer or resolution to this. Rather, my hope is that you will ponder seriously the temptations in your own life; what it is that lures you away from a life of honesty and integrity.
If you were tempted like one of those citizens of Hadleyburg, do you think you would resist that temptation? It’s easy to say yes, but we know that, in the moment, temptation is often so hard.
What can we do to build up our self-control, so that we can maintain our honesty and our integrity?
No one said this journey would be easy.
When Jesus spent his 40 days in the wilderness, the struggle was real.
When the Israelites spent 40 years in the wilderness, on their way to the promised land, the struggle was real.
As we journey through these 40 days of Lent, we may find that our struggle is also real—more real than we’d like it to be.
But as our daily Lenten devotional reminds us: at the end there is resurrection joy. Our struggles will come to an end, and we will experience peace and joy. We may have a long journey ahead of us, but we will get there.
That is what Lent is: a long journey. A journey from winter into spring. A journey from darkness to days filled with sunlight. A journey from death to life.
Whatever struggle you’re facing, whatever temptations come your way, know that things will get better.
It doesn’t happen without struggle. But in the end, victory and joy await.
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