The Devil Has A Nose For Faith - 1st Sermon @ Luther Seminary
Luke 4: 1 -13 - The Temptation of Jesus
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “One does not live by bread alone.” ’
Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, ‘To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” ’
Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you”, and “On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” ’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is said, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” ’ When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.
When I find myself bored while driving, I try to put hymn lyrics to the tunes from other songs. For me, this is a challenging task and keeps my brain going even when the road seems tiresome. One of my favorites is as follows; *sings Amazing Grace to the tune of Gilligan’s Island* Although it may keep me alert on the road, this activity, amusing as it may be, ignores the spiritual gifts that culminated in these hymns and the needs of the Christian congregation or community for which they were written. To parody hymns is to misrepresent the collective voice of the church and make light of the Gospel to which we testify.
Misrepresentation is at the heart of Christ’s temptations. In the preceding chapter of Luke’s Gospel, we hear the voice of God proclaiming the Father’s favor upon Jesus in his baptism. Christ, having been led by the Spirit into the wilderness, is beset by Satan who endeavors to make Jesus falter from his nature that ‘well-pleases’ His heavenly Father. Jesus wanders the desert for quite a while. He’s dusty, exhausted. His feet are probably aching. He is famished. The devil comes to Him saying, ‘Hey, if you’re God’s Son, turn this rock into a 12 inch sub.’ He’s trying to get Jesus to exert His own power and will to suit His own needs. Jesus answers him, ‘Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ Where Satan wants Christ to be self-serving and thereby falter in His messianic task, Jesus responds saying that the word of God fulfills our needs more than bread can.
When that doesn’t work, Satan shows Christ all the kingdoms of the world. He tells Jesus that all the glory of these places and the authority that comes with owning these kingdoms will be given to Jesus, if He bows before Satan. Satan makes an appeal to Jesus’ human nature, hoping Christ will greedily seek after the kingdoms of the world. He wants Jesus to exert His own will to gain dominion of earth through greedy motives and bargaining rather than following the will of God. Jesus sees right through this ploy. He reaffirms the created order, saying that we are to worship and serve only the Lord our God.
With two strikes against him, Satan takes Christ up to the top of the temple. He baits Him again to affirm His identity. “If you are the Son of God, take a swan dive off the temple.” But this time, he’s grown used to Jesus’ scriptural defense. He quotes Psalm 91 and assures Jesus that the angels will catch Him. He wants Jesus to cash in some ‘Son of the Father chips’ and get God to protect Him when things are unfortunate. Christ, having had quite enough of this conversation, responds once more with scripture saying, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”
With that, Satan leaves Him ‘for an opportune time’. This foreshadowing is rather unsettling, but we’ll get to that later. We are left to figure out what Satan was driving at and how Christ’s responses are examples for us to follow. Misrepresentation is at the heart of the matter. Satan tries to get Jesus to shift His core, to act in ways that seek His own good, that acquire for Himself, and that cement his High stature in the world. Not only would such a shifting cause Jesus to misrepresent His messianic purpose but it also would wrongly affirm Satan’s normative control in all things, giving him power, prestige, and authority.
We’re not always tempted to change stones into bread but we are tempted in our own times and places. In this season of lent, we struggle against our commitments of prayer and fasting. We are tempted to give into greed. We are tempted to only accept responsibility for our own good. We struggle against seeking our own power, prestige, and authority. We are tempted to not do our best with our hearts, our faith, and the gifts God has given us. The temptations faced by Christ and by ourselves today are attempts at getting us to circumvent the cross. Asserting superiority and prerogative while feeding our greedy inclinations, puts us on a path that turns away from having to face our mortality, suffering, and need for redemptions. Real temptations, like those faced by Christ and those in our lives, real spiritual temptations cause us to question where our truth lies. Temptation gives us pause to examine and confess our allegiances. Christ responds succinctly to each temptation, unshaken by Satan’s advances. In The Lord’s Prayer, we pray for God to “lead us not into temptation” and for His will to be done. When Christ teaches us to pray, He prays with us. He too petitions God for deliverance from evil and the strength to do God’s will. Temptation is, at its heart, a matter of will. Temptation is a matter of choosing a path and acting upon that choice. Christ chooses not to change rocks into bread, to bow and serve, nor to put God to the test. In order to be fully human as well as divine, these temptations have to be appealing in some way. His temptation was not an ‘easy’ thing. After 40 days, he was hungry. He did want to unite the peoples of the world, and he did want to be protected against the sufferings of life. But despite these desires, he did not submit. Temptation causes us to question who we are at the core.
A little grandson often came to his grandfather in the evenings to sit at his knee and ask the many questions that children ask. One day the grandson came to him with anger at a schoolmate who had hurt him physically and emotionally. Enraged and wounded, he shouted, “I hate them. I hate them all!”
