Text: Luke 4:1-13
Beloved
in Christ, Lent is a time for renewed discipleship and a time to focus upon
Christ our Savior. The two go hand in hand. The more we take seriously the call
to discipleship and struggle, the more we see that we need a Savior. And the
more we see all that our Savior has done for us, the more eager we are to be
truly His disciples.
One
of the first things we need to learn is the struggle against temptation. No one
can be a disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ without earnestly wanting to avoid
sin. And no one can be a disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ without
understanding how quickly and unthinkingly we surrender to temptation. Some temptations
are severe, some more ordinary, but temptations aplenty there will always be.
Perhaps
the one thing that is most distressing is how simple but successful temptations
are. Yes, the devil can use all sorts of subtle tricks, but he usually doesn’t
have to resort to such measures. He can use the very same temptation that has
tricked us a thousand times before, and he will still succeed far too often. We
are like Charlie Brown, who has seen Lucy pull the ball away a thousand times
before whenever we try to kick the ball. It doesn’t matter. We believe Lucy
when she says that this time is different and that she will really hold the
ball. And then we are surprised to see that she has lied once again. In the
same way, we are tempted to believe Lucifer when he says that this time is
different and that the forbidden sin will bring us happiness this time. But in
the end we see that we are as disappointed as always.
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| Simon Benning The Temptation of Christ |
Temptations
come in several forms, but there are three worth mentioning today. There is the
temptation that says, “Your immediate need outweighs God’s law.” This
temptation recognizes that God’s law is a worthy ideal, but it asks us to make
compromises. It tells us that it is no good killing ourselves by keeping the
law, but that rather we should do what we need to do to live another day so
that we can keep the law then. A second temptation tells us that the only way
to acquire power and glory is to go along with evil to some degree. It flatters
us with the thought that we, of course, would use that power for good, but
first we have to acquire it so that we can make good use of it. And then there
is the third temptation that often goes with the first two; it tells us that
God really wouldn’t let any serious thing happen to us if we were to break one
of His rules.
These
are three common temptations that are nonetheless still successful, despite the
fact that the devil has been pulling these tricks for millennia. In truth, when
Adam and Eve fell into sin, they succumbed to these same three temptations.
First, they said that their need outweighed God’s command. As far as they were
concerned, the fruit was good to eat and a delight to behold, and that was all
that mattered. Second, they craved godlike power. I’m sure they could easily
justify their aspiration for power by saying that they planned on doing a lot
of good in the world with it. And, third, they believed the devil’s lie that
there would be no consequences. They wouldn’t die, he had reassured them, and
they fell for that lie.
And
so the first thing that we need to do is to discern that temptation is all
around us. It won’t come with a warning sign. There will be no notice that this
is a test. And so you will likely not see that it is a temptation until it is
too late. And so if you can’t think of any temptations you’ve had to face this
past week, it is probably because you yielded to all of them without even
realizing what you have done. If that is the case, be on the alert. Understand
that you cannot escape being tested from time to time, as long as you are in
this world. And so be ready for temptations when they come.
You
see, being a faithful Christian means that we should be on the lookout for
temptation and be ready to fight it. But being a faithful Christian also means
looking to the one person who has defeated temptation again and again, namely,
our Lord Jesus Christ. We look to Him for help in two ways. First, we ask that
He would be our Savior amid temptation and that His victory over sin would
defend us from all evil. And then we look to Him as an example so that we too
can conquer temptations when they come.
It
begins with Christ being our Savior. It isn’t that we cannot learn from His
example, for we certainly can. We’ll talk about that in a minute. But first and
foremost Christ is our Savior. Try as hard as we might, we will not leave this
world without succumbing to a number of temptations. And so we need someone who
can conquer—indeed, has conquered—the devil and all the forces of evil. We need
someone to win the victory that our will power just isn’t strong enough to
accomplish.
