Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a02<\/sup> He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a03<\/sup> The tempter came and said to him, „If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.“<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a04<\/sup> But he answered, „It is written, ‚One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'“<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a05<\/sup> Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple,<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a06<\/sup> saying to him, „If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‚He will command his angels concerning you,‘ and ‚On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'“<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a07<\/sup> Jesus said to him, „Again it is written, ‚Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'“<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a08<\/sup> Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor;<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a09<\/sup> and he said to him, „All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.“<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a010<\/sup> Jesus said to him, „Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‚Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'“<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a011<\/sup> Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0(Mat 4:1-11 NRSV)<\/p>\n Brothers and sisters in Christ, grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n This past Wednesday the church entered into the season of fasting and penitence known as Lent.\u00a0 As we gather on this first Sunday in the season of Lent, our lessons point to the importance of this season by once again recalling the temptation of Jesus by Satan.\u00a0 In Matthew\u2019s timeline, this temptation happens after Jesus\u2019 baptism and before he begins his ministry.\u00a0 Therefore this is a text that is of extreme importance not only to the life and work of Jesus, but also to the life and work of the church today.<\/p>\n Matthew begins this text with a rather interesting word:\u00a0 \u201cthen.\u201d In his commentary on Matthew, Stanley Hauerwas writes \u201cWe dare not miss the ominous resonance of this \u201cthen\u201d.\u00a0 With \u201cthen\u201d, Matthew gestures to the mystery of the incarnation.\u00a0 The Father willingly wills the Son to be subject to time, to be subject to our flesh, to be subject to the devil.\u00a0 Jesus, the Son of God, is led by the Spirit into the wilderness and abandoned to the \u201ctempter.\u201d\u00a0 This \u201cthen,\u201d therefore, anticipates the agony of the cross and the cry, \u201cMy God, my God, why have your forsaken me?\u201d (Matthew 27:46)[i]<\/a>\u00a0 This \u201cthen\u201d is the first bookend on this season of Lent, which ends with our Lord crucified on a cross.<\/p>\n Matthew tells us that Jesus fasts for 40 days and 40 nights.\u00a0 In his hunger and weakness is where the devil shows up, hoping to win over Jesus just like he did over Eve.\u00a0 The difference is that this time the devil will lose.\u00a0 Jesus may be hungry, but he doesn\u2019t need to eat that fruit of the tree.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t need to turn rocks into bread.\u00a0 Jesus is sustained solely on the words of the Father: \u201cThis is my Son the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.\u201d\u00a0 Sure, Jesus could have turned the rocks into bread.\u00a0 In his ministry, Jesus will feed thousands of people. Looking at the Old Testament we could say that God is in the business of feeding people.\u00a0 He provided manna in the wilderness.\u00a0 He provided food to Elijah as Elijah makes a 40 day journey to Mt. Horeb.\u00a0 But in all cases, the food that God provides is tied to the Word of God.\u00a0 What Satan is asking Jesus to do here is to separate the two, and that can\u2019t be done.<\/p>\n Defeated on this first temptation, Satan now takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple.\u00a0 Satan wants Jesus to take his fate into his own hands.\u00a0 He is trying to force God\u2019s hand, to make him rule as we would want God to rule.\u00a0 But we know that Jesus, obedient to the end, won\u2019t do this.\u00a0 When we hear Jesus pray in Gethsemane \u201clet this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want\u201d we are reminded of this obedience.\u00a0 We are reminded of the humbleness of our Lord, and that in that humbleness is the strength needed to overcome Satan once and for all.<\/p>\n With the third temptation Satan tried to blur the lines between worship and politics.\u00a0 Satan offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world.\u00a0 The reality over this temptation though is that Jesus already rules over these kingdoms.\u00a0 As king of creation they are already subject to God.\u00a0 As much as Satan wants Jesus to break the first and second commandments, it\u2019s not going to happen.\u00a0 Where we would be weak, Jesus is strong.\u00a0 Jesus will not be tempted by the politics.\u00a0 He is the incarnation of right worship to God, perfection made man.\u00a0 Satan will not win, and once he realizes this, he himself follows Jesus\u2019 command to leave.<\/p>\n As Satan realizes he is defeated, Matthew again uses the word \u201cthen.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cThen the devil left him.\u201d\u00a0 Notice Matthew doesn\u2019t say that Satan is gone forever.\u00a0 He is certainly not gone.\u00a0 What we have in this story is a glimpse at what it looks like to live in the struggle that has only just begun.\u00a0 The church still lives in this struggle on a daily basis.\u00a0 Temptations still abound, pulling us from the grace and peace that is God.\u00a0 Sin still abounds, pulling us from the right worship of God.\u00a0 However, temptation is not the final say.\u00a0 The devil does not have the final say.\u00a0 God has the final say, and that is to tell the devil to get lost.<\/p>\n As we reflect on this text today, we do so in the context of a church still living in a world where temptations exist.\u00a0 But ministry also exists.\u00a0 In the midst of evil in the world, the church stands firmly on the side of God.\u00a0\u00a0 This past Wednesday we started our journey together through Lent.\u00a0 We did so by celebrating the sacrament.\u00a0 We have the Word of God tied to the very food God provides.\u00a0 Fed and sustained with the body and blood of Christ, we go into the world with what we need, striving to be the people that he has called us to be.\u00a0 That is the journey of Lent, the journey of life, and the journey of being a disciple of Christ.\u00a0 Thankfully, it is a journey we don\u2019t walk alone.\u00a0 In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n
\n