The First Sunday of Lent

February 25, 2007

"Following Jesus on the Path through Temptation!"

Luke 4:1-13

Preached at Providence Lutheran Church in Holland, Ohio

By Pastor Dennis R. King

The Grace and Mercy of our Lord, Jesus Christ, be with you all. Amen.

The temptation of Adam and Eve in the third Chapter of Genesis is as much a story about you and me as about the first humans. The Lord God placed them in a perfect garden with all the plants, animals, birds, and fishes. He gave them the fruit of every tree in the garden but one – the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Any of you who has or knows a three-year old knows that the one thing that is forbidden is precisely the thing the child wants. Adam and Eve were not quite that simple. They were not tempted to try the fruit until that snake came along and planted doubt in Eve’s mind about God’s motives. As she entertained her temptation, she began to see the forbidden fruit, which she had previously ignored, as something very desirable.

The serpent did not out and out lie to Eve. He merely twisted the truth. He told her half-truths. He implied that she would become as wise as God by eating the fruit, and that sounded good to her. But notice, please, that the serpent did not make Eve eat the fruit, and Eve did not make Adam take a bite. All the Tempter ever does is present a compelling argument for doing what we know is wrong. The decision is always in our court.

Some drug dealers approached the captain of an oil tanker that made regular trips from South America to Los Angeles. They offered him $10,000 to carry a load of cocaine. He refused. They came back the next day with an offer of $50,000. Again he refused. Then they came again and offered $150,000. This time he called the FBI, who put together a sting operation and caught the drug runners. They seized the shipment of drugs along with $340,000 in cash, plus a list of buyers in the Los Angeles area. After the arrests, a federal agent asked the captain, “Why did you wait until after the third offer before you called us?” He replied, “They were getting pretty close to my price, and I was scared of what I might do.” Satan never causes us to sin; he just tries to persuade us so that we think it is the right thing to do. We always have the final say.

In the Gospel for today, Jesus himself faces the temptation not to go through with God’s plan of salvation for the world. After His baptism, the text says, He “was led by the (Holy) Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.” You might wonder why the Spirit led Him to the lonely place to be tempted by the devil. Scripture does give us some insight about that.

In the bible the same word can be translated as “tempt” or “test.” Time and again God’s people are tested. God tests Abraham by asking him to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac. Abraham’s willingness to be obedient was the test, and when he passed it, God provided a ram in place of Isaac. When God sent manna to the people in the wilderness following the Exodus, He instructed them to gather only enough for that day. “In that way,” says the Lord, “I will test them to see whether they will follow my instruction or not” (Exodus 16:4). In Deuteronomy 13:3, we read that God tests his people “to know whether you indeed love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul.” In Deuteronomy 8:16, we hear that being tested by God and being humbled go hand-in-hand, so that we may learn to live God-pleasing lives.

Most of us get a bit anxious when a test looms before us, but a test is not really a negative thing. Its purpose is to show what we know, how much we have learned. A test is an important milestone. We don’t want an untested driver on the road, or an untested surgeon operating on us. The idea behind the word “test” is an up-building and positive one.

The idea behind the word “temptation,” however, is a negative one. And yet tempting and testing are two sides of the same coin. God tests the strength of your faithfulness, while Satan tempts you to sin. And so when the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness, it was as much to test and strengthen his faithful obedience to the Father as to overcome the temptations offered by the devil.

Jesus was famished after his forty-day fast. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” The temptation was to give in to instant gratification. The temptation was to take care of his own needs first. But Jesus knew there was a whole generation of people starving for the true bread of life, the Word of God. The Tempter puts the same question to you and me: What could possibly be more important than feeding myself when I am hungry? What could be more important than getting out of a marriage that has become loveless? What is more important than quitting a job that doesn’t fulfill me? Why shouldn’t I have a house/car/clothes as good as my neighbor’s? Why should I wait until marriage for sex? In each case, the tempter’s lie is that I am entitled to satisfy myself. The temptation is to see myself as the center of the universe. The truth is that I am part of a community, and God expects me to treat my neighbor with the same consideration and respect I show myself.

The next temptation Jesus experienced was to have the glory, the power, the prestige and wealth of the world – the worldly recognition that He would purposefully deny Himself for the sake of the world. This is the greed for fast money that tempts a young person to deal drugs or turn to prostitution. It is the greed for influence that is willing to pay for favorable legislation. It is the greed for glory that is willing to overlook the rules if it means having a winning sports team. The temptation is to believe that the end justifies the means. The truth is that the world’s power and glory do not belong to the evil one and are not his to give away.

The third temptation Jesus faced was to do something rash and foolish to prove his faith and prompt the Father to save him. This temptation takes place not in the wilderness, but in the temple. Jesus is tempted to prove his faith by jumping off the pinnacle of the temple. The reasoning is that if he loves God enough, God will surely save him. The devil even quotes scripture to Jesus to entice him. There is a lesson here that not everyone who quotes scripture is speaking or acting in accordance with the will of God. Your baptism is no guarantee that you will never face temptation. On the contrary, if we take the story of Jesus’ temptation seriously, we will understand not only why we are tempted, but also why we are at times so sorely tempted! It was the Spirit of God who led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And it was the Spirit of God that gave him, and us, the boldness to resist temptation, that God’s faithfulness toward us might be given the test and proven worthy.

“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” Jesus said. His way does not lead us around temptation, that we may never be tested. Rather, his Spirit teaches us the Truth, so that we may recognize the lies and half-truths of the devil and triumph over the temptations that plague us along the journey. Even as the Good Shepherd leads His flock through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, so Jesus leads the faithful through every temptation so that we may share in His death, and in His glory. Amen.