God’s grace, peace
and mercy be with you. … My sermon is entitled Lent, Luke and Life, and
is based on our Gospel (Luke 4:1-13). 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 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.
Today, I examine
Lent, Satan’s Temptation of Jesus, and how these relate to us. Lent is a solemn
religious observance that begins on Ash Wednesday and covers approximately six
weeks or 40 days before Easter Sunday.
In Latin, Lent is
referred to by the term Quadragesima, meaning fortieth, referring to the
fortieth day before Easter. In English, the word Lent initially meant spring,
from the Germanic root for long, because in spring the days visibly lengthen.
The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer through
prayer, penance, and repentance of sins, almsgiving, atonement and self-denial.
During Lent, our
worship assumes a penitential character. The color for the season is purple, a
color associated with penitence. By omitting the Hymn of Praise and Alleluia,
we distinguish Lent from the rest of the year and form a powerful contrast with
the festive celebration of Jesus' resurrection when our alleluias ring loud and
clear.
The Lutheran
perspective of “giving up something for Lent” is a matter of Christian freedom.
Our church has no law requiring members to “give up something,” since the
Scriptures do not require this. If a Christian wants to give something up for
Lent as a way of remembering and personalizing the sacrifice Christ made on the
cross for our sins, then he is free to do so, if he does not judge others who
opt not to do this.
The penitential
character of Lent is not its sole purpose. In the ancient Church, the period
leading up to Easter was a time of intense preparation for the candidates
baptized at the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday. This time is appropriate for
Baptism because of the relationship between Christ's death and resurrection and
our own in the sacrament.[1]
This suggests that Lent serves as a time to meditate on the suffering that
Christ endured on our behalf, and an opportunity to reflect our own Baptism and
what it means to live as a child of God.[2]
That you may grow as a child of God, I encourage you to read Matthew
Rosebrock’s The Hand of the Lord or another devotional from Lutheran
Hour Ministries.
We base our 40-day
Lenten observance on Christ’s 40 days in the wilderness. In Luke, we read that
Jesus was “in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by the devil.”[3]
Satan tempted Jesus throughout his life and even onto the cross.
Before his
wilderness experience, John baptized Jesus.[4]
It may initially appear problematic that Jesus accepted John’s baptism. After
all, it called for a change of heart in view of the forgiveness of sins. How
could Jesus, who was not a sinner, have accepted such a baptism? I will save
the answer for later.
As Jesus emerged
from the baptismal waters, “the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit
descended on him in bodily form, like a dove.”[5]
This is a response to Isaiah’s prayer that God “rend the heavens and come down”
to bring his flock up from the sea, put his Holy Spirit in the midst of his
people and guide them in a new exodus.[6]
At Jesus’ baptism,
the rending of the heavens announced the beginning of the end; and as he
breathed his last, the Temple’s sanctuary veil, decorated to look like the
heavens, tore from top to bottom, symbolizing that in the end-time, the holy of
holies and ancient sacrifices would be no more. The image of the dove, a symbol
for Israel, revealed Jesus as the personal embodiment of a new Israel. As the
Christ, the Anointed One, Jesus fulfilled Isaiah’s prayer.[7]
Immediately after
Jesus’ baptism, the Spirit that descended on him drove him into the wilderness,
where he was tested as Israel was tested in their exodus wilderness. This
40-day test evoked the days and nights Moses spent with God on the mountain as
he received the Covenant,[8]
and called to mind Elijah’s 40-day walk to the mountain of God.[9]
Jesus’ 40 days
represented his entire baptismal life, ending with his passion. Sent into the
wilderness by the Spirit to lead people in a new exodus, Satan tested Jesus.
Satan, the adversary of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, represented the power of
evil. Satan was the obstacle Jesus had to overcome.
