Lent 1
Mt
4:1-11
3/6/22
“In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of
Assyria captured Samaria, and he carried the Israelites away to
Assyria and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river
of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.” That’s how 2 Kings chapter seventeen
describes the end of the northern kingdom of Israel.
God’s Word then goes on to explain why this happened. It says, “And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned
against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of the land of
Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other
gods and walked in the customs of the nations whom the LORD drove out
before the people of Israel, and in the customs that the kings of Israel
had practiced.”
Israel had continually worshipped
false gods. Yahweh had tried to call
them back to himself. We learn: “Yet the
LORD warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer,
saying, ‘Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my
statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and
that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.’ But they would not
listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe
in the LORD their God.”
You will notice that while this
describes the end of the northern kingdom of Israel in 721 B.C., the text also
mentions that Yahweh had sent prophets to Judah, the southern kingdom. In the end, the result there was no
different. They too ignored God’s prophets.
They listened to false prophets who said that everything was fine, even as the
nation worshiped idols. And so in 587
B.C. the Babylonians destroyed the temple, tore down the walls of Jerusalem,
and took the people into exile in Babylon.
At the start, things could not have
begun better. God demonstrated his love and care for Israel by rescuing them
from slavery in Egypt. He identified
Israel as his son such as when he told Moses: “Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus
says the LORD, Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, Let
my son go that he may serve me.’”
God had rescued Israel in the Passover
and brought them through Red Sea. He had
taken the people into a covenant, and told them, “Now therefore, if you will
indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured
possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you
shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
But Israel had failed to be a faithful
son. Rather than being a light to the
nations bearing witness to the true God they had brought shame upon God’s
name. God had used the Assyrians and
Babylonians to punish them. As Yahweh made clear through the prophets these
empires were merely his instruments. But
in the ancient world it was assumed that the nation who won had the greater
god, and the defeat of God’s people made it look as if Yahweh was no god at
all.
In the prior chapters in Matthew, the
apostle had made it clear that Jesus is the Son of God. Joseph had been informed by the angel that
the child conceived in Mary was by the Holy Spirit and we have learned from
Isaiah that he is Emmanuel – God with us.
At his baptism, the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus and God the Father
said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am
well pleased.”
Jesus Christ is the Son of God in the flesh, true God and
true man. But at the same time we have
also learned in the Gospel that as the Messiah – the descendant of King David –
he is Israel reduced to One. He is God’s
son Israel. Matthew tells about the
return of Jesus from Egypt: “This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by
the prophet, "Out of Egypt I called my son.” This statement which in
the prophet Hosea is about the history of nation of Israel is true because,
Jesus is Israel. And we see this point
made yet again in Jesus’ baptism which precedes our text because the Father’s
words taken from Isaiah identify Jesus as the Servant of the Lord. Yet in Isaiah
God also says, “Israel, you are my servant.”
Israel passed through the water of the Red Sea into the
wilderness, and there her history of unfaithfulness showed through. Now Jesus has passed through the water of his
baptism and we learn in our text: “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the
wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”
Jesus Christ has taken on the role of Israel, and now God has placed him
in the setting where he will be tempted and will have the chance to prove that
he is a faithful son where Israel was not.
We are told, “And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was
hungry.” So the devil came to him and
said, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become
loaves of bread.” The devil’s point was simple: You are hungry. You are the Son
of God. Show this. Use your power to feed yourself.”
However, at his baptism Jesus had
taken on the role of the Servant of the Lord. He was the suffering Servant sent
to serve others. This is the role that
God had given to him with the word, “This
is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Jesus was not here to us his power to serve
himself. That would be to deny and fail
in the ministry God had given to him. So, Jesus responded, “It is written, ‘Man
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of
God.’”
Next the devil took Jesus to 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,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot
against a stone.’” The devil told Jesus
to make God perform a dramatic miracle in the midst of the temple. That would get people’s attention and draw
them to Jesus! He even quoted Psalm 91
to justify it.
