Luke 4:1-13
And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit for forty days in the wilderness, tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing in those days; and when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘ Man shall not live by bread alone.’” And the devil took him up, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory; for it has been delivered to me, and I give to whom I will. If you then, will worship me, it shall all be yours.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’” And he took him to Jerusalem, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here; for it is written, ‘He will give his angels charge of you, to guard you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’” And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.
“What is Lent?”
Today is the first Sunday in Lent. It is quite similar to the season of Advent before Christmas; however it is much less understood. I think Advent is easy for us to understand because it is normal for us to look forward to something. Most children are taught very early on how to look forward to Christmas morning simply by withholding all those presents until that fateful morning. So when the pastor gets up and starts talking about looking forward to Christmas… we just get it.
However, the message of Lent is much different, and much harder to understand. It is a message of depriving ourselves, it is a message of looking into our own souls, it is a message of reflecting on our sinfulness, facing our temptations, finding strength in scripture, and ultimately looking to the cross of Christ and seeing your sin being nailed there, your punishment being taken away by Christ. Unless you are a monk or a nun, these practices are not a part of what you normally do. So when the pastor gets up and starts talking about depriving yourself, about reflecting on your sin, and about using Lent to fully realize your sin… it doesn’t come as easily for us.
Easter we understand, the joyous day of Christ’s resurrection, the great and final salvific miracle. Easter Day! Hallelujah, Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! The joyous celebration that comes with being a Christian, oh we can get a hold of that just fine… but the pain… the suffering… the darkness that comes before Easter is something that not very many Christians actually practice.
Back at Christmas, I preached that we can never fully understand the miracle of Christmas without the cross… well that same sermon goes doubly for Easter. We can not know the true joy of Easter, without knowing the darkness, the pain, and the sacrifice of the Cross.
It is not a coincidence, that today’s text is about the Temptation of Jesus. In the lectionary calendar, the first Sunday of Lent is always kicked of with the reading of the temptation of Jesus. It is also not a coincidence that Lent is 40 days long, and Jesus’ time in the desert was 40 days. To really prepare for Easter, to really prepare for that “Hallelujah” on Easter morning, we must know what Christ did for us. We must walk these 40 days as Christ walked those 40 days, we must identify with Christ in his walk, so that when we look to the Cross during holy week we do not just see Christ upon the cross, but we see ourselves… and understand the price Jesus really paid for us.
As we begin this 40 day walk known as lent, there are three things that each one of us should reflect on: First - we should realize our own temptations - and know even through this Jesus is with us as even he was tempted, Second - we should turn to scripture - as Jesus showed us by his example turning to scripture, and finally - we should look to the cross - for it is there that Jesus takes all of our failings upon himself, and saves us from their burden.
Brothers and sisters, the First step along the way is realizing and dealing with temptation
The great founder of Presbyterianism, John Calvin once said that we are wretched worms unworthy of anything good. And I believe that he was not far off. Each one of us is tempted, and each and every one of us fails to resist temptation eventually. No matter how hard we try, we fail and give in. Don’t believe me? Try the Lenten practice of giving up something you really love during Lent, and see how hard it is to go without it. Temptation is a part of being human. We can not avoid it. What are we supposed to do with something that has such a strong and constant pull on our lives? Seeking answers, I turn us to this morning’s lesson…
The first thing we see is that we are not alone in our temptation. Christ himself walked the path of temptation. Christ has knows what it is like for us because he walked that path of temptation and experienced what it is like for you and I to be tempted and pulled by sin.
Before he ever preached a sermon, before he ever healed a single person, before he ever had a single convert, he was taken aside and tempted greatly by Satan.
Christ desperately wanted to help the poor and feed the hungry, and Satan tells him, “Just look to these rocks at your feet, you can have bread for yourself and for all the world, if you will just abuse your power this little bit.”
Christ desperately wanted to help the oppressed, and Satan tells him, “Here, I will give you control over all the kingdoms - and the world can be governed exactly as you wish, simply bow to me and I will make it happen.”
Christ desperately wanted people to stop their religious practices centered on sin and the law, and embrace a New Covenant of love and grace. Satan told him, “Show them… show them with your mighty power that you are a God and they will have no other choice but to believe.”
Everything Christ ever really wanted, on a silver platter, the fast track to achieving what he came to earth to do. And it is here now that I want you to step into that situation and identify with Christ, even as he is identifying with you… Imagine this is door number one being dangled in front of you… do this one simple thing and you will have all you want… the poor will be fed, the oppressed will be freed, everyone will love and worship you… just give in. Or door number two, where there is pain… rejection… everyone you love dearly turning their back on you, and to top it all off… a very painful death - waiting for you on a cross. Door number one or door number two… which do you choose? The easy path, or the hard path?
