Gloria Dei Lutheran Church | Urbandale, Iowa

Key Moments in Jesus' Life: Temptation

Pastor Meyer’s Sermon

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Drip, drip, drip goes the Jordan River water as it trickles off of Jesus’ wet head. The hot desert sand clings. It sticks to the wet, damp, walking feet of Jesus. Behind Him is the famous river still flowing and, in front of Him, the tempter lays in wait. And still drenched with the baptismal waters, Jesus marched. He was led by the Spirit into the desert of temptation.

And just like in His baptism, Jesus, God’s Son, was to follow the footsteps of another son, Exodus 4:22, for this is what the Lord says, “Israel is my firstborn son.” And this son, Israel, had also stepped into the desert to be tested, to be tempted, to go toe to toe with that bully from Hades. You might think of it as the Rumble in the Desert. But if you had Pay Per View, you would be disappointed because Israel was knocked out at the beginning of the first round. And so now, stepping into the ring this time, following the footsteps of Israel and, at this key moment in His life, is God’s true Son. It’s Rumble in the Desert II as heaven and hell are about to exchange blows and, in the spiritual realm, you could hear a pin drop as Round 1 begins.

The devil had heard the heavenly Father shouting out His proclamation of approval and acceptance of Jesus at His baptism, “You are my Son whom I love. With you, I am well pleased.” The tempter, he watches Jesus as He fasts. He sees that He gets hungrier and hungrier and so he begins his plan of attack, “If you are the Son of God, turn these stones into bread.” In other words, “If it’s really true what the voice from the clouds says about you, then why are you hungry? Why is He not taking care of you?” You see, it’s the temptation to satisfy oneself. And so Satan swings the first punch and he’s aiming right at the belly of Jesus. And, my friends, this tempter is not interested in whether rocks can be turned into food. Satan was trying to lure Jesus to turn from the reliable words of His Father to that which is unreliable, human feelings.

And from the stands, watching the fight, we hold our breath. Because, you see, that same tempter has dropped such doubting thoughts into our hearts, too, hasn’t he? He’s tempted us to satisfy ourselves. At baptism, God said, “You are my son. You are my daughter whom I love. With you, I am well pleased.” But does it always seem so? When the bills pile up, we can’t help but wonder, “What’s the use of the Father’s rich grace if we haven’t money to pay what we owe?” Has the tempter whispered in your ear that you are on your own? Because that prayer that you’ve been praying for, it still hasn’t been answered. Or maybe he’s nudged at our hearts to get you to think, “Hey, we don’t have to tithe. We don’t have to give to the church in time and in money and effort.” Could he get you to think, “God has everything He needs. And actually we can just use what God has given us to satisfy ourselves instead.”

But no more has that punch began before it was blocked, not by human strength, not by willpower, not by argumentation but no, by the Word of God. Jesus answered and said, “It is written, man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” And that Word that has preceded from the mouth of God are these words, “Whom I love.” Jesus blocked with the rock God’s Word. And, in turn, scored a hit, hitting Satan right in his open, tempting mouth because Jesus knows that when God said that He loves Him, when God said that He loves us, He is promising us He will take care of us, He will provide for us, He will watch over us and this God keeps His promises for He is a God who keeps them. There’s no doubt about that. And so the bell for Round 2 rings.

Now having failed to achieve a knockout in the first round, like he had done with Israel, like he had done way back with Adam and Eve, the tempter circles his opponent while planning his next attack. He saw what Jesus had employed quoting scripture, relying on God’s Word and so he would go for the sucker punch. It worked on Israel. It certainly worked on Adam and Eve. He would twist God’s words around and try to get Jesus caught up in the ropes. “Throw yourself down from the top of the temple,” he said. “For the scriptures say that He will not let you strike your foot against a stone.” Groans can be heard coming up from the audience as we know the tempter loves to twist God’s words around to us to make us second guess, to make us question, “Did God really say that?” If we don’t know the bible, how can we even refute it when the tempter takes the twist to it?

You know, time constantly gets away from us and we know we don’t spend enough time in God’s Word reading it and meditating on it. But Jesus did. And Jesus knew scripture. Jesus also knew about faith, that faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Jesus had no intention of striking His foot against the stone. He would use His foot to block by standing firm on God’s Word and, with a glancing blow, He said, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” And the bell for Round 3 rings.

Satan walks around the ring and he steps forward with yet another swing. “Look, the entire world is mine and I will give it to you. You can have all power and authority in this world if only you will bow down and worship me.” It’s one of his best punches and, upon hearing this, we are staggered by the power that would be given to Him. Will this be the knockout punch for Jesus? Because certainly, it’s been a knockout punch for us in our lives as we struggle to live with this elusion that we can have some kind of earthy power and some kind of control over our lives. And in this elusion, we have not been content with what God has given us. And so we strive to achieve more, sometimes turning our backs on our families, sometimes wasting time and energy, for this elusion comes from the heavyweight king of lies. He claims that this world is his. It never has been and Jesus is not fooled. This tempter has no ownership or dominion over anything. Even he is condemned to hell and he is not king of it. No, he is inmate No. 1. And Jesus had a devastating comeback jab for him. It is written, “Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.”

And that, my friends, is the reason, is the point for this head-to-head match up, for this Rumble in the Desert II because God’s Son did not come to be served but to serve us. It’s not Jesus showing us some example for us to follow. It’s not intended to show us that all we need to do is just quote the scriptures in the face of Satan and we will win the fight because, you see, on our own, we will fail. On our own, we will be confused. On our own, we will stagger. On our own, we will get knocked out. But this clash between Jesus and the devil, this was the beginning of Jesus’ victory over Satan, a victory that He will win for you and for me because, you see, as we hear this story, we’re tempted to think that we can view this standoff as spectators, that we are standing aside or in the audience and that we’re cheering, we’re crying out for our big brother who’s about to blacken the eye of the bully from Hades. But, my friends, we’re not fans in the stands. No, we are in Jesus. You see, in Jesus, all of humanity goes toe to toe with the heavyweight champion of hell. When this one man, Jesus, entered the ring with the tempter, it’s not Israel. It’s not just Adam and Eve but it’s all humanity. Each and every one of us steps in along with Him. Just as Adam and Eve, in them, all humanity fell through temptation and to sin and death so, in Jesus, all humanity fights against this devil. We are not in the audience. We are in the desert. We are in Jesus.

And this was not the end of the match. For three years later, the bell for Round 4 begins. “If you are the Christ, then save yourself,” the voices shouted. “He saved others but He cannot save Himself,” the voices cried out. “Come down from the cross and we will believe,” those voices kept on lying. “The pain is too much to bear,” the devil tried to scare Him. “These people are not really worth the sacrifice,” he tried to convince Him. But that same Jesus who had been victorious in three rounds at Rumble in the Desert II would not waver as He hung upon the cross in our place. He overcame those temptations, not just as an example but as a complete fulfillment of all that He had come to do, to live the perfect life, to die as the sacrifice, to pay for the price for all those times that we have stumbled, that we have staggered, that we have been knocked out because of temptation, all so we can say, along with the writer of the Hebrews, “To hold firmly to the faith that we profess, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet, was without sin.”

Our great high priest, our heavyweight champion over death overcame temptation for us, that we might know what it means to have hope, so that we might know what it means to have healing for our souls. He has won the victory from start to finish, at every round of the match and that victory now is ours through faith, so we can stand in the center of the ring with our arms raised victorious. Amen.