+ Lent 1 – March 9th,
2014 +
Redeemer Lutheran, HB
Series A: Genesis 3:1-21; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11
In the Name of +
Jesus. Amen.
You are at war. Since the day of
your Baptism, since the day Christ gave you faith in Him, the devil has
declared war on you.
The old satanic foe has sworn to work us woe.
And to make matters worse, you
live in enemy occupied territory. You’ve all seen the devil’s propaganda machine
at work in the world; it’s everywhere you look and listen. We’re surrounded.
As C.S. Lewis once said, “Christianity
is the story of how the rightful king had landed, you might say landed in
disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.
When you go to church you are really listening-in to the secret wireless from
our friends: that is why the enemy is so anxious to prevent us from going.” (Mere Christianity, p. 46)
This season of Lent is a lot like
that too. Jesus lands in disguise, hidden beneath the weakness and humility of
a suffering servant. To be sure, He is the king. His crown is thorned. He is
enthroned in wood and steel. And he rules and reigns by His death.
So, the church increases her
broadcasts during Lent: more midweek services to hear God’s word, more
receiving Jesus in weekly Holy Communion, more devotion, prayer, and giving to
others in need.
All because Lent is a
battlefield. We battle our sin. We fight temptation. We may even increase our
armaments with prayer, fasting, and giving. It’s a season that heightens the
tension in our ongoing internal civil war between our old rebellious nature and
our nature in Christ. Not only do we live on the front lines – think of how the
devil and the world wars against us and the Gospel daily – but we are the front
lines.
Our readings today remind us that
in our sin we’ve joined the war on the wrong side, the losing side; we too are
rebels. As Paul writes, “Sin came into
the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all
men because all sinned.” Adam and Eve lost. And we lost in them. We’re not
up for the fight.
No strength of ours could match his might.
But thankfully, this battle isn’t
up to you to win.
During Lent you’re at war. But
you don’t fight alone. In fact, you aren’t even the one doing the fighting.
Christ is.
But now a champion comes to fight, whom God himself elected.
Listen to how Christ fights for you in
Matthew’s Gospel.
Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the
wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days
and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the
Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”
Satan launches
his first wave at Jesus’ stomach. The same Lord who fed wandering Israel now fasts
in the wilderness. And you can just imagine the kinds of things Satan might
say, “Why not help yourself Jesus? You know you’re hungry. Why fast when you
can feast? All you have to do is say the word and that little lump of rock will
be a satisfying loaf of bread. You provide the whole world with daily bread,
why not just a little for yourself.”
Of course, this
temptation – like all the rest – wasn’t really about the food. It was the devil’s
attempt at getting Jesus to doubt the Father, to disobey the Father’s word and
command, to get Jesus to give up hope on waiting for the Father’s provision.
But Jesus doesn’t
give in. He doesn’t give up. He is obedient. He is the perfect Son that Israel
never was. He is the perfect Adam who withstood temptation. He does not sin or
rebel. He rebukes and repels Satan’s assaults. And he does it all by the Word
of God:
Man shall not live by bread alone, but by
every word that comes from the mouth of God.
For the devil’s
second wave, he goes after Jesus’ faith in the Father. “Go ahead Jesus. Just
take a little trust-fall off of the temple. Prove your faith. Throw yourself
down.”
But Jesus will
not put God to the test. Christ has perfect faith. Perfect trust in the Father’s
will. He knows the Father will see him through the wilderness, through the
temptation, through the suffering and agony of the cross. He knows the Father
is not faithless. He knows the Father’s promises are true. Once more Jesus goes
into the breach armed with God’s Word:
“Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the
Lord your God to the test.’”
Then the third
and last wave is a direct frontal barrage on the First Commandment. “All of the
kingdoms of this world can be yours, Jesus. All you have to do is bow down to
me.”
The devil tips
his hand even more than before. The devil cannot create. He can make nothing new.
He can only twist what God has given. He can only steal what rightfully belongs
to God in the first place. The devil is always God’s ape.
Behold
sin for what it really is: self-serving, self worship. It’s the same temptation
from the Garden: you can be like God. Jesus saves his strongest offense for the
last skirmish.
“Be gone, Satan! For it is written,
“‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”
With a word –
God’s Word – Jesus wins. Where Adam failed, Jesus is steadfast. Where we fall
victim to temptation, Jesus overcomes. Where we are only selfish, Jesus is
humble and self-less. Where worship ourselves, Jesus serves the Father in all
things. Where we lose, Jesus triumphs.
This is what
Lent is all about. It’s a battle. It’s an all out war and you’re caught in the
middle of it. That’s why the Christian life isn’t all skittles, rainbows, and
pretty flowers in the park.
The Christian
life is a battle – and a daily one at that. “Take up your cross and follow me.”
The fight comes to us in our friendships, in our families, in our churches, at
work, at school – wherever you go. But know that Christ goes with you and for
you, even as he marched into the wilderness and onto the cross and into the
tomb and out again – all for you.
And if Lent reminds
us that there’s a war going on, it’s also a reminder that Christ has fought and
is fighting for you and with you still. Satan could not overpower Christ – not in
the wilderness and not on the cross.
Lent is Jesus’
grand invasion into enemy territory. His rescue mission to win you back from
the dead,. The rightful king disguises himself in the weakness and shame of the
cross in order to reclaim what is rightfully his, you and all creation.
That’s the remarkable
surprise about Christianity: the war is
won by losing. Jesus wins by laying down his life. Jesus lays down his arms and
his feet and his head in order to raise you from your tomb. Jesus triumphs by
dying on the cross.
Your life in
Christ is no different. You gain your life by giving up. That’s really the best
thing to give up for Lent: give up on trying to win the battle yourself. Give
up on trying to justify and save yourself. You win by losing. You live by
dropping dead in Jesus. That’s what your Baptism is all about: a daily death
and resurrection.
Jesus fought for
you then in the wilderness then, just as He fought to the death for you on the
cross. And he’ll fight for you now in whatever form temptation or strife comes your
way – in Lent and every other season.
The Good News of
Lent and of today’s reading isn’t that Jesus gives you an example of how to
overcome temptation, but that He overcomes temptation for you, in your place. Lent
is a battle and you’re at war…but you are victorious in Jesus’ death and
resurrection.
And to the
victor the spoils, the first fruits of him who died and rose again. Come, the
victory feast of the Lamb is ready. His body which fasted, lived, obeyed,
suffered, bled, died, rose, and ascended is here for you in your daily bread at
his table. A table he prepares for you in the midst of your enemies. And the
cup a that runs over with his blood. The same blood he shares with you in
your humanity and here at the altar. His Blood shed for you on the cross. His Blood
shed give to you for the forgiveness of your sins in the Supper.
In Lent the
battle rages on, but the war is over. Jesus wins and in Him so do you.
The Kingdom ours forever.
In the Name of +
Jesus. Amen.
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