A Sermon for Lent

A whole 5 days after preaching my senior sermon, I had the priviledge of preaching at Westminster Presbyterian where I am the seminary intern. Wednesday night service, totally different text. This one is on Luke 4:1-13, Jesus' temptation in the WIlderness.

Tests. We encounter them in all forms. As a student there are standardized tests and tests created over specific knowledge. Outside of school we test people’s patience, we are put to the test, and we test the waters. But there is something that happens with any test, trial, experiment or examination. We go into a test one way and we come out differently on the other side. Tests are a way of discovering what we are capable of, what is possible, of what is important.
In our text we find Jesus, having just been baptized, being led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness where he faces 3 tests at the hands of the devil. It is important to note the wilderness experience begins with the Holy Spirit’s leading. Jesus didn’t just go but was led. These were tests, a time that he was guided into. We too are sometimes led into the wilderness, into times of spiritual testing.
When we find ourselves in the wilderness, we usually think of it as a time when we are spiritually dry, hence the wilderness. In the wilderness we may feel abandoned, that we have been left to struggle on our own. We may feel that our prayers go unanswered. We may feel there is no hope. When I think about wilderness times I have encountered, they are times I have felt spiritually isolated, hungry and thirsty.
We read that at the end of 40 days in the wilderness, Jesus was hungry. This is when the devil jumps in with the temptations. The devil tells Jesus to turn a stone into bread, he almost dares him to do it. Can’t you just see it? The devil, not the half goat, half man with horns and a pitchfork, but the slick, well- polished, designer suit and silk tie variety.
“Hey Jesus. You look hungry. Why torture yourself. You’re the son of God, tell the stone to become bread.” Jesus doesn’t go for it, so the devil tries to deal a bit. So he takes him to a high place so they could look out over the land. This time the devil says he will cut a deal. “you can have power over all that you can see if you will do one thing. I am the one who can give you all of this. All you have to do is worship me.” Again, Jesus turns him down citing the Scriptures.
The devil is finding this to be a hard sell. So he tries one last time. But this time the devil uses Scripture to make his pitch. At the high point of the temple in Jerusalem he says, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down for it is written: ‘For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” Even though the devil quotes Psalm 91, Jesus again refutes him using Scripture. After having no luck, the devil departs, “until an opportune time,” doing his best Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonation “I’ll be back.”
The 3 temptations represent 3 areas where we are often challenged as well. The first is to provide for yourself. It is not wrong to want food, it is not evil to provide sustenance. But if Jesus provides for himself at this point, he does not rely on God. The 2nd temptation is about power, and to whom you are loyal. Again earthly power isn’t in and of itself wrong or evil, but to trust in human power, to be loyal to earthly things is to put something else before God. The 3rd temptation is about making demands of God. To go to God with prayer is what we are to do, but it is the motive behind the action that makes the difference. We are urged to pray without ceasing and to take everything to the Lord in prayer, but these are not to be petitions that put God to the test. As Jesus refutes the devil, he quotes another wilderness adventure found in Deuteronomy, the exodus of the Israelites.
The 3 quotes are significant because they not only link Jesus to the heritage of Israel , but they reference areas where the Israelites lacked faith. The first temptation, to provide bread, is refuted using Deuteronomy 8:3, “It has been written that man shall not live by bread alone.” Matthew’s account goes further, “but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” At this point in the exodus story, the Israelites have been reminded that being hungered humbled them, but the Lord did provide for them and gave them manna. God’s is faithful in all things and will provide for all our needs. In this day and age, who do we trust for our needs? Ourselves or God?
The second temptation brings a response from the 10 commandments as Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:13. “You will worship the LORD you God whom alone you will serve.” Jesus refuses to bow and serve the devil unlike the Israelites who fashioned a golden calf for themselves. It is easy to get pulled into the power of the world, but what or whom do we worship and serve? Another or God?
The devil quotes, or rather mis-quotes Scripture for the third temptation. In reading all of Psalm 91, it is about the protection of God for the righteous. It speaks of God as refuge and fortress, as the one who delivers and protects. But this protection is not meant for foolishness. God’s protection is for the faithful. “When they call to me, I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble, I will rescue them and honor them (v 15).” Jesus refutes this trial with Deuteronomy 6:16 “Do not put the LORD your God to the test as you did as Massah.” This reference is to the story in Exodus 17 when the Israelites were complaining to Moses about not having water. They were thirsty. God responded by telling Moses to strike the rock with his staff and when Moses did as God commanded, water sprang forth. Once again, God provides, but God is not to be foolishly tested.
The temptations may link Jesus to the wilderness experience of the Israelites, but it also proves that he is the Son of God. as he remains faithful to God throughout these tests. For Christ to be fully human, to truly enter into our human condition, it was crucial that he suffer as the Israelites did, as we do. As we read in Hebrews 4
Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.
We, like the Israelites sometimes struggle to remain faithful and obedient. We are more inclined to be more reliant on ourselves, to look at being successful rather than faithful, and to look to worldly rules and compromise on faith . However, we are given Christ as our model for faithfulness.
The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years. Jesus was tested in the wilderness for forty days. We too have entered the wilderness or at least a time to remember the wilderness. We started our 40 days a couple weeks ago at Ash Wednesday with the reminder that we are dust and to dust we shall return. Dust that was once lush green palm branches has become dry and ashen, disintegrated by heat. These forty days are a time to examine the dry areas of our lives, to struggle with areas where we need to be more faithful and obedient to God.
This self-examination is a chance to come out of Lent different than when we entered.
We journey through Lent with Jesus, following the narratives of the season. We have come from the waters of his Baptism and entered the wilderness, led by the Holy Spirit. As the forty days for Jesus ends, we find him beginning his ministry, once again, led by the Holy Spirit. But Jesus has changed. The wilderness has prepared him for what lies ahead. The devil has departed until an opportune time. We will see this character again in the story, we will see Jesus tested again and again through the Gospel narrative. But through it all we will continue to see that God is ever faithful and present. That is the promise that we have.
We have been baptized and we now walk with Jesus through the wilderness. We too have been led by the Holy Spirit. The forty days of Lent can change us, and we can leave this wilderness differently than when we came in. Through these days we will not be abandoned, forsaken, or thirsty. God will provide.