Luke 4:1–13

First Sunday of Lent

¹And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness

²for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.

³The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread."

⁴And Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone.'"

⁵And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time,

⁶and said to him, "To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will.

⁷If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours."

⁸And Jesus answered him, "It is written, "' You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.'"

⁹And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here,

¹⁰for it is written, "' He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,'

¹¹and "'On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'"

¹²And Jesus answered him, "It is said, 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.'"

¹³And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.

A few years ago in southern California, within a few days a biker was killed by a mountain lion and another man was mauled in a separate lion attack. The news was all over town, and people were terrified of these lions. However, a few days later the lions responsible were found and killed and people went back to their regular routine and practically forgot all about it.

Nevertheless, there are constant lion attacks every day in our world. The Bible tells us that the devil prowls around like a lion looking for someone to devour. He is always ready to pounce and tempt people into all kinds of sin.

Fortunately, another Lion has done battle with him and overcame him; the Lion of Judah; Jesus Christ, our Lord.

And that is what our text today is all about. The Lord Christ, was at work for our salvation; doing battle with Satan, resisting the devil and his temptations, and he was doing it for us. This entire 40 days in the wilderness is part of Jesus’ work of salvation. It was necessary for Jesus to undo the devastation the Adam brought into the world. Adam was tempted by Satan and gave in to Satan. He lost the battle and his fall into sin subjected the entire world to sin and death. Jesus was the promised Seed who would crush the head of Satan and undo the damage Adam did. It was necessary then that Jesus too face off in battle with Satan on our behalf as did Adam. Jesus did, but the outcome was just the opposite. Jesus resisted the temptations and won the battle against Satan. Jesus overturned Satan’s kingdom and reign and began to usher in the kingdom of God. Let’s take a closer look at what exactly Jesus was doing there on our behalf.

First of all we notice that he was in the wilderness for 40 days. It was 40 days that Moses was on the mountain, also fasting, when God gave him the 10 Commandments. The Israelites wandered in the wilderness 40 years. Elijah fasted 40 days. And now Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days. And it is from those 40 days, we have inherited the early Christian church tradition of celebrating Lent for 40 days. Forty days in the wilderness; a place which the scriptures equate with testing and temptation. We too live in the wilderness. We wander, like the Israelites, in this vast wilderness, being tempted by the tempter on our journey to the Promised Land.

Like us, Jesus was tempted by the tempter. Christ was truly human. The temptations were just as real and as strong for him as they are for us. He wasn’t just tempted three times; he was tempted during the entire time in the wilderness and throughout his life. These three temptations summarize the temptations of Christ. These temptations represent the entire spectrum of temptations that are common to all people. The temptation to comfort and ease, the temptation to power and wealth, and the temptation to resist God’s will, disobey him, and set ourselves up as our own gods. Our rebellious hearts desire to be free from God’s rule, to disobey him and be free to do what we want. Our selfish nature seeks fame, fortune and power. And our sinful flesh lusts for physical pleasures and comforts.

Like Jesus, we too are tempted continuously by Satan, by the world around us and by our own sinful flesh. It is not sinful to be tempted. Everyone is tempted. Sin comes when after being tempted, the desire to go along with the temptation enters into our hearts. And then the desire becomes thoughts and plans, and finally it erupts in deeds or words. But the temptation itself is part of our fallen world and is what Satan uses to try to separate us from God.

As believers in Christ, we try to resist the temptations and avoid falling into sin. We don’t want to displease our Lord. We want to do the right thing and live in obedience to him. This is the desire which the Holy Spirit creates in us people of faith. But herein lies the problem; the frustration. We find ourselves in the same dilemma as St. Paul when he cried out in frustration, “The good I want, I do not. The evil I don’t want to do is what I do.”

We do not do the good we want. So often we focus on our failures to do good. We know we should love our neighbor as ourselves, but no matter how hard we try we never quite live up to our expectations. We get frustrated and discouraged in our failed attempts to love others and be of service. Even if we could, it seems like there is not enough time, or we feel we should give to every cause and charity that asks for our money but quickly run out of money to give and feel guilty because we are not helping others. Our sense of guilt and frustration over not being able to accomplish all the good we think we should is exemplified by the number of self-help books in the bookstores today. Books abound on how to be more loving, how to be a better husband or wife, how to be a better parent, how to manage your finances and all sorts of good things to do. But the very fact that there is so much demand for all these books shows just how frustrated we feel and how helpless we are in doing them.

