First Sunday in Lent

Sermon on Matthew 4:1-11, by Ryan Mills |

1Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. 3The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4But he answered, “It is written,  ‘One does not live by bread alone,   but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”   5Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6saying 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.’ ” 7Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”   8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; 9and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written,  ‘Worship the Lord your God,   and serve only him.’ ” 11Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him (Matthew 4:1-11, NRSV).

 

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son +, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Well welcome to this Service of Holy Communion on the First Sunday in Lent.  Many of you were here on Ash Wednesday as we began the season of Lent, our 40 days of repentance, prayer, fasting, and works of love leading up to the joy of Easter. But having just come back from a pastor’s retreat two weeks ago, I thought I’d start this morning with the story about the four pastors who were on retreat together in a cabin.

One night around the fireplace they decided to share with each other their biggest struggle, their greatest temptation.  “My temptation is food,” said the first, “I’m always thinking about what to eat, I’m always gorging myself in secret, it’s really unhealthy, it’s really a problem.”  “Oh that’s nothing,” says the next pastor. “My temptation is gambling, online, at the track, I didn’t even write a sermon last week, I was so busy betting on the ponies.”  “Mine is worse,” says the third. “I sometimes can’t control the urge to drink, I once even broke into the sacristy to drink the Communion wine, I need to get help.”  “Well mine is worse than all of yours,” says the last.  “My temptation is gossip, I just can’t keep a secret at all. And if you don’t mind I’m just going to step out and make a few phone calls!”

Lent is the time for us to admit the hard truths about ourselves, to come face to face with the real me, the real you, which is often unpleasant, exposes our sin and need, and is hard for us to see.  And so it’s also a time to entrust ourselves to the only help there really is—to God’s merciful care—and to rely on his power as we seek to live lives of faith towards him, and fervent love towards one another.

Our first lesson this morning tells us the story of the original temptation, the story of Adam and Eve and their fall from grace. God created humankind in his own image and likeness, we’re told, and gave us everything: all of creation to use and to take care

of–every tree, every fruit, everything we needed he generously provided. “By the way,” God said, “just don’t eat of that one tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day you eat of it, you shall die.”

“The knowledge of good and evil,” which is the ability to be like God, to be in charge of it all without him, to have it all and to know it all, to be him without him!

And so enters the serpent, the old tempter, with a seemingly innocent question: “Did God really say that?”  “Are you sure?” “I’m sure he meant something else, why not just have a little taste?”  “After all, you could be like God!”  Which is a funny temptation, because that’s how we were made in the first place, lovingly created in God’s image and likeness, given everything, so the tempter tempts us with what we already have! How often does the tempter tempt you with what you already have been given?  How often does the tempter appeal to your own insecurities, your wants you think are needs, knowing which buttons in you to push, offering you a counterfeit version of what’s already yours?!

Eve took and ate, Adam gladly accepted and ate, they both got what they thought they wanted, but when their eyes were open all they saw was their own nakedness, their own separation from God and each other, and they were ashamed.  Every time we try and be Lord of our own life, it always seems to end in the same way,

doesn’t it, with us naked, alone, and ashamed. The fall of Adam and Eve is the story of each one of us, and the story we and heirs to and reenact in our lives over and over.

But there’s another story today, a story of the great undoing, of the great reversal of the fall.  Today in the Gospel reading, Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted.  For God is at work undoing the disaster of the fall, where Adam and Eve and you and I have failed, Jesus has succeeded, and he will turn the fall down into a raising up, he will turn disaster into victory, turn hell into heaven, turn death into life.

Jesus fasts for 40 days and 40 nights, the original Lent, and at the end he was famished.  “Then the tempter came to him,” the Bible says. The tempter, the devil, the evil one.

Most of us sophisticated, 21st century folks don’t think much about the devil, but when the Bible talks about the devil it never talks about a man with a goatee and a pitchfork and red horns.  Instead the Bible is interested in this personal, enticing power, this prince of darkness, this author of lies, this one who subtly and enticingly brings us to question God’s care for us, who knows our vanities and massages them, and through his appeals to our insecurity brings about confusion, despair, anger, violence, bloodshed, corrupting what is best in us, leading us to indifference and hatred of God and each other and his church.

