God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. My sermon is
entitled Satan, Savior and Self, and my focus is on our Gospel (Matthew 4:1-11).
Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to
me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now that our feet are standing
within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit
enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we
pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.
Over the past few weeks, we have toggled throughout the
Gospel of Matthew. We went from the Infant Jesus’ Epiphany to his adult Baptism,
from the Sermon on the Mount to the mountain of his Transfiguration, and now
back to his Temptation in the Wilderness. After this Sunday, we will shelve
Matthew until Holy Week. For today, let us focus on three characters: Satan,
our Savior and ourselves.
Our passage opens with Jesus being led by the Spirit into
the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. This is reminiscent of God leading
Israel into the desert. Yet, what happened is not the same. God tested Israel,
but Satan tempted Jesus. While Satan figured prominently in his attempt to draw
Jesus away from His Father, he is not mentioned in Exodus for the sinful folly
of God’s people led them astray. In Israel’s desert, we see no tempter; only
the hardness of their hearts. Unlike Israel, Jesus, who stood in their place,
showed himself to be the perfectly obedient Son of God who overcame Satan and
sin for God’s people.
Now, thanks to the scholarship of Pastor Jeffrey Gibbs, we
have an understanding of our first character in today’s Gospel. Satan is named
slanderer (vv 1, 5, 8, 11), tempter (v 3) and adversary (v 10). Later, Matthew recalls
the titles Jesus applied to him: evil one (5:37; 6:13; 13:19. 38), Beelzebul (9:34;
10:15, 25; 12:24). In short, our first character is evil, pure evil.
Satan’s first temptation is an attempt to get Jesus to use
his power to serve himself in time of need. He seeks to lead the perfectly
obedient son into being the wrong kind of son. Satan’s language towards Jesus
is designed to leave the question of Jesus’ divine sonship somewhat open. This
is intended not only for Jesus to ponder, but also for Matthew’s church
members, and ultimately, us. Do you really believe that Jesus is the Son of
God?
Jesus did not use his divine power to murmur against God or
reject his will as the Israelites did. In fact, through his divine power he later
provided plenty of bread for the benefit of others, feeding thousands of people
(14:13-21; 15:32-39).
Satan’s second
temptation is akin to Exodus 17:1-7, where the people camped in a place where
there was no water. They grumbled against God and planned to stone Moses. As
the Israelites tested God because they did not trust His promises, Satan sought
to tempt Jesus to test God’s promise. In Deuteronomy, the verse that Jesus
quoted, Moses reminded the people that they shall never again put the Lord God
to the test, as they tested him at Massah (6:16). Jesus knew and held fast to
this commandment. He had no need to learn whether God’s power and purposes were
guiding him. He trusted His Father. God’s power was available to protect and
sustain Jesus. The issue here is whether Jesus would trust that promise.
From his conception, Jesus possessed both a divine nature
and a human nature. As the Second Divine Person in the Holy Trinity, that
divine nature was always available to him. He did not always reveal it, but at
times, Jesus did disclose his divine nature. For instance, we see it when he
was a child in the Temple (Luke 2:42-50) and when he transformed water into
wine at the Wedding in Cana (John 2:1-11). Martin Luther explained that Jesus
kept his divine nature hidden in the state of his humiliation, his human
nature. As it applies to the second temptation, Jesus, fully God and fully man,
had to trust as a human that God would keep his promise. The question for
Matthew’s readers, including us, is: Do I trust God’s promise? Do I trust God’s
promise of salvation through Christ, which includes the forgiveness of sins and
life everlasting?
Satan’s third temptation is his presumption that Jesus could
and would worship and serve someone other than his Father. He did this by twisting
Moses’ words as his own while he is showing Jesus the kingdoms of the world.
Recall that Moses reminded the people as they prepared to enter the land God
swore to their ancestors that it would have great and good cities that they did
not build, and houses full of all good things that they did not fill, and
cisterns that they did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that they did not
plant; and that here they would eat and be full. Think of all that Jesus could
do with all that and more, if he only turned from His Father and worshipped
someone else. Think of all that you could do with the winning Powerball ticket.
Jesus, however, makes Moses’ words his own, “You shall worship the Lord
your God and him only shall you serve.”
