The Tempter Came

Matthew 4: 1-11, page 3
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written,
‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 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.’”
Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written,
‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’”
Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
Sermon
Lent has begun, and those of us who have decided on something to give up join with Christ in 40 days and 40 nights of fasting. But after reading this lesson it’s clear that me giving up sweet tea hardly compares to what Jesus went through. Our lesson begins, “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”
This is the beginning of his ministry. Having just been baptized by John in the river his work has now begun, but maybe you are like me wondering why Jesus didn’t get to start with something easier.
Face to face with Satan is no easy start to a ministry, but with Jesus everything its relative. With Jesus, considering the cross and everything else he went through, maybe this was the easier thing to start with; at least it was clear, he seems to know that he was being tempted by Satan and not Satan in disguise.
I was looking through the Wednesday paper on my way to Robin Munger’s recipe for catfish stew when the headline on 7A stopped me in my tracks, “Columbia area zip codes turn up cash for residents.” I kept reading and as it turns out “Valuable uncut sheets of never circulated $2 bills are actually being released to the first 7,112 callers who find their zip code on the distribution list below and beat the 48 hour deadline to get Vault Sacks full of real money.” All I have to do is call and I could win Vault Sacks full of money! I thought to myself. Why wasn’t this on the front page? I scanned the page for the phone number I needed to call only to find the words, “Paid Advertisement” in small print at the very top – that was the only thing that gave it away.
If it would have looked like an advertisement I never would have paid any attention, but because it looked like news I was caught off guard.
I think that’s how it is with the devil, if he’s dressed in red with horns and a pointy tail you know to stay away, but if temptation comes from a friend it can catch you off guard.
It still doesn’t sound like a walk in the park, but it’s one thing for Jesus to fight the temptation to turn those rocks into bread with Satan tempting him to, but feeding himself pales in comparison to feeding crowds.
Crowds surrounded him and the disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into villages and buy food for themselves” (Matt 14: 13-21). Whereas he could have sent them all away and provided for himself and his friends, instead, taking loaves and two fish he looked up to heaven and blessed and broke the loaves and the crowd was fed.
Then Christ faced a great temptation when the tempter took him to the pinnacle of the temple and called him to prove himself by showing that God would save him.
But the greater temptation to save himself must have come when Jesus told his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering and be killed. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it Lord! This must never happen to you” (Matt 16: 21-23).
If he couldn’t stand up to Satan how would he stand up to his friend Peter – they both wanted him to choose self-preservation, but Christ knew he had not come to save himself.
Again when the devil offered him power –when Satan took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me” – if Jesus had not possessed the power to say no then, he never would have been able to answer the disciples when they came to him and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a child whom he put among them, and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 18: 1-5).
Jesus was tempted in the desert to commit idolatry – to give ultimate significance to what is passing – to give hunger the kind of authority that directs destiny, to give self-preservation importance above all else, and to make power the chief concern in his life when power doesn’t last forever.
He was faced with the temptation to fall right at the beginning of his ministry, and when temptation came again in the words of his own friends, he had the power to resist.
We are not Jesus and we don’t face the devil himself out there in the desert, but we will face temptation, and if we haven’t first learned to deal with temptation ourselves, if we haven’t first learned what temptations threaten to take us off course, when temptation doesn’t come from a pointy-tailed devil but from the mouth of the familiar, the friend, even the beloved, we may not have the power to resist.
Christ is given the opportunity to strengthen his ability to fight temptation there in the desert where the enemy is clear and so he is able to fight temptation when even Peter threatens to lead him off course.
When temptation comes to you, if you haven’t already prepared yourself, known yourself well enough to know what might cause you to stumble, where will you go, what will you do?
This time of Lent calls us all to awareness, to think before you do, to know yourself well enough to know what temptation waits so that like Christ, when the danger of temptation comes when you are least expecting it you will be able to hold onto faith until temptation passes.
Hold onto faith, temptation will pass; hold onto faith.
Amen.