The text this morning is from the Gospel according to Luke, the fourth chapter:
And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’ ” And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’ ” And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said 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 guard you,’ and “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ” And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
It’s not a coincidence that we begin our Lenten journey with the temptation of Jesus in the desert. And it goes beyond just the 40-day-paralell, though that’s certainly part of it. Luke writes that right after Jesus was baptized, He was taken to the desert to be tempted with three things by the devil: hunger, authority, and identity. These are things with which we also are tempted, and even especially so during Lent, where we fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.
First, hunger. The devil comes to Jesus, God in human flesh, who has been made to suffer in every way that we do, to tempt Him to use His divine power and right to feed Himself. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with eating, but you see where it went wrong. If you are the Son of God, the devil says. Jesus knew who He was, that wasn’t the issue. But, to have those words in the devil’s mouth makes it so that Jesus would have to prove Himself to Satan. Satan knows exactly who this man is; Jesus created Satan before Satan rebelled against God and was cast out of heaven. Satan knows Jesus full well, but if Jesus gave in to Satan, which would have even been understandable given how long Jesus was without food, it would mean Satan had some type of power over the Son of God. This would not do.
Second, authority. As hard as it is to hear or understand, the devil is the prince of this world for this time, and it is in his ability to give some of that power to others. It’s not that our God is not in control, and it’s not that it’s outside God’s provision, but since Adam and Eve plunged this world into sin, the children of man have been made in the image of their new father, the father of lies. Because of that, because we are subservient to him, the world is his. At least for a little while. So, when Satan tempts Jesus with all the power of the world, it is a real temptation; it is his to give. Yet, as weak as Jesus is at this time from hunger and thirst, the devil’s offer falls flat. What use would all the authority of the world, all the power at one man’s fingertips be, if he forsook his God? Leave beside the point that Jesus is God, that He is divine. You’ve heard me say it before many times, even if we were to lack every thing in this world, if we had the Word, it would be enough. The Word demands we are faithful to the One True God, and none other. Jesus knows this, and as tempting as it was, rejects Satan.
Third, identity. Jesus has just been baptized in the Jordan by John, where His Father declared that He was His beloved Son. Jesus is the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, and no harm would befall Him if it was not willed by God. Yet, the identity of God the Son is more than a great deity who can do marvelous things, like fall off the highest point of a building and float down to the ground. The identity of the Son of God is the Savior of all mankind. If Jesus threw Himself off the Temple, everyone would have seen the miraculous act and crowned Him a king, even if by violence. And Jesus would be crowned a king by violence, but it would come through the rejection of the people, not their awe, not their adulation, not their praises. Jesus would die for the sins of the people on the cross, that’s His identity. The plan for Jesus to be crucified was set before even the world was created, and this temptation fell flat.
Now, why did all this have to happen? A couple weeks ago, we said that it was good that we all have original sin. Do you remember? As through one man came sin and death, so also through one man comes eternal life. If we are sinners through Adam, we are saved through Jesus. And this comes through the cross, of course. But it also comes to us through the life that Jesus led upon this earth, the perfect, sinless life we are all used to mentioning. But there is something more. There is recapitulation. We talked about this last year. Recapitulation means Jesus is refulfilling everything that Israel did, or was supposed to do. He is the new Israel, though which all people can be saved. Just as Israel wandered in the desert for forty years, being tempted by their hunger, their authority, or I should say their position in Egypt, and their identity, would they be like the other nations or not, so, too, was Jesus tempted for 40 days in the desert to suffer the same temptation.
Only, where Israel failed to defeat temptation, Jesus succeeds. Jesus goes into the desert for us, that He might do all things well. He goes into the desert to be tempted for us, so that, when we give in to temptation, we may look to the One who was tempted as we are and find His forgiveness and the righteousness of His perfect life. He goes into the desert to defeat Satan for a little while, until the cross, so that, when we are tempted by the devil, or even the world or our sinful flesh, we may look to Jesus who has defeated them all, and even if we suffer for a little while, we know that our Lord will return at an opportune time for us.
If we could do this on our own, if we could always defeat temptation and not let it even get into our souls, we would have no issue, and neither would have Israel. But, we can’t. It’s not to say that we can’t defeat temptation or that we shouldn’t even try; the Holy Spirit has come to dwell in us, so we better be working at this. But, we know that, even when we do reject the temptation that comes from outside of us, there’s a part of us that leans towards accepting it. There’s a part of us that wants to do the sinful thing. This is sinful in itself, too.
That’s the downside to being human, isn’t it? Because of the sin that indwells us, not just from Adam, but our own sin that we have committed, even when we do the right thing, the sinful thing is sitting with us as well. Nothing we do, then, can be good enough. Paul calls all these works we do filthy rags. It’s like he’s saying that there’s never any good we can actually do, and he’s right. All the good we could do is tainted with sin.
But, thanks be to God that God doesn’t count us righteous by our works, but by the works of Jesus. Thanks be to God that Jesus lived righteously, that He did the right thing, that when He was tempted, He never was tempted to do evil, but only to rely on the Word of God. We can learn from Jesus’ example, that even as we wander through this wilderness in this life, there is hope to come through to eternal life. We can learn how our Lord defeated the temptations of Satan, by the very Word of God. And we can do the same. And when we fail, we trust that same Word to tell us even more, and the Word tells us that we are forgiven by the blood of Christ.
It’s no real shock that we’re in the desert at the start of Lent. These 40 days of fasting, giving alms, and prayer are going to be hard, if you’re doing it right. You’ll be tempted in all kinds of ways, by the devil, by the world, by your sinful flesh. Yet, we may take strength and comfort from our Lord’s example this morning, that He has defeated Satan, even when we cannot. And from our Lord, then, we are given food for our hunger, the food that lasts unto everlasting life. From our Lord, we are given authority, authority to take responsibility for this world and its inhabitants, to take care of all that we see. From our Lord we are given identity, His name, the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, placed upon us in our Baptisms and carried throughout this life and into the next. We are given everything the Lord has promised, and He has promised good to you, for Jesus has done it, Jesus will do it, and Jesus is doing that good even now. In His name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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