1st Sunday in Lent
Matthew 4:1-11
"Tempting"
"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 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
Consequences, temptations, sin these are the ideas which are found in our gospel lesson this morning.
This is the familiar story of Jesus in the wilderness as he fasted for 40 days then was tempted by the devil.
But notice one important part of the first verse of our lesson. It says: "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil."
Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. It was planned. Jesus knew he was going to be tempted but not how.
Temptations are all around us. We are tempted each day as that little girl in our opening story proved. She stayed away from the light socket for two days, but the temptation to return was just to great.
Do you remember the comedian Flip Wilson. He had a character named Jeraldine who got into an awful lot of trouble. And her reply to it all was "The devil made be do it!!"
Since we live in an imperfect world, temptations are all around us.
And just like Jesus, these temptation may be good for us.
A pastor wrote in a sermon on this subject:
I think now is a good time for us to understand the Biblical meaning of the word "temptation…" It’s means to test or to prove… Therefore, Jesus was led into the wilderness to be "tested" by the devil as a means of proving Himself to God…
My son worked in the steel mill for several years… They would take scrap metal and throw it into a fire and melt it down and form it into rebar &endash; which is used for adding strength in construction & foundations…
As the metal is liquefied in the fire, the weak parts are burned & turned into smoke that goes up the chimney &endash; and after this process, what’s left is the strong, pure metal…
A blacksmith does the same thing… He puts the soft metal in the fire & heats it up &endash; then he takes his hammer and beats the old loose metal off, forming the metal into a work of art &endash; and then he heats it to a desired temperature &endash; it’s a process called hardening… And once the object is removed from the fire &endash; it’s pure & solid & hard as steel…
Temptation is the process of TESTING us to see if we’re for real… It’s a battle between the Sprit & the flesh &endash; The results will indicate if we’re closer to heaven or of we’re closer to earth…
Temptations are necessary… they teach us several things…
· They aren’t there to weaken us, they’re there to make us stronger
· They aren’t there to make us bad, they’re there to make us better
· They aren’t there as a penalty, they’re there as a privilege to prove ourselves to God
· They’re there to strengthen us for God’s purpose
James says (1:2), "Whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing…" 2
So Jesus was tempted on purpose to prove His faith. We are tempted so that our faith might be made stronger.
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 second temptation was for the Jesus to jump off the temple wall and the angels would 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.’
Now that does not sound like such a temptation. Fall down Jesus and you will not get hurt, the angels will save you.
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.
I find this temptation all the time in my life. Let’s take writing sermons as an example. I have this regular deadline of Sunday mornings when I need to get up and say something. There are some weeks when every minute of the week is jammed with work and stress with no day off in sight and I have no clue how I am going to get a sermon written. Well, by golly, in those times somehow a message comes through. Sometimes it says, "Use an old one!" Other times the sermon gets written almost by miracle.
So I get used to that. Then, if I have a week when there isn’t a lot going on, it is very tempting to take more time to relax thinking, it’s okay...God’s not going to let me get up there without something to say. Well, I’m here to tell you, He just might sometime, if only to teach me a lesson. I remember praying once, "God, please help me be disciplined enough to get the sermon written tomorrow, when I have the time." My answer was, "I provide the message. It’s your job to have the discipline." Ouch. 3
This temptation wants to put the burden of live 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 controling our lives, but as Luther says we have free will to follow the words of grace we read and hear to make our live ful and meaningful.
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 wrship him and then all the kingdoms of the earth would be jesus’. But Jesus says we are to worship only God.
I don’t know too many people who worship the devil now a days. But I do know many people who get their priorties 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.
These is to be an order tto life. Worship god then all the other things will fall into place.
A pastor says it is like this;
It’s like buttoning a shirt. If you get the top button right, all the others will fall into place. If you keep the main thing the main thing, life will fall into place. If you miss the top button, you’re going to look like a dork. Ditto for your spiritual life. "Worship the Lord your God, and serve God only." 4
Start with the top, start with God first in your live and everything else will fall into place.
How are you going to button that shirt of life?
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale February 7, 2005
1Author: Gladys M. Hunt
2 Mike DuBose SermonCentral
3 Anne Robertson SermonCentral
4 Anne Robertson SermonCentral
