1st Sunday in Lent
Matthew 4:1-11
"To be tempted"
"Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And he fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." But he answered, "It is written, ’Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’" Then the devil took him to the holy city, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ’He will give his angels charge of you,’ and ’On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’" Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, ’You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’" Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them; and he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." Then Jesus said to him, "Begone, Satan! for it is written, ’You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’" Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him." Matthew 4:1-11, RSV.
Grace and Peace to you from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the tempted Christ. Amen
A little boy was once forbidden by his mother to go swimming, but she permitted him to go out for a walk. When he came back, it was quite evident that he had disobeyed her and had gone in the water. When asked why, the little fellow answered,
"Well, Mother, I happened to have my swimming trunks with me, so I decided to go in."
As you can guess our gospel lesson this morning is about the temptation of Jesus. We are going to look at this word temptation this morning.
In our story at the beginning of the sermon, the boy planned to be tempted by the water as he had his swimming trunks with him. So it was easy to give in to temptation as he found himself by the swimming hole. There he was standing by the water, trunks i hand. What was he going to do? He gave in and went swimming even though his mother told him not to.
We are all like that little boy. Sometimes we plan to be tempted, sometimes it just happens.
Guess who wrote the following about temptation:
"I often find I have the will to do good, but not the power. That is, I don’t accomplish the good things that I set out to do, and the evil things that I don’t want to do, I find I’m always doing. Yet, if I do the things that I don’t really want to do, then it is not I, repeat, it is not I that do them, but it is my own nature in which I am a slave to sin and death. It’s an agonizing situation, a constant conflicts and who on earth can free me from the clutches of my own sinful nature?" That was St. Paul writing to the Romans about his own struggle with sin.
Paul says it best. We are tempted to do sin or tempted not to do something. For sin is doing something wrong and as well as not doing something we should be doing. In our order of confession at the beginning of the service we say those things we have left undone to acknowledge those thing we should have done, but didn’t do.
I think Paul said it best, sin is something that affects a person’s whole being. It is not something that can be brushed off very easily. It doesn’t work that way. You know it and I know it. Everyone of us labors under the terrible weight of guilt and sin. We feel guilty about the wrongs we have done, the hurts we have caused others, and at the same time, we feel guilty about those things we should have done, but didn’t do. For example, maybe we needed to apologize to someone, but were too proud. Or, maybe, we couldn’t express forgiveness to another, because of the hatred that filled our heart. Or maybe, it was the hurt we said to a loved one and after realizing what we had done, we couldn’t or wouldn’t say we were sorry. Or maybe we are guilty of not including the stranger, the new person to town in our circle of friends.
Temptation and sin are all around us. And temptations also has consequences for our lives.
A mother wrote:
When my daughter, Danna, was about three years old, she became fascinated with electrical outlets. One of her favorite activities was working the childproof cover off of the outlet and sticking various objects in it. I was not thrilled with this little game of hers, repeatedly taking her to the outlet and firmly warning, "No! No! It will hurt you!"
She would then look up at me with her beautiful brown eyes and dimpled smile. After several trips to the outlet I thought, "She’s got it!" She did - for two whole days.
I was putting groceries away when I heard her scream from the family room. By the time I reached her, I found a sobbing toddler holding up a tiny burned finger for me to kiss and make better. Even at her young age, Danna had acquired a nugget of wisdom and has never touched an outlet again.
When we give in to temptation the result is always sin. Attached to that sin is the price tag of consequences. Every choice we make - every action that we take has consequences. We can learn from those consequences, hear the message God assigned to them and gain the wisdom that they hold(.1)
As we look at the temptations that Jesus faced we can see what the consequences were for him and us.
After Jesus had fasted for 40 days, the devil comes to him and says: "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread."
The devil was hitting Jesus were it hurt. Jesus had just fasted for 40 days and was bound to be hungry. So the devil tells him to make these stones into bread.
