“Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil”
By Rev. Dr. Jason Byassee
Sunday, October 12, 2025
Reading: Matthew 6:7-13
I’ve enjoyed preaching through the Lord’s Prayer these last few months. Several of you have told me it’s made you stop and consider the words we pray each worship service. Today is my last crack at the prayer, though the next two weeks we have extraordinary guest preachers who’ll each have a go. Next week is a joint worship service with Free Church, which meets in our auditorium most Sundays. Shadrach Kabango, a renowned rap artist, will preach for us again. We don’t get too many guest preachers who’ve won a Juno, an Emmy, and a Peabody, but Shad has. And the week after we’ll have the Very Rev. Kimberly Heath, moderator of the entire United Church of Canada, take her turn at our Lord’s greatest prayer. It’s hard to be a Very Rev.
There’s a Jewish joke about a priest and a rabbi. The rabbi tells the priest there’s no promotion above being a rabbi. No very rabbi option. That’s too bad, the priest says. The rabbi asks well what rungs are above you on the ladder? Well, if I play my cards right, I could be a monsignor, a bishop, a cardinal, or I could win the lottery and become pope. The rabbi looks disappointed. That’s it? What, do you want me to be God himself? And the rabbi responds, well, one of our boys made it.
When he was moderator of the Roman Catholic Church, also known as the pope, Francis tried to change the words of the Lord’s Prayer. He did not succeed. Sort of staggering the pope has the kind of power even to imagine such a move, if not to accomplish it. When we pray “lead us not into temptation,” the pope feared, it implies that God does lead some people into temptation. But God does not do that. God cannot do that. God is the author only of good and only leads us to good. So, Francis wanted us to say something like “let us not be led into temptation,” leaving vague who it is who leads astray. Apparently being pope has its privileges, and also its limitations.
Temptation and evil are not words often in our religious vocabulary. They’re omnipresent in our political vocabulary though. One of you in Bible study this week made us stop and think—what are we really tempted by? What’s an actual temptation? An extra dessert? Little fib on the taxes? And what do we make of evil?
I should add, we don’t have a week on “for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory” since it wasn’t in the original prayer Jesus teaches. It does come from the Bible—a prayer of King David in the book of Chronicles. But it’s not in the earliest manuscripts of Matthew or Luke. We can keep praying it though, it’s a good conclusion.
Back to evil. As we think of temptation let me offer you this from Brian Stewart, great Canadian TV reporter who has covered disasters starting with the Ethiopian famine in the 80s until today.
For many years I've been struck by the blithe notion... that organized, mainstream Christianity has been reduced to a musty, dimly lit backwater of contemporary life, a fading force. Well, I'm here to tell you from what I've seen from my “ring-side seat” at events over decades that there is nothing that is further from the truth... I’ve found there is NO movement, or force, closer to the raw truth of war, famines, crises, and the vast human predicament, than organized Christianity in action.
It is a vast front stretching from the most impoverished reaches of the developing world to the hectic struggle to preserve caring values in our own towns and cities. I have never been able to reach these front lines without finding Christian volunteers already in the thick of it, mobilizing congregations that care, and being a faithful witness to truth, the primary light in the darkness and so often, the only light... Let me repeat, I've never reached a war zone, or famine group or crisis anywhere where some Church organization was not there long before me ... sturdy, remarkable souls usually too kind to ask, “what took you so long?”
A temptation here might be to think Christianity is mostly about culture wars in the US or an institution with fading cultural clout in Canada. For Stewart—not himself much of a Christian believer—Christians are the people who move to where the harm is, bringing light, at great cost. Next time there’s an outbreak of Ebola virus or some other awful disease, check it—the first ones to die will be nuns because they rushed in to care for the sick. Where I lived in Chicago or where Joanne has ministered in Honduras gang members aren’t afraid of the police, but they might be afraid of the nuns, brothers, priests, and evangelists. And it’s sometimes said that at the points of pain in the world, the ranks of atheists grow rather thin.
Another translation of Jesus’ prayer here is “save us from the time of trial.” Pope Francis might even approve. “Save us” is what we pray when we’re in danger and terrified. And the “time of trial” puts us back into the position of our Israelite ancestors. After deliverance from slavery in Egypt, we were tested in the wilderness for 40 years. That’s quite a time of trial. Would we trust the God who frees slaves and splits seas to, or would we not? [SLIDE] Jesus reproduces this time of trial in his temptation by the devil. The devil says, ‘turn these loaves to bread,’ ‘here are the kingdoms of the world,’ and ‘jump off the temple, people will be amazed.’ Notice these temptations are not bad things. Bread for the hungry is what Jesus is all about. The world’s worship is what Jesus will have one day. And if anybody owns all the kingdoms of the world it’s Jesus Christ. The devil offers good things, the wrong way. Now that’s a temptation—to take a shortcut. To get what you want by any means necessary.
When I listen to folks facing adversity, they often bring up the book of Job. We don’t preach from Job very often. It’s a long and complex book, open to misinterpretation. But maybe we should. One of you recently told me of your trials, medical and familial and job-related. And you said, “I feel like Job.” Sure enough. In my family’s mythology there was one day when grandma died, the family car was totalled, and the dog had to be put to sleep. That’ll get you looking around or the next shoe to drop. So let me read you this from the book of Job as we think about temptation and evil.
1 There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. 2 There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. 3 He had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East. 4 His sons used to go and hold feasts in one another’s houses in turn, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 And when the feast days had run their course, Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all, for Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This is what Job always did.