The Grandfather lifted his grandson's face so his eyes looked into the boy’s. Grandfather said, "Let me tell you a story. I too, at times, have felt a great hate for those that have taken so much, with no sorrow for what they do. But hate wears you down, and does not hurt your enemy. It is like taking poison and wishing your enemy would die. I have struggled with these feelings many times.”
“It is as if there are two wolves inside me, one is white, and one is black. The White Wolf is good and does no harm. He lives in harmony with all around him and does not take offense when none was intended. But will only fight when it is right to do so, and in the right way.”
"But, the Black Wolf is full of anger. The littlest thing will set him into a fit of temper. He fights everyone, all the time, for no reason. He cannot think because his anger and hate are so great. It is helpless anger, for his anger will change nothing.”
"Sometimes it is hard to live with these two wolves inside me, for both of them try to dominate my spirit." The boy, looked intently into his Grandfather's eyes, and asked, "Which one wins Grandfather?" The Grandfather, smiled and said, "The one I feed."
It is how we respond to temptations that determines which of our inner wolves we feed. Temptation is a matter of choice and act. In Christ’s response to His temptations we are shown the nature of a savior who relies upon scripture and stays true to God’s Word. We are shown a God who instead of greed, power, and prestige, chooses suffering, service, and humility. It is these characteristics of service, selflessness, and hardship we are called to embrace as followers of Christ. Satan left Christ for a later ‘opportune time’. We read of these temptations in the Garden and there certainly must have been others as Christ suffered for our sake. We must too must expect continual tension, spiritual temptation, and suffering in our lives of service. As we journey in the shadow of the cross, we expect and anticipate the shining of the resurrection. We rejoice in the faithful promises of the one who has overcome temptation, suffering, and death. We embrace our costs of discipleship and rest assured in the love that God has for us. I leave you with the following verses from Paul Gerhard’s hymn, “If God Himself Be For Me.”
Who clings with resolution,
To Him whom Satan hates
Must look for persecution;
For him the burden waits
Of mockery, shame, and losses,
Heaped on his blameless head;
A thousand plagues and crosses
Will be his daily bread.
Naught, naught, can now condemn me
Nor set my hope aside;
Now hell no more can claim me,
Its fury I deride.
No sentence e'er reproves me,
No ill destroys my peace;
For Christ, my Savior, loves me
And shields me with His grace.
Thanks be to God.
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “One does not live by bread alone.” ’
Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, ‘To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” ’
Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you”, and “On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” ’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is said, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” ’ When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.
When I find myself bored while driving, I try to put hymn lyrics to the tunes from other songs. For me, this is a challenging task and keeps my brain going even when the road seems tiresome. One of my favorites is as follows; *sings Amazing Grace to the tune of Gilligan’s Island* Although it may keep me alert on the road, this activity, amusing as it may be, ignores the spiritual gifts that culminated in these hymns and the needs of the Christian congregation or community for which they were written. To parody hymns is to misrepresent the collective voice of the church and make light of the Gospel to which we testify.
Misrepresentation is at the heart of Christ’s temptations. In the preceding chapter of Luke’s Gospel, we hear the voice of God proclaiming the Father’s favor upon Jesus in his baptism. Christ, having been led by the Spirit into the wilderness, is beset by Satan who endeavors to make Jesus falter from his nature that ‘well-pleases’ His heavenly Father. Jesus wanders the desert for quite a while. He’s dusty, exhausted. His feet are probably aching. He is famished. The devil comes to Him saying, ‘Hey, if you’re God’s Son, turn this rock into a 12 inch sub.’ He’s trying to get Jesus to exert His own power and will to suit His own needs. Jesus answers him, ‘Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ Where Satan wants Christ to be self-serving and thereby falter in His messianic task, Jesus responds saying that the word of God fulfills our needs more than bread can.
When that doesn’t work, Satan shows Christ all the kingdoms of the world. He tells Jesus that all the glory of these places and the authority that comes with owning these kingdoms will be given to Jesus, if He bows before Satan. Satan makes an appeal to Jesus’ human nature, hoping Christ will greedily seek after the kingdoms of the world. He wants Jesus to exert His own will to gain dominion of earth through greedy motives and bargaining rather than following the will of God. Jesus sees right through this ploy. He reaffirms the created order, saying that we are to worship and serve only the Lord our God.
