Lent 1—Invocavit
Dear friends in Christ. Today we have come to the first Sunday in the holy and penitential season of Lent. Right away we come to one of the main themes of Lent—Jesus vs. the devil. The vital thing for us to remember is that Jesus is there for us, in our place. As our Substitute Jesus is fighting this battle against the devil and his wiles in temptation. Luther puts it quite nicely in the hymn [TLH #262 st.2]: But for us fights the Valiant One. And why? Luther tells us: With might of ours can naught be done, Soon were our loss effected. And what great comfort is there that Jesus fights for us! He [Christ] holds the field forever. Jesus is victorious—for us!
Here is the “so-what” of our text: Jesus faced the devil’s temptations to sin and overcame them for us, as our Substitute. It is very easy to go from the silent holy night of Christmas and then jump to the joys of Easter, or even to the depths of the sufferings and sorrows of Holy Week. But the in between time was also the time Jesus was doing His work to save us. Our text today teaches us about this part of His saving work for—facing and overcoming the devil’s temptation to sin. This is so vital because if Jesus sinned—even just once—He could not be the Savior of the world because the sacrifice He would offer up on the cross would not be the perfect sacrifice that God demands; if Jesus had sinned—even just once—the holy law of God which He demands be kept if we are to enter heaven would still not be kept and heaven would still be shut to us. What we see, then, in our text is a vital battle for our salvation. The stakes are all or nothing—if Christ fails, there’s no salvation for us and nothing but the wrath of God, hell, and damnation awaiting us. And don’t think that this was the only time our Lord was tempted. By the Holy Spirit, St. Luke ends his description of this account [Luke 4.13]: [the devil] departed from [Jesus] until an opportune time. And the holy apostle writes [Hb. 4.15]: [Jesus] was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
1. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. What’s the Then? –Immediately after Jesus’ Baptism; this moment of glory in which Jesus is marked as the Son of God and Savior of the world as the Father announced for all to hear [Mt. 3.17]: This is My Son, the Beloved, in whom I am well pleased. Jesus doesn’t stay there and bask in that glory. Instead, He right away gets to His saving work. If Jesus is to be the Savior of the world He has to free us from sin and death; and the only way that can be/ is done is to get on to His saving work and part of that is combatting the devil. In order to rescue us from sin and death Jesus had to first face and defeat the one who brought sin and death into the world—the devil. So right after publicly entering His saving office—by being marked by and anointed for it at His baptism—Jesus sets out to take on the devil, to endure the worst temptations the devil could throw at Him and to overcome them.
Don’t miss the vital image of our text: Jesus is out there in the wilderness all alone being tempted. It is just Jesus and devil for those 40 days, as St. Luke [4.1-2] makes crystal clear: Jesus…was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil. It’s not as if Jesus was being strengthened for 40 days for just these 3 temptations that are recorded. Instead, He was tempted for 40 days; He was weakened; and, of course, He was hungry. Weakened as He was, He faced the devil head on with this first temptation recorded in our text—the temptation to despair: And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” Notice carefully that our text says the tempter came [to Jesus]. That’s the only way that Jesus could be tempted—when the temptation comes from the outside. We are conceived and born with a sinful nature that stays with us until our dying breath. It works together with the devil and the world. So very often our sinful nature within us tempts and leads us into sin. But here we see that Jesus does not have that sinful nature because He was conceived without the taint of original sin; He was conceived holy in the womb of Mary as the Holy Spirit came upon her and cleansed and purified from her what would be Jesus’ human nature. Was this a true temptation that Jesus faced? Absolutely! Whether a temptation comes from outside of us—like it did here with Jesus—or arise from our old sinful nature, it is a true/ real temptation.
Here the devil tempted Jesus to distrust the Father. He attacked Jesus’ trust and confidence in Him and as he did with Eve in Paradise, tried to get Jesus to question. With Eve the devil raised doubt by asking her [Gn. 3.1], Has God indeed said... With Jesus he tries to raise doubt: If you are the Son of God… If you really are God’s Son, why would you be out here suffering and hungry? If you really are God’s Son wouldn’t you be better off than this? Will He really provide? Jesus is a true human being enduring real hunger and agony. Certainly a real/ serious temptation.
