Sermon Based on : Luke 4. 1-13; Deuteronomy 26. 1-11; Romans 10. 8b-13
Preached on: – First Sunday of Lent- 10.03.2019
The Forty Days of Lent
Our Gospel reading from Luke 4:1-13 is the familiar story of Jesus’ temptation by the devil in the wilderness. This story is so well known that we sometimes conflate the different accounts in Matthew, Mark, and Luke into one story about Jesus’ temptation. But each account is unique from the others. Today, we will focus on Luke’s account of Jesus’ temptation
Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days. Though Luke’s audience consisted primarily of Gentile Christians but Luke’s reference here to forty days would ring a bell with his Jewish audience. Christ’s 40 days are like Moses’ 40 days spent on Mt. Sinai (Exod 34:28), or Noah’s Flood lasted forty days (Gen. 7. 17); or Elijah’s 40 day journey to Mt. Horeb (1 Kings 19: 8).
And, it also is reminiscent of the forty years the Israelites spent in the desert experiencing their own temptations. It is, of course, no coincidence that Lent is a forty day period. Thus how can the account of Jesus’ temptation illuminate our own forty day experience?
To answer this question, Let us concentrate on the temptations of Christ:-
Jesus has just been baptized by John in the Jordan River. The Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove, and now He is filled with the Holy Spirit, (After the blessing comes the battle). And, what does the Holy Spirit do?
Leads Him into the wilderness. The wilderness was part of Judea about 35 miles long by 15 miles wide. It was called Jeshimmon, which means “The Devastation.” The hills are like dust heaps; the limestone looked blistered and peeling; the rocks were bare and jagged. It was in this terrible devastation that Jesus was tempted.
We see in Luke 4:1-13 that Jesus was tempted in three ways, which are similar to the ways the Israelites were tempted in the wilderness, and similar to the way Adam and Eve were tempted in the garden of Eden, and which are similar to the way all of us are tempted today.
You see, Satan is not real creative. He has only three basic temptations, and only one tactic. These three temptations are summarized in 1 John 2:16. Satan’s only three temptations are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. No matter what temptation you are dealing with, it falls into one of these three categories. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
From Genesis 3:6, we see Satan uses these same three on Eve. She saw that the tree was good for food (that’s the lust of the flesh), that it was pleasing to the eyes (that’s the lust of the eyes), and that it was desirable to make one wise (that’s the pride of life).
We will see this as we go through each temptation. This is what Hebrews 4:15 means when it says that ‘He was tempted in all ways as we are, but without sin.’
First -Satan wanted Jesus to turn stone into bread (the lust of the flesh). More broadly, the temptation is for Jesus to use his authority as the Son of God to meet his personal needs and desires. While this was no doubt a temptation for Jesus throughout his ministry, it is especially during his crucifixion that this would come to the fore again, as he is tempted by the onlookers to save himself from the cross (Luke 23:35-39). Jesus’ ministry is always focused on others, never on himself.
Second– the devil showed him all the kingdoms of the world (the lust of the eyes),The second temptation (verses 5-8) is a direct appeal to the human desire for power. Jesus is offered the authority and glory of all the kingdoms of the world. For Jesus this was a temptation to embrace what many would have expected of him as the Messiah: political and military might and rule. That Jesus rejects this is a clear sign that his messiahship, his kingdom, is of a different nature than the common expectations. Jesus’ mission is about saving others, not about asserting worldly power.
Third- the devil tempted Jesus to throw himself down from the pinnacle of
the temple in order to easily declare himself as the Messiah and
prove that God was working for him (the pride of life). A
Cross-Avoiding Spectacle
The
third temptation (verses 9-12), jumping from the pinnacle of the
temple, is the most difficult to interpret. On the surface the
devil’s idea is merely an awe-inducing spectacle. So in part this
temptation is that of another alternative path for Jesus’ power,
leading to fame and riches rather than to service and the cross.
Satan ‘s suggestion is that cross is not necessary.
Those are Satan’s only three temptations.
All of Satan’s temptations revolve around misusing or abusing the Word of God. That is how he tempted Eve in Genesis 3, the way he tempted the Israelites in the wilderness, the way he tempted the kings of Israel, and that is the way he tempts Jesus here.
And this is the way he temps us. He twists the Word of God, and raises doubt about what God has said. This is why it is so vitally important to know the Word of God. That is why it is so important to be studying the Word daily, to attend a church where the Word is faithfully taught, and to attend Bible studies and learn good Bible study methods.
These temptations of Jesus represent the essential forms of all temptation; they are our temptations, and the temptations of the Church. They are the illusions that we can use the divine spirit for worldly ends, that we can make God subject to our whims and idle curiosities, that we can be as absolute as God.
In this season of Lent we are led up by the Spirit into the wilderness; and the point is that we should be made free from our illusions. For this, a kind of wilderness, or a certain quiet, is necessary. It seems that the world goes faster every day, and that we are increasingly consumed by its complex busyness. There is noise and activity everywhere and always. It comes to pass that there is no time or place for quiet reflection. A certain wilderness is necessary for the clarifying of the Spirit.
Lent calls us to participate, at least in some small way, in that flight to the desert, to try to see ourselves clearly in the undistracted light of God’s word, to identify our illusions so as to be free of them. we are also tempted to abandon the task God has given us for ways of self-indulgence, power, and spectacle. Lent is the time for confessing our failures and redirecting our steps to the way of Jesus. And through the power of the Spirit, we, too, can resist the temptations of the devil.
That is what today’s Gospel is about, and that is what our Lent should be about,
St. John, in his first Epistle, summing up the three forms of temptation, puts the matter this way: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” (1 John 2.15-17)
In the name of God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen