Jesus Triumphs For You

Matthew 4:1-11

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

St. Matthew 4:1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord…  The 40 days of Lent which began last Wednesday are, as I mentioned in Wednesday’s sermon, a renewing of our life of repentance.  But these days are also about this one thing: that Jesus has come and taken your place.  He has done what you cannot and would not do.  He has taken upon Himself all of your sins and all that you have done.

Today we hear about His forty days in the wilderness being tempted by Satan himself.  There, in the wilderness, Jesus did perfectly what God’s people messed up completely.  Remember from the Old Testament how it went with the Children of Israel?  The first thing they did when they got into the desert after being miraculously delivered from their years of bondage in Egypt was to complain about how hungry they were.  Even after 40 days of no food, Jesus refused to turn stones into bread but instead lived by the Word of God alone.

Throughout their journeys in the wilderness, the Children of Israel repeatedly tested Yahweh God by their complaining and doing things He told them not to do.  When Jesus was tempted to test God by throwing Himself off the pinnacle of the Temple, He refused and trusted God’s Word alone.

When the Children of Israel found themselves surrounded by other nations and kingdoms with seemingly no way out, they began worshiping false gods and turned away from Yahweh.  When Jesus was invited to worship the Devil and in so doing receive all the kingdoms of the world, He refused again and trusted only God’s Word. 

At every point at which the Children of Israel failed and sinned and denied God, Jesus succeeded.  In every similar temptation to which the Children of Israel gave in, Jesus did not.  And His overcoming of the Devil and his temptations is done so that it all counts for you.  The mercy of God in Jesus Christ is this: Jesus, the Son of God in the flesh, did what you could not.  And because He did, then through God-given faith and trust in Him alone and His work not only there in the wilderness but also in his suffering, death, and resurrection, that is your salvation.

            Just as Jesus did a “do over” of the life of God’s Old Testament people, so His being tempted in the wilderness counts for you.  How many times has the Devil used the things of this world, in how many ways has he uses your own needs and worries to draw you away from living by God’s Word alone?  When you struggle to pay your bills or worry about how you’re going to have enough for what you need, God’s promises to take care of you tend to leave your mind pretty quickly, don’t they?  When you’re trying to make ends meet, learning your Catechism and studying the Bible doesn’t seem like much of a solution, does it?

The Devil wants to trick you into thinking that unless you first have enough “bread” you will never be able to have faith.  But the Lord teaches you to trust in Him first of all, and He promises to care of you in every need.  But those promises tend to fade from our hearts and minds in the face of temptations.  

Jesus fasted 40 days and was starving.  Can you even imagine what that would be like?  I’m pretty sure any one of us would be extremely emaciated if not dead after 40 days of no food.  How could we possibly refuse ANY kind of an offer for food after all that?  All Jesus had to do was speak His word and stones would be turned into bread; at least the devil was right about that.  But our Lord refused.  He triumphed over the Devil by living only by the bread of God’s holy Word.

In that moment, when our Lord’s trust in His Father remained unbroken, all of our doubt and unbelief and giving into worry is overcome and defeated.  Those sins are piled up on Jesus who took them to the cross.

Well, if the Devil can’t destroy you with worry and hunger, he will try another trick in his bag, that of twisting God’s Word.  In the same way that the devil twisted and lied about God’s Word to deceive Adam and Eve in the garden, he does the same thing with you.  He whispers in your ear, “Does God really say that ALL your sins are paid for without you doing anything?  Did Jesus really die for you without you doing at least a little something to prove that you are worthy?  Can you really call yourself a Christian when you do the things you do and think the things you think?”

If you don’t already know this, the Devil is a master of twisting God’s Word so as to make it sound like something good even though it’s all wrong.  It sounds like Holy Scripture, but is it really?   Did God really say that?  And how easily do we give into that very temptation to believe something wrongly about God’s Word?

The devil wants you to believe that all preachers preach the same thing.  As long as you have some “religion” or “spirituality” then that’s OK.  But, brothers and sisters in Christ, those false teachings will kill you and the Devil knows it.  That’s why he wants to tempt you with such false preaching.  

When the Devil went up against Christ Himself trying to twist God’s Word and tell Him to take a flying leap, what did Jesus do?  He countered with the true understanding of God’s Word and He refused to test His Father.  Again, in the heat of any temptations which would entangle you, your Lord stood firm and overcame the Devil and His lies.  In that moment, your temptations and flirtations with doubting God’s Word were overcome and defeated.  And all of those sins were laid upon Jesus and carried to the cross.

