Invocabit, 2023
Rev. Thomas Van Hemert
St. Matthew 4:1-11
Invocabit
February 26, 2023
In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.
The temptation of Jesus takes place before His public ministry begins. First, He was baptized by John in the Jordan in order “to fulfill all righteousness.” By being baptized by John in the Jordan, Jesus not only consecrated and set apart the Jordan and all water to be a saving flood and a rich and full washing away of sins, but He also takes all our sin upon Himself. We leave our baptism clean, pure, and holy. He leaves His baptism filthy with our sins, already a stench to His Father. But this was done in order “to fulfill all righteousness.”
Just as His baptism was necessary, so also was it necessary for Him to be tempted in the wilderness by the devil. I fear, however, that we often ask the wrong questions when it comes to the temptation of Jesus by the devil. Not necessarily here, but I have often heard the main question that’s asked when it comes to Matthew 4 and the temptation of Jesus, “What would have happened if Jesus gave in to any one of those temptations?” Well that answer is obvious: we would be without hope; we would be doomed. There would be no salvation for us. But if that’s the only thing that comes to mind when contemplating and thinking about what great lengths Jesus went to in order to redeem us, then we aren’t really thinking that deep or theologically about the text. A better question in this regard, that we’ll take up today is, “Why was it necessary for Jesus to be tempted?” To that end, I think two Bible passages outside the Gospel reading appointed for today help us come to that answer.
Matthew begins his account of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness with the sentence, “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” This was after Jesus’ baptism. After He is baptized and anointed, then, He was led up by the Spirit—the Holy Spirit—into the wilderness [in order] to be tempted by the devil.” This is a divinely appointed task that He must undertake. Matthew notes that the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness. Mark, on the other hand in his Gospel adds some colorful language. Mark records that the Holy Spirit, after Jesus’ baptism, immediately drove Him out into the wilderness.
So there goes Jesus out into the wilderness. First, He fasts for forty days and forty nights, afterward, He was hungry. Of course, He’s hungry. By divine intervention He is kept alive so that He might further suffer for us because He is already weak and suffering. And then the devil comes and tells Him to turn stones into bread. This is the most basic temptation. After all, it’s the exact same temptation, by which the devil tempted and overcame Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. With a great smorgasbord of many interesting plants and fruit in Eden, with plentiful abundance so that they would never run out, all God asked is that they do not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. But the devil says to them, “You should not trust God. You should reach out, take it, and then you will be like Him, knowing good and evil.” This is why the devil first tempts Jesus in this way. The point is not that Jesus would be sinning by turning stones into bread. After all, everything in the world belongs to Him and He can do what He wants, when He wants. God even told Adam and Eve that once they left Eden, they would eat bread, by the sweat of their brow. Years later, Jesus even multiplied bread loaves for thousands of people in the wilderness. So it’s not that the act of turning stones to bread is a sin in itself. The devil is tempting Jesus not to trust that His Father will take care of Him and sustain Him, but rather to get Jesus to act selfishly of His own will and desire.
How often is it, that we are tempted in the same way? Our consciences often tell us, “Take whatever you want for yourself!” We don’t think need to fast. That’s just for the Catholics! During Lent, we don’t need to mortify our flesh, or read more of the Scriptures, or withhold food from our bellies or pray more! But if you remember, Jesus says, “When you fast,” not “if you fast.” Fasting is good for us. It helps us to realize that food is not our god. That our Father in heaven will sustain us. Fasting may be accompanied by actually taking time out of our day at home to read the Bible and to actually pray, or pray more than we usually do so that we might realize that our time comes from God. It is not our time. It is His. This then, is why Jesus rebukes the devil and says to Him, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Jesus is perfectly conformed to His Father’s will. He and His Father are one. He knows His Father will see Him through.
But, if the devil cannot tempt Jesus to act of His own will and sustain Himself by turning stones into bread, then maybe he can tempt Jesus into testing His Father, just to see if His Father will look after and care for Him. “Jesus, you say that man lives by every word that proceeds from your Father’s mouth and that He will help you and sustain you. So why don’t you jump off the top of this here temple. Apparently, You trust Your Father. For He says in Scripture, ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’” But the temptation here is not that Jesus would trust in His Father to do something for Him, but rather to test His Father—to have doubt in His Father because maybe His Father won’t look after Him. And yet, not even for a moment does Jesus doubt His Father would do that. Thus, it is unnecessary. “It is written,” Jesus said to him, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God.”
The final temptation is perhaps the most ridiculous of all. But then again, all temptations are ridiculous when it comes down to it. Our Lord is the creator of heaven and earth. All things belong to Him and are His by right. But the devil is too prideful. So he tries to tempt Him by saying, “All of these kingdoms and their glory will be yours if you will fall down and worship me.” The Lord then banishes the devil from His presence by again, quoting Scripture, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.’”
It wasn’t even possible for Jesus to give into these temptations because He is perfectly conformed to the will of His Father. Not even for a second, a brief moment, did He consider the possibility of giving in to the devil. So the question, “What would have happened if Jesus sinned?” is completely ridiculous. He cannot sin. He is perfect, divine, and holy. But it was necessary that Jesus be tempted, just like we are, and in the same manner that Adam was.
This is because Jesus is Israel reduced to one person. In this sense, He is also our Man, the perfect man, the one made in the image of God because He is God in the flesh. Yet, He is without sin. And He is doing what Adam did not. Adam was tempted and fell into temptation. Jesus was tempted but remains without sin.
We Lutherans generally speak of what’s known as the first Adam and the second Adam when it comes to sin and redemption. The first Adam is Adam himself, the first created man, the one who sinned. The second Adam is Jesus Christ—God who has taken up our flesh to right our wrongs, to be sin for us though He knew no sin, and to make sinners to be righteous by His death on the cross. In fact, one of our hymns describes this very nicely. Many of you know the hymn, “All Mankind Fell in Adam’s Fall.” The hymn describes this very juxtaposition, this comparison between sin and grace, death and life, and damnation and justification. Here are some of the stanzas of the hymn: “All mankind fell in Adam’s fall; one common sin infects us all. From one to all the curse descends, and over all God’s wrath impends. But Christ, the second Adam, came to bear our sin and woe and shame, to be our life, our light, our way, our only hope our only stay. As by one man all mankind fell and, born in sin, was doomed to hell, so by one Man, who took our place, we all were justified by grace.”
We cannot stop sinning. We were born in sin and so we readily give into temptation. But Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, the Second Adam, our Man has gone out into the wilderness to battle the devil. There, He overcomes him. Already, even before His ministry begins, He is suffering. He suffers everything we deal with and more. He knows what we go through. He suffers so that we wouldn’t. This is what the author of the Book of Hebrews says—whether you want to say it’s Paul or Barnabas or Apollos—when he writes concerning Christ as the Second Adam, “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence drawn near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
So what would have happened if Jesus gave into temptation? That’s the wrong question. He can’t sin. He’s perfect in every way. The better question is, “Why was it necessary?” It was necessary because as our Man, He takes our place for us in every manner. He was tempted, He suffered, He died, but He rose from death. And because our Lord has suffered in our place, because He has been tempted in our place, because He has died in our place, and because He rose from the dead so that we will also rise, we have access to Him. Let us drawn near to His throne of grace, where He comes down to meet us and give us mercy and help because we are of great need.
In +Jesus’ name.
