Lent 1 – February 17th,
2013 – Matthew 4:1-11
In the Name of Christ the Crucified +
“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil.” Immediately after He is baptized in the Jordan River, Jesus goes and is tempted by Satan. Immediately. In Mark’s Gospel the Spirit doesn’t just lead Jesus into the desert, the Spirit “throws” Him. And why? Well, what we see this week, and indeed what we will see every week this Lenten season is our Lord Jesus stepping into the fray, coming into this world and dealing directly with all the things that impact us sinful human beings. Jesus is going to go and systematically take on all thing things that come about with the fall – this week it is temptation, hunger and thirst, false dreams of power… and more and more during the weeks to come, finally culminating on Good Friday when He Himself takes on death. But it really starts in earnest here. At His Baptism, Jesus took His place at sinful man’s side, at our side. And so, He goes where we sinful men have been since Genesis 3. No longer are we in the garden, no, we are in this wilderness of a world, suffering and tempted.
In the Name of Christ the Crucified +
“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil.” Immediately after He is baptized in the Jordan River, Jesus goes and is tempted by Satan. Immediately. In Mark’s Gospel the Spirit doesn’t just lead Jesus into the desert, the Spirit “throws” Him. And why? Well, what we see this week, and indeed what we will see every week this Lenten season is our Lord Jesus stepping into the fray, coming into this world and dealing directly with all the things that impact us sinful human beings. Jesus is going to go and systematically take on all thing things that come about with the fall – this week it is temptation, hunger and thirst, false dreams of power… and more and more during the weeks to come, finally culminating on Good Friday when He Himself takes on death. But it really starts in earnest here. At His Baptism, Jesus took His place at sinful man’s side, at our side. And so, He goes where we sinful men have been since Genesis 3. No longer are we in the garden, no, we are in this wilderness of a world, suffering and tempted.
“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted
by the Devil. And after fasting forty
days and forty nights, he was hungry.”
Because Adam listened to the temptations of Satan, he was cast out of
the garden and would have to toil and sweat and labor for bread, would have to
fight thorns and thistles… and sometimes those thorns and thistles would
win. Because the children of Israel would act
like Satan and grumble against God, and they would have to wander the wilderness
for 40 years. And then we see Jesus,
striding where Adam had been cast, where Israel had been forced to languish
– and unlike them, unlike those who had done things wrong, Jesus is determined
to oppose Satan, determined to do it right.
“And the tempter came and said to Him, ‘If you are the Son of God,
command these stones to become loaves of bread.’” Now, let us hear and see what Satan is
doing. How did Satan first tempt Adam in
the garden? Eat this fruit, and if you
do, you will be like God. It was an
appeal to vanity and power using food as the shiny lure. This is the same thing Satan is doing here
with Jesus. This isn’t “If you are” in
terms of Satan not knowing – but it’s playing off of vanity. “You’re the Son of God – if you are the Son
of God, why are You of all people suffering from hunger this way? What are you doing here suffering - there’s
no reason You should be suffering.” It’s
an appeal to vanity, an appeal to the ego.
It’s the same ploy Satan uses on us.
You’re a good little Christian – why aren’t things going better for
you? Why should you have to suffer? Why should things be difficult for you,
especially when those people over that it more difficult for you? But here’s the clincher – Satan knows that
Jesus could end His suffering. Jesus,
make bread. You can do it, it would be
easy for you. End your own suffering,
don’t put up with it, it’s beneath you.
And our Lord responds.
“But [Jesus] answered, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God.”’” God had sent Israel out into the desert to
realize that they did not live merely by bread, but they lived truly by the
Word of God. And this is the heart of
Satan’s temptation – to abandon the Word of God, to slide away from it. And Jesus will have none of it – man lives by
the Word of God. This is true simply
every day in the sense that all that we have is provided by Christ, the Word of
God by Whom all things were made – but it is also more profoundly true. Mankind had fallen. Adam sinned, Israel sinned – you and I, we
sin. We had chosen death. Wages of sin is death. Therefore, if we are to live, we can live
only by the Word of God, indeed, only by Christ Jesus, the Word Himself
becoming Man, taking His place with us, being the Suffering Servant Whom Isaiah
foretold, being the One who would crush Satan’s head. That means Jesus would suffer – and this
hunger is just the beginnings of the suffering, the bruised heel He would
endure as Genesis puts it. And Jesus
will not be dissuaded. No, Satan – it is
not beneath Me to suffer – I came to suffer and redeem My people, as I had
proclaimed through the Prophets.
