The First Sunday of Lent
February 17, 2013 - Pastor Adam Moline
Deuteronomy
26:1-11 Romans
10:8b-13 Luke 4:1-13
Grace, mercy and
peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text today is the Gospel lesson just read, especially these words, “And
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the
Spirit in the wilderness for forty days,
being tempted by the devil.” Thus far
our text.
Dear friends, we
all face temptation. Every day, every
hour, every waking moment of our lives, Satan or one of his minions is in our
ear, trying to pull us away from our faith in Christ, tempting us with those
things our sinful hearts truly want.
It’s been that way
almost since the beginning. Adam and Eve
were first tempted in the garden. Eat
this fruit, who cares that God said no, who cares that God said you’ll die, you
certainly won’t die. And Adam and Eve
ate, abandoning the promise of God for the words of that ancient serpent
Satan. And so sin and death entered our
world, and so our own temptation became a daily certainty, as did our own
sinful failures.
And so now every
person – yes even you - has faced that temptation. Did God really say this or that? Does God really care? Can’t you just break the law a little bit? It happens all the time, even for you, dear
friend in Christ. Look at your own
life. Does Satan whisper in your ear,
“come on, no one will notice if you do this sin, you can get away with it. Go ahead, break one of the commandments,
there won’t be any consequences.”
After all, who are
they to tell you what to do? Who exactly
does this God guy think he is? What
makes what the Bible says any more important than your own understandings, than
your own feelings and interpretation. Ignore
God’s word, and do what you want, you’ll be happier in the end listening to
your own feelings instead of that God character.
What’s that? You want a new car, or a bigger house, even
though you don’t absolutely need one. You
want it so that people are more impressed with you, and think more highly of
you, and respect you more. Go
ahead! Please yourself. Did God really say, You shall not covet? Just ignore that anyways.
What’s that? You want to live your life your own way, to
care only about your own wants and desires.
Did God really say, husband and wife?
Did God really say care for the least of these? Did God really say love your neighbor as yourself? Ignore it, live for yourself, for your own
desires, for your own emotions and cares.
That’s what this world is about – Me, Myself and I! So live it up! For soon it will be over.
And so the words
of Satan time and again, try to overpower the word of the Lord in our
lives. Satan tries to distract, to
tempt, to destroy, to trump whatever God does or says in this world – yes even
with you dear friends.
It’s the same
thing he tries in our text today. Satan
tries his same old tricks on Jesus, on the Son of God, on the Savior of the
World. But Jesus knows exactly what’s
going on, for Satan isn’t smart enough to outdo Jesus. What’s that Jesus, you’re hungry? Here’s some bread shaped rocks, and with a
little word you can eat! You just have
to care more about yourself than about the sinners of this world! But the Word of God made flesh gives a Godly
answer – Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word from the mouth of
God.
So Satan tries his
same old trick another way – “What’s that Jesus, you are here to save the
world? I’ll give it to you, with only
one catch. Here’s the world, all its
nations, and all its power over all time – I’ll give it to you as your kingdom,
even without suffering on the cross – all you have to do is fall down and
worship me! Come on Jesus! Give in, everyone else in this world
is!” But Christ’s response is not
selfish or self serving, but with you in mind, “Worship only God alone, not you
Satan.”
What’s that Jesus,
you are powerful? Why not bring
attention to yourself, why not gain some earthly popularity? Just jump off this tower, and be rescued by
angels! Think of the positive spin the
media will put on that! Go ahead! Scripture even says, “You won’t even hurt
your foot!” But Christ the ever faithful
says, “You should not put the Lord to the test.”
Do you see what
happens? Where you fail and give in to
Satan’s temptation Jesus succeeds. Where
you fall short, Jesus excels. Where you
stumble, Jesus surpasses all expectations.
Where you sin, Jesus obeys. He is
perfect. Satan is outmatched by Jesus
time and time again. So much so that our
text Satan departs waiting for an opportune time, and Jesus continues his
ministry, setting his eyes on Jerusalem, setting his eyes on the cross, - the
place of your own salvation.
And its there that
Satan tempts Christ again. Don’t save
them Jesus it isn’t worth it. Come off
the cross! Prove you’re God’s Son, jump
down, show us how powerful you are.
Forget God’s command to drink the cup of his wrath, can’t you see what
it’s doing to you Jesus, its killing you!
Don’t die Jesus, no, not for those sinners, not for those people – they
don’t deserve it anyways!
But Christ does
die. Christ ignores Satan’s
temptation. And its all for you. He dies for your sins. He gives you Good Friday forgiveness, blood
bought rescue, salvation through His own suffering. There is no temptation of Satan that will
distract him. There is no false word
that can stop his care for you. He will
not care about himself, he will not put himself ahead of you. He will die rather than give in to Satan –
and so he does, in your place.
And Christ’s
holiness and obedience to his Holy Father was in your place. Jesus overcame Satan in your place. His work counts for you. He gives his obedience to God to you in his
Word, in his Sacraments, in his gifts to you.
He is your substitute in the battle against Satan.
You have victory –
in Christ, and in him alone. You are
victorious, not through your work, but through the great obedience of the Son
of God. Satan has no power over you, He
cannot harm you, his words are lies that cannot hurt you or harm you. Satan is utterly defeated. Forever.
IN the blood of the cross. Amen.
