In
the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The
40 days of Lent are meant to remind us of our Lord’s 40 days in the wilderness,
where He fasted, prayed, and fought against the temptations of the Devil. This
conflict between Jesus and the Devil is unique in the history of the world
because it is the only time a man fought the Devil and won without succumbing
to any sin. But the temptations themselves were not unique. Jesus suffered what
is common to all men. So also Jesus’ Church experiences trials similar to the
three recounted in our Gospel: First, physical temptations, like hunger and
persecution. Second, the spiritual temptation of heresy. And third, temptations
for glory and power with this world.
First, the Devil came and said to Jesus, “If you are the Son
of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” This temptation is probably the most common and could really
include all kinds of physical trials. In the Lord’s Prayer, daily bread includes everything that has to do with the support and
needs of the body. So against God’s gracious providence, the
Devil throws everything at us that can ruin our daily bread: Hunger, thirst, and poverty, immorality and greed, persecution
and bloodshed. This is any kind of temptation where our
livelihood is threatened, our sinful desires are given free reign, or our
bodies are attacked.
For the first three hundred years of Church
history, Christians were well-acquainted with these temptations. Christians throughout the Roman Empire had to endure not only
hunger, thirst, and all kinds of physical hardships but were also driven away
from their homes, robbed, and murdered.
Thousands of Christians,
pastors and laity, men and women, were killed in the arena for sport, burned at
the stake, and crucified. And sadly, the devil’s attacks worked sometimes. Many Christians, when they were tempted with the choice to deny
the faith or to stretch out their necks, they drew back, rejected their Baptism
and recanted their faith. But many other Christians did remain
steadfast, daring everything and suffering for the sake of their faith. These holy martyrs fought against these temptations with the Word
of Christ: Man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. This
means they were not worried about how to retain this transitory life. The army of martyrs answer
the Devil and the persecutors in this way: “I have a food for eternal life,
which you cannot take from me. Even if you deprive my body and cause it to die,
even so the eternal food will remain.” This
food is the Word of God. And where
the Word remains, the Christian will also remain, because the Word is the
power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Rom. 1:16).
The ranks of martyrs are still seen and
heard throughout the world today. Christians are driven from their homes or
killed, and churches are destroyed, in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, and Sudan,
Libya, Nigeria, and North Korea, China, Indonesia. While here in the United
States “real” persecution may be on its way also. Christian families are
attacked, and deprived of their business and livelihood.
For the rest of us, the Devil is content for
now in getting us to follow our bellies, our appetites for worldly things. He
would like us to grumble against God when we get into a rough spot. He tempts
us to care more about our family’s finances, education, job security, than
their souls. But what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and
forfeits his soul? Our
answer must echo the martyrs:
Take
they our life, Goods, fame, child, and wife,
Let
these all be gone,
They
yet have nothing won;
The
Kingdom ours remaineth. (TLH 262:4)
It
is better for the body to perish than for it to be kept alive for the sake of
earthly things, while the soul dies and is lost forever. This means the most
important thing in this world is for you and your children to remain Christians,
in this Church. God provides us with the heavenly bread of His Word. That is
really all we need. And if we partake of that holy bread, if we listen and
believe His Word, then we can be convinced that God will provide us with
earthly daily bread as well.
Second, the devil took
Jesus 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 command his angels concerning you.’” This is the spiritual temptation of false
belief or heresy. Here the Devil turns into a theologian. He uses our only
reliable weapon against us. He actually quotes Scripture. But he twists it,
takes it out of context, ignores a bit here or adds a bit there. Still it can
sound so right, even though it is so wrong. All heretics have fallen for this
temptation and learned these tricks from the Devil. First, they have a thought that
they like and seems good and true to them. Then they go to Scripture, searching
and picking some verses that seem to approve their idea. They make Scripture
mean what they want it to mean.
This was the way of the ancient heretics
like the Arians, who taught that Jesus was not true God but instead a mere creature
with godlike powers. Or the Pelagians, who taught that humans are not born in
sin but are capable of being perfect without God’s salvation. They all used the
name Christian. They all used the Holy Bible. But they twisted the Truth and
taught falsehood. We still have heresies around today. Mormons also deny the
Holy Trinity and instead teach the existence of many gods. The Shack, was an interesting novel and now it’s a movie, and it talks
about God and Jesus, but it does not stay true to His Word. Heresies always
have a little truth in them. The Devil quotes just enough Scripture, uses a few
of the right words, to make it believable. But worshiping a god named Jesus
Christ while ignoring His clear Word written in Holy Scripture, that is
idolatry.
In the temptation of Jesus, the Devil quotes
Psalm 91: He will command his angels concerning you… but he leaves out the most important part: to guard you in all your ways (Ps. 91:11).
