1st
Sunday in Lent at Epiphany on
Grace, mercy, and peace are yours through Jesus Christ, who went into battle against Satan in order to make us His chosen champions. Amen.
Matthew 4:1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the
devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3
The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones
to become bread." 4 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live
on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" 5
Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point
of the temple. 6 "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself
down. For it is written: "'He will command his angels concerning you, and they will
lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'"
7 Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God
to the test.'" 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and
showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 "All this
I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me." 10
Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your
God, and serve him only.'" 11 Then the devil left him, and angels came
and attended him.
"Do you renounce the devil and all his works and all his ways?" In the liturgy of
the Lutheran church, that question is put in all seriousness to every person receiving
baptism. It is also a question that is asked of our youth and adult confirmands
on the day they make their vows of faithfulness to the Lord and become communicant
members of our congregation. But it's not a question only for the day of baptism
or confirmation. It's a question we must answer every day of our lives. Lent merely
brings it to the forefront. We can't have it both ways. It's either Satan's way
or Jesus' way. That's what makes the Christian life a battle.
As we
heard in the first lesson, the battle began in the Garden of Eden. A tree, a command,
a snake, a temptation … and a fall. Instead of renouncing the devil and his works
and all his ways, Adam and Eve, our first parents, embraced the devil and his works
and all his ways. The sad history of our race has been the result. If you think
things have changed at all, you haven't been reading the papers lately, or watching
the news or looking into your heart.
The devil's
works are hatred, bitterness, resentment, anger, arrogance and above all a stubborn
refusal to bow to the will of God. The devil's ways are deception and lying, cheating
and stealing.
Jesus'
works are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and above all humility
before the will of our heavenly Father. It is finding freedom in obedience to Him.
Jesus’ way was light and truth, serving and sacrificing for others.
The battle
may have begun in
It's the battle Paul
was talking about when he said: “For the sinful nature desires what is contrary
to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in
conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.” (Gal 5:17) It's
the battle he was talking about when he cried out: “For what I do is not the good
I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.” (Rom
Jesus did not have the internal battle against evil – since His heart was perfect and He only desired the Father’s will. Still, Jesus had to do battle with the temptations of the Evil One. Because in the end, what Satan assaults, what he goes after, is our faith, our trust in the heavenly Father.
"If you are the Son of God." That
was a direct challenge to the veracity of the Father's declaration at Jesus' Baptism.
Think of it. Jesus was sitting out in the wilderness of
But Jesus knew enough of Satan's works to know he only wanted to destroy in Jesus the light of faith. He knew enough of Satan's ways to know the devil was a liar whom you can never believe. In the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus succeeds in doing what Adam and Eve failed to do. He turns His back on Satan's deceits and empty promises and He holds in faith to the Word that the Father had spoken over Him. "My Son, the beloved."
One night an Arab had settled in for the night and had just fallen asleep when his camel stuck his head in his tent and explained that it was awful cold and asked permission to just stick his legs inside the tent to keep them warm. Granting him permission the Arab went back to sleep. A little while later the camel woke him up a second time and asked permission to stick his head in. Again permission was granted. This continued on throughout the night until finally the Arab woke up to find the entire camel in the tent with him. When he told the camel that there just was not enough room in the tent for the both of them the camel suggested that the Arab might want to leave. That is exactly what Satan does. He slips into our lives a little at a time and one day we wake up and alarmed we tell him that there just is not enough room for both he and Jesus in our lives. To which he suggests that Jesus might then want to leave.
Lent is a time for us to wake up; a time to realize we cannot have it both ways. We cannot allow Satan and Jesus to remain in the same tent of our heart at the same time. We can't say that and have fellowship with the light while we are walking in darkness. We can't hold onto Jesus without renouncing Satan and his works and ways, without fighting against them.
Now don't misunderstand me, please. To be conflicted inside – to want to do the thing that pleases Jesus and yet fail in doing it time and again – is the normal state of being a Christian. Don’t be disheartened by this battle that rages within you. If you already belonged to the devil he wouldn’t be fighting so hard for you – he’d own you. The very reason we have struggles in our church, difficulties within our school, and temptations in our lives is because we are on the winning side. And Satan is angry. He’s a sore loser. Christ has already won the victory over Satan for us with His empty cross and vacant grave. We battle Satan and our sinful nature, but we go into battle knowing Christ has already made us Victors.
