February 26, 2023 Sermon
Sermon title: "Jesus Is Tempted"
Scripture: Matthew 4:1-11.
(Other lectionary suggestions include Genesis 2:15-17 and Genesis 3:1-7, Psalm 32, and Romans 5:12-19.)
Matthew 4:1-11
The Temptation of Jesus
1Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. 3The tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." 4But he answered, "It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.' " 5Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,' and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.' " 7Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.' " 8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; 9and he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." 10Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.' " 11Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
Since we are in Lent, the 40-day period between Ash Wednesday and Easter, NOT counting Sundays (!), it seems right to talk about the temptation of Jesus. I hope you noticed what Matthew had to say at the beginning: "Then Jesus was led into the wilderness by the SPIRIT (Not led by the devil, but led by the SPIRIT) to be tempted by the devil". One thing the Church has always insisted upon is that Jesus was fully man as well as fully God - and if he truly was fully man, he had to be tempted the same way YOU AND I are tempted! Think about it: what kind of Savior would we have had had Jesus not been tempted the same way we are? He told the woman caught in adultery in John's Gospel, "Go and sin no more." If Jesus had never been tempted, wouldn't those have been empty words? We could have said, "Well, it's easy for YOU to say that because you've never been tempted!" WRONG, says Matthew. WRONG, said the early church. Jesus WAS tempted, and it happened right after he was baptized by John the Baptist, right after the voice from Heaven was heard saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." It's almost as if God is saying, "You ARE my beloved Son, and with you I am well pleased. But that does NOT mean that you're not going to be tempted, just like everybody else."
So how was Jesus tempted? For the longest time I pretty much believed literally what the Scripture says: Jesus was out there for forty days and nights and he HAD to be hungry. So, he was tempted to turn those rocks into bread and have a sandwich right there! Maybe that's right, but as I've gotten somewhat older I appreciate the "genius" of Matthew again, who was saying something MORE than go fix yourself a sandwich! Perhaps the idea of turning stones into bread was Matthew's way of saying what just about everybody on earth does: we WORK for a living, we work to put bread on the table, we work in order to keep the wolf away from the door (that's another way of putting it), we work to turn stones into bread! Get it? Jesus was tempted to be just like everybody else: get a job, settle down, make some money, raise a family, and enjoy life. THAT's what turn stones into bread means, perhaps. "C'mon, Jesus. You're not so special. Just get a regular job like the rest of us. We'll work during the week and then kick back and relax on the weekends. Maybe have a beer or two. Or, Jesus, with your special skill, maybe have a glass of WINE - that used to be water! - or two or four hundred!" Do you think that's possible? I DO. Jesus was tempted to be another Joe Sixpack, but he resisted, saying, "Man does not live by bread alone", and that's right, isn't it? You have to eat, and I have to eat, but food isn't all we need. We need something else, too: We live by every word that comes from the mouth of God. We are physical creatures, of course, so we have to eat. But we're more than that, too, said Jesus. We are spiritual beings, too, and we need more than food and drink to thrive. That was the first temptation, and Jesus fought it by using Scripture. You, me, Jesus: we all need more than simply to turn stones into bread.
The second temptation is something I used to think of as a kid: why didn't Jesus do lots of fabulous things to show people he was the Son of God? For example, when he was on the cross, why not just come down off it and show all his critics exactly who he was? Wouldn't THAT have made people believe in him? Jesus had a great answer to that one: "Do not put the Lord your God to the test." But the fact that that temptation is in Matthew's Gospel shows that Jesus maybe actually thought about it! And how could he NOT? He had just heard at his baptism that he was the Beloved, and that his Father was well pleased with him. So why not SHOW just how BELOVED he was and do a few magic tricks to make people believe? No, that was NOT what God had in mind. If Jesus was fully human, he had to be subject to the limitations of every other human being. And human beings can't "cheat gravity" if they jump off a tall building, even the Great Temple in Jerusalem. The devil tried to get him to do it, but he resisted.
Now how about the third and last temptation? When the devil showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor, Matthew is saying that Jesus was tempted to get into politics. Matthew is saying that Jesus was tempted to go into a life in which he could do SOME good, and also enjoy that worldly position of power. Have you ever heard the phrase, "That guy made a deal with the devil?" I believe that idea comes right out of this Scripture verse! Our literature is filled with this concept, and there are some operas that have put that idea - making a deal with the devil - into music! Charles Gounod's "Faust" opera has that idea, I believe, and so too does Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Rigoletto". I won't go into the plot of "Rigoletto", but it ends sadly because of the deal Rigoletto makes with a bad guy, an assassin! Now let me emphasize one thing: we NEED good politicians, and Matthew is not saying that all politicians are corrupt. But I believe he IS saying that the thought of going into some kind of public service entered Jesus's mind! Just the same as you and I, Jesus was tempted to have BOTH: a good, satisfying life with a LITTLE compromise here and there! He was TEMPTED, but he RESISTED that temptation. Jesus told the devil, "Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him."
Something else Matthew may be trying to say here, and that is that just as the devil tempted Jesus with things to distract him from his calling, so too are you and I constantly distracted by things to make us forget what WE have been called to do. Says the Bishop of Durham in England, N. T. Wright, who writes in his commentary "Matthew for Everyone", the temptations that we experience "are trying to distract us, to turn us aside, from the path of servanthood to which our baptism has commissioned us. God has a costly but wonderfully glorious vocation for each one of us. The enemy will do everything possible to distract us and thwart God's purpose. If we have heard God's voice welcoming us as his children, we will also hear the whispered suggestions of the enemy. But, as God's children, we are entitled to use the same defence (British spelling!) as the son of God himself. Store scripture in your heart, and know how to use it. Keep your eyes on God, and trust him for everything. Remember your calling, to bring God's light into the world. And to say a firm 'No' to the voices that lure you back into the darkness." Amen.
Pastor Skip
