Matthew 4:1-11; 2 Corinthians 6:1-10;
Genesis 3:1-21
In the Name of the Father and of the
+ Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Immediately
following His baptism in the Jordan, Jesus “was led up by the Spirit into the
wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” Or, if you prefer St. Mark’s treatment,
the Spirit “drove Him,” or literally, “threw Him,” out into the wilderness,
into the devil’s jaws. Suffice it to say, Jesus was baptized for this purpose,
to be tempted by the devil and overcome. Thus, you must be careful not to minimize
what Jesus suffered, endured, and overcame in His temptation. This was a
one-on-one personal assault of the enemy of God, the father of lies, he who was
a murderer from the beginning, upon the Son of God, freshly consecrated as the
Son of Man. The Spirit came upon the man Jesus in His Baptism, and the same
Spirit immediately drove Him into His work of redeeming you and me and all
people. Jesus was baptized for you. Jesus faced Satan’s temptations in the
wilderness and overcame them for you. Jesus fulfilled God’s Law for you. And,
Jesus suffered, died, and was raised for you that you may live with Him and His
Father and Spirit forevermore.
Thus, we can,
and indeed we must, relate the consecration of the young and unassuming
shepherd-boy David as king over Israel and the consecration of Jesus in His
baptism, for neither man was the seeming chosen one of the LORD according to
the reckoning, wisdom, and judgment of men, and yet each was anointed with the
Holy Spirit, consecrated and set apart as the Holy One of the LORD, and then
was immediately thrust into conflict with the devil – David with the Philistine
champion Goliath, and Jesus with Satan himself. Neither man’s kingship nor
consecration was visible or apparent to the eyes and wisdom of men, and yet,
they were each the LORD’s Chosen One, and each were truly King – David, the
King of Israel, and Jesus, the King of Heaven and Earth. Therefore, do not kid
yourself, for, in your Holy Baptism, you too were consecrated for a life of continual
battle with the devil, the world, and your own sin-corrupted flesh. Truly, as
soon as the water hit your forehead and the Name of the Holy Triune God was spoken
upon you, Satan set his sights upon you to destroy you. Satan hates you because
he hates God who loves you so much that He would become a man in Jesus Christ
and die for you to redeem you from sin and death. Before you were baptized, you
belonged to the devil, but now that you have been cleansed and claimed and
named in Jesus’ innocent, holy, and righteous blood, you belong to the LORD.
Thus, you have a sworn enemy in Satan for the entirety of your life this side
of heaven.
Further, just
as David did not choose his battle with Goliath, and Jesus did not chose His
battle with the devil or His cross, so neither do you or I choose the
temptations, battles, and crosses that we must bear, but the Holy Spirit
chooses them for each of us as He knows to be best. And, Jesus did not face
temptation by the devil and overcome it by the Word of the LORD in order to
show you how to do it. No, you must not think that, for Satan knows the Word of
the LORD much better than either your or I, than did Martin Luther, or any
theologian of the Church or pope, and, as were our First Parents in the Garden,
you are defeated before you utter a single word. But, in fighting against the
temptations of the devil, the best offense is a good defense. Indeed, you are
to “take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the
evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened
on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and,
as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of
peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can
extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of
salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”
Now, I know
that it may sound like the sword of the Spirit is an offensive weapon, but it
is not. The sword of the Spirit, that is, the Word of God, is a defensive
weapon meant to ward off the attack of Satan. You are not an onward Christian
soldier going off to war, but Satan will bring the war to you. Indeed, Satan’s attacks
are more like terrorism and guerilla warfare in your neighborhood, your backyard,
and your bedroom than they are like soldiers going off to fight conventional battles
in foreign lands. No, you are not on the offense, you are not on the attack,
but your vocation is to stand firm and resolute, trusting, not in yourself,
your wisdom, or even in your faith, but in the Word of the LORD alone, in
Jesus, the Word made flesh. You do not attack the devil with the Word of the
God. Do that, and you will lose. In fact, you must not enter into a
conversation with him, neither in word or thought. If you do, then he has
already won – again, take the example of our First Parents in the Garden. No,
but the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, is a defensive weapon. Remember
it. Take shelter in it. Speak it alone in defense against Satan’s attacks, for
it is a mighty fortress and a trusty shield and weapon.
Satan used
the Word of God against Jesus, because he knew that was the only thing that might
persuade Him. However, Satan is an angel of light. He makes evil things look
good in order to deceive you. He uses the Word of God, but he twists it, he misinterprets
it, he misapplies it, and he takes it out of context in order to deceive you.
