Knowingly or unknowingly, we live under tyranny of mammon. The freedom we possess whether we enjoy it or not is not real freedom. That is because true freedom differs from the freedom defined in human terms. Our understanding of freedom is conditioned and controlled by mammon. Therefore, we need freedom from mammon. This may sound complex. I will try to unpack it. 

The story of our beginning as told in Genesis ends badly because of disobedience. God gifted a lush garden with all the fruits. God gives the woman and the man a garden where all they had to do was to pick fruit from the trees—except for one.  Disobedience meant, they picked from the tree that was forbidden. We eat the forbidden fruit. 

We have not stopped at picking the fruits; we over pick in order to create more wealth. We exploit the lush garden to make more money reducing its value to bank notes or pots of gold. 

Recent environmental disasters, excessive rainfall, floods, and landslides, remind us that the tyranny of mammon continues unabated. The accumulation of wealth has no limit. Those who hold power to accumulate mammon promote the standards on their own terms. We are forced to live in a culture that worships success, seeks power, and prioritize feeling good. 

This is the tyranny of mammon. We must know the contrast. We must recognise the contrast and seek freedom from the tyranny. 

Paul’s words to the Romans present a string of contrasts and contradictions. Sin came into the world in Adam; grace came in Jesus Christ. All die in Adam; many live in Christ. Adam brought judgement; Christ brought justification. “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, just as sin exercised dominion in death, so grace might also exercise dominion through justification leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

How do we break free from the tyranny of mammon? What must we do to receive the freedom Christ Jesus through grace offers us? 

Let me relate this to an incident. In a coastal town of South Carolina, at the beginning of the season of Lent, there was a commotion. The local Anglican parish had placed three crosses on the lawn adjacent to their church. They draped them in purple for Lent. After a week or so, the church office received a call from the local chamber of commerce. They complained about the three crosses. The complaint was, “this is a big season for tourists. We think those crosses could send the wrong signal to visitors at the beach. People don’t want to come down here for a vacation and be confronted with unpleasantness.”  The church stood its grounds and replied, “It is Lent. The people are supposed to be uncomfortable.” 

Cross draped in purple reminds that Lent is a time of unpleasant uncomfortability. 

We don’t realise that the forty days from Ash Wednesday to Easter are the most countercultural and subversive in the church year. In a success-worshipping, power-seeking, feel-good culture, confession of sin, focus upon death and honesty about temptations do not come naturally. When these confront us, we are not happy. We try to avoid them or people opt for churches that avoid these uncomfortable truth and instead only feel-good proclamations. 

The gospel today tells us about Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness, which are rooted in success-worship, power-seeking, and the desire to feel-good. The tempter offers three possibilities: turn stones into bread when he was hungry, taking political power by worshipping the tempter, and perform spiritual acts to prove the power of God. 

These are all good, worthy ends sought by many people. Isn’t it good to feed the hungry with abundance of bread? Isn’t it a worthy vocation to attempt to do good for others through political action? Would it not be wonderful to perform miracles so that many would believe? 

Yet Jesus said no. Jesus rejected all these otherwise good offers. 

The good beginning of creation is distorted because of eating from the restricted tree of knowledge, surrendering to our relentless curiosity, or rather the temptation. As Paul says, we are those who have gone astray, who have preferred our will to God’s will.  

While the whole world is busy climbing the ladder to success, here we kneel in confession of sin. We seek real freedom—a freedom from the tyranny of mammon. Christ Jesus brings life to our death-dealing ways. His journey to the cross challenges us to follow to share his relentless love with others who do not know true freedom. 

God created us for life in a lush garden. We betrayed that creation with our disobedience. We were intended to be in fellowship with God, but that relationship was destroyed by sin. Yet God stays with us, reaches out to us, and gives us Jesus, the free gift of grace to heal our alienation. 

Lent may sound like being in wilderness with unpleasant uncomfortability, but our goal must seek freedom from the tyranny of mammon. Jesus defeated the tyranny of mammon. His victory empowers us to stand against it and find real freedom. True freedom is found in Christ, not in the pursuit of wealth or success.