First Sunday in Lent

First Sunday in Lent (C)

March 9, 2025

Text: Luke 4:1-13

            The devil doesn’t want you to know this, but he’s really a one trick pony.  He is, by definition, not creative.  That is, he can’t make anything new.  He can only bend things, and break things, and destructively ape things created, in the first place, by the Creator, the only true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  And so, even when it comes to his specialty, tempting (and then, of course, accusing when we fall for the temptation), he really only has one strategy: Did God actually say? (Gen. 3:1).  That is, he takes the creative and powerful, authoritative and performative Word of God, the things God does, in fact, actually say, and he bends them.  He perverts them.  It's all he knows how to do.  That is why Jesus calls him a liar, and the father of lies (John 8:44). The devil wants you to think his words are new words, different words than God’s words, equally powerful words.  But really, they’re just stolen words, twisted and abused, a poor imitation of God’s speaking into being. 

            Now, two things on this before we take a dive into our text.  First, we shouldn’t give the devil more credit than he is due.  He is not a god, and we should mock him for his delusions of grandeur.  He is a creature, subject to his Creator, an angel gone bad, by his own most grievous fault.  And that is true of his cronies, the demons and unclean spirits, as well. Their pride got the best of them.  They are irreparably and irredeemably damaged goods.  Don’t let them trick you into thinking they’re anything more.

            But, second, don’t think that you are in any shape to take them on, head-to-head, in battle.  Not even armed with Scripture passages… as you, nevertheless, should be, and which you should wield when you’re under spiritual attack….  Know, though, that Satan knows the Bible better than you and I do, and he’s not afraid to quote it, as he does in our Holy Gospel.  It’s just that he quotes it bent… he uses it for his own nefarious purposes.  Yes, quote the Scriptures at him, but don’t listen to his own bent quoting them back at you.  And don’t start to take pride that you are somehow winning against him by your own slinging of smooth Scripture passages at him.  That’s just what he’d want you to think, before he springs in for the kill.  He is an angel, remember.  A mighty one.  No, you aren’t David going up against Goliath.  Jesus is.  It can only be Jesus.  Sing again our Hymn of the Day (LSB 656).  Memorize it, and take it to heart.  “With might of ours can naught be done, Soon were our loss effected” (v. 2).  No mere human being, no sinner… not even you… can match wits with the devil and win.  “But,” what?... “for us fights the valiant One, Whom God Himself elected.”  And, “Ask ye, Who is this?”  You know.  “Jesus Christ it is!... There’s none other God,” least of all Satan.  Christ “holds the field forever.”  Christ is our Champion.  Christ is our Exorcist.  Because He doesn’t just know the Word of God.  He is the Word of God.  And when He speaks, the imitations are exposed, and serpentine heads are crushed.  When you quote Scripture passages under demonic attack, what you are actually doing is hiding yourself in Christ.  He does all the fighting.

            I tell you what, though, the arrogance of the old evil foe!  He actually tries to pull his old trick… the only one he knows… on our Lord.  Did God actually say?  How does he phrase it in our Gospel?  How does he so often phrase it to us?  “If.”  As in, “If it’s true, what God says, then…”  Or, “If you’d just do this thing God doesn’t want you to do, then actually…”  See, it’s all about luring his victim into disbelieving God’s Word.  By the way, when we fall for the trap, as we so often do… when we succumb to the temptation, doubting or denying God’s Word, what is the death hold Satan uses to squeeze the life out of us?  Where does he sink the poisonous fangs of accusation?  Right into our faith in Christ.  Either by leading us to despair: “Oh… well, goodness.  I can’t believe you did that (or said, or thought, that).  You know, I thought you were a better Christian than that.  Well, there’s no saving you now.  Christ died for sinners, but not that kind of sinner.  You may as well give up.  Jesus doesn’t want a sinner like you.  He can’t possibly save you, never mind love you, now.”  Or, worse, by leading us into self-justifying pride: “Alright, you did it!  Good for you!  Looking out for number one, for once.  Don’t listen to all the good for nothing, holier-than-thou critics.  Those people are all toxic, anyway.  And fools, to boot.  Cut them out of your life.  You’re fine on your own.  Live your own life.  Make your own rules.  Self-love.  Self-care.  That’s the ticket!  That’s true righteousness.”  Lies.  All lies.

            Incidentally, the treatment for despair is private Confession and Absolution.  That sin the devil says can’t be forgiven?  Say it out loud to Christ in the presence of your pastor.  And then hear of that specific sin (as well as every other sin), that it is, in fact, forgiven by the Word who speaks it so, and bespeaks you righteous.  The treatment for self-justifying pride is the proper application of the holy Law of God (that’s the Word Satan bends for his purposes of accusation).  The Law of God, though, leads you to repentance.  And then, Confession and Absolution.  Hear and believe that your sins are forgiven. 

