In the Name of the Father and of the X Son and of the
Holy Spirit. Amen.
Grace
and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and may our Lord
and Savior sanctify you in the truth, for His word is truth. Amen
The First Sunday in Lent (2011)
Does the Devil Ever Tempt You?
Matthew 4:1-11
(ESV)
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into
the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
[2] And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. [3] And the tempter came and said to him,
"If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of
bread." [4] But he answered,
"It is written, "
'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth
of God.' "
[5] Then the devil took him to the holy city
and set him on the pinnacle of the temple [6] 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.' "
[7] Jesus said to him, "Again it is
written, 'You shall 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 glory. [9] And he said to him, "All these I
will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." [10] 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.' "
[11] Then the devil left him, and behold,
angels came and were ministering to him.
What
better text to begin our Lenten walk than Matthew’s description of the
temptation of Jesus. It is a familiar text where after the baptism of Jesus,
the Spirit leads Him into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. Some find this
to be a strange beginning to the ministry of our Lord, asking, “Who would
willingly want to be tempted by Satan?” Oh, what a foolish question that is, because,
far too many willingly succumb to the temptation of Satan everyday, by gladly living
a life of sin. However, when we read this text to others, usually, the first
question out of their mouth is; “Well, He was God
wasn’t He? As God, He couldn’t be tempted! Therefore, it was no big deal for
Him to subject Himself to the constant temptations of Satan and submit to the
rigors of a fast that lasted forty days and nights. As God, He could easily
reject Satan and his tempting.” Our human reason takes us in that direction.
However, if we really want to answer the question, “Why would Jesus willingly
submit to the temptations of Satan?” we must look to Holy Scripture.
We
cannot dismiss the Temptation of Jesus by relying on our reason and His Godly
qualities, saying, “This makes Him immune to the assault of Satan.” Instead, we
rely on the truth of Holy Scripture which says although He was man; He was
different from us in that He did not sin. No matter what His circumstance, no
matter what His ordeal, He had the capacity to maintain His trust in God. He
believed that God would deliver Him. He obeyed God in all things for all
things, so that in Him all things would be fulfilled. Therefore, even though He
knew the ordeal that lay ahead in the wilderness would be stressful and filled
with temptation, He still willing submitted to His heavenly Father’s plan and followed
the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted by Satan. He willingly did this
so He could fulfill all righteousness and pave the path for our salvation.
Matthew
does not tell us the full extent of our Lord’s suffering during those forty
days and nights, He only relates the final three temptations. Yet, throughout
this period we are told by the evangelist Luke, that, “he ate nothing during those
days” (Luke 4:2 ESV). During this entire time our Lord refrained from
eating while suffering from Satan’s constant temptations to turn Him away from
God. Rather than give us to full details, St. Matthew begins at the end of forty
days of our Lord’s suffering, providing us with an account of the last three
temptations by Satan.
Realizing
how weak Jesus is, Satan resorts to sophistry, appealing to His hunger. He
asks, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of
bread” (v. 4). First, Satan questions Jesus identity, saying if You’re really who You say You are, the Son of God, You can easily
turn stones into bread. Satan is asking Jesus to show him a sign. Sound
familiar? St. Matthew tells us, “The Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to
test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven” (Matthew 16:1 ESV).
And again, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of
What
separates true Christians from all others is our unwavering belief that Jesus
is the Son of God. However, the drumbeat of doubters is to continually ask,
“How can you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Show us your proof; show us
some tangible, verifiable evidence that proves what you say. Thus they barrage
the Christian community with their doubting, proclaiming, ‘There is but one god
and he doesn’t have a son. God has not yet sent the Messiah into the world;
therefore, Jesus cannot be the Son of God. Jesus was only a son of god; god has
many sons” and through many other Christ denying questions and statements they
ask ‘Did God actually say?’” Those
who asks these questions and believe that Jesus was not the Son of God, side
with Satan and do his evil work, deceiving a world into believing false gods
and lies.
