Lent 1

“As dying, and behold, we live!” St. Paul lays out the pattern of Christian living. It is a life of seeming contradictions, that find unity in the life of Jesus – a life he gives to us through the waters of Baptism.

Paul explains how this life works itself out: We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.

What we see in this world – or rather what the world sees as it looks at Christ and his church – is not the reality. We live in a world of loss, but in Christ, all is gain.

We live against the pattern of the world. We live according to the pattern of our Lord Jesus. And Jesus life leads to the cross and to death. There is no path to glory that does not go through the cross. Indeed, the cross is Jesus glory, and it is our glory. The cross is our aim, our goal, it is the source of our life – we are buried with Jesus through baptism into death. And it is the end of our life. We pass through death into life, resting finally in the arms of Jesus who went before us into death. The old Adam in us then, by daily contrition and repentance, is continually drowned and dies, while a new man daily emerges and arises to live before God in righteousness and purity.

Today is temptation day in the church. We see the temptation of our first parents, we compare it to the temptation of our champion and Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. And we see the difference between the Old Adam and the new, the second Adam: Jesus. We see how he accomplishes what they did not: Enduring the temptation of that ancient serpent, the devil, and coming out of it victorious.

The temptation both times in Genesis and in our Gospel in Matthew 4, is essentially the same – God is keeping the good things from you. He does not want you to have the best things. He is trying to keep you down, to exalt himself. Our first parents believed the lie. In the Garden, the devil told them they were not getting the good stuff. God was keeping the best fruit from them, because if they ate the good stuff – which God forbid them to do, they would be wise like God. They would know good and evil.

They took and ate. They were given knowledge of evil. But they lost the image of God. The truth was, Adam and Eve already had perfect communion with the Lord God in the Garden. They had more than enough to eat. They had work that was pleasant and fulfilling, but not overwhelming to them. Satan convinced them all they had wasn’t enough. They took and ate, and now they truly lacked. The communion they sought with God – the communion they already had – was lost. The good things which God provided in the garden were taken from them, and instead the curse of sin and death was on them. Thorns, thistles, pain. They exchanged the truth for a lie and so lost the truth.

But the second Adam was not overcome by the temptations of Satan. He was not beaten down; instead he overcame. And in doing so, he showed that the second Adam will be the one to win redemption. He will live the life you could not, so he can die the death you should have, and in doing so, you have that eternal death taken away and replaced with life. The life of Christ Jesus who lived for you, and died for you is given to you.

The Devil’s lies fall one by one in Jesus. What appears to be is not what is. Jesus says no to the lie, and so regains for humanity the truth of God’s Word.

Satan starts pretty much with the same lie: It was “Did God really say...” Now it’s “If you are the son of God...” Did God really say you are his son? Does he show that he loves you like a son? Why, if he is the great provider, do you lack? You have no food, you are near starvation. Is this how God cares for his son: by depriving him of what is necessary for life?

But Jesus sees through the lie. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Jesus has been in the wilderness for 40 days, and is hungry. And this fasting is a work pleasing to his heavenly Father who sent him into this world to redeem us. And so Jesus is in this world at all by the will of the Father. If the father sends the Spirit to lead him into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights of prayer and fasting, then Jesus is given what he needs – tough he is given nothing. However much Jesus seems to lack, it is sufficient, is filled by the promise of the Father to him that his work is pleasing, it is not in vain. His hour has not yet come. This is not the end – though Jesus is near the end of his strength.

In the garden of Eden there was plenty, and it was not enough. In the wilderness, there is absolute lack, and it is sufficient. The difference is that Adam and Eve doubted the goodness of the Lord. Jesus trusts in his Father to provide.

The lie Satan tries on him is that God is not providing for him, so he must provide for himself. The truth is that Jesus is given all that he needs to support this body and life. As are we. The season of fasting is here, we increase our prayers we increase our love for our neighbor, we decrease our own consumption, and we trust that God will provide for us as He always has.

