Beware of Deep Fake Jesus: A Lenten Reflection

Foreign thank you for engaging with the homily by Pastor Chill Will

from Chapel Hill. I hope this message encourages you, challenges

you and moves you to go deeper in your faith and enrich how you

love God and love your neighbor in your day to day life.

Just a reminder. Like the Scriptures and Gospels themselves,

this homily was written for a particular community in a particular

context, time in history and yet, like our sacred texts, I hope

that these words hold timeless truths about God's unconditional

love and grace. We hope these words speak to you in a meaningful

way. The Holy Gospel According to Luke Praise to you O Lord Jesus,

full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was

led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for 40 days he

was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days

and when they were over he was famished. The devil said to him,

if you are the Son of God, command these stones to become a

loaf of bread. Jesus answered him, it is written, one does not

live by bread alone. Then the devil led him up and showed him in

an instant all the kingdoms of the world. The devil said to him

to you I will give their glory and all this authority, for it has

been given over to me, and I give it to anyone whom I please.

If you then will worship me, it will all be yours. Jesus answered

him, it is written, worship the Lord your God and serve only

him. Then the devil took him to Jerusalem and placed him on the

pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, if you are the Son of God,

throw yourself down from here, for it is written, he will command

his angels concerning you to protect you, and on their hands they

will bear you up so that you will not dash your foot against a

stone. Jesus answered him, it is written, do not put the Lord your

God to the test. The devil had finished every test. He departed

from him until an opportune time. This is the Gospel of the Lord

May be Seated. The name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen. I don't normally title my sermons, but if I was going to

give today's sermon a title, I would name it Beware of Deep Fake

Jesus. And by deepfake I'm alluding to the growing number of

AI images and pictures and videos that can be doctored and created

to give a false image, false narrative or false reality. Let me

be really clear up front and honest. I'm not scared of AI or technology,

but with all things it's how you use it, how it can be manipulated

and the enduring question and calling of how we are to be good

stewards of the tools we create and how we use them. When

it comes to deep faking Jesus from the very beginning, we have

to be honest and acknowledge that there's been a long history

of competing images and narratives who seek to manipulate,

appropriate or even commodify Jesus and what he stood for and taught

and lived, not just from outside of the church but also from

within. As Lutherans, we are a reform movement and we are not free

from the ongoing discernment of reform ourselves. Like with the

ongoing continuous work of of being good stewards of our tools

and the relationships entrusted to us, those who claim

to follow Jesus, there is an ongoing continuous call, work and

discernment of who we believe Jesus to be and how that impacts

how we live and operate in the world. With the season of Lent and

with the current state of our country and world, this is a great

time who hear the call to be intentional and proactive in discerning

the difference between deep fake Jesus and Jesus who meets us

in Word Sacrament this past Wednesday we kicked off the season

of Lent with Ash Wednesday with ashes in the intentional shape

of a cross, we not only remember that we are mortal, that

our time on earth is limited, dust to dust, but we also begin our

journey with Jesus following him to the cross, to his execution,

and to a world flipping surprise at his tomb three days later.

As we journey through the 40 days of Lent with the destination

of Holy Week, the first Sunday in Lent presents us with the same

gospel story every year, the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness.

This year we hear that story from the Gospel of Luke during the

season of Epiphany. Remember? Wow, I had an epiphany. It is revealed

to us that at Jesus's baptism we hear a voice from heaven say,

this is my son in the synagogue. With his teaching and

first sermon, Jesus reveals his mission and priorities and makes

them clear that in him Isaiah's vision is fulfilled, that

there is good news for the poor, there is release to the captive,

there is sight for the blind, there is freedom for the oppressed.

Jesus then calls a group of fishermen on the margins and on the

underside of success, and he calls them to be his disciples to

share in this vision and priority list. And then, if it wasn't

clear in the Beatitudes, Jesus teaches, blessed are the poor, blessed

are the hungry, blessed are those who weep. Countercultural indeed,

not how the world operates if you want to be successful. Holding

all that in heart and mind, we embark on this 40 day journey to

the Week we call holy and the Friday we call good. And we begin

with Jesus's head to head duel with the devil tempter Esther, Satan,

and their attempt to deep fake Jesus. Now, I know that there's a

lot of baggage attached to theological and pop cultural depictions

of the devil and Satan and we don't have time this morning in a

15 and a half minute sermon, well, maybe 15 minutes to unpack

all that. But this literary device to show what's going on with

Jesus and what kind of messiah he is is in continuity with Genesis

in the book of Job. In Luke, after Jesus's baptism, he's filled

with the Holy Spirit. And before he embarks on his journey

of messiahship, we get this kind of Rocky Balboa, Karate Kid,

Cobra Kai training montage. There are three tests. First up,

food. Bread. Hey, Jesus, who I just overheard, you're the Messiah

and the son of God. You've been out here in the wilderness a

while. That biblical number of 40 days of testing and it appears

that you're hungry. What do you say? Use your power and influence

to turn these stones into bread. Turn inward, consume. Jesus

resists. Quotes Deuteronomy, Jesus's favorite book. One does not

live by bread alone. The devil's like, dang it. Try again.