That does not sound so evil. Making bread to eat. Making bread not just for himself, but for all the hungry of the world. That is not so bad is it?
The devil wanted to Jesus to upset the order of the creation. Sure Jesus did that when he healed people, or when he feed the 5000 with a loaf of bread and 2 fish, but this was not a necessary thing to do. the devil was tempting Jesus to take the easy road, to work outside the natural order of things, to become a hero to all the starving people of the world.
But Jesus said no to that, He said "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."
Jesus is saying that there is more to live than this simple miracle. We are to live by the word of God. And that words says to each of us that we are to reach out an help our neighbor. We are to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to visit those in prison to bring a measure of grade into the brokenness of this world.
The consequences to the first temptation was for Jesus to do something outside the natural order of life. Don’t plant seeds so they grow into wheat which can be made into flour which then can be baked into bread. No don’t do that just change the stones into bread. And don’t just make enough for you to eat Jesus, but for the whole world. The devil was asking Jesus to work outside of the natural order, the natural law that God set in motion when he created this world. If Jesus had given in the natural order of creation would have suffered.
The second temptation was for Jesus to jump off the temple and let the angels of God catch him.
The text says: "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ’He will give his angels charge of you,’ and ’On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’
A pastor wrote explaining this second temptation like this:
"The second temptation is the temptation to be irresponsible and let God pick up the pieces from our dumb decisions. I can jump off the temple roof and God will catch me. The world is full of well-meaning Christian folks who jump off roofs and then complain to God that they are paralyzed for life. At this level we are tempted to become the spoiled children of God, expecting that God will pick up all our messes, even if we spend the whole day watching TV. "(2)
The consequences of this temptation are to live life in a reckless manner hoping and praying that God will deliver us.
This temptation wants to put the burden of life on God and not on us. If things don’t work out, it God’s fault, if things do work out then I did something right.
God is not a puppet master controlling our lives, but as Luther says we have free will to follow the words of grace we read and hear to make our live full and meaningful. But the consequences of this temptation for Jesus was to mock God’s power, to play games with God. God does not want us to play games with him, but to allow him to be in control of our lives.
And the final temptation is as the text says: Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them; and he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me."
The devil wanted Jesus to worship him and then all the kingdoms of the earth would be Jesus’. But Jesus says we are to worship only God.
The consequences for Jesus in this temptation was to acknowledge that Satan was the master of His life and not God.
I don’t know too many people who worship the devil now a days. But I do know many people who get their priorities mixed up. They worship things, or wealth, or status, or self pride, or so many of things and not God first through His son Jesus Christ. The consequences for our life is that we tend to worship other things God. We place a priority on other things than our worship of God.
It is easy for us to toy with the devil with this temptation. We like to be in control of our lives so we allow the devil room to come close to us.
It is like the fox in the following:
It is easy to be come comfortable with Satan. At first, the believer fears Satan because he knows the
nature of Satan opposes the children of God; but if believer toys close to Satan, he becomes comfortable
and lets his guard down. Aesop’s Fable “The Fox and the Lion” is a good illustration of becoming
comfortable with danger.
When first the Fox saw the Lion he was terribly frightened, and ran away and hid himself in the wood.
Next time however he came near the King of Beasts he stopped at a safe distance and watched him pass
by. The third time they came near one another the Fox went straight up to the Lion and passed the time
of day with him, asking him how his family were, and when he should have the pleasure of seeing him
again; then turning his tail, he parted from the Lion without much ceremony.
The fable ends at this point but most understand that one day the fox will turn his back and the lion will
bounce on him because lions are lions and foxes are foxes. Playing with Satan can also be deadly. (3)
These temptations of Jesus remind us that as we face temptations in life, there are consequences to all these temptations.
May we with the power of God in our lives resist temptation and live for God and others.
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale February 4, 2008
(1) Author: Gladys M. Hunt
(2) Mike DuBose SermonCentral
(3) Source: Net 153 Publications, Pastor Jim
