Temptations, Trials and Tests:
Text: Genesis 22:1-18
Text: Mark 1:9-15
JOKE: I am going to lay claim to this joke because I have never heard anyone else tell it. So blame me first if you shake your head after hearing it. Here it goes: Did you know that cars existed in the days of Jesus? It is true! Scripture makes it clear to us that “after Jesus was Baptized, the Spirit immediately drove him out into the dessert.
So actually I should give God the credit for that joke. We give God a ton of credit. We credit him with the creation of this world. We credit him with the blessings we have received. We praise him because he gave us his only Son and we thank him for the faith we now own by way of the Holy Spirit. We credit God that the Bible is His inspired Word. We credit God when our church truly becomes a HOUSE OF PRAYER and we thank him for the opportunities he provides to make a difference in the lives of others in this world. Yes, there are many reasons why we give credit to God but, there is a time to actually stop crediting God. There is a time when God does not deserve any credit. Do I have your attention with that last sentence? Are you wondering what could possibly exempt us from crediting God?
Although God deserves credit for our faith, our love, our life, our spiritual growth, our ministry and our trust, what God absolutely does not deserve credit for is when we fall into temptation and sin. James tells us this very clearly when he says, “When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.”
You might find that particular scripture verse difficult to swallow. After all, didn’t God create us with desire, with passion, with feeling? Did he also not allow sin to enter into this world? Could he not have waved his hand and destroyed sin or even the opportunity for sin to grow? Could God have simply not created that tree of good and evil? Could he have not given Adam and Eve the option of saying, “you can eat of any tree in the garden but, this one?” Isn’t that sort of like putting out a tray of warm cookies in front of starving children and saying do not touch?
It is difficult to understand how God is not the one tempting us when he is after all in control of everything. Yet if we are to believe all of what the Bible teaches, then we must believe Scripture when it says, “God does not tempt anyone”. God simply provides choices. It is only our sinful heart and desire which moves us to make the wrong choice and fall into sin. Remember when Eve sinned, she blamed it on the devil and when Adam sinned he blamed it on Eve. In reality, the blame was on the person that reached out and consumed what was not to be consumed. This is our sinful nature and all the more reason why we need to lean heavily on the Lord rather than giving him credit for something that is totally our fault.
So we have no reason to give God credit for temptations nor for our fall into those temptations. However, we do give credit to God for the Trials he puts before us.
Our lives are full of trials. On Friday I was in the front yard and a man walked up to me saying he could trim back my tree quite cheaply. He said it would really help him out if he could help me out. He also mentioned Jesus which moved me to do what we really could not afford. He quoted me $40.00 and after I asked him to cut down a stump the price went up to $50.00. Okay, so after warning his crew that there was a wire strung along a PVC tube into a socket (which hangs on the tree of all places) his crew began. Things looked good enough until a large limb came crashing down over those wires. Then another limb came crashing down on my back gutters shattering the gutters. Now the wires in the PVC pipe were all messed up and my gutters were destroyed. Melissa asked for another stump to be cut down and I figured at least $10.00 added for that too. Yet when I gave the guy $60.00 he demanded $80.00. $80.00 dollars from $40.00 plus the destruction of my wires and gutters, simply did not thrill me. I paid the guy and tried to remain nice because he planned on coming back to clean up in the morning. After the crew left I became visibly upset and I had to pray. I concluded that this was a trial for me to see if I could still love my neighbor after being cheated. It took God awhile to get that through to me and after prayer I was was able to forgive the way the Lord has guided me to.
So earlier I mentioned Abraham and the trial he faced, making mine look ever so paltry. When Abraham was asked to put his son on the sacrificial altar it appears as if God was giving Abraham every reason in the world to walk away but in order for God to be the one doing the tempting, we would have to readily admit that God is soliciting us to sin. Is that what he was doing with Abraham? We would have to admit that God was acting like a fisherman with the bait and he is dangling it in front of us, knowing that in our weakness we will fall. Is that what God was doing to Abraham? No!
When God first talks to Abraham about this future sacrificing of his son, God admits that he knows that Abraham loves this son. Yet God says “go sacrifice”. To an outsider of the faith, it does indeed look as if God is creating a temptation before Abraham as if God was hoping that Abraham’s love of his son would override Abraham’s love of God. To the outsider, a loving God would not ask such a thing of a father who loves his son. This is where it is crucial for us to understand the difference between a Test or Trial and Temptation. Where as Temptation is a solicitation to sin a Test allows a person to be found genuine in their faith and love of God.
The Trial therefore has a goal to test ones faith and also to strengthen a person’s walk with God. Needless to say it is Satan that will use God’s Tests and Trials as the perfect opportunity to solicit us to sin.