The setting for
Jesus’ baptismal test was simple. Angels ministered to him while he was among
wild beasts, symbolic of the world’s evil forces. The scene evoked numerous Old
Testament passages, particularly the story of Daniel in the lion’s den,[10]
and the primal contest of creation where human beings dominated wild beasts.[11]
As the one anointed by the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ life was an ongoing conflict
with Satan, the spirit of evil. It began in the wilderness but reappeared
throughout the Gospel.
In the Capernaum
synagogue, a man with an unclean spirit engaged Jesus in a verbal skirmish.[12]
This showed the battle between the unclean spirit that possessed the man and
the Holy Spirit that was one with Jesus. In another case, no one was strong
enough to bind the Gerasene man possessed by a demonic spirit until Jesus
appeared. And after Peter rebuked Jesus, because he could not imagine a Messiah
who would suffer and die, Jesus, in turn rebuked Peter as Satan because he too
acted as an obstacle to the cross.[13]
The point is that
throughout his life, Jesus battled Satan. Satan was and is a strong man.[14]
He affected demon-possession and physical maladies, created disorder in the
natural world, and snatched up the Word of God sown on the path.[15]
He tempted people to abandon God’s will and inspired them to adopt hearts and
minds set on human ways. His activity extended to Jesus’ enemies, the Lord’s
followers and Jesus himself. Satan tested Jesus in the wilderness, in
Gethsemane and on Golgotha.
Satan’s activity
was implicit when Jesus asked God to “take this cup from me.”[16]
And when Jesus exhorted his disciples to imitate him by watching and praying
lest they enter into a test, the same language used in the wilderness account,
this too confirmed the moment was Satan’s test.[17]
Bound and hung on the cross, Jesus’ opponents declared he could not save
himself – Satan’s final test to abandon God’s will.
Finally, upon his
death, Jesus cried out in a loud voice that recalled the cries of those from
whom he cast unclean spirits. As he died, the Holy Spirit that descended from a
violently torn heaven and possessed Him at the start of the gospel, left His body
as the Temple veil tore. The Spirit’s departure implied that it completed its
work. Jesus’ death marked victory, not defeat, in His conflict with Satan.
At that moment,
the centurion, upon seeing Jesus breathe his last, confirmed His divinity, just
as our Heavenly Father declared Jesus to be his beloved Son. Now, instead of
rising from the waters of baptism to declare the nearness of God’s Kingdom, his
Resurrection from the tomb declared God’s victorious Kingdom.[18]
How does this
relate to us? Hence, my third point – Life. Lent is an appropriate time to
remember our Baptism and its relationship to Christ's death and resurrection.[19]
It is also a fitting time to meditate on the suffering Christ endured on our
behalf and what it means to live as a child of God.[20]
Although Christ
broke Satan’s power, God never promised a conflict-free world, but a world in
which the risen Christ meets and restores errant followers so that they may
imitate Him in their struggles against satanic powers, and like Him, endure to
the end, empowered by the Holy Spirit.[21]
As we leave here,
children of God filled with grace, love, mercy and the Holy Spirit, we enter a
world of conflict, corruption and evil that both blinds and blind-sides us.
Satan’s temptations are open and blatant, as well as secretive and
surreptitious.
I may not be
tempted to murder but may be silently complicit over one million children
aborted annually. I may not be tempted to break the Sixth Commandment but may
peruse inappropriate material. I may not steal from my neighbor but may never
open a generous hand to feed the poor, clothe the naked or offer my home to the
homeless. I may never swear false testimony in court but may never speak kindly
about others. I may never treat people as God treats me – with kindness, mercy
and compassion – but may consider myself a good Christian.
As a good
Christian, the commandment most difficult to keep is the First: You shall have
no other gods. Of this, Martin Luther wrote plainly. Many people think that they
have God and everything in abundance when they have money and possessions; they
trust in them and boast of them with such firmness and assurance as to care for
no one. Such people have a god, Mammon by name, that is, money and possessions,
on which they set their heart, and which is the most common idol on earth. He
who has money and possessions feels secure and is joyful and undismayed as
though he were sitting in the midst of Paradise. On the other hand, he who has
no doubts and is despondent, as though he knew of no God. For very few are to
be found who are of good cheer, and who neither mourn nor complain if they have
not Mammon. This care and desire for money sticks and clings to our nature,
even to the grave.
