Matthew 4:1-11
Although thankfully, it’s happening with less frequency these days, even now the television and newspapers bring reports that some US soldier or Marine in Iraq has been wounded or killed by an IED, an improvised explosive device. A concealed device goes off just as US personnel approach it. The enemy, in the tradition of guerilla warfare, is unseen and blends in with his surroundings, only occasionally being exposed. Guerilla warfare is an example of what the tacticians call asymmetrical war because it’s typically used by those whose army or firepower can’t match a heavily-armed conventional foe.
All believers in Jesus Christ are engaged in a war far deadlier and far more destructive than the terrible conflict going on in Iraq these days. Unlike human guerilla warriors, the enemy we fight is never seen. The explosions he sets off in our lives may seem harmless or, to the unwary, non-existent; but unlike the guerilla warriror’s bombs that can only take away our earthly lives, this enemy’s weapons can, if we aren’t careful, lead to eternal separation from God. And though our common enemy is more powerful than any of us, separately or together, he nonetheless engages in asymmetrical warfare, luring us, under the cloak of anonymity, just as he lured Adam and Eve to rebel against God in the garden. Our enemy, the devil, is a vicious, heartless, miserable creature who thinks he can bring God down by destroying us, the children for whom Jesus Christ died and rose.
I know that saying this may cause some to tune me out. People may think that the very idea of the devil is an outmoded one, akin to believing that the earth is flat or that Pluto is a planet. Years ago, the Oxford University professor, expert on world cultures, and novelist, C.S. Lewis, gave a series of radio talks that became my favorite book other than the Bible, Mere Christianity. In one of his talks, Lewis told his listeners:
...someone will ask me, "Do you really mean, at this time of day [in other words, at this supposedly advanced stage of human development], to reintroduce our old friend the devil-hoofs and horns and all?" Well, what the time of day has to do with it, I do not know. And I am not particular about the hoofs and horns. But in other respects my answer is, Yes, I do..."And so do I. I’m convinced that there is a devil and I’m not alone in that belief. According to the Bible, the devil was, originally an angel. That word, angel, angelos in the Greek of the New Testament, means messenger. Angels are messengers, wordsmiths, great communicators meant to be God’s letter-carriers. The devil, resentful of the station God gave to His highest creatures, rebelled against God.
Ever since then, the devil—along with our fallen world and the sin inside of us--has engaged in a propaganda campaign designed to sow discouragement, division, selfishness, and death among us, hoping perhaps, that by bringing us down, he can bring God down. It’s the devil’s aim to lure us to hopelessness, to indifference to God and neighbor, and to self-absorption. It’s in that very state of isolation that he wants to keep us forever, never to experience the love of Christ or the touch of others.
Hell isn’t a party where people do naughty things for eternity. It’s a place where those who have allowed themselves to be lured away from God live in a perpetual state of absolute aloneness and constant regret. We would be fools to think that we can face such evil on our own. As Martin Luther writes in A Mighty Fortress is Our God:
No strength of ours can match his might! [That is, the devil’s might.] We would be lost, rejected.So, what can we do in the face of this evil? Jesus shows us what to do in today’s Gospel lesson. Three times, the devil tempts Jesus to diverge from the Father’s will for His life.
First, knowing that Jesus is hungry, the devil tries to convince Jesus to whip up instant bread from the stones available in the wilderness. Food is a good thing. And God the Father certainly doesn’t want Jesus to starve. But Jesus didn’t come into our world to make Himself comfortable. He came to share our discomforts and our whole lives. He came to die for us and to rise for us so that all who repudiate their sin and follow Him will live forever.
Next, the devil set Jesus up on the pinnacle of the temple and said, “If you are God’s Son, God will surely take care of you. So, take a dive, so that God can make good on His promises to you—and to all believers—to catch us. But Jesus didn’t come into the world to do pointless parlor tricks.
Finally, the devil tempted Jesus by offering Jesus exactly what He wanted—the world and all its kingdoms. The price: Jesus would have to worship the devil.
In each instance, the devil’s temptations were perfectly reasonable things, good things that Jesus wanted. The devil was offering them to Jesus without struggle, with no need to be obedient to God, and of course, on the condition that Jesus—and all of us--would forever be his slave. His come-ons were a little like what those check-cashing services offer people these days, instant gratification with a long-term price to be paid.
Jesus met each temptation not only by reciting the Word of God, but also by knowing the character, the grace, and the will of the Father Who sent Him to us. So, how do we meet our temptations?
Martin Luther said, “When [the devil] comes knocking upon the door of my heart and asks, ‘Who lives here?’ the dear Lord Jesus goes to the door and says, ‘Martin Luther used to live here but he has moved out. Now I live here.’ The devil, seeing the nail prints in His hands, and the pierced side, takes flight immediately.” The Bible says that Christ lives in those who let Him in. It’s only when we let Christ in that the devil can be turned away.
The devil, you know, wants to discourage you, sow discord in your marriage, cause you to hold grudges, foster disunity and dissension in Christ’s Church, consider violence as an answer to life’s problems, and make us all think that we are left to live life in our own power, with no one to care for us.
But those are all lies! Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, died and rose for us and He’s living now, just waiting for you to invite Him to help you, help your family and friends, help our Church, and help our world. Jesus promises His followers, “I am with you always!” The only way you and I can face down evil are to rely completely on the God Whose love and grace for us are chronicled in the Word Jesus used against the devil in the wilderness!
In 1861, a Shenandoah Valley farmer named Wilmer McLean saw one of the bloodiest engagements of the Civil War, the Battle of Bull Run, fought on his property. McLean cared little about the reasons for the war. He just wanted to get away from it. So, he sold his property and moved to a place he was sure the war could never find him. Four years later, General Ulysses S. Grant chased Confederate General Robert E. Lee throughout Virginia. In Appomattox County, Grant sent a message to Lee, asking the rebel general to meet and sign a truce. The place where they met to end the Civil War was an old house in Appomattox Court House, Virginia. The owner was Wilmer McLean. No matter how much McLean tried, the war that he wanted to avoid found him.
You may not think that you are a party to the war that the devil is waging for your soul, or against his greatest enemy on earth, the Church of Jesus Christ. You may think that sort of thing may have happened back in the day, but not today. Christians often think that. But that’s dangerous thinking!
One day, seminary professor Howard Hendricks was approached by a smiling student who announced, “Dr. Hendricks, it’s been at least three years since I can remember the devil tempting me to sin.” Hendricks replied, “That’s about the worst thing I can imagine hearing from a Christian.” It either meant, you see, that that student was so far from God that the devil wasn’t bothering with him or that he was so insensitive to the reality of evil that he had been sidelined as a Christian.
Followers of Jesus Christ have an enemy sworn to kill us. But we have a Savior, a God Who is greater than all our sin and death. When evil assails us, no matter what its form, we need to put on the power of God so that we can withstand all that the devil throws our way and like Jesus, at the end of our Gospel lesson, let God care for us.
And this is how we do it: We let Jesus Christ into our lives. And then...
- We pray for each other.
- We worship together.
- We take the Sacrament together.
- We read God’s Word.
- We pray for help.
1 comment:
I appreciated this post.
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