1st Sunday in Lent, 03/13/2011

Sermon on Matthew 4:1-11, by John E. Priest

Matthew 4: 1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." 4 But he answered, "It is written,"‘Man shall not live by bread alone,but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6 and said 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, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'" 7 Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.'" 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." 10 Then Jesus said to him, "Be gone, Satan! For it is written, "‘You shall worship the Lord your Godand him only shall you serve.'"11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. (ESV)

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Do you renounce all the forces of evil, the devil, and all his empty promises?

Well? Well? I asked you a question. I want an answer. Do you renounce all the forces of evil, the devil, and all his empty promises. If so, please say, "I do!"

That's good. For starters. But you can do better than that. This time I want you to say it like you mean it. I want you to say it so they can hear you in heaven and they can hear you in hell. Do you renounce all the forces of evil, the devil, and all his empty promises? If so, please say, "I do!"

Hmm. Do you recognize the question? Where have you heard it before? We ask it at baptisms. And the person being baptized says, "I do" - or the parents and godparents say it if it's a baby being baptized. But we ask the same question at other times too - like when young people are confirmed and on other occasions when we renew our baptisms. It's an important question. And your answer is important too. So do you renounce all the forces of evil, the devil, and all his empty promises? Is so, please say, "I do!"

And there you have it. Your answer lands you smack in the middle of a spiritual conflict - a war between God and the devil. You've just chosen up sides. You're saying you're going to fight on God's side against the devil and all his works and ways. You were committed to this struggle when you were baptized. But you have to make this choice every day and every hour. Do you renounce all the forces of evil, the devil, and all his empty promises? If so, please say, "I do!"

We're all involved in this spiritual conflict whether we like it or not. It's impossible to avoid it. And listen. When you're in the middle of a battle, one of the best things you have going for you is intelligence. Like in a military conflict, often it's the intelligence you have about the enemy - the information the spies and scouts bring in - that makes the difference between victory and defeat. Just so, in our spiritual conflict, intelligence is crucial. It's a good idea to know our infernal enemy as best we can. We need to know how the enemy thinks and what he feels. The better we understand these things, the better our chance of outsmarting him, beating him at his own game.

And so it was that a Christian writer by the name of C. S. Lewis wrote a series of articles that later became a book known as The Screwtape Letters. Each of these articles or letters pretended to be from a clever, experienced devil named Screwtape, who was writing to a younger devil-in-training named Wormwood. The Screwtape Letters have become something of a twentieth century Christian classic because it helps us understand the devil's wily ways.

So today I'm taking the liberty (I really don't think C. S. Lewis would mind) of sharing with you a new "Screwtape Letter" I happened to find in the bottom drawer of my desk. This new letter is inspired by the story of the devil tempting Jesus in the wilderness, our Gospel lesson for today. So here we go.

A letter from Master Screwtape to devil-in-training Wormwood

Dear Wormwood,

This is your affectionate Uncle Screwtape. I know. I know. Haven't written for quite a while. Been much to busy and having a hard time, I'll have you know. The great high Satan himself has had me on special assignment tempting this guy Jesus. That's what's been so tough. But more about that later.

First I'd like to respond to your last letter to me, in which you reported the difficulties you've been having getting your intended victims to choose evil instead of good. For Satan's sake, Wormwood, didn't you learn anything at that school I paid all that money for you to attend for four whole years? Rule number one: when it comes to tempting, especially tempting those who believe in God (and they're the ones we're after, no?), never, never ever think in terms of good and evil.

As difficult as it is for a devil to admit, your average human being, as bound to sin as he is, is not passionately committed to the cause of evil. To be sure, as you and I will know, there are some who are. But they're not the ones we're concerned with, Wormwood. Forget ‘em. They already belong to us.

No - the ones we're concerned with are the folks who sincerely want to do the good - at least most of the time. The last thing you want to do then, dear nephew, is given them a clear cut choice between good and evil. Chances are they'll pick the good, which is exactly what we don't want them to do. So a good tempter has to confuse them, cloud the issue, present their choices to them in other terms, any other terms besides evil and good.

For starters, get them to believe that everything they do is okay as long as it doesn't hurt anybody else. That way, strangely enough, they'll never get around to thinking about whether they're hurting themselves.

Or tell them the choices they make boil down to nothing more than personal preferences. This is particularly effective because it gets them thinking that distinctions between right and wrong are really just one person's opinion stacked up against another's. All values are equally valid, or so they say. So in the end it doesn't matter what you do. And this, dear Wormwood, is what we devils have been trying to get them to believe all along! They only diminish themselves when they think what they do doesn't matter. And that's exactly what we want.

So I repeat, dear Wormwood: don't ever let your victims think in terms to good and evil! Here's a good one. Get them to think in terms of hard and easy instead. Easy and hard.

Easy, mind you, is what everybody wants. Convenience. Humans love convenience. They have convenience stores, convenience foods, and even convenient sex. No fuss. No muss. It's easy.

Given a choice between what's hard and easy, humans seem almost incapable of serious thought. They'll go for the easy way out every time. And that, dear Wormwood, is one of our best weapons against them. And it's one of the best weapons we have against God. Because God, the muddle headed old food that he is, never promises anything easy.

Jesus - the Son of the muddle headed old fool - he actually told his followers that - more than once. He said that following him would be like carrying a cross. It wouldn't be easy. It'd be hard.

So, Wormwood, we have all the advantages. Ours is the easier way. The easier way to hell. Ha, ha! Ho ho! Just don't tell ‘em that, dear nephew. They might think twice about it. Just tell ‘em it's the easier way.

Speaking of Jesus, I mentioned earlier that the great Satan himself gave me the assignment to tempt him. This is what he said: "The muddle-headed old fool has sent his Son to earth to bring in the kingdom of God. And you know how he's going to do it? By dying! Do you get that? By dying! So," Satan said to me, "go, Screwtape. Go and convince him there's an easier way."

Well - I tried. I tried for forty days to show him there's another way to glory besides personal sacrifice. "Boy, do I have a bargain for you," I said. "Just worship me, and I'll give you authority over all the nations of the world." Jesus didn't buy it though. Just mumbled something about how he'd get authority over heaven and earth any way, but first he had to die.

So he's a hard nut to crack. But I know, I know for sure how I'll get him. He's going to be crucified, you know. Just wait. Let him feel the nails through his hands and feet. Let him start breathing a little heavy. That's when I'll whisper in his ear, "Hey, Jesus, why don't you come down off the cross and follow me." And of course he will. I know he will. It'll be a piece of cake.

Until then, Your Confident Uncle Srewtape

Well - that's the end of Screwtape's letter. Of course you and I know the rest of the story. Screwtape was a bit too confident, wasn't he? Jesus did not come down off the cross. He didn't take the easy way out. He suffered. He died. And he rose again.

And now he wants to know: do you renounce all the forces of evil, the devil, and all his empty promises? If so, please say, "I do!"

That puts you smack in the middle of a spiritual conflict. You've just chosen up sides. You're going to fight on God's side against the devil and all his works and ways.

But look. You're not in this battle alone. You have brothers and sisters in Christ fighting along with you. And best of all you have Jesus, your risen and victorious Lord, who fights by your side with weapons of the Spirit. So you can say it with confidence today, every day, every minute. Do you renounce all the forces of evil, the devil, and all his empty promises? If so, please say, "I do!"

Indeed.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Pr. John E. Priest
Delhi, NY

E-Mail: jpriest2@stny.rr.com

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