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.
Jesus teaches us to pray, “lead us not into temptation.” Let us be crystal clear, however, “God tempts no one.” Therefore, since we are not praying that God should not tempt us, – for God tempts no one – then for what are we praying for in this petition? Luther explains saying, “We pray in this petition that God would guard and keep us so that the devil, the world, and our sinful nature may not deceive us or mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice.” God tempts no one, to be sure, but temptation will come, to be sure; and temptation will come not only from outside of us, from the world and the devil, but also from inside of us, from our own sinful nature. Indeed, it is the unholy trinity of the devil, the world, and our own sinful nature that conspires against us to tempt us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice. For God tempts no one.
While God does not tempt us – only the devil, the world, and our sinful nature do that – the LORD does test us. In the Scriptures the number forty often represents a time of testing from the LORD. The Noahic flood lasted forty days and forty nights. Moses spent forty years in the Midian desert after killing an Egyptian. Moses was on Mount Sinai for forty days and forty nights receiving the Law of God, and then another forty days and forty nights interceding on behalf of the children of Israel before God. The Israelite spies took forty days to spy out Canaan, and they were made to wander in the wilderness for forty years for their unbelief. Goliath taunted Saul’s army for forty days before David arrived to slay him. When Elijah fled from Jezebel, he traveled forty days and forty nights to Mt. Horeb. And there are numerous other instances we could list.
In contrast to these times of testing, the Holy Gospel appointed for the First Sunday in Lent is the account of Jesus being tempted for forty days and forty nights in the wilderness. While this was clearly a temptation by the devil, the LORD did permit it to befall His Son, therefore it is appropriate to think of it as a test from the LORD as well. It must be noted that the temptation of Jesus happens immediately following His baptism. The text says that it was the Holy Spirit who led Jesus into the wilderness for the express purpose that He should be tempted by the devil. Mark’s Gospel puts it more strongly saying that the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness, and the Greek is stronger still saying that the Spirit threw Jesus into the wilderness. What is the link between baptism and temptation by the devil? The Scripture is clear that all men are conceived and born into this world bearing the stain and corruption of original sin. That is why even infants die, for the wages of sin is always and only death. When we are conceived and born, we belong to the devil. When we are baptized the LORD claims us as His own in the blood of Jesus Christ His Son. Quite literally, Holy Baptism is an exorcism, for the child is released from the bonds of Satan as the old evil foe is cast out. However, from that moment on the child has a mortal enemy in Satan who will work tirelessly and endlessly to claim that child back. This is why it is a matter of concern that a child who is baptized must be brought to church regularly and be raised up knowing the Word of the Lord and receiving His gifts, for left alone, there is little hope against such a powerful, hateful, and relentless enemy.
However, Jesus alone of all humankind, was not conceived and born in sin. Rather, in His baptism Jesus took all the sin of humankind upon Himself. Every man and woman who stepped into the Jordan’s waters entered a sinner and emerged forgiven, whereas the Son of God stepped into the waters sinless and emerged the one sinful man for all humankind. Then the heavens were opened, and God the Father spoke, “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.” God the Father was fully pleased with His Son, not because of sin, but because of His love for humankind. Indeed, God so loved the world in this way: He gave His only begotten Son over to death on the cross that men might be forgiven and live. Thus, the Son was the object of the devil’s temptations.
“And the tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread’.” The very idea that Jesus could be tempted to disbelieve that He was the Son of God is bound up in the mystery of the incarnation. Jesus is fully God and fully man in one person. According to His divinity, there is no possible way He could be tempted; but according to His humanity, it was essential and necessary that He be tempted. Thus, even though God the Father had just declared Jesus to be His only begotten Son at His baptism, Satan tempted Jesus, according to His human nature, to doubt the Word of God. Here we can see how, in His temptation, Jesus is the New Adam. While the First Adam was tempted to disbelieve God’s Word in a lush paradisial garden where he was well fed and provided for, Jesus, the Second Adam, was starving and weak having fasted forty days and forty nights in the desert wilderness. Herein we see that all of humanity has been reduced to this one man. Jesus has become our New Adam who will resist Satan’s temptation. Jesus has become our New Moses who will intercede for us before His Father, our God. And Jesus has become our New David who will defeat the hellish Goliath for us, in our stead, as our champion, with the five smooth stones of God’s Word.