            In any case, the devil unleashes three different Ifs on our Lord in the wilderness.  You know them.  Each is a temptation to self-idolatry.  That is, putting self in the place of God.  And each of them exposes one of the three classical substitutes for God.  The first: The satisfaction of sensual desires.  Jesus is hungry (an understatement, to say the least, after 40 days of fasting).  “No problem, Jesus.  If You are the Son of God, as He supposedly claimed at Your Baptism”… and the implication is, “You’re not.  God didn’t actually say”… “just command these stones to become bread, and voila!”  What’s the temptation?  And what accusation is the goal?  Despair: “If God really loved You as His own, He wouldn’t make You suffer hunger… or worse, the cross!  Therefore, Jesus, the Father must not love You.”  Or, self-justifying pride: “God does love You, right?  So, He’d want You to do this, and fill Your belly.  He’d want Your every appetite to be satisfied.  Whatever it takes.”  Here are the temptations to satisfy lust or covetousness.  How does Jesus respond?  “Man shall not live by bread alone” (Luke 4:4; ESV).  We don’t live by satisfying our appetites.  We live by God’s Word.  Even when that Word is painful to live by.  We trust it, because we trust God.  Jesus trusts His Father.  “The Father is giving Me to hunger, because this hunger is better for Me, and for the salvation of the world, than bread.”

            Okay, the second If.  The devil shows our Lord all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.  That is, power.  The power of every ruler from every nation and locale, spanning history.  And the devil claims, “It all belongs to me.  I could give it to You, You know.  If You will worship me.  Just for a moment.  Just a quick bow of the head and bending of the knee, and it’s all Yours.  No muss, no fuss; no cross, just a crown.”  Here are temptations to reject established authority, and claim it for our own.  Even if it takes selling our soul to get it (of course, the devil never puts it quite that way).  Skip God’s will.  Take what you deserve.  Jesus responds with a sermon on the first three Commandments.  God is God, and you are not, Satan.  “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve” (v. 8).

            And then, the grand finale (at least in Luke’s telling).  The pinnacle of the Temple, and the third If.  “If You are the Son of God…”  Oh, we’re back to that.  “Yes, but listen!  I have a Bible verse for You.  Psalm 91 (we sang part of it in the Introit).  Let’s prove God’s Word true.  Throw Yourself down, here in front of God and everybody, and You know what will happen.  The verse says it.  The angels will catch You, lest You dash Your foot against a stone.  And then everyone will know that You are God’s Son, and they will worship You.  And once again, no need for any pesky suffering and cross.”  Glory.  That is the temptation.  Pure self-worship.  God’s plan is for Jesus to come into His glory precisely through the cross and suffering.  But Satan is here offering… surprise, surprise… a cheap imitation.  And see how he twists and tortures the meaning of the verse?  That’s how he works.  Same old trick.  Jesus responds with Deuteronomy 6:16: “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test” (Luke 4:12).  It would be testing God to throw Himself down.  He won’t do it.  And so, the devil flees until an opportune time (v. 13… and that, incidentally, will be in the Garden of Gethsemane).  But there is something more going on here than first meets the eye.  Jesus is commanding the devil.  And the devil must obey.  Because, what is the point?  Jesus is the Lord, the devil’s God.  And the devil is no longer to put Him to the test.  Our Lord has spoken.  Jesus is the Exorcist.

            And that is your only defense against Satan and his lies.  The Word made flesh, our Savior, and our Lord, Jesus Christ.  When you are under attack, ask Jesus to fight for you.  And He will!  He does!  Your only defense is to be in Christ.  Which is why you are here.  Baptized into Christ.  Absolved by Christ.  The preaching of Christ ringing in your ears.  Bodied and blooded with Christ’s own body and blood.  By the way, that doesn’t mean you won’t be tempted or attacked.  Quite the contrary.  You are in Christ, who, full of the Holy Spirit on the heels of His Baptism, was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted (vv. 1-2).  Baptism into Christ makes you a target of the devil.  And the Spirit even sends you out to be exposed to his arrows.  Only, the mystery of it is, the Spirit uses them for your good.  Nevertheless, here is the pattern.  Temptation.  Accusation.  Attack!  And then... respite.  From God.  The devil goes away until another opportune time.  God gives you a break.  The angels minister to you.  You get some rest in the gifts of Christ.  Lather.  Rinse.  Repeat.  Look for that pattern, and when you are under attack, know that a time of refreshment will come.  But always keep your eyes (and ears!) on Jesus.  The victory is His, by cross and resurrection.  The devil?  He’s judged, the deed is done, all his bent, uncreative protests notwithstanding.  His single, solitary trick has been exposed.  One little word can fell him.  And that word is… “Liar!”  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.