Luke 4:1-13
And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” 5 And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6 and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 And Jesus answered him, “It is written,
“‘You shall worship the Lord your God,
and him only shall you serve.’”
9 And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for it is written,
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
to guard you,’
11 and
“‘On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
12 And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 13 And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.
So, we are pivoting a little bit today. Two weeks ago we began a new series on The Minor Prophets, and we will continue that next Sunday, but after the week we have had, honestly the last year we’ve had, and the fact that we find ourselves in the first Sunday of Lent, I wanted to go in a bit of a different direction.
If you are new to observing Lent, you might be wondering what this is all about. Some people struggle with the fact that Lent is not something that we expressly see in the pages of Scripture, which is true, but the practices that are undertaken during Lent, namely fasting and prayer, are not only seen in Scripture, but Jesus’ expectation seems to be that his followers will be doing these things while awaiting his return.
As far as I’m concerned, I need Lent. I need it because it’s shockingly easy for me to walk through my days without being disgusted by or ashamed of my own sin. In fact, its pretty easy for me to walk through my days without even thinking of my own sin. It’s a piece of cake to justify, normalize and validate things that are an affront to God. My selfishness, pride, arrogance, anger, lust. Or, to put that another way, it’s easy for me to walk through my days without appreciating the depths of my need for a Savior. For me to be so laser focused on the things that I want that I have no bandwidth to consider what he wants.
If you were with us last year for our study of Romans, this is basically where the apostle Paul started. You may remember these words from chapter 3:
…For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
In a world that desperately wants to believe in the inherent goodness of every person, this season calls us to take an honest look inside and find that the opposite is, in fact, true. But, this isn’t so that we will wallow in self-loathing or self-pity. It is so that the gospel will actually be good news to us. I would contend that if you find the message of the gospel to be commonplace or mundane or unremarkable, it could be that it’s not because you grew up in church or because you’ve just heard it so much, it could just be because you don’t actually see yourself, or the people around you even, as being in desperate need of rescue. It is only when we become well acquainted with our inability and wickedness that we are primed to fall in love with Jesus’ saving perfection.
And, today’s text reminds us that this Savior is both like us and yet wholly unlike us. He is like us in that he too has stared down the barrel of temptation. But he is unlike us in that he is batting 1000 in resisting its pull. Let’s look at our text:
And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.
The backdrop here which we’ve looked at in recent weeks is Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan, where the Spirit descends on him like a dove and where the voice of the Father declared Jesus to be his beloved son. But, then it is the Spirit of God that also leads Jesus into the wilderness, or, in the Greek, the “eremos.” This word is translated in a variety of ways: wilderness, desert, deserted place, lonely place. And, while we only know of this particular instance where the devil specifically temps Jesus, Luke does tell us that He was often withdrawing into the wilderness. It was a regular occurrence. Luke 5:16 says that the purpose of his withdrawal into the eremos was for prayer. Notice also that fasting is a significant part of the story here.
As we said, Jesus is like us and yet Jesus is wholly unlike us, and that is a difficult tension for us to grasp. We are more comfortable with a Jesus who is either fully God or fully man, not both/and. When we read the story of the temptation, it can be easy for us to assume that Jesus was so supernaturally above the grasp of temptation that it wasn’t tempting. But, recognize that if temptation isn’t tempting then it isn’t temptation. Jesus was not in like a zen state here. It’s why Luke reminds us that he ate nothing. The backdrop is hunger. The backdrop is vulnerability. You see this in your own life no doubt. You are more apt to give into temptation when certain variables or triggers are in play. When your comfort or your security are at stake or when you simply aren’t getting your way. Throw into the mix hunger or irritability or anger or alcohol or drugs, and the inhibitions are lowered. The word “hangry” is used often around our house, because when the blood sugar drops it can be difficult to even be pleasant to those around us. So, if you are honest, there are times when you feel out of control of your behavior, when your mood or stomach almost puts you on autopilot.
Jesus is staring down temptation from a place of vulnerability that would make us crumble. And Satan offers him all the solutions. “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” This is not only an appeal to his aching stomach, but also to his pride. If you really are what you claim, then prove it. I don’t believe you can do it. He then offers: “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” I’ve given you the solution of bread and you’ve rebuffed that…so how bout power, glory and authority. Notice, though, that as the devil seemingly offers supreme authority to Christ, he is really only offering servitude. You don’t really have supreme authority if you must then bow to someone else. Satan then takes him to a high point on the temple in Jerusalem and says:
“If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for it is written,
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
to guard you,’
11 and
“‘On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
Again, there is the inherent questioning of his power and ability in Satan’s tempting. It’s like saying, “I bet you aren’t man enough.” Notice also that Satan pulls out Scripture. He quotes directly from Psalm 91, but, he takes the passage out of context. The point the Psalmist is making is not that God won’t let you die if you try to kill yourself, it is that God is our trustworthy refuge and fortress, that he is our protector. (Refer to coffee mug on slideshow) The enemy wants to use the very word of God to confuse us and lead us into temptation, and a subplot of the story of Christian history is him doing just that. Men using the Scriptures to validate all kinds of wickedness from slavery to subjugation of women, child abuse, racism, xenophobia and on and on. The only one who is using Scripture correctly in this account is Jesus, who is resting on the truth of the Scriptures as a defense against temptation.
Now, you may be wondering, what is the point of all of this? Didn’t the Father just say that he is well-pleased with Jesus at his baptism? Why is there this need for Jesus to go through all of this? Is he having to prove his loyalty or is there something else entirely going on here? The writer of Hebrews sheds some light for us: Hebrews 4:14-16:
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Friends, our Savior does not stand distant and removed from us. No, he has passed through the heavens so that he might become incarnate and dwell among us. But, not only that, he has faced everything that we have faced and more. In verse 2 of Luke 4, Luke uses the present participle and says, “for 40 days ‘being tempted.’” That indicates that Jesus was not only tempted part of the 40 days, but rather that perhaps temptation was constant, and maybe we’re only getting a glimpse of the ways in which he was tempted. But, that also proves his Lordship…that he has been tempted in every way…just like us…and yet without sin…not like us at all. And, so, it is for that reason that we can draw near to his throne of grace and actually find mercy.
This past week…and really this whole past year…the Lord has been showing me that among the things that temp me most, comfort is paramount. Sure I desire money and power and authority and recognition and appreciation, but not as ends in and of themselves, but only so much as they buy me a comfortable life. And, its not simply that I desire comfort, I, for some reason, feel entitled to comfort. And, the thing that I constantly grapple with is the fact that Christ has not called me or you to a comfortable life. He has not called us to seek success or money or position or luxury. Rather, he has called us to a life of obedience and has promised that the way is narrow and hard. Paul says that following Christ is really about losing…for the sake of gaining. Philippians 3:7-8:
7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
To the world, this is pure foolishness, but in the kingdom of God, it is pure wisdom. Friends, Jesus has not promised us a life of comfort and ease, but He has promised us something far greater…reconciliation to the Father through his body and blood. Life eternal. Our hope, while sealed now through the sacrifice of Christ, is yet to be fully realized. This Lent, I pray that you will look inward…that you would intentionally remove things from your life that might be diverting your attention away from Christ. That you would devote yourselves to prayer and the Scriptures so that you might be prepared for the assaults of the enemy.