Satan tries again. Then
the Devil took Him to the holy city and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple
and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down, for it is
written, ‘He will command His angels concerning You,’ and ‘On their hands they
will bear You up, lest You strike your foot against a stone.’” Satan here does something interesting – he
himself quotes Scripture. Alright Jesus,
this is what You Yourself spoke through the Psalmist that You would be
preserved. Well, just go head – jump
here, jump now, in the presence of all these people. Why, they would see angels and they would all
laud and glorify You! Do you see the
temptation here? It is an appeal to
glory? Imagine what the reaction would
be today if we all saw angels fly to someone’s rescue. It would be astonishing, the praise and glory
and pomp the person would get would be astonishing. And again, is this not something we in our
sin crave – some obvious sign of God’s favor, where everyone could look at us
and say, “Boy, God must surely like him?
Wow, she must really be living right, look at how God has blessed
her.” All an appeal to our ego and our
desire for Glory.
And our Lord responds.
Jesus said to him, “Again, it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord
Your God to the test.’” That’s
not the point of the passage, Satan. The
point of that Psalm isn’t “go be stupid to force God’s hand.” Rather this – read the next verse of Psalm
91, Satan! “For He will command His angels
concerning you to guard You in all Your ways.
On their hands their will bear You up, lest you strike Your foot on a
stone. You will tread on the lion and
the adder; the young lion and the serpent You will trample under foot.” Jesus is telling Satan, “My way, My path is
not to gain glory, not to be some Divine show off, but rather My way, My path
is to trample and defeat you, to tread you down. And nothing is going to stop Me or get in My
way.” There is no craving of glory for
Christ – rather He simply goes about His business of defeating Satan.
One final try for Satan.
Again, the Devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all
the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
And he said to him, “All these I will give You, if You will fall down
and worship me.” This is what
Satan says here: “Okay, okay, you want to redeem these folks, you want them
back. I get it – when they sinned they
became mine, Jesus. But even now, they
aren’t that bad, and with Your guidance and power You could make this world
almost a paradise again for them. Fine –
I’ll give them back – just worship me.”
See, this is what we can forget – when Adam sinned, humanity became
basically Satan’s plaything. Luther in
our hymn refers to Satan rightfully as “this world’s prince”. And so, Satan makes an offer – he offers
Jesus mankind, but mankind on Satan’s terms.
Let’s not have any stepping on of heads, any crushing talk. Rather, let them live it up now, and you live
it up now, and we’ll all be happy.
Again, this is the temptation that we ourselves have – to merely live
and let live, to just go with the flow, to love this world as it is and to
ignore the things of God, to forget and forsake the life of the world to
come. It’s an appealing temptation for
us.
And Jesus responds. 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.’” And Satan leaves. Why?
Because something happened which hadn’t been seen since the fall. A Man, a living, breathing Man, Man who is
True God as well, but still a Man – fully and completely resisted
temptation. There was no room for Satan,
no little bit of self-justification or pride laying hidden under the
surface. No mere outward righteousness
hiding sinful thoughts. No, here Christ
Jesus full resists Satan perfectly, in a way that we never do – and Satan must
flee, must run for the hills. And so it
begins. The first, opening battle for
salvation is won by Christ. Lent will
continue. Satan could not tempt Jesus
away from His journey to the Cross, could not come to some treaty or bargain
with Him.
“And behold, angels came and were ministering to Him.” Christ Jesus your Lord knows what it
is like to suffer. He knows what it is like to be under the burdens of
Satan. He knows what it is like to be in
the wilderness, to be cast out of the garden.
He has come to restore life and salvation to you – but He knows your
frailties. So He also deigns to send
folks to minister to you, to serve you, to refresh you. And how?
We do not live by bread alone, but by the Word of God – the Word of forgiveness
that tells us that in Christ we are forgiven, that we will endure the trials of
this life, that we will rise from the dead on the Last day. We live as the Baptized, as those who are not
simply cast into the wilderness, but rather those who are always in the life
giving flood of Christ, adopted as sons, heirs of the righteousness and
holiness that is His. We are those who
receive His gifts in the Supper, not mere bread and wine, but also His Body and
Blood – given and shed for the forgiveness of our sins, for the strengthing of
our faith – given so that we ourselves might survive our Lent and time of
suffering, that we might endure our time in the wilderness of this life and
finally obtained the promised land on the Last Day. While we may discipline our bodies by giving
up something this Lent, we do not starve, for Christ Himself gives us what we
need for forgiveness and life.
Round 1 has been won by Christ. The Devil’s first offensive has been blunted
and turned aside. But as we continue
through Lent, there is still more for Christ to fight, to overcome. There is still shame and suffering in this
world, shame and suffering that often impacts us directly. But Christ Jesus our Lord will not leave us
to face this suffering alone – as we will hear next week. But remember this week, over and against the temptations
of Satan that great truth – while we may be weak, Christ Jesus is strong. He has fully beat down Satan, and while Satan
may still scowl fierce, the Lord of Life has defeated the old serpent for
you. In the Name of Christ the Crucified
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