Jesus answered the devil’s temptation by standing firm on God’s Word. Do not think that Jesus used God’s Word as an offensive weapon, however, for He did no such thing. As St. Paul describes the Word in his epistle to the Ephesians, it is a defensive weapon that will absorb the fiery darts of the evil one. Christians err disastrously in thinking that they can take on the devil offensively using God’s Word like a weapon. Satan knows the Word of the LORD better than you, and he will twist it, distort it, misquote it, take it out of context, and omit key instruction in order to deceive you and lead you into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice. No, the Word is, as Martin Luther wrote in his hymn, a mighty fortress and a shield.
Because Jesus used the Word of God as a defensive shield, the devil changed his tactic a bit in his second temptation. This time Satan quoted God’s Word, Psalm 91 to be precise, “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’.” Here is an example, however, of Satan omitting an important instruction from God’s Word, “to guard you in all your ways.” By “all your ways” the Psalmist means the way of God’s Word and command. What Satan was tempting Jesus to do was to intentionally put Himself in harm’s way, testing a promise of God to protect Him. However, God did not promise to protect those who willfully and intentionally disobey His other Words and commands. Once again Jesus answered Satan’s temptation by leaning on the Word of God alone saying, “Again it is written, 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test’.”
Thwarted twice by Jesus’ reliance upon the Word of God, Satan dropped his disguise and plainly laid out what he truly desired. “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 temptation seems so patently outrageous! To think that the Son of God would bow down and worship a created being, even the devil himself! If the first temptation was to satisfy His own bodily needs, and the second was to test and tempt God, this third temptation is a blatant attack on the First Commandment. However, I believe that this is precisely what Satan is doing today. Not so many years ago Satan had to hide and use sneaky tactics to entice people to sin. For example, sexual sins like pornography, adultery, homosexuality, etc. were done in secret, behind closed doors, and our culture considered such behaviors to be shameful and disgraceful so that there were even laws against them. But today, Satan’s has dropped his disguise. Such former sins and shameful deeds are now commonplace and accepted. They are on our phones, tablets, and computers, TVs and movie screens, magazines, theaters, restaurants, and more. No longer are they illegal or shameful, but they are protected by laws and promoted and practiced by the rich and famous. Not long ago it was shameful and even illegal in some cases to murder an unborn infant or for a man and woman to live together outside of marriage, but today these acts are considered rights and the wise and sensible thing to do. Truly, the only response to Satan’s temptations once he has dropped his guise is the response of Jesus, “Be gone Satan!” Christians must call these sins and evil deeds what they are, mark them, and avoid them, even if it brings you suffering in the form of being ostracized, despised, and hated, and being labeled ignorant, unenlightened, homophobic, misogynistic, or anything else that might be hurled at you. These too are the assaults and fiery darts of the evil one.
Truly, the best defense against temptation is the prayer our Lord Jesus taught us which ends with the words “deliver us from the evil one.” As Luther explains in the Small Catechism, the entire prayer is a prayer for protection against the devil’s assaults and temptations. And so we pray that God’s name would be kept holy amongst us, that we would desire His kingdom to reign amongst us, that we would live according to His will and further its keeping through our own words, lives, and deeds, that we would remember and be grateful for the good things our LORD graciously provides us every day of our lives, that He would cause us to be forgiving of others as we have received His forgiveness, that He would protect us from the temptations of the devil, the world, and our own sinful nature, and that, finally, He would deliver us from Satan. No, we cannot fight the devil, but by the Word of God and prayer we can and must resist him.
This Lent, instead of giving something up, why not try adding something, receiving something more from God. Make use of the opportunities to receive His Word and gifts even more by reading the daily Lenten devotions and by attending the Midweek Lenten services. Come for the fellowship meals with your family of faith and support others as they support you. Truly we are stronger together. And pray. Pray the Lord’s Prayer daily. Pray the Litany. Pray the Psalms. Pray the catechism. “Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.” For He will send His angels to guard you in all your ways.
In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
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