Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from Matthew’s Gospel, the fourth chapter:
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. …the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” Then the devil… said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down [from the temple and God will send His angels to you]…” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” Again, the devil… said to him, “All [the kingdoms of the world and their glory] I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ” Then the devil left him…
Thus far the text.
Dear friends in Christ,
As we are now in the Lenten season, we can’t help but notice that there has been a seemingly significant shift in emotion here. Not only is the color on the altar and other paraments significantly different than the white we had last week, the music is different, perhaps a little more deliberate and penitential, our attitudes seem different. And this is rightly so. For Lent is a penitential time in which we follow our Lord Jesus Christ’s journey to the cross. We know that our sins are what lead Him to that tree. Everything seems a little different in the church right now.
Yet, the only thing that remains the same is the Word of God. For in this, the Word of God, we do follow Jesus to the cross, but we follow Him as He willingly goes, for the forgiveness of sins, your sins. You may cry and weep this season, but also cry and weep in joy, for Jesus has taken your sins from you upon this cross. Lent always brings us to Easter Sunday when we exclaim with loud voices and song what He has done for us. The Church Year is great, for Lenten penitence leads to Easter joy, which leads to seeing what Christ has done for the Church, which leads to Advent expectation, which leads to Resurrection hope.
Indeed, all these things are throughout the Church Year, for they all are contained in the Word of God. Today’s Gospel text, as well, is quite hopeful, actually. For Christ is shown in this passage to fulfill all righteousness, even for our imperfections. Christ, today, conquered the temptations of Satan in the Gospel. Satan brought to Him things with which he thought he could trip Christ up, but Jesus, being a perfect man, having always chosen and always choosing to obey the will of God, did not fall.
Now, some might ask, how is that Jesus could be tempted to sin if He had no sinful nature? It is a good question. Remember that Christ has been made like you in every way, except without sin. He did not inherit it from His mother, as we have all done. Christ has taken on human flesh in order to take on all that you are, except with sin of His own. He, instead of having His own sin, takes yours. And He has crucified that sin, so that it no longer can stand to accuse you. Christ cannot sin, for He can never choose sin. But, that doesn’t mean He can’t be tempted.
I gotta tell you, temptation itself is not sin. It’s not. Our desire to give into the temptation is sin, or doing what temptation asks is a sin. God has given us gifts, like food, a marital spouse, house, home, land, animals, all that we have, and the devil can take any of those things, pervert it, and tempt us to sin. So we have gluttony and greed, premarital and extramarital sexual relations, excess of stuff, love of material things. These are perversions of Satan, he loves to pervert the good gifts of God. And so he does, and so we do, too.
But Jesus never gave in to temptation. In fact, He did the exact opposite of what got the human race into trouble with sin in the first place. Jesus in these 40 days is undoing for you the question and answers of Genesis 3.
The serpent said to Eve, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” Now, did God say that? No, God said don’t eat, not don’t touch. And yet, Eve added to the Word of God, for she followed the tricky line of thought that Satan took her down. I don’t know why she did it, but she did. She changed the course of the world in this way, leading her into the first sin of humanity.
And yet, Jesus doesn’t do this. The devil says, “If you are the Son of God, turn these stones into bread.” If. It’s a little word with big consequences. If. Jesus certainly is the Son of God. God told Him and the whole world so in Jesus’ baptism, but the devil first tries to cast doubts. If you are, then do this. If you aren’t, then you can’t.
But Jesus doesn’t go along with the ploy. Instead, answering the devil, he says, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” The Word of God is our daily bread, and in it we find all things that we truly need, knowledge of Christ, words of forgiveness and comfort, words of longing, knowledge of the Sacraments, and the Sacraments, oh, the Sacraments… these are the Word of God, too, made manifest, physical, tangible, for you.
And so it is, even for Theodore this morning, that he has received the Word of God, in his little ears, and upon his forehead, washing him in the renewing blood of Jesus Christ. Theodore has had faith created in him by the Holy Spirit and so he hears the Word of God and receives it gladly. And so he shall continue to do, to hear words of forgiveness and comfort, words of longing, knowledge of the Sacraments, even to one day receive the Lord’s body and blood in his mouth. He has been fed, and so, too are we.
And in this way, Jesus conquers the devil’s temptation even for you. You do not need to follow him, you need not follow his thought, but answer with the Word of God, “I am baptized. I am forgiven. I receive the Lord every time in His Supper.” This is the Word of God.
But the devil doesn’t end there, instead now, he takes Scripture and rips it out of context, telling Jesus that if He should throw Himself down from the top of the temple, the Lord God will send angels to keep Him safe. But do you see how this isn’t what the Scriptures are saying? After all, I don’t walk on top of our bell tower and throw myself off. I don’t expect God to send His angels to me to catch me. I would expect to hit the ground hard. Instead, looking at this verse, I know that it is talking about how the Lord shall protect us, even should we stumble in our faiths, even He shall forgive us our sins. The Lord will protect us in this way.