With two strikes against him, Satan takes Christ up to the top of the temple. He baits Him again to affirm His identity. “If you are the Son of God, take a swan dive off the temple.” But this time, he’s grown used to Jesus’ scriptural defense. He quotes Psalm 91 and assures Jesus that the angels will catch Him. He wants Jesus to cash in some ‘Son of the Father chips’ and get God to protect Him when things are unfortunate. Christ, having had quite enough of this conversation, responds once more with scripture saying, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”
With that, Satan leaves Him ‘for an opportune time’. This foreshadowing is rather unsettling, but we’ll get to that later. We are left to figure out what Satan was driving at and how Christ’s responses are examples for us to follow. Misrepresentation is at the heart of the matter. Satan tries to get Jesus to shift His core, to act in ways that seek His own good, that acquire for Himself, and that cement his High stature in the world. Not only would such a shifting cause Jesus to misrepresent His messianic purpose but it also would wrongly affirm Satan’s normative control in all things, giving him power, prestige, and authority.
We’re not always tempted to change stones into bread but we are tempted in our own times and places. In this season of lent, we struggle against our commitments of prayer and fasting. We are tempted to give into greed. We are tempted to only accept responsibility for our own good. We struggle against seeking our own power, prestige, and authority. We are tempted to not do our best with our hearts, our faith, and the gifts God has given us. The temptations faced by Christ and by ourselves today are attempts at getting us to circumvent the cross. Asserting superiority and prerogative while feeding our greedy inclinations, puts us on a path that turns away from having to face our mortality, suffering, and need for redemptions. Real temptations, like those faced by Christ and those in our lives, real spiritual temptations cause us to question where our truth lies. Temptation gives us pause to examine and confess our allegiances. Christ responds succinctly to each temptation, unshaken by Satan’s advances. In The Lord’s Prayer, we pray for God to “lead us not into temptation” and for His will to be done. When Christ teaches us to pray, He prays with us. He too petitions God for deliverance from evil and the strength to do God’s will. Temptation is, at its heart, a matter of will. Temptation is a matter of choosing a path and acting upon that choice. Christ chooses not to change rocks into bread, to bow and serve, nor to put God to the test. In order to be fully human as well as divine, these temptations have to be appealing in some way. His temptation was not an ‘easy’ thing. After 40 days, he was hungry. He did want to unite the peoples of the world, and he did want to be protected against the sufferings of life. But despite these desires, he did not submit. Temptation causes us to question who we are at the core.
A little grandson often came to his grandfather in the evenings to sit at his knee and ask the many questions that children ask. One day the grandson came to him with anger at a schoolmate who had hurt him physically and emotionally. Enraged and wounded, he shouted, “I hate them. I hate them all!”
The Grandfather lifted his grandson's face so his eyes looked into the boy’s. Grandfather said, "Let me tell you a story. I too, at times, have felt a great hate for those that have taken so much, with no sorrow for what they do. But hate wears you down, and does not hurt your enemy. It is like taking poison and wishing your enemy would die. I have struggled with these feelings many times.”
“It is as if there are two wolves inside me, one is white, and one is black. The White Wolf is good and does no harm. He lives in harmony with all around him and does not take offense when none was intended. But will only fight when it is right to do so, and in the right way.”
"But, the Black Wolf is full of anger. The littlest thing will set him into a fit of temper. He fights everyone, all the time, for no reason. He cannot think because his anger and hate are so great. It is helpless anger, for his anger will change nothing.”
"Sometimes it is hard to live with these two wolves inside me, for both of them try to dominate my spirit." The boy, looked intently into his Grandfather's eyes, and asked, "Which one wins Grandfather?" The Grandfather, smiled and said, "The one I feed."
It is how we respond to temptations that determines which of our inner wolves we feed. Temptation is a matter of choice and act. In Christ’s response to His temptations we are shown the nature of a savior who relies upon scripture and stays true to God’s Word. We are shown a God who instead of greed, power, and prestige, chooses suffering, service, and humility. It is these characteristics of service, selflessness, and hardship we are called to embrace as followers of Christ. Satan left Christ for a later ‘opportune time’. We read of these temptations in the Garden and there certainly must have been others as Christ suffered for our sake. We must too must expect continual tension, spiritual temptation, and suffering in our lives of service. As we journey in the shadow of the cross, we expect and anticipate the shining of the resurrection. We rejoice in the faithful promises of the one who has overcome temptation, suffering, and death. We embrace our costs of discipleship and rest assured in the love that God has for us. I leave you with the following verses from Paul Gerhard’s hymn, “If God Himself Be For Me.”
Who clings with resolution,
To Him whom Satan hates
Must look for persecution;
For him the burden waits
Of mockery, shame, and losses,
Heaped on his blameless head;
A thousand plagues and crosses
Will be his daily bread.
Naught, naught, can now condemn me
Nor set my hope aside;
Now hell no more can claim me,
Its fury I deride.
No sentence e'er reproves me,
No ill destroys my peace;
For Christ, my Savior, loves me
And shields me with His grace.
Thanks be to God.