Who here has known temptation in their lives?
You’re not alone in that, obviously! If you’re not being tempted by something, you must be a perfect saint . . . or you’re dead. I myself am tempted by many things. Some are minor things . . . kind of funny, even. Like being tempted by an Oreo cookie around 11:30 at night. Or being tempted to dump a glass of cold water into the shower when someone else is in it. And frankly, whenever I have a camera in my hand I’m always very tempted to take a picture of Stephanie if she happens to bend over!
Those are kind of mischievous temptation. And yes, I yield to those kinds of temptations quite often. But I also have a number of greater, more serious temptations that plague me. Temptations that pull at the darkest, most sinister corners of my mind. I’m frequently tempted to feel very, very sorry for myself. I’m tempted to lie about how I’m doing, preferring to put on a religious mask rather than show my true emotional state.
I don’t want to worry anybody, but I do want to be perfectly honest about this. In my life I’ve been tempted to have one or two or five drinks too many. I’ve been tempted to cheat on my wife. I’ve been tempted to react to stressful situations with violence. At times I have even been tempted to take my own life. Some of these temptations I have yielded to. Others, thankfully and by the grace of God, I have not.
But you understand the temptations I face, because you go through them yourself. You understand what it’s like to be tempted. We all face it. There’s not a one of us here that doesn’t understand temptation. And temptation can leave us feeling dirty and ashamed. We believe that no one could be truly close to God and still suffer this kind of temptation.
No one understands what you’re going through. That may be what you’re thinking. But during the season of Lent I want to take the time during Sunday mornings to put that lie to rest. We do have someone who understands what we go through: our hardships, our trials, our temptations. His name is Jesus Christ. And each Sunday during Lent we’re going to walk with Him on His journey to the cross. We’ll hear His words. We’ll observe His actions. And at the end of our journey, as we come with Jesus into Jerusalem for the last time, we’re going to understand better just how Jesus becomes our Savior.
It begins today with the question right in front of us: Does anybody really understand my struggles with temptation? The answer, of course, is yes. Jesus Christ understands.
In today’s Gospel lesson we have a Bible story that many of us may remember from Sunday school. But just because it’s a Sunday school story doesn’t mean that this lesson is child’s play. No, this lesson is for everybody, because in this story we focus on Christ, on His victory, and we understand how His victory gives us victory.
Luke records that at the end of forty days of fasting Jesus suffers through three kinds of temptation. These temptations are real, they represent significant choices Jesus had to make: yield to temptation or not?
For instance, in His first temptation Satan tries to get Jesus to get some food for himself. Satan says to Him in Luke 4:3, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
Jesus has been forty DAYS without food. Satan is just trying to get him to feed His own hunger. What’s more, it seems to be merely a request that Jesus demonstrate His divine authority. After all, if God gave manna to the children of Israel in the desert to feed them, the Son of God should be able to turn a stone into some bread to feed Himself, right?
These things sound fine, don’t they? So what’s the problem? See, that’s the thing about temptation; it always sounds fine. You can always make a case for giving in.
But Jesus understands that there are greater things at stake. So, weak with hunger, He still manages to respond, “Man does not live by bread alone.”
Those words Jesus spoke reveal that He understands what Satan is really getting at. They are a quote from Deuteronomy 8:3, where Moses tells the children of Israel how God has instructed them during their wilderness wanderings. It says, “He—that’s God—He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
Jesus defeats Satan by relying upon the word that comes from the mouth of the Lord, rather than using His own mouth to feed Himself. Rather than trusting His own power or abilities, He’s relying upon God to provide what is truly needed. Would it be wrong for Jesus to use His Divine powers to feed Himself? No . . . but it would be wrong even for Jesus to use His abilities in a way that the Father didn’t intend. And so Jesus defeats Satan, He conquers temptation, by trusting in God’s Word and perfect will rather than His own strength.
In His second temptation, Satan tries to get Jesus to worship him. This one is, I think, a bit more obvious, a great deal less subtle than the first temptation. But it is still a strong one.
Satan offers Jesus a glimpse of the whole world. In one instant he shows Jesus all the glory and splendor of the worlds’ most beautiful cities, the largest palaces, the grandest armies. He then claims it is his to give away as he pleases, and Jesus could have it all . . . for a price.
For a price. Just a small price . . . a little trifle, really. “Just worship me, Jesus. Bow down before me . . . you don’t even really have to mean it, you know . . . just go through the motions, and all this can be yours.”