Another frustration is when we focus entirely on our sins and failures. This is easy to do in Lent because it is a time for reflection on our sins, but the more we think about our sins and the wicked and evil things we have done and the way we have hurt others and our stubborn refusal to forgive others, the more depressed and discouraged we become and we start to feel we are worthless dirt. Our self esteem goes way down and we feel worthless.

Indeed, this is all true. On account of our original sin we are helpless to do good and in spite of all our best efforts we not only fail in the good we try to do, but we constantly do the evil that we don’t really want to do. Until finally we too arrive at the point where we throw up our hands in despair and cry out with St. Paul, “Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?”

That is what the temptation of Christ is all about. Jesus’ temptation is about Christ delivering us from this body of death and sin. For in his temptation Jesus was doing battle against Satan in our stead. He was fighting our enemy for us. We so often stress Jesus’ death for our salvation, that we sometimes forget that his work of salvation is not limited to the cross alone. His entire life was the work of salvation. Our salvation is tied to the shedding of blood that took place on Calvary, for sure, but his temptation reminds us that our salvation is also tied to the victory over temptation that took pace in the desert. In other words, we are saved by the shed blood of Jesus, but this in only true because that shed blood was innocent of all sin. If Christ had even once given into temptation, then his suffering and death would have no benefit for us.

When Christ was doing battle with the devil in the desert he was already in the process of working for our salvation. Jesus was actively fulfilling God’s law and battling every sin that we battle. The only difference is that where we have failed and keep failing, Christ was victorious. Christ is our Savior, not just in his dying and rising, but also in his perfect obedience to God’s Law.

God requires complete and perfect obedience to his Law. But this is something we have not and cannot do. But, as Luther says, “Christ satisfied the law, he fulfilled the law perfectly, for he loved God with all his heart and with all his soul, and with all his strength, and with all his mind, and he loved his neighbor as himself. Therefore when the law comes and accuses you of not having kept it; bid it go to Christ. Say: ‘there is the man who has kept it; to him in cling. He fulfilled it for me and gave his fulfillment to men.’ Thus the law is silenced.”

Christ’s entire life of obedience he did in our place. He did it for us and it counts on our record. When we are baptized into Christ, we put on Christ. We are covered with the righteousness of Christ; with his perfect obedience. The Formula of Concord says: “Christ’s obedience not only in his suffering and dying, but also because he was voluntarily made under the law in our place and fulfilled the law by this obedience is credited to us for righteousness.” Because God requires perfect obedience, Christ was actively obedient in order to fulfill the law on our behalf. Because of Christ’s obedience, God forgives our sins and gives us salvation. On account of our faith God counts us as righteous because of the righteousness of Christ.

As we go through life struggling to do what is right and constantly failing, the good news is that what we cannot do, Jesus has already done for us. The good news is that when God judges us, he will not see our deeds and actions, but he will only see the deeds and actions of his Son Jesus Christ; his beloved, in whom he is well pleased. We are baptized into Christ and have faith in him. We are hidden in Christ, buried in him, and God sees only his Son when he looks at us.

This is the good news of Christ’s temptation in the desert. He did battle against the devil and overcame temptation on our behalf. He has freed us from the power of Satan and his temptations. He has won the victory which he gives to us; the victory over temptation and sin. He has released us from the power of sin. So now, in Christ, by faith, we are truly free. We are free to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbor as ourselves. We are freed by Christ’s victory to be able to do the good that God requires and to use our bodies as instruments for good, not as instruments for evil. We have the wonderful privilege of being able to call upon Christ for help in every need, and in time of temptation and know that he not only understands our struggle with sin, but that he is able to strengthen us and help us, because he too struggled as we do, except that he was victorious. And he gives us his victory.

By his battle with the devil we are freed from the devil. By his perfect obedience we are counted righteous and saved from sin and death.

Amen.