But Jesus had been sent by God to
carry out a work of service and suffering.
He was here to obey the Father’s will, not to force God into some action
that brought Jesus worldly glory. And so our Lord responded, “Again it is
written, 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”
Finally, the devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. He said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” The devil offered Jesus the easy way to power and glory. He would have it all, if he would just worship the devil. But Jesus had been sent to serve the serve the Father’s will. So Jesus said, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”
Where the nation of Israel, God’ son
had failed, Jesus the Servant of the Lord who was Israel succeeded in remaining
faithful to God. This is good news for us, because we are no better than Israel.
Again and again, the devil takes us down with ease. When we face hardships and
challenges he tempts us into doubting God’s love and care. He uses our pride to tempt us into putting
ourselves ahead of others. He sets
before us all of the wonderful things of this world: the money, the luxuries,
the travel, the glory in sports and tempts us into putting them before
God. He runs circles around us, just
like as he did with Adam and Eve in our Old Testament lesson, as he tempts us
into committing sin against God.
The devil did that to Israel. He does that do us more of than we would care
to admit. But he was not able to do it to the Son of God, Jesus
Christ. In his baptism, Jesus had taken
on the role of being the Servant of the Lord – the suffering Servant who would
bear our sins. As God, Jesus has
almighty power, but he never used it to serve himself. Instead, he used it to serve, help, and heal
others. His goal was to follow obediently
the Father’s will that led to the cross – the goal towards which this season of
Lent is moving.
The devil didn’t cease his attacks and
temptation of Jesus. Immediately after
Peter had confessed Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Matthew
tell us, “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go
to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and
scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”
Peter reacted by taking Jesus aside and saying, “Far be it from
you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” Jesus rebuked him saying, “Get behind me,
Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your
mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” Jesus Christ had set his mind on the things
of God. He said, “the Son of Man came not to be served
but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” He did this all the way to the agony and
suffering of the cross, where even there we can hear the devil’s temptation in
the words of the crowd who said, “If you are the Son of God, come down
from the cross.”
Jesus
remained faithful to the Father’s will all the way to the cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He received God’s
judgment against our sin in his suffering and death. Crucified with criminals,
his dead body was placed in a tomb. And at that point it looked like the way of
faithfulness had been a pointless failure.
But on the third day – on the Easter which we
will again celebrate after Holy Week – God raised Jesus from the dead. God
demonstrated that the way of faithfulness had won forgiveness, and now
resurrection for us. The devil had offered Jesus power and glory if he would
just worship him. But after carrying out
the Father’s will, the risen Lord was able to tell his disciples: “All
authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”
Jesus spoke those words before instituting Holy
Baptism. Through baptism we receive the
forgiveness that Jesus won on the cross.
As we confess our sins and continue to turn in faith to God’s gift of
baptism, we know that our sins are forgiven.
We know that we belong to Jesus, the One who defeated the devil in his
temptation, and who conquered him forever by his death and resurrection. Christ has given us his Spirit through
baptism, and so daily we take up the struggle against sin. Yet when we fail, we need only speak four
words to know that we are forgiven and that Christ’s victory has been given to
us: “I have been baptized.”
Jesus’ victory of forgiveness, resurrection,
and eternal life has been given to us.
But it is not meant only for us.
Instead our Lord said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to
me. Go therefore and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have
commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the
age.”
The authority that Jesus possesses as the crucified and risen
Lord serves as the reason that now we are to share the good news about what he
has done with others. Whom do you know
who needs to hear that Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead to
give them forgiveness and life with God?
This is the good news that all need to hear. Because while the devil does succeed in
tempting us, Jesus Christ was faithful to the Father’s will and defeated the
tempter. He was faithful all the way to
the cross of Good Friday. And then he
was raised from the dead by the Father in victory on Easter. He is the One to
whom all authority has been given. And
through baptism, his victory over sin and death is yours.
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