First Sunday in Lent
Invocabit
February 17, 2013
The
Old Testament reading today gives the account of the Fall into sin. It details
the crown of God’s creation, human beings, desecrating God’s good gift of
creation. Before that was the creation itself. God bringing into being all good
things. He did this for you. He gave to Adam and Eve everything in His
creation, all for them, all for their benefit.
What
Adam and Eve did was the opposite of that. What they did was for themselves.
They took what God gave them and twisted it into their own making.
Then
there is Satan. What he did was to harm them. What he does is to harm you. He
seeks your destruction.
There
is God’s good creation and there is also the way we and Satan desecrate that
creation. We do this for ourselves. God intends to bless us, we intend to look
to ourselves rather than to Him alone for all our good.
In
the Gospel reading we have a reprise of sorts of the account of the Fall in the
Old Testament reading, this time with a different ending. In the Gospel reading
a human being is there. Satan is there. Again what we have is God doing what is
good for us and what Satan is doing as what is harmful to us.
It
begins with Jesus being led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted
by the devil. What a strange thing. God the Holy Spirit driving God the Son
into the wilderness in order to be tempted by Satan. The Bible teaches us that
God tempts no one. But on this occasion He drove His Son into the place where
Satan could freely attack Him. Why did God do this? He did this for you. He
would never drive you into the wilderness for this kind of temptation, but He
would His Son, a foreshadowing of His going to the cross in your place.
What
did Satan do to Jesus? He tempted Him. He did this to defeat Jesus. But what
Satan was doing was what he was doing to you. He was doing this to harm you. If
he brought Jesus down it would be your downfall. Satan has only destruction in
his sights when he considers you. This is what he was attempting in his
temptation of Jesus. If Jesus had fallen into sin you would have no hope.
What
did Jesus do? When Satan attacked Him, He attacked Satan. Satan tempted Jesus,
Jesus combated him with the Word of God. Why did He do this? Was it to show His
power? Was it to show His superiority over Satan? No, He did this for you. He
did it to save you.
The
amazing thing about how Jesus did this for you is that He did it precisely in
the opposite way Satan was tempting Him to act. Satan tempted Adam and Eve with
power. Do you really need God? Wouldn’t it be better if you struck out on your
own? Wouldn’t it be better to rely on yourself rather than to have to rely on
God and always have to wonder if He’s holding out on you? Did God really say
what He said to you because it was best for you, or because He just wants to
keep you in check so that He can hold sway over you and your life?
He
did the same thing with Jesus. So You’re the Son of God, huh? I believe it, I
really do, You don’t have to convince me. But it would be great if you could
give a little display. Just show me a little glimpse and I may just come over
to Your side. So turn these stones to bread and then I’ll go around telling
everyone that You are, indeed, the Son of God.
Enticing
with power, that’s what Satan does. Enticing with relying on yourself, with dispensing
with having to entrust yourself to God while never knowing, for sure, whether
God really is on your side; whether He’s really going to come through for you.
Think about faith for a moment. What is it? It’s full reliance on God without
being able to see that your reliance on Him is worthy of that reliance. It’s,
as the Bible says, walking by faith, not by sight. So Satan comes along and
says, “Wouldn’t you rather go by sight? Doesn’t that make more sense? Is God
really for you if He’s withholding something from you?” And all of a sudden
that forbidden fruit looks a lot more enticing. All of a sudden those stones turning
to bread look a lot better than continuing a forty day fast.
But
Satan is not for you, he is against you. Jesus, He is for you. God, He is for
you. What God does, what God the Son does, they do for you. Jesus does not
respond to Satan in power, but rather in humility. In the full reliance on God
His Father. When the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness He fasted. He was
weak. He was hungry. He was in no condition to do battle with Satan. But that
is precisely the point. Jesus did what He did for you. He didn’t display His
power, rely on Himself, call into question what in the world His Heavenly
Father, what the Holy Spirit, was doing, but rather fully relied on His Father,
and fasted. He went without basic and strengthening sustenance so that the Word
of God alone could be His sword that would defeat Satan. He did this for you.
“It
is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes
from the mouth of God.’” Jesus became a man. He needed food. He ate food. He
slept, He rested, He had needs that all humans have. But in attacking Satan, it
is the Word of God that was His weapon. This He did for you.