We cannot give up the battle. We cannot make peace with the evil in our hearts. We switch sides if we no longer desire freedom from sin, no longer have the energy to stomp on the snake, when we wish to cuddle up with the serpent. That means we have renounced Jesus and all His works and all His ways.
"I just couldn't help myself! It was like those chocolate chip cookies just jumped
into my hand and shot straight into my mouth. So much for the disciplined diet."
The drive, desire, and discipline to shed a few pounds are crushed by a couple of
cookies. Temptation triumphed again.
If it's
not cookies, what temptations triumph in your life? You know the ones. They are
the ones that you set out to do battle with on a daily or weekly basis, and it is
an all out war. You are determined not to cave in, never to lose ... but you do
... and you experience the agony of defeat ... again. Who's your opponent? The temper
that loses control? The tongue that gives in to gossiping? The laziness that lacks
drive and robs your work by not giving your best? The wandering eye that waits too
long on the seducing website? The appetite that appreciates too much alcohol? The
royal attitude that has to rule instead of being the servant of all (that means
everyone, no matter how little you care for their company). Many times what do you
hear yourself say? "I just couldn't help myself?"
Jesus has
something to say to you about your battles. "I can relate. I went through what you
went through." When Jesus was 30 years old, Satan unleashed a forty-day assault
of temptation on the Savior. The bombardment during the forty-day temptation time
was relentless. But at the end of it, Jesus stood as the champion. He beat the bully
Satan and all his temptation trickery. He never caved in. He beat those temptations
because He knew you wouldn't. But Jesus' now calls you to stand next to Him, put
your foot on Satan's neck, and listen to him call you a winner. Because He won,
you won. When you enter the battle today, go into the fight knowing you're a champion
with Jesus. Tell Him what you've said so many times before in your weakness against
temptation, "Jesus, I just can't help myself!" And what's Jesus' response to you?
"I know you can't, that's why I'm here."
Stomp on the snake. Shout that one little word that will make Satan fall from the sky. Yell at the devil, “Get behind me, Satan.”
Mark was a 10-year-old boy who never misbehaved or caused problems at school. But
unfortunately he never made very good grades in spelling. One day during a spelling
test he was tempted to copy off of Jane, who always made straight “A’s” in spelling.
Even though Mark was a Christian, and knew that it was wrong to cheat, he did it
anyway. The teacher saw Mark looking off of Jane’s paper and was terribly shocked
and disappointed because she had always admired him for his honesty.
When it
came time to collect the tests, the teacher noticed Mark did something very unusual.
He bowed his head, and silently prayed and asked God to forgive him, and then he
ripped up his paper. He decided to take a zero rather than turning in a paper in
which he had cheated on. The teacher called Mark up to her desk and said, "I was
watching you, Mark, and I want you to know that I’m very proud of you for what you
just did. Today you really passed a much greater examination than your spelling
test!"
Mark’s
battle is a battle that rages inside of each of us every day. Worship or sleep in.
Forgive or hold a grudge. Work hard or do enough to just get by. Christ has given
us power over the devil, but you and I know that still we waver, still we falter,
still we fall for the temptations of the Evil One.
When you
do lose a battle to Satan, when you do give in to his wily temptations, then do
as Jesus did and go to God’s Word. There the Holy Spirit gives you the courage and
the desire to fight on. When you act as a spawn of Satan, recall your baptismal
waters and your confirmation vows when you were made a holy, beloved, faithful child
of God. When you behave more like a goat than a sheep, look to the Good Shepherd
who promises that no one can snatch His lambs out of His hands. When your cross
gets too heavy to carry any longer, look to that old, rugged cross for strength.
When you bite of the forbidden fruit, see the Tree of Life where forgiveness wipes
out sin, where love defeats evil, and where life destroys death. Amen.