So,
too, whoever trusts and boasts that he possesses great skill, prudence, power,
favor, friendship, and honor also has a god, but not this true and only God.
This appears again when you notice how presumptuous, secure, and proud people
are because of such possessions, and how despondent they are when they no
longer exist or are withdrawn. Therefore, I repeat that the chief explanation
of this point is that to have a god is to have something in which the heart
entirely trusts.[22]
Friends, each week
I confess I am a miserable sinner addicted to my things and ways of doing
things. Still, I think highly of my bad ideas and overinflated opinions. I
marry my feelings and divorce myself from others’ sensitivities. In short, I
need to be saved. The good news is, Christ saved me. Through no merit of my
own, He saved me. He who conquered Satan, sin and death saved me from the
tyranny of that trio. That brings me full circle to my earlier question. “How
could Jesus, who was not a sinner, have accepted such a baptism?”
John’s baptism of
Jesus revealed His humanity and His solidarity with and commitment to sinners.
What occurred when Jesus emerged from the water revealed His divinity and His
solidarity with and commitment to God His Father.[23]
If I approach
life’s challenges in individualistic terms (me against the world), the baptism
of a sinless person is senseless because baptism has no meaning beyond the
individual who is baptized. If, however, I view life’s challenges in
interpersonal terms (we are all in this together), the baptism of a sinless
person makes a lot of sense.[24]
Jesus did not have
to be a sinner to accept John’s baptism. All he needed was to be in personal
solidarity with people who are sinners in need of salvation. Jesus’ baptism by
John presented him as a person in solidarity with all human beings, and it demonstrated
his willingness to bear the weight of our sins on his sinless shoulders.[25]
Friends, as he
tempted Jesus, Satan will tempt you until you exhaust your last gasp. You will
be tempted to commit heinous sins and victimless crimes. If you rely upon
yourself or any power but God to free yourself from his grip, you lose. Satan
will bind you. Only Christ can free you … and He has!
Brothers and
sisters, you will always have the Holy Spirit to guide you in the wilderness of
life just as Jesus did, but as Paul exhorted the freed Christians of Rome, I
beg you not to be addicted to yourself and your ways, your ideas and feelings.
Forgiven fully by Christ, surrender to the Holy Spirit. Be a slave of the Holy
Spirit, an addict of the Third Person of the Trinity and the means of God’s
grace. When you are, the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will
keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
[1]
Romans 6:1-11.
[2]
Frequently Asked Questions, Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod website
[3]
Luke 4:1-2.
[4]
Although Luke does not record explicitly that John baptized Jesus.
[5]
Luke 8:21-22.
[6]
Isaiah 64:1.
[7]
Eugene LaVerdiere, The Beginning of the Gospel: Introducing the Gospel
According to Mark, Volume 1. Collegeville MN: The Liturgical Press (1999), 34.
[8]
Exodus 34: 27-38.
[9]
1 Kings 19:8.
[10]
Daniel 6:23.
[11]
Genesis 1:24-28.
[12]
Elizabeth Shively, “Characterizing the Non-Human: Satan in the Gospel of Mark,”
Character Studies and the Gospel of Mark. Edited by Christopher W. Skinner and
Matthew Ryan Hauge. London: Bloomsbury (2014), 139ff.
[13]
Shively, 144f.
[14]
Mark 3:27.
[15]
Mark 4:1ff.
[16]
Mark 14:36.
[17]
Shively, 146.
[18]
Shively, 148.
[19]
Romans 6:1-11.
[20]
Frequently Asked Questions, lcms.com.
[21]
Shively, 151.
[22]
The Large Catechism. Part One. Somewhat modified for our time.
[23]
LaVerdiere, 34.
[24]
Ibid.
[25]
Ibid.