That
is why Christ underwent a more severe testing than anyone else has done so that
He could overcome Satan on behalf of all humanity. Very few people go without
any food for forty days. Moses and Elijah did, when each of them spent forty
days with God, but we do not read in either instance of them being hungry. In
fact, an angel gave Elijah a special meal to last him through the forty days so
that he wouldn’t become hungry. But Christ underwent this serious ordeal and
suffered horrible pangs of hunger. Furthermore, none of us have been tempted
with all the kingdoms of the world. The best we might hope for is the corner
office or a small company to manage. We’re not even one of the umpteen people
who ran briefly for president. But Christ was tempted with all the power in the
world. And we are unlikely to find ourselves transported miraculously to the
top of a tall building and then told that we could be equally miraculously
delivered if we jumped from it. So, even if we face some temptations that
resemble our Lord’s, none of them match in their intensity what He went
through.
Nonetheless,
He did not succumb even for a moment to the devil’s lies. And so He lived a
truly holy and perfect life on our behalf. That was the first step He had to
undertake in order to redeem us. You see, Christ had to do two things if He was
going to save us. He had to live a perfectly holy life to substitute for all
our rotten deeds. And then He had to suffer the punishment we had deserved by
going to the cross and dying there. In today’s text we see the first step
rather than the second one. But without that first step of Him living a perfect
life for us there wouldn’t have been a second step. Instead, He would have gone
to the cross for His own sins, not for ours. But because He lived a holy life
in our place, He could also go on to die in our stead, too.
But
as I mentioned, Christ is not just our Savior, but our example, too. We
appreciate the fact that He has delivered us from the devil’s power and from
hell. And we show that gratitude by trying to fight temptation whenever it
comes along. We can learn a lot by watching Christ in action, as recorded in
today’s Gospel. The main point is to rely upon the power of God’s Word. Notice
that Christ didn’t invoke His own divinity. He didn’t say, “I am the Son of
God. I have power over all creation. Be gone!” That is a good thing, because we
wouldn’t be able to do the same thing. Instead He quoted the Scriptures. He had
obviously studied them in advance and was prepared to quote them. And that is a
tool you and I have. The Ten Commandments and other passages of the Scripture
give us more than enough guidance to determine what is the right thing to do in
any circumstance. We need only repeat them, as appropriate.
But
as the way Christ handled the last temptation clarifies, when we quote the
Scriptures, we really must understand what they are saying and why they are
saying it. We have to put each Scripture passage within its own immediate
context as well as the context of the entire Scriptures. If we don’t, the devil
will be able to mangle the Scriptures and confuse us.
Skeptics,
cynics, and other followers of the devil love to take one passage from the
Bible and try to set it against another. You can quote them a clear passage
from the Bible, but it won’t make an impression because they can twist fifty
other passages to prove their point. For example, have you noticed how people
will quote the words of our Lord, “Judge not,” whenever someone shows
from the Scriptures the difference between right and a wrong and ever so gently
calls people to change their behavior? But, of course, such people don’t really
want to look at what our Lord is saying there. Instead, they quite judgmentally
chide others for being judgmental. But if you look at the immediate context of
Matthew 7, you will see our Lord criticizing all sorts of bad behavior and even
calling people “hypocrites” and worse. So if “judge not” is
supposed to mean “never criticize,” then clearly our Lord did wrong. But a more
natural explanation is that we should never write someone off as being
irredeemable. Yes, we may and should criticize bad behavior and evil attitudes,
but we should do so with the attitude of leading people to repentance.
And
so our Lord was not fooled when the devil tried to quote a Bible passage that
said that God would send His angels to protect His people and then drew a false
conclusion, namely, that one should provoke God into acting and giving this
protection. But Christ knew that that wasn’t what that passage meant, and so He
quoted another passage of Scripture. So while the devil was trying to set one
passage of the Bible against another, Christ was interpreting one Scripture
passage in the light of another. He was making sure that He was interpreting in
its context.
And
so, beloved in Christ, may you be armed with the Scriptures and with the
forgiveness of Christ as you confront temptations this week. Christ has already
won the war. Now let Him help you in your daily battles. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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