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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Think about it; Lent really is kind of a microcosm of our baptized life in Christ. The collect that Pastor prayed, that we all prayed together, said, “Guide the people of your church that following our Savior,” and here’s the key, “we may walk through the wilderness of this world toward the glory of the world to come.” Meaning, you and I live in this wilderness. We’re on a wilderness journey much like the people of Israel as they were led by Moses out of slavery and bondage in Egypt to the promised land. Now, that was for 40 years. We have no idea of how long our time in the wilderness will be. But it is the wilderness. This is not our home. And that’s why Lent is such a beautiful reminder for us during these 40 days of Lent that this world of which we are a part is nothing more than the wilderness.
Living in the wilderness implies something. It implies that our life is not bound to a steadfast and eternal house, a steadfast and eternal job, or a steadfast and eternal life. A Lutheran Christian sermon. And we will continue to come into contact.
On Ash Wednesday, we began the service by praying the litany, a very, very ancient prayer in the church that has been prayed for over 2,000 years. In the litany, there is a phrase that we pray: “By your baptism, fasting, and temptation,” meaning the work of Christ in this world for you and for me. And at the end of that phrase, we respond, “Help us, good Lord.”
See, this morning’s text about Christ being thrown into the wilderness is so important for us to know the context in which all that happened because it is your and my life. The context is that in the immediate verses to Jesus being thrust out into the wilderness to be tested, tried, and tempted by Satan, Christ was baptized. He was baptized. And the Spirit came upon him and acknowledged him and showed him to be, as well as the voice from heaven, the Son of God. Having been baptized into the triune God’s name, was he thrust into the wilderness? No different than when you and I were baptized, we were thrust into the great warfare fighting Satan, our flesh, in this ungodly world.
And it’s very interesting to note that who led Jesus into the wilderness? Was it of his own choosing? Was it his idea to go out there and have some hymn and father time together? No, he was led by the Spirit, the text says clearly. God led him out there to be tested and tried, just like God leads you and allows you to be tested and tried by him—that is, Satan as well.
Now, it’s interesting in this text, in these 11 verses, there are three names of Satan. Three. Not just one, not just two, but three. He is called the slanderer, he is called the tempter, and he is called the adversary. The slanderer, the tempter, and the adversary. Very descriptive of not only what he does but who he is.
And in the text, God tempts Jesus for no other person’s sake… than for your sake and mine. Now that he has been tested and has won, God allows us to be tested for our sake as well.
I did not make this up. I wish I could have. What a great coined phrase. But I was told this by one of our elders who had heard it: “The devil never quits, but God always wins.” The devil never quits, but God always wins. And the reason it’s a good saying is that it puts into perspective we will not find a comfort beyond comfort in this wilderness journey of which you and I are on. That we will expect Satan to be continually at us. And we will by faith expect and know in good faith and hope God will always win, even if it’s only realized today upon the closing of our eyes in death and our entrance into heaven.
It’s interesting the things that God allows us to be tempted. He usually puts us into situations of hunger or persecution—desiring something, needing something—not coming as quickly as we would like it to come, or we’re getting persecuted for being faithful. Either way, Satan wants to push us to either despair or to where we begin to think, “Well, God can’t take care of me. I better do something about it.” Or, “Oh, I’ve done everything right because everything’s going so smoothly for me.” Vainglory.
Worldly fame or wealth is another thing that Satan loves to tempt us with. For in having worldly fame and wealth, again, if it’s pulled away from us and we begin to wonder why, we cry out, “Lord, why?” And Satan wants to lead us to despair. Or if we’re getting what we need, we end up saying, “Well, I must have done something right.” Are you seeing a theme here?
So what’s the outcome that God desires in all this tempting and testing of your faith and my faith? There’s a lot of things we do not know. But there is one thing we do know for sure. God wishes to drive us to hear His Word so that our wounds can be bound up and our bonds can be broken.
One, He tests us and tries us so that we love Him and love our neighbor more because we begin to realize the things that matter—Him and the people He places in our lives, whether of our own choosing or His choosing. And finally, we know that He does these things to drive us to pray to Him and to pray for others.
Now, many times we look at this text of our Lord, and we think, “Well, this must be a prescription.” The way Jesus handled Satan is the way that we’ve got to handle Satan. It’s an example for us. That may be all well and true, but I don’t know how many times you’ve wrestled with the devil that you’ve come away, to use a football paraphrase, with your rear handed to you. He’s had his way with you because you and I have not relied upon the one who gives us strength.
This text is not about examples only. It’s more importantly about one thing, and that is he fought with Satan. He, not we, he won. It’s about Jesus’ work for our salvation. It’s about Jesus’ work to break Satan’s bonds on us.
The three temptations of Jesus in the text are a lot like what I just mentioned earlier. The first one about the stones to bread, the temptation to rely not on God’s promises but upon our abilities, which will either lead to vain glory because, wow, we think we’ve done everything well, or it leads to complete despair because we’re thinking “I can’t do anything right.” Again, that’s Satan.
Adam and Eve were tempted in that way too: “Did God really say…?” Did God really say? There’s the temptation to rely upon something other than God’s promise and word. And for all those times when we have been beaten up by our Lord, via Satan—that is, for all the times when we have had ourselves handed back to us, beaten up and bloodied—God walked away in Christ Jesus having bloodied Satan’s nose for us. And for Adam and Eve.
The jumping from the parapet of the temple, the very height down below, to show that he’s really God. The great temptation to pride and recklessness. You know, Satan is very gifted at misquoting the scriptures. He’ll quote the scriptures, and in fact, if you look at the quote that he quoted, he quoted an excerpt, but not the whole thing. He’s very gifted in that manner. Amen.
Again, pushing us to think we can rely upon our own righteousness and abilities, our perception. Because in this world, our own self-made righteousness, boy, does it glitter, but just for a time. And then, like last week’s text, moth and rust consume and destroy.
Finally, remember the last one: everything is yours if you bow down and worship me. Hmm. Whenever… Man and Adam and Eve were given the temptation to think beyond what God had revealed, to add to what God had revealed, to change what God had revealed. That got them into big trouble.
Now you and I may think, “Well, I never do that.” If you and I never do that, why have we been beaten by Satan? If you and I have not done that, why have we found ourselves looking up after being crushed by Satan?
Jesus finishes all of these temptations for you with this last phrase: “Get thee hence. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him alone shall thee serve.” Well, you and I know we have not said that at all times, or we would not have the scars that you and I have, either self-imposed or imposed by someone else’s sin.
And the scars that we bear really ought to be reminders that there’s only going to be one who bears scars in heaven for us, and that is Christ. We sang, “Though devils all the world should fill, All eager to devour us, we tremble not, we fear no ill, they shall not overpower us. This world’s prince may scowl fiercest he will, he can harm us none, he’s judged us. The deed is done. One little word can fell him.”
We begin the season of Lent knowing most importantly that the victor over Satan is Christ. And as we are bound to Christ, so shall we be victors over Satan. But let us never forget, the devil never quits. But let us always remember, God always wins.
In the name of Him who beat Satan for us, Jesus, the Son of God, amen. The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting, amen.