And
this you have, as well. You have the Word of God. Eve fell into sin because she
went on the word of Satan rather than retreating to the Word of God. Adam fell
into sin because he listened to the word of his wife rather than submitting to
the Word of God. What did Jesus do? He was weak, He was hungry, He was ready
for something good, so to speak, from His Heavenly Father, after the Holy
Spirit drove Him out into that wilderness. But Jesus found His hope only in the
Word of God. He said nothing original to Satan, simply quoting the Word of God.
He did this for you.
Satan
seeks to destroy. He doesn’t do it by assaulting you physically. He entices
you. He gets you thinking about those things that can’t be that bad; after all,
God has given us good things in this life—surely we should enjoy them! And so
if Jesus is going to quote the Word of God, Satan is going to play that game
all day long. “Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the
pinnacle of the temple and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw
yourself down, for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you,” and
“On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a
stone.”’”
Satan
hasn’t changed. Just as he did with Eve, he doesn’t quote God’s Word so much as
he twists God’s Word. He quotes it so that it sounds good and so that it seems
like he’s looking out for you, but alters it in such a way that it will harm
you if you succumb to his temptation. We rationalize and think that it can’t be
that bad. Jesus, He goes to the Word of God and quotes it according to what it
is intended for. And that is for your good. Jesus said to him, “Again it is
written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
Well,
that’s what Satan does. He puts God to the test. And so “the devil took him to
a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their
glory. And he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down
and worship me.’” Power. Going beyond what God has given you. Consider for a
moment what God had given His Son Jesus Christ. A humble state. The Holy Spirit
sending Him into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. You think Satan didn’t
know this? He most certainly saw his chance here in giving Jesus an opportunity
to get a lot more than what His supposed loving Heavenly Father had given Him.
But
one thing Satan didn’t realize, or at least thought he could get around: Jesus
did this for you. He did this because He wanted to. He who is God and eternal
and who holds all glory and power became a man. He was born. He went through
the awkwardness of adolescence. He suffered scorn and experienced loss just as
you do. He was tempted as you are. He chose all of this. He did all of this for
you.
And
that’s why Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall
worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’” Jesus is God. That you
know and believe. But always remember, His being God has never been something
He enjoys for its own sake. His being God is quintessentially being love, and
specifically, loving you. He has no qualms whatsoever of submitting to the holy
and loving will of His Heavenly Father. That’s because it is His own will to
love you and save you. He worshiped the Lord His God and served Him only, His
eternal Heavenly Father. He did this for you.
And
while He is God He nevertheless remains man. He became a man and even now
carries the scars in His hands, His feet, and His side, from the suffering He
endured on the cross. They are glorious scars, as they bear witness to the
atonement He accomplished in that very suffering and death. They are eternal
marks, pointing you to what He did. That is why you can always look back to the
things He did. The things He accomplished. The things He did, for you. In His
humility, in His weakness, He accomplished the most glorious, most powerful
thing—salvation for you. Where Satan sought to destroy, Jesus accomplished
salvation. Where Satan sought to bring you down, Jesus lifted you up.
Consider,
He did it in the unlikeliest of ways, which is why Satan will always try to get
you to second-guess it. But Jesus has more power than Satan and His power is
all concentrated in His love for you. And that is why when Satan failed in his
attempts at getting Jesus to succumb to his temptations, the Gospel reading
says that “then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were
ministering to [Jesus].” This, perhaps, is the most remarkable thing of all, as
it takes us back full circle to where Jesus started, in being led by the Spirit
out into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan; weak, humble, vulnerable.
Now
that it is over, He is the recipient of angels’ ministering. This is Jesus!
This is God! this is the Creator and the Sustainer of the Universe! Needing
angels to come to minister to Him. Never forget that He did this for you.
Always remember that what He didn’t need is what He willfully and joyfully
chose. He was glad to be the recipient of lowly angels ministering to Him. Because
it meant that what He was doing He was doing for you. It was His joy to go to
the cross, because what He was doing He was doing for you. It is what He did,
it is what He continues to do for you. Even now, where it would appear that
there is simply bread and wine given to you in the Sacrament hosted at this
altar, it is His joy to come to you in and with that bread and wine with His
very Body and Blood. He does this for you. Given and shed, for you. Amen.
SDG
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