Jesus is tempted with his own needs of the body. He doesn’t yield. We live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

The next temptation is that Jesus can be the God-Man – the only begotten Son who came into the world to save us, without the cross. There are those even today who claim that Jesus didn’t have to die on the cross. This was just the plan God had chosen, there could have been some other way that didn’t involve the death of God’s Son. But that’s the exact temptation Satan waves in front of Jesus face here. You can jump off the temple, be worshipped by all, without the cross. They would have no choice if you engaged in such a public display of power. But that’s a lie. Jesus is bound for the cross. He must die, not because his Father happened to pick this method over others, but because there must be a death for sin. The Wages of Sin is death, says Saint Paul. And so a death must atone – Hebrews says, “Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.”

Jesus had to die because Divine Justice demands a blood atonement for sin. There can be no other way. Jesus himself asks the Father, “If it is possible, let this cup pass from me. But not my will, but Thine be done.” If there was a different way to salvation, Jesus would have been given it. There was no way except the cross. And the cross is a scandal an offense, it is foolishness. We say that God has to die – that’s foolish. We say that He paid for your sin, that’s an offence. What sin? Aren’t we all righteous? Aren’t we good people at heart? The true scandal – offense – of the cross, is that sin exists, and there are consequences and penalties for sin. That you are guilty, and deserve punishment for your sin. That’s what the mind of man rejects. The cross shows us how much we owe to our heavenly Father. And so the cross is reviled, rejected, mocked by the world. And Satan tries to convince Jesus he can be a faithful Son of God without it. But he can not. Jesus rejects Satan’s lie, and goes to the cross.

May God grant us the grace to accept the crosses placed on us by our loving heavenly Father.

The final temptation is that Jesus can control the world if he worships Satan. How many today try to make that same bargain with Satan? But Satan does not own the world. He has stolen it, and it is corrupted and passing away. That’s all Satan can do – steal and corrupt. He can’t create on his own. He can only corrupt what God has made, he can twist it, make it less than, but he can not make anything of his own. As Sainted professor Dr. Lehmann put it, “Whatever the devil gives is shoddy; he takes whatever he can get and ruins whatever he receives.”

Jesus rejects the temptation to rule the world. His kingdom is not of this world. The kingdoms of this world pass away. Jesus kingdom does not pass away. He sits enthroned over all worlds, over heaven and earth, at the right hand of the Father. And his crown is not given by Satan, it was earned by the shedding of his own blood.

Our path follows Jesus – to the cross. The life of the Christian is not a life of glory, but of suffering and endurance. It is not a life of power, but of service to others. We are tempted to go after the glories of this world, to choose the easier path. To reject the word and promise of God as insufficient. Today we receive encouragement from Jesus to fight against Satan and his temptations in our own lives. There is a way out of temptation: To meditate on the Word and promise of God as our Lord does. To reject Satan’s lies and temptations. To remain steadfast and wait for the Lord to send us aid. To trust in our heavenly Father and his promise, rather than the empty promises of the world. Instead of giving in to temptation, if we only hold steadfast in the Word and promise of God, he will give us strength. The angels came and strengthened Jesus in the end. But he had to endure more than one temptation. How often, like our first parents, do we give in at the first word of Satan, do we just assume we’ll lose anyway so why struggle against? How often do we find ourselves filled with loathing and regret, how often do we desire the things of God, but know we can not attain them. And how often do we despair in our sin?

In this, the Lord is superabundant in his grace and mercy – he gives forgiveness that is greater than our sin. And Jesus encourages us by his own example, to struggle and fight against temptation, to be constantly in the Word of God, hearing and learning so that we might fight against the temptations of Satan. And we see in Jesus that victory is possible over Satan. Jesus won the victory by his own death. Satan was crushed. And in Baptism we are joined to that death. We have already been given the victory, and Jesus has silenced the accuser.

Lord God, give us grace to resist in temptation’s hour. Give us forgiveness when we stumble and fall. Show us mercy through the salvation which Jesus won for us on the cross, and keep us in the true faith so that we would not fall away, but remain in you, unto everlasting life.

Amen.