Jesus is tempted on a false claim to give worship to Satan. The world isn’t Satan’s to give away. And though Jesus is tempted, He recognizes that it doesn’t matter how great the reward would be for worshipping this pretender to the throne, in the end it would be a false reward, a false hope, a throwing away of what had real value for something that was shallow and temporal.
And so Jesus replies, “'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only” Now that’s also a quote from Deuteronomy, this time from Deuteronomy 6:10-14. Moses warns the people of Israel before they go into the beautiful, lush promised land, “10 When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you-- a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, 11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant-- then when you eat and are satisfied, 12 be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 13 Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.”
Satan has nothing worthwhile that he can give. The large, flourishing cities are a gift from God, not Satan. The lush live Israel enjoyed was God’s gift to them, and they would be wise to remember HIM as their source. Jesus also trusts and worships the Giver, not the gift. He also successfully demonstrates that He knows who the true Giver is—God alone—and He reserves His worship for the One who can give, not the pretender who can only take away.
In His third and final temptation, Satan tries to Jesus to deliberately put Himself in harm’s way. “If you’re really the Son of God, Jesus, throw yourself off this building! After all, if you are who you say you are, God wouldn’t let you be harmed, now would He? Is the Lord with you . . . or not?” Interestingly enough, this time Satan quote some Scripture himself to prove his point. He’s got some heavy guns to back him up.
But despite the cold logic, despite the reality that Satan sounds so right, Jesus still sees through his game and understands what is going on behind the scenes: Satan is trying to get Jesus to tempt God, to force God into a situation where Jesus can command the Father’s will instead of the other way around. Satan is trying to get Jesus to force God to prove that He is truly both provider and protector.
But instead, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy to Satan one last time. Luke 4:12, “12 Jesus answered, "It says: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'” I. Howard Marshall, in his commentary on the Gospel of Luke, points out that Jesus’ response reveals this truth: The Godly man does not need to force God to prove Himself. He doesn’t need to tempt God, because the Godly man as already put his faith in Him as provider, protector, and savior.
Jesus’ response reveals that He already knew God was with Him, that the Father cared for Him, and so He didn’t need to force God to give Him a sign! Throwing Himself off the top of the temple so that God could catch Him wouldn’t prove a thing. It wouldn’t prove that God loved Him, it would only prove that He didn’t trust in or understand God in the first place.
Jesus faced down and conquered these three temptations. But not just any three temptations; three temptations that encapsulate, that describe, all of the temptations that we face every day. Look at that list again. Aren’t these our temptations, too?
In the first temptation we’re tempted to trust in our own strength rather than God’s. Does that sound familiar? How many times in a week, how many times in a day do you try to rely upon yourself instead of God? How many times do we say to God, “Lord, it’s in your hands” and then snatch whatever “it” is right back out of God’s hands and try to fix it ourselves?
In the second temptation we’re tempted to compromise. Just a little . . . just give in a little bit . . . just one little bit . . . and we could have a huge payoff. Does that sound like fudging just a bit on your taxes so that you can have a refund instead of having to pay? Does it sound like telling a little white lie so that you can get what you want?
And then in the third temptation our relationship to God is called into question. We wonder if God is truly watching over us, or not. We want Him to produce some sort of evidence, some sort of sign that He is truly on our side. “God, if you’re really up there, then answer my prayer.” “God, if you really love me, then bail me out of this mess.” “God, if you truly cared, you wouldn’t have allowed this to happen.”
Jesus understands what we’re going through! He’s faced the very things we face, day in and day out! And though He faced our temptations, He overcame them. His victory becomes our victory, because in His victory we know that we have someone in Heaven who sympathizes with us in our weaknesses, who understands our struggles, and yet can pull us out of them.
Hebrews 4:15-16 summarizes this when it says, “15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-- yet was without sin. 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Because Jesus understands, because He’s been there, we can come to Him for strength to overcome our temptations with His strength.
With this truth, as we walk on this road to redemption, we can better understand how Jesus is not just the Savior, but our Savior. He’s not unapproachable, He’s been where we are, and His strength wins the victory over our temptations. So in His victory over temptation we can shrug off the need to linger for one more second on that commercial, the need to tear down someone else so that we can feel bigger, the need to go our own way instead of His.
Are we still tempted daily? Yes, we are. But Jesus Christ understands what it’s like for us. Even in our darkest moments, when we are about to give in, He understands our struggles. He truly is our Savior, because He’s been tempted, and yet was victorious. And in His victory over temptation we find ours.