And so, Jesus tells Satan, “You shall not test the Lord your God.” But in this, Jesus wasn’t just saying to Satan that Jesus can’t throw Himself off the temple because that would somehow be testing the Father. That’s part of it. But Jesus is becoming more stern with Satan, the very angel which He created in the beginning to serve Him, and yet who chose to war against God and His angels. Jesus grows more stern, because when He says, “You shall not test the Lord your God,” Jesus is reminding Satan that Satan should not test Jesus. Satan is sinning here, big surprise, Jesus says. Satan is testing God and that’s not what we or anyone, including the devil, should do.
Instead, we should trust God, we should trust Jesus. For even here, we see that the Lord has overcome the testing of the devil. If Satan tests God and God prevails, if Satan tests Jesus and Jesus prevails, then indeed we know that no one and no thing can overcome the power and will of the Lord. For even should we fail, even should we sin, even should we stumble, the Lord still has us in His hand, for we continue to come and hear the Word of God, we continue to receive the Sacrament of the Altar, we continue to remember that we are baptized people of God, just like Theodore, and none can snatch us from His hand. And so Jesus has overcome the devil yet again.
But the Lord is not yet done here, for Satan has one more word, showing Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and saying that if only Jesus will bow down and worship Satan, he will give to Jesus all the kingdoms and all their glory, as if it were his to give. But Jesus still does not yet succumb, for even here, just as in the other temptations, all this is, is one more attempt to stop Jesus from fulfilling what He was sent to this earth to do: redeem His people from their sins, death, AND the devil. Satan, not having all knowledge, not being omniscient, like God is, likely has no idea that the cross is in store for Jesus. All he knows is that if he can distract Jesus enough, whatever it is the Lord has in mind to do to save His people from their sins, Satan can stop it. The only thing Satan wants, he doesn’t really want Jesus’ worship, he knows he won’t get that, the only thing he wants is for God’s people to stop worshipping God. He wants you in hell.
But, Jesus overcomes and prevails yet again. He answers with a mighty, “Be gone,” echoing even what Satan must’ve heard from the mouth of God in heaven after Satan’s rebellion. And then He reminds Satan of one thing, it’s not that Jesus should only worship and serve the Father, though this is true. It is that Satan does NOT worship and serve the Father, the one thing he was created to do, and because of that, Satan is done. Not only does Jesus persevere in the temptations put out by Satan, Jesus DESTROYS Satan’s words with the Word of God, the Word that Jesus inspired, the Word that proceeds from His mouth, the Word that stands forever, but Jesus also then destroys Satan’s power to accuse you. How is this so?
You know that you don’t worship God alone. You know that you have broken the commandments. You know that you have all the idols that have sprung from your heart. And so does Satan. But, Jesus doesn’t. Jesus alone doesn’t have this issue. Jesus alone here defeated Satan. And Jesus gives to you His righteousness, His defeat of sin, death, and the devil, His conquering over Satan. This was given to you in your baptisms, you have been washed with His blood, you have been cleaned by His renewal, you have been made new by His regeneration, and you have been given a new identity: child of God.
In your baptism, you have Jesus’ death and resurrection to new life. In your baptism, He has your death and torment. In your baptism, you have Jesus’ righteousness. In your baptism, He has your sin. In your baptism, you have the right worship of the Father. In your baptism, Jesus has your idols.
Do you see the hope today? Not only does Satan get the beat-down to end all beat-downs, not only is he kicked in the shins and has it recorded for all of history. Satan is defeated by the Word of God, the Word of God that continues to come to us even today. The Word of God that comes into our ears, into our mouths, onto our heads, sits in our hearts, rests upon our minds. The Word of God is powerful. And we have it. We shall always have it.
So, now, in this Lenten season, yes the shift of emotion and tone is noticeable. The colors, the music, our attitudes all are different. But the thing that remains the same as we follow Jesus’ journey to the cross is the Word of God. For there we see Jesus go to the cross, and we see Him go willingly for the forgiveness of sins, your sins. You may indeed cry and weep this season, but cry and weep also in joy, for the Lord who has defeated Satan in His temptation has borne for you all the punishment that brings us peace. He has defeated Satan by His words, and soon we shall see and be reminded that Jesus has also defeated Satan by Jesus’ very action upon the cross for the forgiveness of all your sins, Jesus’ rising from the dead for your justification, and Jesus’ promise that you, too, shall have all that He has, righteousness, holiness, and everlasting life, forever and forever. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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