“If you are the Son of God,” the tempter says to Jesus, “if you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.”

Seems pretty harmless–Jesus is hungry.  No one will miss a few stones.  He presumably has the power to make himself some food, so why not?

Jesus is tempted here to define himself by his own physical needs.  And that’s a way you and I are tempted every day.  To see ourselves as nothing more than people who need stuff, and depend completely upon ourselves to get it.  We are tempted to stuff ourselves and hoard up the food kind of bread.  But we also are tempted to stuff ourselves with the green kind of bread, becoming independent self-satisfied kings of our own lives.  That’s what the devil wants you and I to define ourselves as—as people who live to get more for ourselves–order some more, buy some more, upgrade some more, fill the void with more. Of course, once you go down that road, there’s never enough, you’ll never have enough bread, and we become like a rat on a treadmill, distracted into running full time for the evil one.

But Jesus is secure in the fact that God will provide him with the bread that he needs.  Jesus quotes Scripture, he knows his Bible: “It is written, ‘one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”  The thing we need

most is not a thing, but a Who, God and his Word.  Jesus knows this, and for your sake, he overcomes the first temptation.

Temptation #2:  The devil takes Jesus to Jerusalem, and places him high up on the Temple, and says, “Throw yourself down!”  The devil has by now learned that Jesus likes Scripture, so the devil quotes some, it’s the song we all love, Psalm 91, “Eagles’ Wings.”   “Don’t you trust the angels will catch you?”   The devil is testing Jesus, to see whether he will doubt God’s care for him, and put God to the test.

And maybe that’s the most dangerous temptation of all.  Both for Jesus and for us.  For us to wonder, “Does God really care about me?  Little old me?  Is he really interested in me, my situation, my hopes, my needs?  Doesn’t he have better things to do?  God couldn’t love me that much, could he?”

The devil tempts Jesus, and us, to see our lives outside of God’s care, to have us question our identity as God’s beloved sons and daughters.  But Jesus answers with Scripture: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” Don’t force God’s hand that is already generously taking care of you.  For your sake, Jesus overcomes the second temptation.

Temptation #3:  The devil gives Jesus a vision of all the kingdoms of the earth.  All the power and majesty of glory in the world!  And says, “You can have complete

control, have it your way over everything.  You can be the master of the universe.  And all you have to do is to just bow down for a minute and worship me, the evil one.”

Jesus is tempted with power.  And isn’t that our temptation too?  To be in charge, to control others, to have it be all about me. And if it takes putting something else over and above our relationship to God, well, that’s just life; you can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs, right?!

But Jesus won’t do it.  He quotes Scripture again, “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’”  Jesus knows and fulfills that First Commandment: to have no other gods, but to fear, love and trust in God alone. And for your sake, he passes the third temptation.

We will be tempted this Lent, and we will fail.  So we will come face to face with our true selves, our need, and will not always like what we see.  But Christ has beaten the tempter, he has undone your fall by raising you up as one of God’s holy and beloved children. And so we can flee to him, trust in him, commit ourselves to him, and rely on his power in our lives: he who can do far more for us than we could ever ask for or imagine.  For he did not turn stones into bread, but he will turn bread into his body broken for you, and turn wine into his blood shed for the forgiveness of your sins.  He did not throw himself down from a tower, but did give himself in love to hang on the

Cross for you.  And he did not bow down to evil in order to receive all power, but by trusting in God alone has been raised above all things, so that at the Name of Jesus every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Lent is here, temptation is real, but Jesus’ care for you and his power are more real and he is more than able, and will meet you in your life this season.  He who loves you, and gave himself for you, will bring you safely through these 40 days, and carry you through every stumble and every temptation, so that together we may enter into that Easter feast that lasts forever.

And the Peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.