Lent
1
Mt
4:1-11
3/9/25
In
Matthew chapter eight, Jesus stills the storm on the Sea of Galilee. When he and the disciples arrive at the other
side of the lake, they are in the country of the Gadarenes. There our Lord encounters two demon
possessed men who live among the tombs and are so fierce that no one can pass
that way.
When
they see Jesus they cry out, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God?
Have you come here to torment us before the time?” Now there are two
interesting things about this. First,
the demons know exactly who Jesus is. They know that he is the Son of God.
But
the second thing is that they are confused. The Son of God is here in the world, and yet
it is not the Last Day. They know that
the Son is the One who will execute the final judgment – and that this will
mean judgment for them. They will be
cast into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
However,
the Son of God is here in this world and that’s not happening. He is not executing the final judgment upon
them. They perceive the power of
Jesus. The know that the kingdom of God
– the reign of God - is present in him. They can’t resist him and beg, “If you
cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs.” But they don’t understand
what is happening because they don’t expect the Son of God to be here like
this.
We
find a great contrast in our Gospel lesson today. Here, Jesus encounters the devil. The devil
is the ruler of the demons, and his understanding is very different from his
minions. He understands that the Son of
God is in the world to carry out the Father’s will. And in the temptation of
Jesus, he attempts to prevent this.
Our
text begins with the words: “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the
wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” The word “then” is very important,
because it connects our text back to what has just happened. It tells us that this event must be
understood in light of what has preceded.
What
has happened is that Jesus has been baptized.
Jesus, the sinless Son of God, submits to John the Baptist’s baptism of
repentance. The heavens are opened to
Jesus, and he sees the Spirit of God descending like a dove and
coming to rest on him. And God the Father says, “This is my beloved
Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
The
Father declares that the man who has been baptized is the Son of God. He is
Immanuel – God with us. But the baptism also tells us something very
surprising. The descent of the Spirit
and the Father’s word that this is the One with whom he is well pleased
identifies Jesus as the Servant of the Lord prophesied by Isaiah. He is the One upon whom the Lord will place
the iniquity of us all. He is the One who will walk the way of suffering and
service as he takes the place of sinners – as he takes our sins as his
own. He is the One who will go to the
cross.
The
Spirit had descended upon Jesus at his baptism. Now the Spirit leads Jesus into
the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Jesus is the Son who is Israel reduced to One. He fulfills God’s purpose for the nation and
now faces temptation where Israel had failed.
He goes to the wilderness to be the obedient Son who carries out the
Father’s saving will.
We
learn in our text that after fasting forty days and forty nights, Jesus was
hungry. This is a reminder that while
Jesus is true God, he is also true man.
He experienced the physical hardships that we do. He became tired. He became hungry.
The
devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these
stones to become loaves of bread.” Like
the demons, the devil knew exactly who Jesus was. But unlike the demons, he understands that
Jesus is here to carry out the Father’s will – the work that he has just undertaken
in his baptism. He is here to serve. And
so the devil tempts Jesus to use his power to serve himself. He seeks to derail Jesus’ ministry by making
him self serving, instead of the One who serves us.
However,
our Lord knows what his mission is. He
knows the Father’s will that has been set forth in Scripture. And so he responds with words from
Deuteronomy as he answers, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” It is God’s word
that provides guidance for Jesus’ life.
Jesus would work the miracle of providing bread – but he would do it for
others as he fed thousands. He had not come to serve himself.
Next
the devil took Jesus to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple. He 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 tempted Jesus to force God to perform a dramatic miracle in the midst of
the city. This is an action that would bring glory and acclaim to Jesus. He even quoted Scripture as he used the words
of Psalm 91 to justify the idea – words that we sang in the Gradual this
morning.
Jesus
says in the Gospel of John that the devil is a liar, and the father of lies. He
uses God’s word to promote lies by twisting it to his own purpose. We hear this in our Old Testament lesson
today as he misquotes God when he says to Eve, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall
not eat of any tree in the garden’?” We
find it in our text because when he quotes Psalm 91 he leaves out the phrase
“to guard you in all your ways.”
God
would guard and keep Christ in the ways that he had set before him as the
Servant of the Lord. Jesus had come to
walk in those ways – not in a way that he created for himself. And so Jesus responded to the devil, “Again it
is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Jesus would not test God by demanding action
that brought glory to the Son. Instead, he would walk in the way of service.
Finally,
the devil took our Lord to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms
of the world and their glory.
He said to Jesus, “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 could have it all, if he would just
worship a false god.
But
Jesus was the obedient Son. He would not depart from God’s will. He would not avoid the way of suffering. And so he said, “Be gone, Satan!
For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him
only shall you serve.’” Then the devil
left Jesus, and angels came and were ministering to him.
In
our text, Jesus defeats the devil. Our
Lord overcomes him as he remains fixed on the way of service and suffering in
obedience to the Father. Yet this was
not the end of the devil’s assaults.
After Peter confesses that Jesus is
the Christ, Matthew tells 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.” Our Lord declared that he would suffer and die to carry out God’s
salvation for us.
But Peter responds by taking Jesus
aside and rebuking him as he says, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall
never happen to you.” Peter’s worldly
ideas turn his voice into that of the devil.
And so Jesus turned and said to Peter, “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.”
During this season of Lent we are
preparing to remember our Lord’s Passion – his suffering and death for us. Even as he hung on the cross, the tempting
voice of the devil could be heard. Those
passing by mocked him as they said, “If you are the Son of God, come down
from the cross.”
But Jesus was faithful to the very
end. He was the obedient Son who offered
himself as the ransom for us all. He
received God’s wrath against our sin as he cried out, “My God, my God, why have
you forsaken me?” He served us as he
died on the cross for our sins.
Jesus’ death appeared to mean that
he was not God’s Son. But St. Paul told
the Romans that he “was declared to be the Son of God in power according
to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our
Lord.” God raised Jesus from the dead on
the third day. Jesus was vindicated as the Son who had been obedient to the
Father. Christ had passed through death
in order to defeat it and begin the resurrection of the Last Day.
On the mountain, the devil offered
our Lord the kingdoms of the world and their glory if he would fall down and
worship him. Jesus rejected the devil
and continued on the way that led to the suffering and death of the cross. But after he had risen from the dead our Lord
had his disciples meet him on another mountain.
There he declared to them that, “All authority in heaven and on
earth has been given to me.” The way of
obedience to the Father; the way of suffering had led to exaltation for
Christ. This is the exaltation that he
possesses as the ascended Lord who is seated at the right hand of the Father.
This is the authority with which he will confront all when he returns in glory
on the Last Day to judge the living and the dead.
In our text we see that Jesus
overcame the temptations of the devil. He walked the way of suffering and
service as he fulfilled the Father’s saving will for us. Yet in his resurrection Christ has shown that
this way of the cross leads to glory.
Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me,
let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever
would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake
will find it.” Christ calls us to follow
him in the way of the cross. This means that we confess our Lord before the
world by what we say and do. It means
that walk in the way of the Lord and his Word, and not in the way of the world.
We do so, even when this draws the world’s rejection and contempt – even when
it means that we endure hardship and suffering.
We do so by the power of Christ’s
Spirit. We do so in the knowledge that
our Lord has already shown us where the way of the cross leads. It leads to eternal life and glory with the
risen Lord who has already walked that way for us.
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