However,
Satan already knew the true answer before he asked the question. He knew
because God the Father had testified to this remarkable truth at His Baptism.
Along with John the Baptist, Satan clearly heard God proclaim, “This
is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17 ESV). Satan
mistakenly believes that Jesus is vulnerable to his crafty, deceitful ways and,
thus, he tries to get Him to question His genealogy. He knows that if Jesus begins
to doubt, he has caught Him in his snare.
Satan
thinks, “Oh, look at how hungry Jesus is after fasting for forty days and
nights.” Moreover, His hunger has left Him in a highly weakened state and
Satan’s thinks, let’s appeal to His hunger and get Him to turn a few stones
into bread to placate that hunger. If He does, I’ve got Him. Without realizing
it, Satan, with the second part of his question, testifies that Jesus truly is
the Son of God, because only the Son of God could turn stones into bread. Satan
gets caught in his own trap. Yes, God did
actually say, this is my beloved Son!
Responding
to Satan’s temptation, our Lord said, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (v. 4).
There it is, trust, the trust of a true Son of God, the trust of the incarnate
Jesus. Jesus trusted His heavenly Father above all things and regardless of His
circumstance; His trust never wavered. Jesus relies on Holy Scripture to
respond to Satan’s temptation to sin. Therefore, He clings to the one true and
unshakable pillar, God’s Word. Our Lord is our example. However, most of us
fail miserably to defeat the temptations of Satan because we fail to trust in
God’s Word. Foiled in his first attempt, Satan quickly tries another.
Satan
then takes Jesus to the holy city of
Since
Jesus used Scripture to refute his first temptation, Satan now decides he, too,
can use his knowledge of Scripture to his advantage. However, as most deceivers
do, Satan quotes Scripture in such a way as to pervert what God has truly said.
In this case he added to God’s Word and thereby resorts to a lie. This type of
Scriptural misuse often produces doubt in the unwary, even the devout, to the
delight of those who love to harass believers or who are charlatans or false
prophets.
In
his temptation of our Lord, Satan quotes from Psalm 91 correctly, but the
design of Satan’s use of the Psalm is to get Jesus to tempt God by deliberately
placing Himself in danger. Satan is now saying, ‘This is what God actually said.’ To Satan’s dismay, Jesus
responds, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the
test’” (v. 7). Refuting Satan’s
attempt at using Holy Scripture for his diabolical purposes, Jesus answers
Satan’s misuse with a proper response from God’s Word, pointing Satan to
Deuteronomy 6:16.
How
often do we tempt God? How often do we say or do things which challenge the goodness
and mercy of God. We know that God will be displeased with our behavior, our attitude,
or our life style, yet we think; “If there is a God, let Him prove it by
striking me down.” Or worse yet, we think, “If there is a God, he’ll readily
forgive me for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ. So let sin abound.” Acting in
this way, we fail to remember what Jesus has said, “You shall not put the Lord your
God to the test.”
Foiled
in his second attempt, Satan has one more diabolical attempt from which he hopes
to bring Jesus down. Satan takes Jesus to a high mountain from which He can see
all the kingdoms of the world; He can see their glory and their wealth. Ordinary
men would salivate with desire knowing this could all be theirs. Satan says to
Jesus, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me” (v.
9). Satan knows everything he’s tried for the past forty days has
failed. Now, here is this one, last, glorious, offer to make Jesus lord over
the earth if He would but worship him. No longer, any subtleties, no longer any
disguise; Satan says to Jesus, deny Your heavenly
Father, reject Him, come and worship me and I will give you the world.
Satan
is indeed the great usurper. He claims the worlds kingdoms are his, but they
are not his by entitlement, but only by force. Everything he claims as his, he
has stolen through lies and deceit. This final temptation is one he has used
many times over, from Adam to today. Promising men wealth, fortune and fame,
Satan, captures their immortal souls, imprisoning them in hell. He does so by
convincing them it doesn’t matter what
God actually said, satisfying their appetites come first. Of course this is
his plan, misery loves company. St. Peter warns us against Satan’s traps, “Your
adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to
devour” (1 Peter 5:8 ESV). Now, he is trying to devour Jesus. However,
his final temptation also meets with failure.
In
the first two temptations Jesus puts up with Satan but, now, unmasked, having
to resort to the bases of reasons to capture Jesus’ worship, Jesus has unmasked
him for who he truly is, the king of liars. Jesus knows with whom He is
dealing. He once answered the Pharisees regarding Satan, “He was a murderer from the
beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in
him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the
father of lies” (John 8:44 ESV). Rather than grant Jesus all the
worldly kingdoms, which truly weren’t his to offer, he only promised them in
the hope of getting Jesus to take the bait. If He had, Satan would have quickly
turned on Him and denied Him everything; he would have the Son of God under his
power. Oh, what a horrible thought that is. Jesus turns to Satan and tells him,
“Be
gone, Satan! For it is written, “You shall worship the
Lord your God and him only shall you serve’” (v. 10).
After enduring forty days and night of fasting
and constant temptations by Satan, Jesus is exhausted, hungry, and weakened by
His ordeal. He proved to be a true Son of God, obedient in everyway. Therefore,
His loving, heavenly Father sends angels to attend to Him.
In
all these temptations Jesus keeps one truth first and foremost in His heart and
mind, that God, His heavenly Father, is the One true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Putting Satan first would have denied this heavenly truth and brought our
salvation to a screeching halt. However, because He would not have any other
gods before Him, He proved to be faithful and worthy of the trust God put in
Him to carry out His plan of salvation.
In
answering those who would question whether Jesus really suffered during these
forty days in the wilderness we only have to look to the writer to the Hebrews,
who wrote, “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the
heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is
unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been
tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:14-15 ESV). Jesus was
tempted just as are we, tempted in everyway that we have been or ever will be.
Jesus went into the wilderness as a man, subject to all the frailties of men,
yet He rejected the temptations of the evil one. Satan believed that he would be
able to claim victory when Jesus died on the cross for the forgiveness of our
sins, for the forgiveness of our inability to reject Satan’s temptations.
However, here again, Satan is foiled, for on that cross Jesus won the victory
for all men everywhere, for all time against sin, death, and the devil.
The
temptation of Jesus is an object lesson for each of us from God. Like Jesus, we
too find ourselves in a wilderness, the wilderness of a world which rejects God
as its Creator and Jesus as its Savior. Everywhere we turn Satan is ever tempting
us, enticing us to reject God and succumb to the ways of the world. He offers
us wealth, love, fame, and power; lust, sex, alcohol, and drugs; anger, hate,
and murder. He offers what we do not have and what we covet. He is never tiring
and ever relentless in his pursuit to turn us from the love of God to him. He
knows his time is short and soon there will be a reckoning with God that will
not bode well for him or his followers. Does
the devil ever tempt you; only everyday of your life. Therefore, we must daily
look to God and rely on our Savior for aide in rejecting the subtle and not so
subtle temptations of Satan.
Like
Jesus, we, too, have God’s Word, to protect and shield us against the
temptations, the urgings and the outright assaults of Satan. Satan never
relents in his attacks enticing us to deny God, our faith, and our love for
Jesus. However, we do not fear, because He who was tempted and overcame has
promised to send His Counselor to strengthen us and guide us all our days. Like
Jesus, we now have One who can lead us through the
wilderness of life and overcome attacks by that roaring lion, Satan; we have
the Holy Spirit. Therefore, seek His help in all times of trails and
tribulations, in all temptations and strife. Through His urgings, call on Jesus,
who won your salvation by His atoning sacrifice upon the Altar of the Cross, to
save you from the attacks of Satan.
Turn
these stones into bread, leap from this high building and the angles will save
you, bow down and worship me and I will give you the world. Temptations
designed to kill the soul by having us place another god before the true,
Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. With Jesus, we too say to the devil, “Be
gone, Satan! For it is written, “You shall worship the
Lord your God and him only shall you serve’” (v. 10). Amen.
May the Peace of God which
passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.