The First Sunday in Lent - Invocabit - 3-1-09

The Church Season of Lent,
Invocabit,
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (March 1, 2009)
One Year Series

“Worship the Lord your God”

Readings:
Psalm 118:1-13
Gen. 3:1-21
2 Cor. 6:1-10
Matt 4:1-11

Sermon Form: Deductive

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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen

The text for today is as recorded in the Gospel Lesson from the 4th chapter of St. Matthew, especially the following verses.

Matthew 4:1-11 (NIV)

1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” 5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” 7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” 10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” 11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

Well at least he is consistent. The first time he spoke he did the same thing, he casted doubt upon the Word of God. This time he tries to cast doubt by speaking to the Word of God. The first time he spoke it was to the Old Adam and his Eve as he came to Eve and filled her with doubt; "Did God really say etc.?" Then remember satan gave a false promise: "You're not going to die," and then another: "You'll be like God." Though surrounded with good food, good things, and good living, Eve fell, and in turn Adam sinned too. Then when God came into their presence their conscience was bothered and so sin was added onto sin they tried to hide and lied again. Adam and Eve fell from grace and they were cast out of the garden. These two humans could not conquer the wiles of evil and the cunning of satan. Yet they are not alone, history is replete with the failures of man to overcome sin. At the same time history tells us Adam and Eve were given a promise that while the seed of the woman would strike the man’s heel and ultimately the new Adam would crush the serpents head. In our Gospel satan is striking the heel of Jesus by offering worldly temptations. But Christ is not the old Adam. He is not tricked. Christ knows the law and the Gospel, He lived the law and He is the Gospel. He knows how to send the devil away by standing firm and telling him,

“Worship the Lord your God”

Notice the timing of when this temptation of Christ is occurring. Our Gospel lesson begins by saying, “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.”(v.1) It is all occurring immediately after Christ’s baptism, timing is everything. In fact Jesus had just come up out of the water, and now is led out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. He does not struggle, He just walks out into the wilderness, Christ is going out there to fast for 40 days and 40 nights, that would be physically and mentally draining. It could only make a normal man weak in both actions and judgment. The normal man would be worshipping the thought of waiting for food at the end of 40 days and would do anything to feed himself

Christ the man goes out into the wilderness without any food or water and, “He was hungry.”(v. 2) That is an understatement 40 days and 40 nights without food. Most americans have never spent an entire day without food. Most people could not survive for that length of time without food, but Christ is no normal man, and He is not most people. He is not sustained out there in the desert wilderness by living off the fat of the land, in fact He barely gets by, He is hungry. He is weary, yet He still worships the Lord His God.

This is beyond our imagination, to be without sin, to be so focused that the events and occurrences of the world do not effect us. Temptation is tied into desire and distraction. Sin and carefree living is tempting, to be free from rules and boundaries are even more appealing, and so that is what we desire, you go your way, I’ll go mine. We say...”God is a loving god isn’t He, would He really not love me if I worshipped my own lifestyles and things? Would God really say that? What’s wrong with me minding my own business and just worshipping me, letting me be lord of my life, letting me be my own god?” A tempting set of thoughts to pose to our Lord Jesus Christ isn’t it?

We simplistically see the sinful things of this world as the pleasures of life because satan makes all the sinful things in this world appealing. But, Christ sees this world clearly, His eyes are not dimmed by hunger for food or water or any other planks and specs of sin. He is not a fickle sinner like Adam, who worships whatever is pleasing before His eyes. Christ waits 40 days to eat, Adam and Eve can’t wait at all so they immediately eat the fruit.

Yet Jesus Christ submits to the sorrows and degradation of this temptation for our sake. The lesson here is not that Jesus resisted temptation to show us how it could be done, it is that He resisted because we have proven we can not. He did this for us.

Martin Luther said, “in the first temptation Satan showed himself as a black devil, in the second as a white devil. But, in the third, he displays himself as a divine, majestic devil, who comes right out as though he were God himself. He drops his mask and appears as the prince and ruler of this world.”

The mask is cast aside, satan wants himself to worshipped as lord and god. This temptation was real. Yet, to be tempted is not sinful, or otherwise Jesus would have sinned. We are tempted by satan and the world, and when we yield that is sin. We sin by that which we desire, we sin by seeing things happen in the world and then questioning the actions of God. Our lives are in a constant battle between the new creation which we assumed in our baptism, and our old Adam who remains in our flesh. By faith in the world every Christian sins, by faith in Christ the Christian looks to Christ and is forgiven. Worship of things ends the fast for a moment, worship of Christ points to the everlasting feast.

For through a life of obedience and suffering, Jesus attained all that satan falsely promised: because listening and worshipping God alone was Christ’s only daily sustenance. The ancient serpent has struck His heal in a desert of worldly temptation, but Christ crushed satan’s head by worshipping God alone. The fast is over Christ feeds us with the wine and bread His true body and blood. Now Christ sustains us with His very body and blood in Holy Communion. By not our own actions and deeds is satan overcome, but by Christ on the cross. The defeat of satan is given to us in our baptism, where he is cast down and Christ alone conquers sin in us.

In this time of Lent it is a time when we focus on repentance, fasting, and prayer. We are reminded that we are sinners made from dust, and to dust we shall return. We are reminded to turn from sin and the worship of the things of this world. We are reminded that Jesus Christ alone was able to overcome sin, death and the devil, we cannot do any measure of that by our own reason or strength. Christ alone gives us the victory over all the temptations of this world and in His life, death, and resurrection He brings us to an eternity of worshipping Him and Him alone. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

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