(If) You Are…
Pastor Mathew Magera – 3/8/17 – Sermon 215
St. Thomas Lutheran Church, Trufant, MI
To God be the Glory!
Grace and peace to you from
God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
What is the devil after when
he attacks you? What is it that he wants? What is it that he does? All he wants
is you turned away from God. He does not want you, he’s going to throw you to
the curb. He wants you away from God and he will do whatever it takes to get
that job done. We just heard the story of Jesus in the wilderness with the
devil. When we hear this story, we often couple it with the temptation of Adam
and Eve. Two very similar stories. Two very different outcomes. Adam and Eve
freshly created by God, sent out to live in the garden. Jesus, freshly
baptized, driven by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness. Adam and Eve, told not
to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Jesus,
fasting for 40 days, not to indulge himself in the pleasures of the world. Both
scenes are set. The opportunity is ripe and the devil goes out to do his work.
But, this is where the differences begin and it is those differences that
outline what Jesus is teaching us with regards to this very topic of temptation.
Starting in the Garden of
Eden we have the crafty serpent coming to Eve's side. Now, I want to get
something out of the way before we get into what happens. There is a notion out
there that the serpent went to Eve first because she was weak and could be
easily tempted. Hogwash. I believe the serpent wanted a challenge. The man was
too easy of a target. You tempt him with a cheeseburger and it would be in his
mouth before the serpent stopped speaking. No, in order for the serpent's work
to be successful he had to approach the one who would give him the most
challenge. The woman. Eve. The serpent knew what he was doing going to her
first. She was worth his conversation and every bit of his craftiness. She was
the difficult one to convince. Of course, he does convince her but the path to
do so was considerably longer than it would have been if he had tried to
convince Adam. And Adam would never have been able to convince Eve.
So, the serpent, being his
crafty self, knew that he could not appeal to the beauty of the tree or the
fruit. It's like if I went out and wanted to buy an airplane and had to try to
convince Lane that we needed it. It wouldn't matter if the plane had a nice
paint job on it or not, the sheer beauty of the plane would not move her at
all. The serpent had to use other tactics, and his tactic was to lead her away
from the Word of God. He leads her from believing in the word to believing in
her own self. He asks her a simple question, "Did God really say...?"
Eve holds her own, we have to
give her credit, she recites what she remembers, but even what she says to the
serpent is not what God told Adam, so you might even assume that Adam didn’t
give her all the necessary information. Either way, she is reciting what she
knows. She trusts is very much. But, the serpent springs the trap anyway. You
will not certainly die, he says. And that's it. The trap has sprung. She
questions her own memory, she is relying completely on herself at this point
and she has rebelled from the word of God. The fall into sin is a rebellion
from God. Instead of relying on God's word, Adam and Eve relied on their
perceptions, their sense of the Word. Only then, after doubting God's word,
would the cost of that one bite be cast into oblivion and the fruit, being good
for food, pleasing to the eye, and desirable for gaining, find its way into
their mouths. She took a bite. Adam, without even a hint of sense in him, took
a bite. And it was over.
Now, let's watch Jesus. Here
he comes, fresh from baptism. He's just heard the voice of God the Father say,
"This is my Song whom I love. With him I am well pleased." He's just
seen the Holy Spirit come down in the form of a dove. The Holy Trinity present
together in one place, confirming Jesus' ordination into ministry, and where is
he sent? To the wilderness. Immediately ordained ready for his first call,
Jesus does not willingly walk into the wilderness, he doesn't consider going to
the wilderness, but he is driven by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be
tempted by the devil. Whereas the serpent tempted Eve with the question,
"Did God really say..." another tactic needs to be used here because
Jesus, being the very Word of God himself, would easily know what had been said
or not, and we see this in Jesus' responses as well. So, the devil asks another
question that gets right at Jesus' very identity. In fact, no questions are
asked at all. It's a statement. The devil wants to persuade Jesus into proving
who is actually is. "If you are the Son of God..." he says. The devil
knows the power the son of God would have and he wants to catch Jesus. But, how
does Jesus respond? He says, "it is written..." Jesus uses the very
Word of God as his weapon. He hangs onto the word, the groundwork of everything
that is to come. But, the value of this word is tested and the devil attacks
him three times. And where does the devil go with his first temptation? Food.
Just like in the garden. Though the serpent knew Adam would easily fall for the
fruit, he needed to convince Eve. Now, with only Jesus in the wilderness the
devil needs to tempt him and so he goes right to his first tactic, food.
Command the stones to become bread. Remember, he's been fasting and is likely
beyond hungry. But, Jesus evades him anyway. Then the devil uses scripture itself
to tempt Jesus, but he evades him with more scripture. Finally, he just goes to
the highest place and offers all the kingdoms of the world if Jesus would bow
down and worship him. Jesus evades. The bait was there. He had a good chance.
But, Jesus evaded.
What is the devil after when
he attacks you? What is it that he wants? What is it that he does? All he wants
is you turned away from God. He does not want you, he’s going to throw you to
the curb. He wants you away from God and he will do whatever it takes to get
that job done. Early in our faith, or even late in our faith, we struggle with
our identity. The devil can tempt us by saying "Did God really
say..." but he can tempt us more by saying, "If you really
are..." If you really are a child of God, and he baits the hook for us.
Jesus' identity was the bait. If you are the Son of God, if that voice in the
river was real, if you are the Son of God, let such and such happen. For us, it
is the same. If you are a child of God, if your baptism was real, if the water
coupled with the Word of God was genuine, if you are a child of God, do this.
So, how did Jesus evade? He trusted the voice of God and the bestowing of the
Holy Spirit and He trusted the Word of God itself. Trusting in his baptism, and
trusting in the Holy Scriptures, Jesus was able to enter the battlefield with
the devil and not only fight but win. God equips us with our baptism. God
equips us with the Word of God and we are sent into the wilderness where our
identity as a child of God is tested. How can you be a child of God if you sin
so much? You know God doesn't forgive that kind of sin. What a good Christian
you are, skipping worship on Sunday. Wow, what a wonderful example of Jesus you
are not going to Bible study. How can you be a child of God? He challenges our
identity.
Do not doubt your identity
as a child of God. Adam and Eve doubted the Word of God. They doubted his word
about the fruit, they doubted his word that after their creation God saw that
they were very good. Jesus heard the Word of God and knew his identity, and he
succeeded. God makes you his child. Believe it. You have the Word of God. Trust
it. Use it. Live it. Place your trust in God who leads you not into temptation.
Place your trust in him and he will lead you. God strengthens you where you are
weak, he heals you where you are wounded, and he prepares you for your next
opportunity. It's not a matter of if you are a child of God, you are a child of
God. Do not let that word if be your stumbling block. You are. You are loved. You
are forgiven. You are blessed. You are a child of God. To God be the glory now
and always. Amen.