But the Father had prescribed for Jesus fasting forty days and forty nights. And our comfort here is Jesus, whose will was in perfect accord with His heavenly Father’s, would hunger as long as it pleased his Father. With this temptation, the devil tried to get Jesus to detach His will from the Father’s; he tried to get Jesus to act independently from His Father. But Jesus is not just true man but He is also true God, Second Person of the blessed and holy Trinity. And within the Trinity, there is perfect agreement and will among Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Father’s will was that the Son, Jesus, endure great hunger; that He endure the great humiliation of being tempted. But that was also the will of the Son—for us and our salvation. Jesus very clearly teaches [John 5.30; 6.38]: I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me; and For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. Here is the certainty of our salvation: Jesus came to do the Father’s will, namely to bring about the salvation of the world. The devil with this temptation tried to divide the will and purpose of the holy Trinity—and he failed miserably. Jesus did the will of His Father, suffering and enduring all because that’s how He would save sinful humanity and establish His kingdom, the Church. But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Jesus certainly didn’t deny that He could turn stones into bread, but that He is the Son of God that is shown not by a miracle but by His trust in His heavenly Father that Jesus’ will in perfect agreement with the Father’s—even as it takes the path of suffering. That’s how life is for us in the kingdom Christ set up—His Church. We are Christians who have been baptized into Christ. He is in us and we are in Him. He has given us His Holy Spirit. We have that new self, the Christian in us that led and empowered by the Holy Spirit wants to do the Lord’s will.
That’s where the devil with his temptations come in and tempts us too. He very well points out to us our various needs and sufferings, which we feel and are very much aware of—just like Jesus was; and with his ally within us—our old sinful nature—gets us to despair, to think God has forgotten us, forsaken us. How often we fall prey to this temptation and think our will is best; what we want is best. To be sure, no one wants to suffer; no one wants hardship. But maybe, like it was for Christ in our text, it is God’s will for us at the time. The hardest thing for us is not to accept God’s will and to think that we know better/ best—and then to despair since it’s not going how we think it should be. In times of sorrow and hardship our true glory as Christians is shown as we continue to trust in the Lord and His word. Precisely in those times, the Lord is with us strengthening our faith as we make careful and faithful use of His holy word and the visible word of the Sacrament.
When we do fail, here, though and succumbing to the devil’s temptation and despair and doubt and question our Lord—we remember Jesus faithfully trusted His Father and so kept for us the commandment we broke!
Our text continues: 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.’” Now, seeing Jesus’ faithful reliance on His Father, the devil tempts Jesus to arrogance and presumption: throw yourself down. Why? The devil tries to lead Jesus to look for a miraculous sign that He is indeed the Son of God. Perhaps tied in with this was also that if Christ would make some great scene like having the angels come down from heaven to save Him, He could get a following and so set up His Church in a way that did not involve suffering and dying. But think about it! What would it mean if Christ were to try to set up His kingdom without His suffering and dying? It would mean that He would not place Himself under the holy Law of God to keep it for us and so God’s holy Law would still not be kept. It would mean that God’s wrath over sin would not have been poured out on Christ on the cross and we would still have to endure His wrath eternally in hell. It was precisely by suffering and dying that Jesus would set up His kingdom, the Church! Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” With this Jesus would establish His Church—not by spectacle and fame—but the right way—the only way it could be established—by humbly submitting to persecution, humiliation, and death according to God’s will.
That means for us now living in Christ’s Church here on earth, we hold to and rely on God’s simple word and sacraments for our spiritual life and sustenance. We don’t try to “grow the Church” by spectacle; there is no room for self-glorification. Instead, our lives are lives of fighting against sin—lives of self-denial, saying no to the desires of our sinful nature. As we fight against our sin and sinfulness and rely on God’s simple humble word and that word together with water, bread and wine we are simply holding God to His promise to strengthen and keep us in the faith.
The third temptation in our text: the devil tempts Jesus to avoid the cross and get the world’s pleasures and glory, Again, 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.” Jesus has had enough and with divine authority says, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’” Jesus sets up His kingdom by going the path of obedience, suffering and death. Precisely by obedience, suffering and death Jesus takes by conquest and pillages the devil’s kingdom and rescues sinful humanity from it. The devil tries to give something that is really not his to give all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, but Jesus comes and takes it. And so by His victory over sin death, devil and hell; by His keeping the holy Law of God and by His suffering and death on the cross, Jesus set up His kingdom the Church and, we, dear Christian, are part of it.
Now, in Christ, we are free from sin and death; our sins are forgiven us and heaven is opened to us. Now we, as new creations in Christ, are free to enjoy the glorious dignity of our creation and redemption, namely that we serve God alone and are not subject to our fellow creatures. That even means that in Christ, forgiven our sins, restored, we need no longer serve self, but are free to serve, thank and praise our glorious Savior, Christ Jesus, who by His holy sinless life, His obedience and His innocent suffering and death set up His kingdom, the Church and in grace brought us into it. INJ