The Church Season of Lent
Invocabit
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (February 26, 2012)
Invocabit
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (February 26, 2012)
Readings:
Psalm 118:1-13
Gen. 3:1-21
2 Cor. 6:1-10
Matt 4:1-11
+INI+
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
For the next few weeks and especially today in the Gospel of the Temptation of Christ, the Holy Spirit puts Jesus on display as He willingly and obediently kept God’s Holy law, as Jesus fought against the devil’s temptations and He conquered where every man before him and every man after him has failed. Since Adam, the first man, fell into temptation and plunged our race into sin, God sent his Son to be a Second Adam. The first Adam fell. But The Second Adam Stood the Test.
Jesus, like Adam, didn’t go looking for temptation. Adam was placed in a beautiful, lush garden and was forced by God to fast only in that he wasn’t permitted to eat from the one tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Second Adam was sent out into the desert and forced to fast from all food for forty days and forty nights. Then the tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
And there we find that most common temptation of the devil who tries to convince man that he has nothing, that God has given him nothing, that patiently waiting for God to help you in your time of need is a waste of time. That’s what the devil did with Adam and Eve, as he said: “Did God really say you couldn’t eat any fruit from any tree in this Garden? A faulty try at a hidden agenda., of course, it wasn’t true, but the truth matters very little to the devil, if he can get you to question God’s goodness with his lie. If you’re a child of God, you shouldn’t have any need to suffer want, hunger, loneliness, or discomfort. But you do! So forget God, forget all of his gifts and blessings and benefits. Then you tend to meet your own needs first, and then, if there’s time left over, then worry about God’s Word. After all, man lives on bread. After all you can’t eat the Word of God!
Then the devil took Jesus 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.’”
You and I might not think that jumping off a building would tempt many people, but it’s amazing how often we fall for it. Not by literally jumping off of buildings, but by arrogantly assuming that you can go out and do just about anything you want, act any way you want, commit any sin you want, and God – His angels – will be there to catch you when you fall. You don’t need to watch or pray, you don’t need to hear God’s Word all that much, and you can do without his Sacrament. You know the Bible well enough already, don’t you and you do remember that passage about commanding His angels concerning you, wasn’t that about you too?
The devil doesn’t need to rip God’s Word away from you completely. He’s more than satisfied if he can just get you to focus on part of God’s Word, if he can get you to be satisfied with having a general idea about what God says. What the devil usually does is to get people to believe that God is so loving and kind – he’s not serious about all those threats of punishment for sinners. God won’t speak to you harshly when you despise authority and despise His Word.
So go ahead and throw yourself down, Jesus. God won’t let you fall. You’re His Son, after all. You deserve his love and his help. Jump! You won’t surely die.” Oh, wait a minute, that’s just what the devil said to Adam and Eve, isn’t it? Eat the fruit! You won’t surely die! God has promised to prosper you and bless you, right? He wouldn’t put you to death for eating a piece of fruit, would He?
But, Jesus, the Second Adam, stood the test. Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Jesus wouldn’t let the devil twist God’s word in Psalm 91. Yes, God does promise His angels’ help “to guard you in all your ways,” not to guard you as you create new paths for yourself that God has not ordained, like throwing yourself down from the top of the temple. The devil wanted Jesus to remember the promises of God while forgetting the warnings of God and the rest of the Word of God. In the same way he wanted Adam and Eve to remember all the blessings God promised them while forgetting the warning of God and the rest of the Word of God. He tempted them to throw themselves down, step off the ledge, eat the fruit, and test the limits of God’s love. Where Adam fell, the Second Adam stood the test. 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.”
What is it that you want, Jesus? Power? Wealth? Comfort? Ease? Pleasure? Property? Good health, peace, self-control? Fine! Take it all! Whatever it is that you want that God is withholding from you, look to me! I will fill your need. Don’t think of me as an idol. Just think of me as an alternate source of blessings.
What is it you want, Adam and Eve? What is it that this world has that you want? That piece of fruit? To be like God? To know good and evil? God hasn’t given it, but I’ll tell you how you can get it. What do you want, you sons and daughters of Adam? Health? Happiness? A certain standard of living? A comfortable retirement? Peace in the church at all costs? Friends? More time in front of the TV? To be left alone so you don’t have to worry about anyone except for yourself? What do you want that God hasn’t given you? What idol can I hold before your eyes and then fool you by not calling it an idol, so that you bow down to it without even realizing that you’ve turned away from God?
Where Adam fell, the Second Adam stood the test. 10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” To worship the Lord God only is to look to him alone for all good things, to trust not in princes, not in man, not in yourself; to honor his Word above the word of anyone else and above the imaginations of your own heart, too. To worship the Lord God and serve Him only is to give thanks to God in times of hunger and in times of abundance, and to serve your neighbor, too, at all times, with no thought given to yourself. It is to fear, love and trust in God above all things and to love your neighbor as yourself.
This is God’s command for us all, but all of us have failed. Jesus did not just come to suffer and die for you. He came to live for you, too, and to fight your battles for you against sin and against temptation and against the devil himself. His victory over temptation has earned for you the forgiveness of all of your sins. His victory over temptation now gives you also the strength to say “no” to sin and “yes” to righteousness, to gladly suffer all things for the sake of your Father in heaven and for the sake of your brother and sisters, too, because that same living Christ lives in and for you. His body and blood dwell in you. And his Word – the same Word that exorcised the devil in the desert – that Word is very near you, and will be just as an effective a weapon against the devil for you as it was for Christ.
“…Jesus was led by the Spirit into the Desert to be tempted by the devil.” And Jesus did not fall to temptation He conquered it, and on the cross He conquered death. And Jesus’ victory over death is given to you in your Baptism. He refreshes and renews your faith and forgiveness in the Holy Supper of our Lord. And you could ask, did God say that He would do all these things? Yes, in Christ all regarding your salvation has been said and done, when He said this IS for you. Amen.
+SDG+