6 One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord, and the accuser also came among them. 7 The Lord said to the accuser, “Where have you come from?” The accuser answered the Lord, “From going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down on it.” 8 The Lord said to the accuser, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.” 9 Then the accuser answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing? 10 Have you not put a fence around him and his house and all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” 12 The Lord said to the accuser, “Very well, all that he has is in your power; only do not stretch out your hand against him!” So, the accuser went out from the presence of the Lord.
13 One day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in the eldest brother’s house, 14 a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were feeding beside them, 15 and the Sabeans fell on them and carried them off and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; I alone have escaped to tell you.” 16 While he was still speaking, another came and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them; I alone have escaped to tell you.” 17 While he was still speaking, another came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three columns, made a raid on the camels and carried them off, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; I alone have escaped to tell you.” 18 While he was still speaking, another came and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house, 19 and suddenly a great wind came across the desert, struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; I alone have escaped to tell you.”
20 Then Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, and fell on the ground and worshiped. 21 He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing.
Job loses everything but does not blame God. In the next chapter he loses his health, and his wife advises him to “curse God and die.” But Job will not. His three best friends turn up and for 40 chapters say to him, ‘you must have sinned. God is just, you wouldn’t be suffering like this if you didn’t deserve it.’ Job’s comforters we call them. They’re wrong for hundreds of verses that we still record and call scripture.
At the heart of our faith is a crucified rabbi, abandoned by friends, tortured to death by the government in collusion with religious leaders. So, I guess we’re not surprised righteous Job suffers worse than any sinner. When I pray “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil,” I mostly think of my loved ones. I ask God to protect my family, friends, those who are in trouble, all y’all. But then God gives us these stories, like Job, like Jesus, and I think, uh, right, God: can I trust you with these prayers? A teacher of mine promises this: “Don’t worry, nothing worse will happen to you than what happened to Jesus.”
Job is written in a time when “the Satan” is more like an office than a chief of devils. It means “the accuser,” or “the adversary,” and he does that well in the story. He charges the only reason Job loves God so much is God blesses him. Take away those blessings and watch: he’ll curse you God. Job does better than Satan predicts. Later in Christianity we would come to think of Satan as a sort of opposite of God, and evil as a sort of malevolent force. But careful here. The church at our best has been clear that however bad Satan is, he’s a creature made by a good God for good purposes. He has just surprisingly gone astray. A teacher of mine used to say if you grab the devil by the scruff of the neck and look at the label on the uniform it says, “property of the triune God.” Or as Martin Luther used to put it, “er ist Gottes Teufel,” he’s God’s devil. There are faiths that think good and evil are sort of equal antagonists. Not Christianity. For us God is alone supreme. Evil is an interruption, but nothing more.
There are other ways the church has thought of evil. Like the way artists think of colour. Any artist sporting brilliant colour knows you need shade as well as light, darkness to set off what dazzles. Evil is like that. Without it, we wouldn’t know what good is. So evil is part of life the way death is. Joanne tells me when it’s a beautiful day out there and a photographer is trying to take wedding photos; she looks for shadow. All light makes for bad art.
Another way we speak of evil sounds wrong, but I think is actually right. Evil doesn’t properly exist. You can’t go pick up a handful of evil. It is, literally, no thing. Now this doesn’t mean evil doesn’t do terrible harm—a hole in the shirt destroys the shirt. Race doesn’t really exist biologically, but racism based on this fiction has done calamitous harm. But evil has no proper existence. It’s just a good thing that’s been distorted. Like a cavity in a tooth is a hole, that brings suffering. Take a drug dealer, doling out death. Drugs properly speaking alleviate suffering. It’s a distortion of their purpose that makes for addiction and evil. Sales is no bad thing—you have to admire the hustle. But turning those skills to dealing death is the distortion. On this view evil is a parasite. You can have good without evil—we had it in the Garden of Eden; we’ll have it again in heaven. But you can’t have evil without good.
Forgive me that professorial excurses. Back to a sermon now. Whatever we say about evil we have to be clear on this: evil is what has been defeated by Christ. Evil is like a great fish, say, a shark, it’s been caught and is thrashing about in the boat. It’s dying but it can still do harm. Evil is what the cross upends and undoes. For now, it marks our lives and some of us know this better than others. But evil’s days are numbered and one day will be a memory in a dusty encyclopedia. Remember evil? Oh yeah, that was bad. Good thing God triumphs over every ill.
So, for now lots of our prayers are about evil. God, protect our dear ones from it. Save those under its thumb. Heal those who’ve met its business end. But I want you to notice—to pray against temptation shows that sin is the real thing to flee from. More than evil. When I pray for my kids—a prayer which seems as natural as breathing—it’s mostly for their protection. But what I should really pray for is that God save them from sin. Sin is worse than death. My natural prayers for their preservation can be a form of paganism: God extend my presence on earth through my children after I’m gone. Make me immortal. No. My prayers should be for my kids’ holiness, love of God and neighbour, growing toward Christ. Those things are not defeated by death. What’s preserved eternally is the version of us that’s nothing but love of God and neighbour. The version that’s like Jesus. Including his suffering. To also take part in his glory.
And so back to Brian Stewart’s claim, that Canada’s greatest foreign TV correspondent has never gotten to a trouble spot in the world where there weren’t Christians on the ground already bringing relief in a place of trouble. In fact, he’s usually followed their trail there. Here’s why, I think. The church is the people who make the Lord’s prayer our own. When we pray “save us from the time of trial, deliver us from evil,” and we notice others in a time of trial, facing evil, we can’t not go and help. So, a warning—careful praying this prayer. I usually warn us when we pray it, “now for a prayer so bold we couldn’t pray it if Jesus hadn’t commanded us.” Pray this prayer and you’ll wind up with friends you didn’t know you had, trial and temptation you didn’t anticipate, and mercy so infinite you can’t imagine it. Amen.