Thus, you cannot trust a word even from a Christian, even within the Church,
unless you are able to check it against God’s Word. Even this congregation was
once at risk of being lead astray by well-intentioned believers into
charismatic heresy. Indeed, the devil’s most dangerous deceptions come from
within Christ’s Church, as wolves in sheep’s clothing. And so, you must always
be on guard, watching, immersing yourselves in the Word and Sacraments, that you
may be protected and be able to recognize Satan’s attacks when they are upon
you.
Thus, Satan’s
first temptation of Jesus seemed reasonable enough. Jesus was hungry after
fasting forty days; why not turn stones into bread? He could feed Himself, and
He could feed others who were hungry. What could be wrong with that? Didn’t
David feed his hungry soldiers on the showbread? Doesn’t Jesus Himself teach us
to give to those who ask and care for the poor, for orphans, and for widows?
Ah, but the devil’s temptation was not merely to feed the belly, but for Jesus
to do so in order to prove that He was the Son of God. To prove it to the
devil? Maybe. Or, perhaps, Satan was tempting Jesus to doubt His Sonship Himself.
It was a challenge, an attack, and the temptation was to strike back, for Jesus
to defend Himself by taking offensive action and to go against the will of His
Father and the Holy Spirit, to take matters into His own hands and not trust in
the LORD but in Himself. “Did God really say that you are the Son of God?” Do
you see how Satan seeks to get into your brain and into your heart and cause
you to doubt? Soon you are justifying yourself saying, “The fruit looks good to
eat, and it is useful for gaining knowledge; what harm could it do?” No, the best
offense is a good defense. Jesus stood firm and He answered the devil with the
sword of the Spirit, with the Word of the LORD: “Man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God.” The hunger was
real, and no doubt it remained. But, let God be true and every man, and devil,
be a liar.
Seeing that
getting Jesus to doubt the truth and faithfulness of God’s Word wasn’t going to
work, Satan had to change his tactic: “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’.” Jesus trusts in the Word of God, let Him put that Word, and God, to
the test. This was not a temptation to doubt the Word of God, but to use it in
an ungodly, faithless, and manipulative way. Jesus was tempted to take what was
not His, according to His human nature and God’s plan of salvation, and be as
God the Father Himself. It is God the Father who commands His angels, not
Jesus. At His arrest in Gethsemane the night in which He was betrayed, Jesus
rebuked one of His disciples who drew his sword and cut of the ear of a servant
of the high priest saying, “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and
He will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” The
temptation here is a temptation we all face, but particularly spiritual leaders
in Christ’s Church, to seize upon glory now, and bypass suffering and the
crosses the Spirit has chosen for us to bear. It is the temptation to a
theology of glory instead of the theology of the cross. Jesus answered the
devil saying, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the LORD your God to the
test’.” You and I test the LORD, we literally tempt the LORD, when we attempt
to bargain with Him saying or thinking, “God, you do this for me, and I’ll do
this for you,” and its many variations: “God, heal my daughter, and I’ll be in
church every Sunday.” “God, let me get this job, and I’ll give 10% of all I
earn to Your Church.” Etc. All to which God says, “Get behind me Satan.”
Truly,
already Satan has been defeated. Each of his temptations, Jesus withstood and
overcame by the Word of the LORD alone. Frustrated and desperate, Satan dropped
his charade and got down to brass tacks: “All these [kingdoms of the world and
their glory] I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” This is
what he wanted all along, but subtly and deceivingly covered up. There was
nothing left for Jesus to answer except, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,
‘You shall worship the LORD your God and Him only shall you serve’.”
No, Jesus
does not teach you how to fight the devil with the Word of God, but He does
give you an example of what Christian faith, and the Christian dressed in the
defensive armor of God, looks like in defense against Satan’s attacks. And so,
what you must take away from Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness is a greater
awareness of the subtle craft that Satan uses in his attacks upon you, that he
is an angel of light who makes evil appear good and wise in order to deceive
you. He uses the Word of God, but he twists it, he misinterprets it, he
misapplies it, and he takes it out of context in order to deceive you. Your vocation
is not to take on Satan in hand-to-hand or word-to-word combat, but your vocation
is to stand firm on the Word of God and to withstand and persevere through Satan’s
attacks. Resist the devil and he will flee from you, for a time. And, do not be
deceived by those Christians who claim personal victory over Satan. There is no
victory over Satan save the victory Christ won on the cross. Thus, when you are
tempted and attacked by Satan, stand firm in God’s Word, clothed in Christ in
your Holy Baptism, a mighty fortress, and you need not fear the devil and his
evil horde. For, take they your life, goods, fame, child and wife, let these
all be gone, the victory has been won for you by Jesus. Thus, the kingdom yours
remaineth.
In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
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