Lent 1
Genesis 3:1-21; Matthew 4:1-11
✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠
In today’s readings we hear of the two watershed battles of human history. In both cases, the battle is about faith. The battle is about whom you will believe. For you will believe either the words of God or you will believe the words of the Deceiver. There is no third option. To say you don’t know or that you’re not sure is already to side with the Deceiver. God speaks His words. Are they to be trusted or not? That is the only question that ultimately matters.
Eve had heard God’s words. She knew that He had marked the tree of the knowledge of good and evil off-limits. That was God’s territory, and they were not God. They were His beloved creation who were to know only good and receive the good things their Creator had given. God had spoken words about that tree: “In the day you eat of it, you shall surely die.”
The Deceiver, who is the father of lies, starts by implanting the seeds of doubt about God’s words. “Did God really say?” “Why would He give you such a command? I mean, that makes no sense; come on.” And then the old Liar moves to bold contradiction: “You will not surely die.” There is the subtle suggestion that God doesn’t really love you and is trying to hold you back. And then the devil promises something more: “In the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
So who will be believed? When you hear words temptingly contradicting the words of God, who have you listened to? It is always a battle of dueling words, vying for the trust of your heart. Eve, and Adam with her, made their choice. They ventured out on the words of the Deceiver, and so they ate. And then in horror they discovered what happens when you turn your back on God, when you ignore what He has said, when you listen to the Deceiver and do things you think are your own way, only to discover that they are actually the Deceiver’s way.
God had said: “In the day you eat of it, you will surely die.” He did not lie. Having turned from faith in God, who is Life, and from His Words, which give life, they plunged themselves and all their descendants with them, into death. Death is more than simply the gradual and inevitable corruption and decay of our bodies. Death is first and foremost unbelief, the rejection of God’s Words and therefore the rejection of God’s life which is given through His words, not being in communion with Him who alone is Life.
The evidence of their death is that they can no longer love and trust in God above all things. They try to hide from Him. Nor do they love each other any longer. Their fingers are pointed in blame, always away from themselves, always someone else’s fault. “The woman whom you gave me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” Notice Adam doesn’t just blame Eve but even God Himself. Eve says, “The serpent deceived me.” In other words, “The devil made me do it.”
We are exactly like our first parents–hiding from confrontations with God, blaming others for all our problems, wanting to do things our own way, regardless of what God says, desiring something more, something different, something supposedly better than God’s words. The words of judgment that came down on our first parents also come down on us, “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.” You’ve cut yourself off from God. Repent.
For there is yet great hope for you. For with the words of judgment come words of promise, a word about a woman’s seed, a word about a bruised heel, a word about the crushed head of the serpent. Those words of God are a beacon of hope to hold onto. Even in the face of this rebellion, God will not forsake those whom He has made, but will send a Savior.
Which brings us to today’s Gospel, where nothing seems to have changed, but everything is changing. The setting is different–no longer a paradise, but a wilderness–but the temptation is the same. There is the Seed of the Woman, the Virgin-Born, the long-promised Jesus. There is the Deceiver, and he is up to his old bag of tricks. As he broke Adam and Eve’s trust in God, so now he seeks to break this Man’s trust in God. He does it again with words. God had just declared Jesus to be His beloved Son in His baptism at the Jordan. Satan now invites him to doubt that word. “Some fine beloved Son you are! He sends you here in the wilderness to starve? You’d best wake up and smell the coffee, Jesus. There is no one going to look after you in this world if you do not look after yourself. Make these stones bread!” But Jesus rebuffs the attack. “It is written, man shall not live by bread alone.” And the rest of the verse? “but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Jesus was saying: “I trust my Father; to His Word I will cling; He will not abandon me to the grave, and I will not doubt Him.” Jesus is the second Adam, not eating but fasting in order to save you. Remember Jesus when you are tempted by the desires of the flesh that war against God’s Word. Remember how He conquered all such temptation for you.
Satan then tries another tactic. “So, you trust your Father? How splendid. I’m all for trusting your Father. Here, let’s show everyone how much you trust your Father. Jump! They’ll all believe in you when they see how your Father’s angels rush to hold you up in their hands so that you will not even dash your foot against a stone.” The Deceiver dares even to take up the promises of God into his mouth in order to twist them and pervert them and use them to shake Jesus’ trust. But Jesus will not give in to this temptation either. He does not need to show off His trust in the Father, to demonstrate it as though it were something He was uncertain of. He simply takes the Word of God at its face value: You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. Remember Jesus when you are tempted to prove that God’s Word is really true with special signs or outward displays of power or success. To test God is to disbelieve Him. That is the religion of the devil. Remember Jesus’ trust which has conquered all such temptation for you.
Satan is desperate now. Here is one on whom every attack he has attempted has failed, and the failure is bitter for him. So he shows Jesus all the glory of this world’s kingdoms in an instant of time: “Yours!” he cries. “All yours! I’ll give them to you. Skip the cross and the suffering the Father has laid on you. Go straight to the glory. You deserve it. Just do this one little thing. Kneel down here in front of me and worship!” To which the response comes: “Away with you, Satan! It is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.” Remember Jesus when you are tempted to take the easy way out, the broad road that leads to destruction rather than the narrow way of the cross. Remember Him who knows your afflictions and by His suffering has conquered all such temptation for you.
In this way Satan is defeated by the Man who would not let go of God’s words, who clung to His promises, and whose trust in His Father was unshakable in the wilderness. It would prove to be unshakable also in the Garden of Gethsemane where the tempter tried again, but in His anguish Jesus prayed to His Father, “Not My will but Your will be done.” Jesus’ trust proved to be unshakable even and especially on the cross where in His bloody affliction, He would pray, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” He would be bruised and bleed and die precisely to fulfill the words and promises of His Father, to crush the serpent’s head. For by His crucifixion, Jesus took away the sin and the death that gave the devil power over you. Now you are set free.
Today the battle is the same as ever. Satan would still seek to lead you away, promising you all sorts of happiness and good times, while only desiring to drag you down to hell with him. But as you are faced with clinging to the words and promises of God or giving heed to the lies of the Deceiver, you know that you do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with your weakness; rather you have a High Priest who was tempted in every respect the same as you, and yet was without sin. In fact He was tempted in ways greater than you will ever face. Only Jesus, who doesn’t give in to temptation at all, comes to knows its full and cumulative weight pressing down. Jesus felt that pressing down all the way to death, and still did not falter–all for you. Draw near with confidence, then, to His throne of grace and find help in your time of need. His throne of grace is right here: the altar. The Savior comes to you today in His words and in His Supper as the sure sign that the promises of God will not fail you even as they did not fail His Son; do not despair but trust in Him by the power of the Holy Spirit, and your trust will not be in vain. Our Lord’s words do not lie or deceive. He who is risen from the dead will also raise your mortal, sin-plagued bodies to a new life of holiness and immortality and glory.
In your time of temptation, flee to Jesus. Take refuge in Him who is your mighty fortress, whom Satan could not conquer. In Christ, and only in Him there is full and free forgiveness for all the times you have fallen and have yielded to the Tempter. In Jesus and only in Him there is strength for the ongoing battle. And, yes, in Him and only in Him there is full, final and lasting victory. As it is written, “You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra; the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.”
✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠
(with thanks to the Rev. William Weedon)