Matthew 41-11 (Lent 1A)

St. John, Galveston 2/26/2023

Rev. Alan Taylor

 

+ In Nomine Jesu +


 

Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

Last Wednesday, we took our first steps in the wilderness of Lent. It’s dusty out here and kind of barren. It’s uncomfortable too, what with God’s repeated call to repentance weighing on our hearts and minds. Elements of the Divine Service that elevate us to a heavenly plane, like the Gloria in Excelsis and the Alleluias, have been set aside because, well, because we have set foot in the wilderness of Lent.

 

It’s a season that’s filled with all sorts of Biblical images. We count the forty days of Lent from Ash Wednesday to Good Friday, not counting the Sundays, which are Sabbath Days of rest in this parched and dry land in which we find ourselves. The parallel between Lent and the Israelites 40 years of wandering in the wilderness is evident. The land of Canaan and the City of Zion were set before Israel, having been promised to them by God. Set before us is Easter and the promise of the Resurrection and the Life of the world to come, Zion above, if you will, the paradise of the blest. 

 

As I’m sure you know, Israel proved herself unfaithful in her journey to the Promised Land and the Holy City. Though God was to her a Mighty Fortress and a strong defense against the forces that would destroy her, Israel repeatedly rejected Him and went her own way. From Aaron’s golden calf to her bickering and complaining about God’s daily provision of manna, Israel was never content with the will and the ways of God. And so, she never did set foot in Canaan. And yet, though she was unfaithful, God remained faithful, granting His promises to Joshua and to those who would follow in his steps.

 

We too, in making our way through the wilderness of Lent to Easter and the empty tomb, stumble and fall. Again, there are any number of parallels between Lent and Israel’s time in the wilderness. As it was with the people of old, so it is with us. Temptation is ever before us. But perhaps the greatest threat posed to us by temptation is that we don’t tend to see it for what it really is.

 

Temptation isn’t merely desire or want. It isn’t simply enticement, as if it were all outside of us. It actually goes to the very core, to the very heart of our relationship with God. Helmut Thielicke, a 20th century German theologian, wrote in his book, “Between God and Satan,” the following about temptation.

 

“To be in temptation(he said) means to be constantly in the situation of wanting to be untrue to God. It means being constantly on the point of freeing ourselves from God. It means living constantly in doubt of God: ‘How can I fulfill your commandments, you uncanny King? Let me go. Do not wise men collapse under this burden, as well as prophets and heroes? How can I change the thought in my heart, you dreadful searcher of this heart? I am not even master of my actions and am powerless when they slip out of control! If you were God, you could not command all this, you could not make us black and then demand that we become white! Are you then God at all?’” (Between God & Satan, Helmut Thielicke)

 

Temptation is ultimately about our desire to dethrone God and to take His place. It is our desire to judge God with greater wisdom and greater reason. And so, we entirely misrepresent the fight with temptation if we take it to mean that we are the fighters, wrestling, like Faust, for God—that we are the seekers of God. We are not the heroes in the fight against temptation. We are the battlefield rather than the army. The fight is not brought BY US, rather, it is FOR US, for in temptation, we are inclined to flee from God and to go our own way. Indeed, “all we like sheep have gone astray (the Scriptures say). We have all turned to our own way.”  

 

Perhaps the words of Jesus to Simon Peter, regarding Peter’s confident assertion that he would never leave or dessert Jesus, make more sense in light of temptation being a battle for the souls of men. ““Simon, Simon (Jesus said), behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” Peter said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.” Jesus said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you know me.”” 


 

Temptation is battle for our souls. It is in temptation then that our Lord Jesus intercedes on our behalf, on your behalf, as the mighty hero of the fight. In the Gospel reading for this morning, He is set before us in an epic battle between Himself and the forces of darkness. “Jesus (Matthew says) was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” God and the devil go to war for the souls of men. 

 

Our own fate depends on the outcome of this struggle between Christ and the  devil. Our destiny is at stake: Jesus is a mirror of our nakedness and vulnerability and of our poverty and imprisoned state. His presence in the desert and His temptation hold a message for us; through suffering and conflict the Son of God has become your human brother. For He bears the burden which oppresses you and which does more to shape your destiny than anything else in the world. He suffers temptation with you.  

 

And, as you know, He emerges from the wilderness victorious. The lesson of His temptation though isn’t simply to show you and me how to stand against the wiles of the devil. Rather, He emerges from the wilderness victorious, both as the Second Adam and as the New Israel. Thus, where Adam failed and where Israel failed, and where you and I fail, Jesus DID NOT FAIL!  And so, the Apostle writes, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass (that is, Adam), much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.” 

 

Did you ever notice how a young child will sometimes stand very close, even behind their mom or dad when they perceive a threat? It is that way with us and our Lord Jesus. When temptation threatens, we stand behind Him, for He is a Mighty Fortress, the One who holds the field, that is, the battlefield forever. 

 

Adam gave us sin. Jesus, the second Adam, gave us righteousness. Adam gave us failure. Jesus gave us victory. Adam gave us death and the grave. Jesus gave us life and salvation. Adam gave us a desire to be like God. Jesus raised us up and enabled us to be one with God, crucified with Him in baptism and raised again in the likeness of His resurrection. 

 

“As by one man all mankind fell

And, born in sin, was doomed to hell,

So by one Man, who took our place, 

We all were justified by grace.”

 

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

 

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.

 

+ Soli Deo Gloria +