God wanted Abraham to have time to think about it. He wanted him to go through every possibility of walking away from God. First Abraham had to gather and split wood. Then it took him three days just to journey long enough to see the place that God had in mind for the sacrifice. Abraham put the wood on his son to carry for the journey and he even had to talk to his son about the sacrifice that was going to be used. Abraham said, “God himself will provide the sacrifice”. During all this delay Satan had every opportunity to whisper into Abraham’s ear, something like “How can a loving God demand such a thing?” Or “just curse God and save your son” but Abraham would have none of it. Abraham simply remained steadfast.
The Epistle from James begins, "Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial." The Old Testament lesson of that incredible trial that God gave to Abraham and Isaac was a biggie. Yet God is able to transform these trials into experiences that prove our faith. Instead of destroying us, these trials become like the fire that purifies gold or some other precious metal. They are like the physical training that breaks down the muscle so that it can grow back stronger.
The author of the epistle to the Hebrews put it this way: [Hebrews 12:7, 11] It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? … For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Let us go back to Abraham and put ourselves in his shoes for a moment. As Abraham you have trusted God with your entire being. God has been gracious and given you a son - a miracle child really - a miracle child given at the ripe old age of one hundred. Now, imagine that God appears to you and says, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." God has asked you to give your miracle child back to Him. How many of you would pass that trial? Yet Abraham’s obedience was immediate. Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. No second guessing - no questions - no delays - just obedience - How could Abraham do this?
The author of the epistle to the Hebrews has the answer: [Hebrews 11:17-19] By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named." He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. The key to Abraham’s obedience is the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith - faith in the resurrection of the dead that was His in God’s promise of the Messiah. Only by the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through him could Abraham even consider such a sacrifice. Only by the power of the Holy Spirit could this trial make Abraham’s faith even stronger.
We also have an opportunity to look at what God does for us when Satan comes with his Temptations. In our Gospel lesson we read that Jesus was DRIVEN into the wilderness to experience 40 days of non stop temptations from Satan. We also know that in 1st Corinthians it is said, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” God has promised that even when the devil, the world, and our sinful nature tempt us to sin, He will not allow the temptation to overwhelm us. Instead, He limits the power of the temptation and gives us a way to endure it and eventually escape from it. In spite of this, we still sin every day.
The exact opposite is true when we apply Paul’s words to Jesus. Since Jesus’ ability to resist temptation has no limit, God placed no limit on the devil’s power. This means that Jesus endured the full extent of the devil’s tempting ability. He endured everything that the devil could throw at Him. In spite of this Jesus never sinned. That is why the author to the Hebrews could say, [Hebrews 2:18] "Because [Jesus] himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted." He could also say, [Hebrews 4:15] "We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin." Jesus’ temptation is one more way that Jesus shows us that He is our true substitute.
Jesus had to become our substitute so that He could clean up the mess we made. He substitutes His perfection for our sin, His innocence for our guilt, and His virtue for our depravity. He substitutes Himself as the target of God’s wrath so that we can be the target of God’s grace. He suffered hell so that we can experience heaven. He takes all the bad stuff that is to our credit and credits it to Himself. At the same time, He takes all the good stuff that is to His credit and credits it to us.
The temptation that we heard about from today’s Gospel is not the end of the devil’s attack against Jesus. Even at the end, Satan continued the attack. Even as Jesus hung on the cross for you and me [Matthew 27:39-44] those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, "You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross." So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, "He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ’I am the Son of God.’ " And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way. Even as Jesus was dying on the cross for the sins of the entire world, the passers by, the temple authorities, and even His fellow victims were the devil’s agents. They all tempted Him to give up the shame, the pain, and the death. Right up to the end, the devil tried to get Jesus to commit that one sin that would cancel out everything Jesus ever did. The devil never surrendered, but, in the end, he was totally defeated.
Jesus never sinned. The most startling proof of this happened a few days after Jesus died on the cross. The tomb where they laid His lifeless body was empty. He was not there. He had risen. If He were guilty of even one sin, we would be able to visit the remains of Jesus to this very day. But we can’t. He isn’t in the grave. He is alive again. He has lived a perfect life, died a sacrificial death, and risen to certify His perfect victory over sin, death, and the devil.
The Gospel for the beginning of Lent teaches us that Christ is indeed holy and righteous - that He rejected all temptation. At the end of Lent, we will remember that He became full of sin, but NOT His sin. He became full of our sin - your sin, my sin, the sin of the entire world. As we remember the cross, we will remember that our sin filled Him as He suffered and died to pay the penalty that God’s justice demanded - a payment that freed us from our slavery to sin. We will remember that God saw Him as a sinner so that He can see us as righteous.
Now that righteousness is ours through the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith - the faith that the Holy Spirit creates and supports through the preaching of Christ’s message. As the one who conquered Satan, our Savior Jesus Christ proclaims the Gospel of God and says, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." Amen
