Brothers and sisters,
Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and
Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
I believe in spiritual warfare. In Christianity the
battlefield of spiritual warfare can be seen in obvious ways like exorcisms,
healings or laying on of hands, but also in more subtle and mundane ways. I do
believe in the reality of evil forces around us. But many Christians do not
spend a whole lot of time thinking about spiritual warfare. Some even dismiss
it all together as an archaic notion.
However
anyone who doubts whether or not scripture speaks of spiritual warfare need
only look at this morning’s Gospel lesson. The lesson opens by declaring that
Jesus is returning from the Jordan, where He had just been baptized. And so we find Jesus fresh from His baptism,
fresh from hearing the voice of His Father declare a glorious word of Promise that
Jesus is His Son with whom He is well pleased.
And so
Jesus enters the wilderness with this Word in His ears. And the devil sees this
as a Word that must be attacked. This is the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. This
is where Jesus sets out on the road that would eventually lead to the cross.
And so Jesus’ ministry begins with an attack from the devil immediately after
He spent 40 days fasting in the wilderness.
Now the
term here “wilderness” should not be limited in our thinking to a geographical
location. Wilderness can be anywhere where there is a loss of control. A few
weeks ago, the wilderness broke out at an elementary school in Newtown, Ct. Just this week I found out that an old friend
of mine from the navy, whom I had not spoke to in a long time committed suicide
several years ago. I don’t know what was going on in his life that made him do
that, but it was in some way shape or form, the wilderness breaking loose. And
when he took his life he left behind a young son along with the mother of this
son; and thus the wilderness had broke loose in their lives.
Wilderness
takes us outside ourselves, beyond our control. Wilderness is simultaneously
where we are most vulnerable to the attacks of the devil, but it is also where
faith is shaped. And so Jesus enters into the wilderness where he fasts for 40
days. When He comes out, after having not eaten for 40 days, the devil attacks
Him at His weakest point; hunger by saying to Jesus “If you are the Son of God,
command this stone to become bread.”
The
temptation there was not for Jesus to eat. The temptation is in the words “If
you are the Son of God…” The devil is playing on Jesus’ pride as well as His
hunger. He does this to tempt Jesus to rely on Himself and not His Father. The
devil tempts Jesus to feed Himself with something He created rather than
something God provided. And Jesus could have done that. In fact He could have
just responded by declaring to the devil He is the Son of God and then cast the
devil away. He could have pointed to the miracles and the countless times that
He cast demons away. He could have done a miracle right then and there.
But He
does not do that; Instead He responds by relying on God’s written Word. Jesus’ response begins with “It
is written…” He does not go to the heard word. Doing so would have opened to
door for the devil to say “Did God really say??” as he did with Eve. And the
Word He fires back with is “Man shall not live by bread alone.” We live by
faith in God, who speaks to us through His written word and provides for our
daily bread. Our faith is not in the bread itself, but the One who provides the
bread.
Then
Jesus is taken to the top of a mountain and the devil shows Jesus all the
kingdoms of the world in a moment of time and tells Jesus that all the
authority and glory of those kingdoms have been given to him and that he will
give them to Jesus if He will just worship the devil. The temptation here is to
believe the devil’s lie-that it all does belong to him. But the devil’s real
goal is to get you to believe that it does not come from God; that you don’t
need God. It’s the temptation to put
your trust in material things rather than the Word of God. It’s the temptation
of wealth, power and prestige. It’s the temptation to believe that if you can
amass great wealth and power there will be no pain and suffering, no cross and
no death. (Tell Florida story)
Of course,
it’s a lie. The devil knows it’s a lie. He knows it’s a deadly lie. He knows
it’s a faith in a lie that will inevitably prove to be futile. And so Jesus
once again responds with the written Word. He responds to the lie of the devil
with the truth of God’s Word, specifically the 1st commandment “You
shall worship the Lord your God.” This of course is the commandment upon which
everything hinges.
And so the
devil fires back with a third temptation; daring Jesus with the words “If you
are the Son of God then throw yourself down from here,” but now the devil gets
creative. He tries to use the written word for his own purposes and says “It is
written, He will command His angels to guard you and on their hands they will
bear you up.” This is where Satan turns
faith itself into a temptation. He is tempting Jesus to put His faith in His
faith. The devil is basically saying to
Jesus here, “If you believe strong enough, then God will save you when you
jump.”
And so the
devil tempts you with the lie that because you are a believer there will be no
suffering, no cross, no shame. Faith itself becomes the object of faith, not
Christ. The devil convinces you that because you made some grand gesture of
giving your life to Jesus, or accepting Jesus, then you will not be troubled
with doubt or despair. But then the wilderness comes and doubt and despair do
inevitably creep in, and you question perhaps your sincerity, or maybe whether
you even believed in the first place. And maybe you give it another shot. Or
you bargain with God; telling Him if He could save your job, or save you from
the cancer diagnosis you are fearing, or save your marriage, or fix any of the
other myriad of problems the world throws your way, then you will really give
your heart to Him, and this time you’ll mean it. This time you’ll give it your
all. But of course that only lasts until the wilderness inevitably comes again.
Trying to
manipulate the Almighty God of the universe to meet your criteria, to fit
within your time-frame is putting God to the test. And when the devil attacked
Jesus with this very temptation, Jesus responds with “It is said ‘You shall not
put the Lord your God to the test’.” The
devil then departs after these temptations, until an opportune time. He will be
back.
But
truthfully evidence of the devil’s continual attacks and spiritual warfare could
be seen all through Jesus’ ministry; in the scribes and Pharisees who
persecuted Him, in the crowds who rejected Him, in the multiple appearances of
those possessed by demons and even the disciples when they so greatly
misunderstood Jesus. This is true of the
entire history of God’s people. Look at the Old Testament lesson which points
us to Israel’s history from Jacob to the exodus. In that time-frame alone we
see jealousy, idolatry, selfishness and betrayal to name a few offenses.
The
history of God’s people is one filled with suffering and deliverance; cross and
resurrection. All throughout the history of God’s people you can see God’s
people continually being tempted by the devil and falling for his lies. The
history of God’s people is one of spiritual warfare. Where God’s people are the
devil continually tries to bring the wilderness.
But praise
be to God, the One who resisted these temptations is the One who assures His grip
on us in the midst of our wilderness. And He does this through the same means
that He used to oppose the devil; the written Word. Faith comes by hearing the
Word of Christ who took our sins upon Himself and who gives us His
righteousness which we then receive in faith.
Where there
is wilderness there is Christ Jesus; there is the Word that creates faith in
you; the promise that your sins are forgiven because Christ Jesus gave His life
for you; the promise that nothing will snatch you out of His hands; the promise
that everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame; the promise that
nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Martin Luther
once said “Where God builds a church the devil builds a chapel.” In other words
the devil is all around, tempting us with his lies. But you have been bought
for a price. Your sins are forgiven. Christ shed His blood and gave His life
for your sins and rose for your salvation. It is finished. In the face of that
promise, the devil is powerless. Martin Luther has some very wise words for us
in the face of the continual attacks from the devil.
“So when the devil throws
your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him
this: "I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it? For I know One
who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of
God, and where He is there I shall be also!”
Amen
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