To repeat what I said earlier, Satan is a slanderer, tempter
and adversary of Jesus. He is pure evil. Jesus overcame pure evil through his determined
obedience to His Father’s will. Matthew wanted his readers to understand that
this passage is not about Jesus providing an example for his followers. This is
Jesus’ work!
We should see Jesus as the victor over Satan on behalf of
the nation [of Israel] and ultimately on behalf of all people. His mission was
to relinquish all of his power to save you and me from sin.[1]
When we properly understand that Jesus’ cross is both salvific and exemplary,
then we understand this passage. When we comprehend Jesus’ passion prediction
and his rebuke of Peter, then we begin to see all that Jesus had to overcome in
order to achieve salvation for us. When we realize that the words spoken to
Peter can be applied to any one of us, then we know that what Jesus did in the
wilderness is not simply a lesson for us, but is LIFE for us, because there is
no other way to salvation except for Christ to overcome pure evil.
What then, might this passage mean for you and me today?
Well, first of all, this is not a lesson on how to combat temptation by quoting
Scripture verses. If life were that simple, you could download a pamphlet,
memorize a few verses, and call it a day. What we see throughout these eleven
verses is Satan attempting to get Jesus to misunderstand or question his own
identity. Do we not see this in our world, in our lives? Do we not regularly
encounter people who tempt us to cancel our identity as Christians because we
do not fit into their narrative of how life should be lived?
As Jesus’ disciples, we can learn to recognize Satan’s
temptations as attacks on our identity as children of God, and what it means to
live out that identity in the world.[2]
To do that, you need to know from God’s Word who you are and how your identity
as God’s baptized son or daughter is to be lived out.
You also have to keep in mind that Jesus has never stranded
or abandoned one of his followers in their battle against evil. The Holy Spirit
that led Him into the wilderness is always with you. With that Spirit, we pray
constantly, or at least daily, the Lord’s Prayer, “Lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil” because such battles to maintain
our true calling from God can only be won through prayer.
You may recall from my Ash Wednesday sermon that I mentioned
the episode in Mark’s Gospel where the disciples were unable to cast out an
unclean spirit from a young boy. After Jesus cast it out, they asked him why
they could not. He answered, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything
but prayer” (9:29).
In his Simple Way to Pray, a response to his friend
asking for advice on prayer, Martin Luther openly admitted that at times he
felt cold and apathetic about prayer because of all the things that distracted
him, knowing that these were always a result of the flesh and devil trying to
prevent him from praying. He then offered his advice on prayer.
Regarding the Lord’s Prayer, Luther explained in the Small
Catechism that God tempts no one. “We ask in this prayer that God would
preserve and keep us, so that the devil, the world, and our flesh may not
deceive us or mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and
vice, and that, although we may be attacked by them, we may finally prevail and
gain the victory.”
In the Large Catechism, he elaborated on what lead us not
into temptation means. “When God gives power and strength to resist, even
though the attack is not removed or ended. … We cannot help but suffer attacks,
and even be mired in them, but we pray here that we may not fall into them and
be drowned by them. The early theologian, Tertullian, said as much when he
wrote, ‘Lead us not into temptation [means] do not allow us to be led by the
tempter.’”[3]
Friends, you will never be led into temptation by our good
and loving God, but you will by Satan, sin and self, and so, if there is
anything you can do to make prayer your first activity of the day, do it. Wake
earlier. Give up television and social media. Put down novels and pick up
devotionals. Pray in the manner of Martin Luther: The Ten Commandments, the
Creed, the Lord’s Prayer and recall what Baptism and Lord’s Supper mean for
you.
Since Jesus’ Ash Wednesday message for us was prayer,
fasting and almsgiving, may I suggest that you take some time this week to
unpack again the meaning of the Lord’s Prayer by reading all 27 pages of
Luther’s explanation in the Small Catechism. Why? Because the better we
understand it, the better we pray it. As you are led by the Holy Spirit from
here into your world, know that Christ has already conquered Satan, sin and
death for you; and when you are tempted to lose your identity as Christ’s
brothers and sisters, pray, not only for yourself, but also for others. When you
do, may the peace of God which is beyond all understanding keep your hearts and
minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment