February 21, 2010 — First Sunday in Lent
“Christ Succeeds Where We Have Failed” — Vicar Mankin
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Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from our Risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Our sermon text for today is from the Gospel of Luke which was previously read.
I was listing to one of my favorite comedians recently, Jim Gaffigan and he made a very funny and telling observation in his act. He said, "Does anything make you more uncomfortable than a stranger coming up to you and saying, 'I want to talk to you about Jesus.'" Even if your religious, if someone you don't know says something like this to you it can make you uncomfortable. It even makes me uncomfortable when someone I don't know wants to talk about Jesus.
Well guess what? I want to talk to you today about Jesus. But thankfully we are not strangers. Through the power of the Holy Spirit we are more than friends we are family. One thing that I am always struck by during Lent is the very real, very human nature of Jesus. People have a tendency to loose sight of Christ's two natures, Christians tend to only think of His divinity and unbelievers tend to only think of His humanity, that is, if they believe He existed at all. Even though Jesus was God he was still quite human. A true human, who felt exhaustion, hunger, and even pain. In our Gospel lesson for today we see Jesus' very human nature but we also see where His human nature succeeded where all of the rest of humanity failed. We see where Jesus resisted the temptations of the devil and continued down the path to the Cross. We see where,
CHRIST SUCCEEDED WHERE WE HAVE FAILED
In the chapter immediately before our reading we hear of Jesus' baptism by John and His genealogy that goes strait back to Adam and finally God. This record is not a coincidence. Luke is letting us know that Jesus was in the line of Adam. He was fully human with all of the physical weakness and frailty of Adam, of all people, but with one earth changing fact; He was not going to fall into temptation.
Luke tells us, And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit, led by the Spirit: the same Holy Spirit that came upon Him as the Dove, the same Holy Spirit that fills all Christians to this day led Jesus in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. There are many people today that don't believe in the Devil. But don't be deceived he is quite real and wants nothing more than people to forget the fact he is real. Saint Peter tells us, Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.(1 Peter 5:8 ) I can just see Satan stalking our Lord in the desert like a lion waiting for that perfect moment to strike, when he thinks Jesus would be at His weakest.
And (Jesus) ate nothing during those days. I can't help but think of Moses fasting for forty days on Mount Sinai when I hear this. Jesus, who we saw last Sunday at the Transfiguration talking with Moses, going through this same hardship. Their fasts would have been an interesting topic of conversation. And at the end of the forty days, He was hungry. Well no kidding! I don't know many people who can go for a whole day without eating let alone forty of them. Although I've heard that after while without eating you are no longer hungry. But, I don't know too many who are willing to try that out either, I wouldn't want to go long enough to find out. And it is in this condition we find Jesus, here at His weakest, at the limits of human endurance and guess who is there waiting to pounce? And he attacks Jesus in three ways; 1.) Testing the boundaries that God has established for man. 2.)The worship of an idol for authority and glory. and 3.) Testing the boundaries of God to show Himself as God. And each
attack is repelled with the word of God.
The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread." This statement wasn't just mocking or hyperbole, Satan knew who Jesus was, he knew that He had the power to turn a stone into bread, through His Divine nature this would have been just a matter of will. Satan was attempting to use the physical things of this life to provoke Jesus into breaking His fast and to turn away from the Holy Spirit that had led Him into the wilderness and to deny His human nature. Jesus as man must eat what was in the boundaries of human nature. Adam too knew the boundaries of what he was to eat but he went beyond them and sinned. This tactic of the Devil, to lure with the physical, wasn't new nor did he stop using it when it failed with Jesus. The Devil often tempts us with the physical things of this life. How often do Christians fall into this snare? We see faithful people who God grants the gifts of this world to, all of a sudden turn their backs on the One who gave them life and all
that they have. No longer do they desire to hear God's life giving Word. They desire to consume what God has placed out-of-bounds for us. No longer do they trust in the Word of God. Saint John tells us, Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world— the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:15-17 ) It's easy to fall into the love of the things, especially the physical things that we know God wants us to avoid. God made man with certain physical boundaries, and their are things in this world that we are to avoid. Things that open us up to Satan's attacks, which led to doubt. But were we fail, Jesus succeeds on our behalf.
And Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone.'"Jesus is quoting the writings of Moses to Satan. Now, Satan knows the scriptures, he knows the words of God because he is always trying to twist God's words. Satan would have known the rest of the verse Jesus quotes. man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.(Deut. 8:3 ) Jesus knew this and understood it that His life is not only sustained by the physical but by God. By obedience to God. Jesus overcame the temptation, to deny His human nature, to take the focus off of God's word, the temptation that man has continually failed from the beginning, if something is off limits we just have to have it. But Jesus was obedient to the words of God so that we might be saved. Jesus is the bread of life that is now given to us for salvation. Round One goes to Jesus for you.
And (then) the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, "To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours." Ah , authority and glory wouldn't it be nice? And all that I have to do is give a little bow down to you and all of the kingdoms of the world will be mine? This sounds like a bad episode of the Twilight Zone. Who would fall for this ploy? Well, unfortunately Adam did and we do. This was the same type of temptation that Satan used to lure Adam. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing 'good and evil'. (Gen. 3:5 ) Oh, wow we can have power and knowledge like God? I won't die and I can be my own god? And all I have to do is break the one and only commandment that God gave us? Well I guess.... bite. Adam wasn't dumb, he wasn't some monkey-man crawling out of a cave. He was the good creation of God in His image, now he may have been ignorant of the knowledge of good and evil but he wasn't stupid. But the desire for authority and power are great and he disobeyed God. People today are still falling into Satan's same snare. Power and knowledge at any cost, even disobedience to God and breaking the First Commandment. People set themselves up as god, thinking they have the authority to decide how things will be done.
And worse still we see Satan in churches telling people that if the want power or authority or things, "You just need to know how to manipulate God." Through prayers or good living God hast to give you what you want. Satan is turning the true God into a an idol that can give you what you want if you have the right kind of faith. But the devil's promises are hollow, his "authority" is over a fallen world that in estranged from God, it glory is doomed. The only true authority rests solely with God.
But Jesus when faced with this temptation, power at the cost of idol worship, and yes this was a real temptation this wasn't just some puppet show being acted out for our benefit. Jesus could have taken this route He could have said, "Well the Cross will be too much for me.This sounds like a much easier way to establish My Kingdom." But He didn't, Jesus over came this temptation, the temptation for power at the cost of obedience to God. And Jesus answered him, "It is written, "'You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.'" And again He quotes the Word of God. The Word that has the power to block Satan's assault. The First Commandment. You shall have no other gods. Jesus would never worship the Devil nor would He allow a desire for power to take His focus off of God. Adam did, we do it, but Jesus never fails. And because He didn't fail, He keep the First and all of the Commandments perfectly even unto death on the Cross, through Him we to don't fail. When God looks at us he
doesn't see the failures of Adam but the obedience of Jesus. Round two to Jesus for you.
Then finally the Devil took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple this would have been the highest point of the temple at least 100 feet in the air with the crowds of people gathered below, plenty of wittinesses and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, and then an utter act of brazenness he quotes the Word of God this is the same form of snare he used to deceive Eve twisting God's words, for it is written, "'He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,' and "'On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'" Satan was trying to get Jesus to reveal Himself to the crowds as the Messiah through some kind of cheap trick to "prove" he was who Satan knew Him to be. I can't help but compare a stunt like this to Christ's true Passion. Where He suffered in Jerusalem under the people who where now standing below Him. The people He had come to save. The Cross, where He denied the protection of His
angelic armies and His Father. His authority would come, not from a miraculous rescue from a leap off of a temple, but through the Cross of Calvary. How many of us could have resisted the temptation to follow the easy road? No one wants to suffer in this life.
And Jesus answered him, "It is said,'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.'" Jesus didn't need to test God to prove who He was to the people. The people of the world would learn that He was the Messiah not through calling on angles to protect Him. There is one ways Jesus must go and it was not through the testing of God's protection, but through His wrath. Round Three to Jesus for you.
And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. Jesus temptation wasn't over, Satan just retreated until a opportune moment when he thinks that Jesus would be at His weakest, like on the Cross. Jesus had all command over heaven and earth, and I am sure that the temptation to end His state of humiliation and suffering were great. He could have called down 12 legions of angels in a moments notices and put an end to all of this. But He didn't, He over came temptation. He was obedient to the end, to His death on the Cross. And at His death I'm sure Satan thought he had won the victory, but that was actually His greatest defeat. And the proof that Jesus won and over came Satan, for you and became the new Adam was when we was raised from the dead. And we who believe in Him will also be raised recreated in His image, when He returns will all His power and glory. Amen