The way down from the pinnacle of the Temple was not to jump. That’s what
stairs are for. To jump and expect a miracle when God has already provided a
solution is to test God. We could fall for the same kind of false belief. If
you’re hungry, it’s not right to starve and wait for God to send you manna when
He has already provided you with farmers, grocery stores, and refrigerators. If
you’re sick, it’s not necessary to wait for a miracle and ignore the sound
advice of doctors or refuse all medical treatment. But, we especially get
sucked into false belief regarding salvation. We are tempted to think that the
way to reach God is by doing enough good deeds. And yet going that way is like
jumping off the Temple, and you’ll get what you deserve. Because God has
already provided a way for us to reach Him: the way through His Son our Savior:
Faith in Christ, in His Word and Sacraments.
When keeping an eye out for heresy, we need
to do what Jesus does. He confronts the Devil’s mangled Scripture passage with
another Scripture passage. He shows that the Devil’s quote is incomplete and
out of context. He adds an even clearer passage so we can be sure of
Scripture’s meaning. God always preserves the one true faith through the gift
of the Holy Spirit, through faithful preachers and devout hearers. His Word to
be our sure foundation. God defends His Church from all heresy and will never let
the Truth be utterly silenced.
Third, the devil took Jesus
to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their
glory. And he said to him, “All
these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”
This kind of temptation
lays before us all the glory and power of the world:
popularity,
success, a life of ease, respect, control.
Here the Devil acts and
speaks as if he were God Himself. This is the Devil’s most crass and obvious
temptation, and yet it works well for him.
If he cannot scare us with
the cross and hardship, if he cannot trick us with false belief, he tries to
lure us with the world.
In Luther’s day this temptation was promoted
by the pope, who controlled kings and emperors and had them bow down to him. And
if you honored the pope, then you would also succeed. For our churches today, we
may not be tempted to obey the pope, but we are tempted to look for support and
defense from the government. We think it will go easy for the Church and the
Christian message will spread if only the government gives us its nod of
approval. Even more likely, we are tempted to bow down to the prevailing
attitudes of our day. We think perhaps we should give in to the demands of our culture,
tell people what they want to hear, change how we do things or what we believe
so we’re more appealing to the masses. We are jealous of those big churches who
have somehow gained acceptance and praise from the culture. What’s worse, we
tell ourselves that we would be doing God a service by giving in. We equate
being popular and successful with pleasing and serving God. But Jesus could not
bow to the Devil and serve God, and neither can we. We cannot bow to the
opinions of society and worship God.
Jesus’ answer is immovable: “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You
shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you
serve.’” The fact
is, you cannot serve God unless you have and obey His Word. If God’s Word is
not there, you are not serving God’s will but your own will. Worse than that,
whenever you reject God’s Word you are serving the Devil’s will. In some ways,
this last temptation is the most frightening, because we all know that we have
not served God with all our heart, soul, and mind. We have succumbed to the
attraction and pressure of the world around us, given in, and bowed to the demonic
prince of this world. Most of the time we don’t even realize we’re doing it
because it comes so easy, so natural, to us, because it’s what everyone else is
doing. We should be afraid of this temptation, and we should look for rescue.
Only Jesus Christ can rescue us. He is the
sin-bearer. He took all our sin upon Himself. He is the Law-slayer. He met
every demand of the Law. He is the death-destroyer. His death means we shall
live. He is the devil-crusher. By His fasting and temptation, by His suffering
and bleeding, by His dying and His rising, Jesus has trampled His enemies under
His feet. He has crushed the serpent’s head. Sin, death, and the Devil all
tried to throw their worst at Jesus. But they failed. They cannot have Him. And
they cannot have you.
You, dear Christian, are a soldier of the
Cross. You are dressed with the white robe of Christ’s righteousness, girded
with the armor of God, armed with the Sword of the Spirit as you wield His Holy
Word. And as you battle in Christ’s army you are nourished and strengthened with
true Bread and drink from Heaven: His Word, His Body, His Blood. So fight on,
because Jesus is victorious and He won His victory for you.
And in this dark and dangerous wilderness,
amid the temptations and assaults of the Devil, God still preserves His
faithful few. He will not let His Church be defeated. He will not let the light
of His Word go out. Our Lord, the true King of this world will return. And to
us who have believed in Him here, confessed His name now before the world, suffered
here on account of our faith, to us, He will give rest. He will give splendid
joy. He will give eternal life and salvation. The Kingdom ours remaineth.
In
the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.
Matin
Luther’s Sermons: AE, Vol. 57, pp.253–276; and Baker, Vol. V, pp.312–320