And it is here that we see the second point of today’s lesson… Christ turned to scripture for his strength. “Man does not live on bread alone, but by every word of God.” “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.” “You shall not test the Lord your God.” And he was able to withstand the temptation, and Satan left him for the time being. To say it was an easy thing for Christ to turn down the devil is absurd. He was human like you and I, and I have to admit… standing there in that position- door number one looks really, really good.
I glimpse briefly into the future, and see Christ at the Garden of Gethsemane, and remember him praying so hard that his sweat turns to blood, here him weeping, “Father, take this burden from me.” Brothers and sister, door number one looked downright wonderful.
Christ knows what it is like for you and for me, he knows the power of sin and the hold it has. He knows what it is like to have temptation drown your every thought and turn your every desire. He knows that it is a power we can not withstand, not control, and not resist. And we need to realize the same thing.
The pull of temptation is a mighty and powerful thing that we often underestimate. Underestimating how powerful temptation is, reminds me of the Great Tuna run of 1998. You see, the tuna were running for the first time in 47 years, only 30 miles off Cape Cod. And they were biting! All you needed to catch one was a sharp hook and some bait. And the rewards for doing so were substantial. Rumor had it that Japanese buyers would pay $50,000 for a nice blue fin!
That’s why many would-be fishermen ignored Coast Guard warnings and headed out to sea in small boats. But what these new fishermen didn’t realize - was the problem is not catching a tuna—the problem comes after they’re caught.
On September 23, the Christi Anne, a 19-foot boat, capsized while doing battle with a tuna. That same day the 27-foot boat Basic Instinct suffered the same fate, while Official Business, a 28-footer, was swamped after it hooked onto a 600-pound tuna. The tuna pulled it under water.
These fishermen underestimated the power of the fish they were trying to catch. That is what temptation does to us. It takes us by surprise. It looks manageable on the surface. Only after we hook into it do we discover its strength, and by then it is too late. We find ourselves being pulled underwater.
We need to realize our temptations, we need to admit them, and finally face them. However we can not face them alone. Using the illustration of the giant tunas pulling us under… I pull a quote from the classic movie Jaws…. “We need a bigger boat!”
We need scripture to find our strength in the face of temptation. We need to rely on God’s word. That is why there is such a huge emphasis on scripture during Lent… that is why the Worship Committee purchased special devotionals and key rings for you all, that you may find strength and reminders all throughout Lent to prepare you. Furthermore, even Christ was not alone… you notice in today’s lesson that twice it reinforces that he both came and went empowered by the Holy Spirit. If we truly give ourselves over to God and seek his scriptures, he will not leave us by ourselves… but will send the Holy Spirit to further strengthen us, and this is an important lesson for us today.
We are never alone… God does not leave us to take this journey by ourselves. Yes temptation is real, and temptation is powerful, but God gives us tools that we can use to resist temptation. While this is an important message, it is not by far the most important message.
Despite how much we try, despite how much we read the scriptures and rely on the Holy Spirit, we will fall short. We will fall. We will sin, and the penalty for sin is death. Satan will not give up… you may have noticed that in our text this morning Satan did not give up on Jesus… it said he would wait for a more opportune moment, wait until that moment when Jesus was at his weakest to dangle the bait again, and it is the same for us… we may find strength today by resting in the scriptures… but there will come a time where we don’t find that comfort, when we have grown lax and forgotten to continue in scripture… and it is then that temptation will find us and whatever strength we have left will fail. But as I said, this leads to the greatest lesson for us today… and that lesson rests with cross of Christ.
Waiting at the end of Lent is Holy Week, and at the end of Holy week waits the cross. And it is there that all of our failings rest… it is there that all of our sin resides… it is there with the blood of Christ that we find our true comfort. There on the cross, we receive the greatest gift ever… freedom for the burden that rests on our shoulders, freedom from the sin that taints our souls, and freedom from the penalty of death as a result of all of our failings. Christ takes them all, and as the Son of God takes the hard road… and dies… for you and for me.
This is what we need to remember most this Lent… Jesus did not take the easy road and give into temptation to give us all temporary earthly relief… he took the hard road… giving each one of us eternal and everlasting relief. We need to remember this truth as we walk these 40 days of lent… each day getting closer and closer to the day that Jesus died on the cross. And if we can identify with Jesus’ journey to the cross even a little bit, we will be able to experience the true depth of what happens on the cross, and then truly feel the power behind the joy on Easter morning as we declare “Hallelujah, Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed!”
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
