Invocabit – February 18, 2024Psalm 91; Genesis 3:1-21; 2 Corinthians 6:1-10St. Matthew 4:1-11
In the Name of the Father, and of the +
Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The first and most important lesson to take from the
Temptation of Christ is that He suffered the temptations of Satan and overcame
them on your behalf. The war between Jesus and the devil begins right after
Jesus’ birth, as the servant of Satan, Herod, sought to murder the infant
Jesus. But on that occasion, the devil worked through his agent to assault the
Son of God. It is not until Jesus is Baptized, anointed by the Holy Spirit, and
marked by the Word of the Father as being a pleasing and acceptable sacrifice
for the sins of man that the devil took a personal stake in assaulting Jesus.
Baptized by John, Jesus is immediately hurled into the
wilderness by the Holy Spirit. It was the will of God that Jesus be tempted in
the wilderness. He willingly submitted to this temptation. If He had not, then
the devil could not tempt Him. The devil is powerful, but he is not omnipotent.
He is not the “equal-but-opposite” of God. The devil is, after all, an angel, a
created being, a spiritual being.
Why might Christ will to be tempted by Satan in the
wilderness? To win the victory on your behalf. When Adam and Eve were tempted
in the garden, they fell, choosing to listen to the word of the serpent and eat
the forbidden fruit. When the Israelites were tempted in the wilderness, they
fell, complaining against Moses, Aaron, and God, and saying they preferred
slavery in Egypt over freedom with God. When given the land of Canaan, the
Israelites were tempted to worship the false gods of the Canaanites, and they
fell, worshiping Baal and Asherah.
By contrast, our Lord was cast into the wilderness to be
tempted and win the victory. But He did not win the victory for Himself. “He
battled as the Surety, the Mediator, the Substitute of the whole human race,
for all men, for us who are gathered here. Through sin all men sold themselves
to Satan; all became his servants and subjects of his kingdom. To redeem and
save men Christ came as the real Owner of all the souls of men in order to
conquer Satan, destroy his kingdom, take his booty away again, free us from his
power, and lead all men through the kingdom of grace into the kingdom of
eternal glory.”[1]
So it is that we can see Christ taking the place of all mankind in the struggle against sin, death, and the devil. He is winning the victory that you cannot win. He humbly and willfully submits to being tempted by Satan to fulfill the Law of God. Your salvation was not won by breaking any rules. God did not simply assert His authority over all creation and rewrite the laws of reality. Instead, He entered into reality, into creation, that He would win the prize of your salvation according to the Laws which He already wove into the world. When He told Adam and Eve that in eating the fruit, “dying you shall die,” He meant it. The consequence of sin is death. In order to fulfill this Law, someone must die.
Thus, being anointed as the acceptable sacrifice for sin,
Jesus submits to being tempted that He might fulfill the whole Law. Where man
has failed, Christ has stood steadfast and won the victory. By His overcoming
temptation, we see that He is truly the unblemished Lamb, acceptable as the
perfect sacrifice for all ages. This is by far and away the most important
truth of the temptation of Christ.
Knowing that Christ was tempted on your behalf and won the
victory over temptation on your behalf, you are now free to see His actions as
an example for your own. Such an example should never overtake the fact that
Jesus defeated Satan for you, but it is the necessary consequence. Seeing David
strike down Goliath, the Israelites were spurred on to victory, chasing down
the Philistines and killing every last soldier and plundering their tents.[2]
The actions of the army would be impossible, let alone insignificant, if not
for the actions of the lowly shepherd boy from Bethlehem. So much more is this
true of the actions of Christ and the resulting actions of all Christians. We
have seen our Almighty General conquer in the fight. This should then rouse our
souls to imitate His glorious victory as we chase down and smite the remnants
of the devil’s pitiful army.
The example of Christ for us to follow in fighting against
the temptations of Satan are three-fold. First, we see that Christ has been in
the wilderness for forty days and forty nights without food or water. He has
been fasting. At first, this seems like a weakness. At first, it seems as
though Christ would be at His weakest and that is the reason that Satan has
chosen to tempt Him at this time. “But God has chosen the foolish things of the
world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world
to put to shame the things which are mighty.”[3]
This fast of Christ is an example of the spiritual discipline of fasting which
strengthens you against the temptations of the flesh.
The primary purpose of fasting is to remind you that man
does not live by bread alone, but by every Word of God.[4]
The result is the training of your flesh, bringing it under the control of your
faith. Fasting, if you are not used to it, is difficult. Remember, fasting is
not just “giving something up for Lent.” To fast is not to eat. Christians have
always practiced fasting, but the guidelines have been different at different
times and in different places. Sadly, these guidelines have sometimes become
the basis of controversy in the church as though God had commanded a specific
method of this discipline.