The Devil also wants you to take the easy way out.  Just as He tried to persuade Jesus to avoid the cross – “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me” – so he wants you to give up and take the easy way out.  Marriage in trouble?   Just get a divorce and be happy.  Don’t like your parents?  Just never speak to them again.  Don’t like your pastor or the people at church? Just leave and never come back. Can’t stand the suffering?  Just give in and end your life.  And on and on the devil goes with his hellish lies.

Rather than bear the crosses our Lord lays upon us and trusting alone in Him for strength and mercy and peace, the Devil wants to rob you of your faith and trust in your heavenly Father to care for you.  Rather than suffer, the Devil wants you to believe that you must be happy and comfortable all the time.  And who among us has not given in to such temptations?  Who among us has not at one time or another traded our responsibilities for our own pleasures and comforts?

But when Jesus was confronted with the easy way out, He refused.  He didn’t cave into any of the devil’s lies, tricks, or temptations.  He knew that the only way to redeem this world was to go the way of the cross and pay the price for all our sins.  He could have taken the world the Devil’s way, but that would only mean we would be lost forever.

Instead, Jesus took our sins and all the punishment they deserved head on and died for them.  In that moment, when Jesus denied the Devil’s invitation, He overcome our doubt and failing in the face of temptation.  In that moment, all of our failings and sins were laid upon Him to be taken to the cross and there He took the world back the only right way: by taking the place of sinners and paying for them all with His holy precious blood and His innocent suffering and death.  As the writer to the Hebrews says, “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”  And because He was, you can come to Him confidently and trust Him to help you in any and all temptation.

Notice something carefully.  At every single point that the devil tempted Christ, the Devil questioned Him by saying, “If you are the Son of God…”  Listen carefully: when you were Baptized and had God’s name put upon you and were born again from above as a child of God, that is how the Devil will challenge you too.  That is the basis of his temptation: IF you are a child of God, if you are a son of God, then you won’t ever be troubled or suffer or bear a cross.

Dear Christians, you have been baptized into Jesus Christ.  By that washing of water and the Word, your sins have been given to Jesus and He has taken them away by the shedding of His blood.   He overcame the power of the Devil not only in the wilderness but once and for all by His cross and empty tomb.  And when Jesus overcame the Devil, that means you don’t have to!  You couldn’t if you tried.  He has done it all for you. The answer to the Devil’s temptations and tricks and evil is not for you somehow to overcome it.  It has already been overcome by Jesus for you.  

For you to overcome it means to have Jesus.  To have Jesus means you have overcome the Devil’s power.  That is why your Baptism is so important for you to live in each and every day.  That is why you need the words of Absolution and the preaching of the Gospel.  That is why the body and blood of Jesus are your lifeline by which you are kept connected to Jesus.  By the strength and power of the Holy Spirit in you, turn away from the devil’s lies and deceptions. 

Christ himself gives you those very gifts of His Word and Sacraments to keep you joined to Him so that His victory is your victory, and His throwing down of the Devil is your throwing down of the Devil.  Just as Jesus said, “Away from Me, Satan!” those words are yours too.  When temptations come to pull you away from Christ, stand firm and shout, not with your authority but the authority of Christ Himself, “Away from me, Satan!  I am redeemed by the blood of Jesus!  I am baptized into Him!   By God’s Word I am absolved and filled with Christ’s body and blood.   Therefore, devil, you have NO power over me!”

Today you heard of Jesus defeating the Devil in the wilderness.  And He’s just getting warmed up, for He will go all the way to Jerusalem and the cross to take down that Devil… and all because you cannot.  At every single point where you fail, where you sin, where you break the commandments and earn God’s wrath, Jesus perfectly did what He should and pleased His Father.  

And what Jesus has done counts for you.  For every day of Lent, confess how good you are at doing what you shouldn’t and not doing what you should.  Then confess with joy that Jesus has done what you should and not done what you did, and His doing is our gift of salvation.  

From the wilderness of the First Sunday in Lent to the cross of Good Friday and the empty tomb of Easter, your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ is living for you and in your place and for your forgiveness and salvation.  No wonder His name is the “one little word” that can knock down Satan. That name is Jesus!

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.