Grace to you and peace from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text for this
meditation is written in the 4th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Matthew: Verses 1 – 11:
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The
tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to
become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man
shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of
God.’”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on
the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,”
he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
7 Jesus answered him, “It is also
written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him
all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I
will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me,
Satan!f For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve
him only.’”
11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
Yom
Kippur, Israel’s Day of Atonement, (under the Old Covenant Law of Moses) was
rich in ritual yet drenched in blood. In a sequence of divinely ordered steps,
the high priest would carefully wash, dress, and prepare himself and the people
to receive blood-bought forgiveness for all their sins. The Lord commanded that
three animals be part of Yom Kippur. The high priest would sacrifice a bull,
offering its blood and life for his own sins and for those of his household.
Next, a goat was sacrificed as a sin offering for the people of Israel.
Finally, the high priest placed both his hands on the remaining goat,
confessing and conferring Israel’s sins upon it before a chosen man led it out
into the wilderness. This poor, abandoned creature came to be called the scapegoat and still stands as a symbol
of one who is blamed for the crimes or sins of another. In today’s Gospel, we
meet the true Scapegoat.
Jesus is
baptised and driven by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by Satan.
He wanders for forty days seemingly forsaken by His Father and
left alone by angels and men. He was hungry and the devil tempted Him to make
bread. He was weakened, tired, and humiliated, and Satan offers Him the
kingdoms of the world. Jesus is the Son of God and Satan tells Him to prove it.
After all, Satan, who is described as John 8:44 “father
of lies”, implies, Jesus’ Father must be an abusive parent. Satan would
never ask Jesus to do without. He would never abandon Him in an hour of need.
He would shower Him with riches and power beyond imagination. All Satan asks is
that Jesus bend a knee and worship him instead of God.
Such arrogance that one created should seek to tempt the Creator;
that the One who is Lord of all should be offered that which already belongs to
Him. Such are the ways of Satan. He is very subtle. Satan twists the Word of
God to his own design in an attempt to deceive the Word made flesh. However the
Word made flesh, the second Adam— Christ Jesus—does not fall for the devil’s
ploy, He does not take the bait, as did the first Adam. The temptation of the
first Adam resulted in his fall, along with all humanity, into sin and death.
The temptation of the Christ resulted in the fall of Satan and the rescue of
humanity from sin and death. The first battle is over. Satan goes down in
defeat.
The New Adam is not like the old. Jesus does what Adam did not do.
He resists the temptations Satan offered. He is tempted, but He is not
overcome.
Temptation itself is not sin. We are told Hebrews 4:15 “Christ was tempted in every way as we are
tempted, yet He did not succumb to temptation; He was without sin.” In obedience to the command of His Father,
Jesus suffers. Jesus suffers because Adam and Eve, and you and I, could not
obey. He goes into the desert, driven out by the Spirit, a scapegoat, without
complaint, without bread, without honour, without a friend in the world,
bearing the sins of the world.
He does not question God, but submits to the will of the Father
and Psalm 27:13 Jesus “waits
on the goodness of the Lord;” and as told in John 6:41 the goodness of the
Lord, delivers Jesus up as the Bread of Life for the life of the world. The
Father sacrifices the Son so that His Spirit and life can be given to those who
could not and would not obey.
So it is that Jesus came as the second Adam, to salvage the
wreckage of creation wrought by the weakness and sin of the first Adam. Jesus
does battle with the Old Evil Foe, because we cannot. We are no match for Satan
and his sweet lies and cruel deceit, but Jesus is. It is for this reason that
Christ Jesus became man; because mankind cannot save itself.
So Jesus goes into the desert alone to do battle with Satan,
forsaken by His Father and left alone by angels and men. This however is not
the scene of His greatest struggle. It only points to it. For Jesus will go to
the cross, alone, forsaken by His Father, left alone by angels, and deserted by
men. There He will do final battle with Satan, crushing his head while Satan
bruises His heal. He will turn the other cheek and His enemies will pull out
His beard. He will endure thorns pushed into His brow and His flesh being laid
open to the bone with a whip. They will drive nails into Jesus’ hands and feet.
Then again will come the temptations.
We read Matthew 27:39-43 “And those who passed by blasphemed
Him, wagging their heads and saying, ‘You who destroy the temple and build it
in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.’
Likewise the chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and elders, said, ‘He
saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now
come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. He trusted in God; let Him
deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” Yet, despite the pain and
suffering, Jesus will not give in to temptation. So Satan will do His worse. He
will bruise the heel of the Seed of Eve. Jesus will die, and Satan’s minions
will dance around the foot of the cross. However succeeding in His fantasy of
killing God will prove Satan’s utter defeat.
We should be ever aware that are not just spectators of Satan’s
attack on Jesus; It is true that all
Christians face such attack, for the Prince of Evil never relents but continues
to try to wrench us away from Christ and our baptism, by means of hunger or
persecution, by worldly fame and wealth, or by heresy or false interpretation
of Scriptures, so that we give way to despair and vain glory.
When
we face life’s challenges the devil wants only for us to turn from our loving
Saviour in the hope that we will die in sin.
The story does not end at the cross. It only “seemed” that
Satan had won, that he had finally accomplished what his heart had long desired,
that he had put God to death.
There on the cross with brutal force and undisguised glee, with
unrestrained malicious violence, Satan through his unwitting evil agents drove
the nails into the hands and feet of Jesus and put him to death. It truly did “seem”
as though Satan had won. It “seemed” as though Jesus’ victory in the
desert did not last.
It still “seems” that way today. Satan and his demons work
hard, after all, at making their fantasy “seem” like reality. But the
truth is that in that seeming defeat, that dark hour of God’s death on a cross,
the ransom was paid, atonement was made, Adam and Eve’s weakness undone, and
heaven opened! On that cross the Son of Man was glorified and was made our
King. He rose three days later from His tomb. Death could not hold Him and He
came forth as the Lord of Life.
Having come forth from the grave, Jesus has given us a new Bread
to strengthen us against the temptations of the wicked foe; not just any bread,
but a Bread infused with the Word of God. Matthew 4:4 “For man does not live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Even more,
Jesus gives to us Himself, in the Holy Sacrament of the Alter, the Word made
Flesh that we might persevere and live. So too, Jesus gives to us His Blood to
quench our thirst in this barren place that is not our home, but is full of sin
and temptations. Out of His mouth comes His Word and into our mouth He gives it
to us in His own Body and Blood thereby preparing and making us ready for
warfare with Satan. We are made ready by eating and drinking the provisions
provided by God’s grace. With these we are strengthened for the battles that
will surely come. With these we are sustained lest we fall into temptation.
In Adam, all sinned and died; but in Christ, the second Adam, all
are perfected, justified, and live. Jesus has borne our human flesh into
temptation, and He has triumphed. This does not mean that we will not suffer
temptation. We will. We live in the wilderness of this world, and we will be tempted.
The forty days of Lent remind us of this reality. The Christian life is lived
nailed to the cross of Christ. It is a life of suffering and temptation. Yes,
temptations will come. The old Adam in us must die. Christ, the new Adam in us,
must rise. Our comfort and strength in every temptation is that Jesus has
already triumphed over temptation in our place. In His triumph we hear His
victory speech, “I forgive you all your sins.” Amen.
The love and peace of our Great Triune
God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus. Amen.
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