The basic guideline to fasting is to not eat for a period of
time. If this is something new for you, you might begin on Sunday mornings. Do
not eat until after you have received the Sacrament. By the time we get to the
Lord’s Supper in the Divine Service, you will notice how hungry you are and the
first sustenance you receive will be the Body and Blood of Christ. If you would
like to go a step further, choose a day of the week—historically Wednesday or
Friday—on which you will not eat from sunup to sundown. When you do eat, it
should be a lighter meal for the practical reason that gorging yourself on an
empty stomach is not good for your gut but for the spiritual reason that
fasting is not an excuse for gluttony. And if you would like to go even a step
further, then fast on your chosen day from the time you wake up until you go
back to sleep.
The second tactic to learn from Christ is how to counter the
temptations of Satan. The devil tempts Jesus with corrupted versions of creation
and the Word of God. He tells half truths and offers that which he has no right
to give. Such temptations are incredibly enticing for man. Yet we see Jesus not
only parry, or deflect, such attacks of Satan, but He delivers a riposte, or
counterattack. How? He rightly uses the Word of God. He rightly takes that
given to Him by the Father and uses it against such false teachings.
For you to use such a tactic first means you must know the
Word of God. You must be familiar with the teachings of Scripture. It is one
thing to quote Scripture. Even the devil can do that. It is another entirely to
use it appropriately. This requires that you read the bible every day. You must
be steeped in the Word of God. The pace at which you read the bible is
dependent upon you. Maybe you are only capable of reading a few paragraphs a
day. Maybe a chapter. Maybe multiple chapters. I can tell you that you are
capable of reading more than you think. Challenge yourself to read more than
you think you can. There are myriad bible reading plans out there. If you need
one, let me know and I’ll get you one.
Being familiar with the Word of God, being steeped in it, is
only the beginning. It is necessary that you commit the Word of God to memory.
No matter your age or your relative ability to memorize, it is possible. Start
with the verses you already know. Almost everyone in this room knows John 3:16.
Excellent. Then, think of every time we sing or speak verses of Scripture in
the liturgy. You probably already have those memorized. Most everyone here
today could participate in the Divine Service without looking at your hymnal
for the ordinaries, that is, the parts of the liturgy that don’t change.
From there, think of the verses that are used in the
catechism and those verses choses for the Congregation at Prayer which
correspond to the catechism. If you worked to memorize only those passages I’ve
already mentioned, you would arm yourself with close to 100 verses of Holy
Scripture. The next step would be practicing using those passages. When you are
tempted to sin, speak aloud a corresponding Word of God. Tempted to gluttony,
then say, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds
from the mouth of God.”[5]
Tempted by anger, then say, “Do not avenge [yourself], but rather give place to
wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.”[6]
The final tactic to be learned from our Lord is reliance on God and his ministers, specifically the Holy Angels. Amid temptation, it is vital that you remember relief is at hand. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil for [the Lord is] with me.”[7] Though they are unseen, God has appointed the Holy Angels to be ministers to His beloved, a mighty army encamped around the children of God.[8] No amount of suffering or temptation will last forever for those who trust in the Lord. “And take they our life, goods, fame, child, and wife, those these all be gone, the victory has been won, the kingdom ours remaineth.”[9]
The comfort and ministration of the Holy Angels may not
always be as apparent as those who ministered to Christ after His temptation,
but your temptations are also not as apparent as the Devil whisking you away to
top of the temple nor showing you all the kingdoms of the earth. Just as your
temptations are real so too is the ministry of the Holy Angels real. Whether in
the guise of mortals or simply working unseen, the Holy Angels will and do
minister to all of you. In fact, they always guide and protect you. Be
strengthened in the knowledge that all the heavenly host is on your side and fighting
with you against Satan, all his works and all his ways.
In + Jesus’
name. Amen.
[1]
C. F. W. Walther, Gospel Sermons, Volume 1, translated by Donald E. Heck
(St. Louis, MO: CPH, 2013), 160.
[2]
1 Samuel 17:51-53.
[3]
1 Corinthians 1:27.
[4]
St. Matthew 4:4; Deuteronomy 8:3.
[5]
St. Matthew 4:4; Deuteronomy 8:3.
[6]
Romans 12:19.
[7]
Psalm 23:4.
[8]
Psalm 34:7.
[9]
A Mighty Fortress, Stanza 4.
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