Today is the first Sunday in Lent, and we’re looking at Luke’s account of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness, the paradoxes of faith, and the good news that Jesus chooses to deny the temptations of earthly glory and empty himself for our sake. Today’s Scripture is Luke 4:1-13.
Much of the inspiration for this sermon comes from this commentary by Debie Thomas at Journey with Jesus. Read it at . The cover art is “Temptation in the Wilderness” by Briton Rivière (1840-1920).
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
One of the things I appreciate most about the Lutheran approach to faith is that we are ok with paradox. Paradox is when two contradictory things are both true. (And if I were using the screen right now, I’d put up a slide with a picture of two ducks and you’d laugh.)
Our tradition doesn’t need to have everything always spelled out in black and white. We’re ok sometimes living in the gray areas, because that’s the way life is. We’re not afraid of recognizing multiple things can be true at the same time, even if they’re difficult to reconcile.
We can have members in all kinds of different political parties, because we recognize the Bible tells us some things clearly, like love your neighbors, and leaves many of the details to us to figure out. We don’t need to solve or explain every mystery of faith.
Christian faith is full of paradoxes, right? God’s kingdom is coming and it’s already here. You and I are both saints forgiven and redeemed by God, and sinners in need of God’s forgiveness who keep turning away from God. The bread and wine are still bread and wine, yet also somehow the body and blood of Jesus.
In his teaching, Jesus liked using paradoxes, saying things like “Those who want to save their life will lose it and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it” and “The last shall be first and the first shall be last.”
According to Debie Thomas, this story of Jesus’ temptation—and I love her approach to it—is full of paradoxical lessons.
The first thing happening in today’s reading is “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan.” We’re not reading the story in order, but it’s important to know that immediately before this is Jesus’ baptism. He’s returning from the Jordan River because that’s where his cousin John the Baptist has just baptized him.
And at Jesus’ baptism, as he was praying, the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit came down on him like a dove, and God’s voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” It was a great declaration of the reality of Jesus’ full identity as God’s beloved Son. That idea of incarnation, of God with us, might be the biggest paradox of the Christian faith: Jesus is 100% human, and Jesus is also 100% God. Math is hard.
Anyway, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returns from the Jordan and is led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He goes from this incredible high point, this moment of affirmation, out to the wilderness, where he’s challenged, tempted to abandon who he is and to turn away from his mission.
Three times Jesus is tempted by the devil, and each time, his sense of identity and mission is challenged, and he experiences another paradoxical truth.
The first temptation is to turn a rock into bread, which is a great temptation, because Jesus hasn’t eaten for forty days. He was famished. He was starving! And so he’s tempted to solve the problem by miraculously making food.
He’s God in the flesh, so there’s no need to worry about little things like hunger. Just say the word and it’ll be fixed! But to give into this temptation would be in a sense to deny the incarnation. Hunger is part of being human. Because we don’t have the option of magically getting rid of hunger, Jesus avoids doing so as well.
It’s similar to the idea of fasting during Lent, choosing to give up something. Maybe some of you are doing that as a spiritual practice. The paradox is to know you are fully loved by God, and yet to still at the same time be hungry, to trust God will provide while at the same time experiencing the needs and wants that go with being human. Jesus passes the test by recognizing that bread, literal food, is not all that is needed for life. The Son of God chooses to remain hungry, like us.
The next temptation is for fame and glory. The devil offers Jesus power, fame, authority over all the nations of the world. After all, as we just heard, Jesus is the Son of God, God’s beloved with whom God is well pleased.
Debie Thomas writes, “The implication is that God’s beloved need not labor in obscurity. To be God’s child is to bask in glory under the stage lights: visible, applauded, admired, and envied. A God who really loves us will never ‘abandon’ us to a modest life, lived in what the world considers insignificance.”
That’s a temptation we can understand. Even people who have no desire to be famous like to be noticed, like to know there are a few people who really appreciate them. It’s a good feeling to know someone’s looking up to you. Everyone wants to be known.
And of course, during his ministry, Jesus does attract crowds. People travel for miles to listen to his teachings. But the crowds are a secondary part of his mission. Jesus’ greatest work is accomplished when he is abandoned, alone on the cross. The act of salvation is accomplished when Jesus gives up his life.
Jesus once told a Pharisee named Nicodemus that he would be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. The paradox is that Jesus’ moment of glory, his moment of triumph, is when he’s lifted up on a cross in humiliating defeat.
As Jesus’ followers, we are called to humility, to follow in Jesus’ path. We’re called to worship only God, to not give our energy to playing the world’s game of power and fame. We’re called to a different definition of success, not to worldly fame, but to humble service, as Paul says, we boast of our weaknesses so the power of Christ may dwell in us.
We’re called to remember the identity given to us at our own baptism. You too are a child of God, and nothing can take that identity away from you.
The third and final temptation, Thomas says, “Targets Jesus’s vulnerability. ‘[God] will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ the devil promises Jesus. ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’ The implication is that if we are beloved of God, then God will keep us safe. Safe from physical and emotional harm, safe from frailty and disease, safe from accidents, safe from death.”
I’ll admit, this one is the most tempting for me. I want to think that maybe if I just believe well enough, everything will be ok. If I just have enough faith, the people I love will be protected.
It’s so, so tempting when I hear about bad things happening somewhere to look for an explanation, because if I can find a reason why those people are getting invaded, or why those people are sick, then I can know it won’t happen to me. Maybe they just didn’t have enough faith or something. After all, if I’m a child of God, the Bible says God is watching over me, right?
The paradox is that on some level, that’s true. We believe that on an eternal scale, everything will work out, that God is at work for good in the midst of all circumstances. But that’s not the same as saying bad things won’t happen.
The promise is not that whenever bad things happen, God will swoop in and rescue us. The promise is that even though we are vulnerable, even though bad things happen, God still loves us. God is still present.
Bad things happen, people get sick and die, accidents happen, even wars and pandemics, and none of it stops God’s work. Through it all, God remains faithful and loving.
The cross demonstrates God suffers alongside us. The cross is the ultimate revelation of God’s love and presence with us. And the cross is not the end of the story. After Good Friday comes Easter. God does redeem suffering. God does bring good out of even the worst evil imaginable. Our God is in the business of resurrection and new life.
In this story of wilderness temptation, Jesus commits to his mission, to God’s mission of redemption. Jesus answers the devil’s temptations by choosing “emptiness over fullness, obscurity over honor, and vulnerability over rescue.” Jesus chooses the path of loving fallen, broken people like you and me. Jesus chooses to be on our side. Thanks be to God.
Amen