First Sunday in Lent
February 21, 2010
Text: Luke 4:1-13
In our Gospel reading, we heard the story of Jesus being tempted by the devil in the wilderness. In the first and last temptations, the devil began each with this challenge, “If you are the Son of God …” How did the devil know that Jesus was the Son of God? Surely, Jesus was not the only victim on the devil’s calendar that day.
We know that Jesus is God’s Son because on the first Sunday after the Epiphany we celebrated the Baptism of Our Lord. In that account a voice from heaven declared of Jesus, “You are my Son.” Was the devil at Jesus’ baptism? Does the devil know everything about what God is up to? We can’t be sure. Somehow though, the devil found out that Jesus was the Son of God.
Once the devil knew, the devil went to work. The devil is the great tester of our faithfulness. He especially goes after people who have put their trust in God. If Jesus is going to claim that He is the Son of God, then the devil is going to make Jesus prove that he is.
The devil is very tricky in his testing. He tries to get us to believe that we don’t need God. Tempting Jesus, the devil first tries to get Jesus to provide for himself instead of relying on God. If Jesus turned those stones into bread, then he would have proved Himself unfaithful to God. Instead of trusting God for his daily bread, Jesus would have been trusting in himself. Jesus fought off the devil by saying, “One does not live by bread alone.” Testing by the devil is not an Olympic sport, but the score is Jesus 1; the devil zero.
In his second temptation, the devil tells Jesus a lie that all the glory and authority of the kingdoms of the world have been given to him. The devil offered Jesus some of the action; all he had to do was to worship the devil. By worshipping the devil, Jesus would be unfaithful to God who has all the glory and the kingdoms of the world. Jesus fought off the temptation by declaring, “Worship the Lord your God and serve only Him.” The score: Jesus 2; the devil zero.
Finally, the great tester of faithfulness wants Jesus to take the role of the devil and test the faithfulness of God. But Jesus refuses, for to test the faithfulness of God is to doubt that God is faithful. Jesus’ response is, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”
The score: Jesus 3; the devil zero.
Throughout his temptation, Jesus proved to be faithful. He looked to God for all things; he worshipped only God, and he never doubted God’s faithfulness toward him. Jesus proved himself to be who God claimed Him to be, the Son of God.
God has claimed us to be the daughters and sons of God. By the water and Spirit of holy Baptism, God has called us to be faithful to Him. Somehow the devil knows about us as well. I don’t think the devil is present at baptisms, but somehow he finds out about us. That is why the great tester of faithfulness gets after us. If God is going to claim that we are His children, then the devil is going to be busy at work getting us to prove that we are the faithful sons and daughters of God.
Being baptized does not chase the devil away from us. Rather, our baptism attracts the devil, just as the story of Jesus’ temptation follows the story of his baptism. The devil comes looking for us wanting to test just how faithful we are.
How would we fair in a test given by the devil? Would we remain faithful to God no matter what tricks the devil threw our way? Can we prove to the devil that we are the faithful children of God? Do we worship the Lord our God and serve only Him?
For the most part we would fail the test the devil gives us. Our faithfulness to God leaves much to be desired at times. Every Sunday in our confession of sins, we humbly admit that we have not loved God with our whole heart; and we have failed to love one another. We are easy targets for the devil. Our unfaithfulness is the reason why it seems that the devil never goes away. At the end of Jesus’ test of faithfulness, we heard this reported, “When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.” (Luke 4:13) The devil didn’t hang around Jesus, because Jesus remained faithful to God. The devil lost to Jesus.
The devil wins with us, and so he hangs around us. We can get rid of him, but only by being faithful to God. To chase the devil out of our lives, we need to be faithful to God.
The Temptation of Jesus reminds us of something very important that the devil does not seem to know or at least he forgets. It is that God has made the faithfulness of Jesus to be our faithfulness as well. When Jesus passed the devil’s test of faithfulness, he made it to be that you and I could be declared faithful in spite of our unfaithfulness. The test of faithfulness we can not pass, but Jesus has passed it for us. Because of Jesus’ faithfulness, the score is we 3; the devil zero.
Lent is a time to get the devil out of our lives by being faithful to God and to His Son, Jesus. The devil may tempt us to be unfaithful, but the faithfulness Jesus took to the cross is our hope and promise of forgiveness.