Next up, power, where we direct our worship. Okay, take a

look at all this. All the kingdoms of the world, you could

have it all. The power of the dark side. We could rule the universe.

Bow down to earthly power. Sell out. Who needs weakness? Who

needs empathy and mercy. Boring. Command the room. Command

the world. Command the universe. Jesus resists and recites

the first commandment. Worship the Lord your God and serve only

God. I envision the devil being like, oh, okay, this is going

to be hard, but one more. The next test, the final one for now,

showing off ego. Okay, if you're the son of God, prove it.

Let them see you fly. Be a superman. Everyone loves a superhero.

Make a spectacle. Use your power and influence to get lots of

attention. Make it all about you. And if you can quote, I can

quote scripture too. For it is written, angels were to protect and

catch you. We heard it in the 91st Psalm this morning. Jesus spars

back. It is said, do not put Lord your God to the test. Okay,

you won this time, but you'll see me again. Lest we reduce the

devil to a cartoon character, the very serious temptation is to

turn Jesus into something he's not. A deep fake Jesus that bows

and submits to control and power and profit. Profit with an

it turning inward rather than outward. And what's at stake in this

story and for our Linton journey and for our whole journey

of faith, is the vocation of the Messiah. We heard Jesus's mission

and priorities. The tester, the tempter is like, don't do Messiah

that way. The Devil's Messiah Success Seminar seeks power and profit.

Maybe Jesus could get you crucified. This temptation and testing

solidifies Jesus's mission and priorities. What does it mean to

be the Messiah, the Son of God? Well, for Jesus, it means standing

in solidarity with all of humanity. It means his story becomes

intertwined with our story. It means a priority list that focuses

on the other, the poor, the hungry, the oppressed. And it involves

a cross. So I don't care if you believe in God, but I do care

what kind of God you believe in and worship, because that affects

how you see yourself and me and how will you see and treat your

neighbor. I don't care if you believe in Christ, but I do care

in what kind of Christ you believe. Follow. Yes, there's a vibe

shift with the season of Lent. And yet the good news of the season

is that it calls us to examine and reexamine that ultimate reality,

takes up sandals and enters the wilderness with us. He doesn't

do messiahship as a lone ranger who needs all the power and

attention. He calls and empowers 12 and then expands and

empowers from there a community and a group of mortal human

beings to do the same verbs that he's doing. And so, as we examine

Jesus and his response to hunger and power and the seductive

nature of attention, not only in this specific story, but over

his entire life, over all of his teachings and his final week

of life, we as his followers are faced with the same questions,

the same tests. What is our response to hunger? What is our response

to power? What is our response to attention? In our baptismal liturgy,

we open ourselves up to the good news that we are claimed beloved

children of God, and that this covenant with God, birthed out of

water to create new life, comes with questions and responses.

In that liturgy, we ask the person being baptized or the family

who brings their child to the grace filled waters? I ask you to

profess your faith, reject sin, and confess the faith of the

church. Do you renounce the devil and all the forces that defy

God? We say, I renounce them. Do you announce the ways of sin that

draw you from God? Do you renounce the ways of sin that draw

you, that defy God? And we answer, I renounce with the gift

of baptism Jesus's priority list. We are entrusted with responsibilities

to proclaim Christ through word and deed, to care for others

in the world God made and to work for justice and peace. We respond

I do. I ask God to help me. So over the season of Lent let us examine

and re examine what kind of Messiah in Christ Jesus is and isn't.

Let us beware of deep fake Jesus, of false Christs, of antichrists,

of parody Christs. Let us follow Jesus together to the week

that we call holy and the Friday we call good, knowing that

Jesus leads the way. We respond I will. I ask God to help.

Thank you for listening. If there is anything that stood out

for you or if you have a question or you just want to have

a conversation, you are always free to reach out and contact us.

And remember you are not alone and that you are loved with a love

stronger than death.