Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tested by the devil.

Luke 4:1-2

In last Sunday’s sermon, I posed a thought experiment: If you had to choose, I asked, just three stories from the gospels to tell someone about Jesus, and you couldn’t use the stories of his death and resurrection, what would they be? And why? 

I named the Raising of Lazarus and the Institution of the Lord’s Supper as two of my three, and the Transfiguration as a good possibility for the third. But I also mentioned today’s gospel reading (Luke 4:1-13) as a possible choice. So today, I get to explain why – why the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness is a great story to teach us about Jesus. 

Why this particular story? Well, that’s the theme of this sermon, but the short answer is that this story foreshadows everything that the rest of the gospel story will tell us so clearly: 

That Jesus has overcome the devil, and earned our salvation, not by power or by force, but by obedience and by love. 

This story teaches us that and much more, and it also invites us to learn from Jesus as we battle our own trials and temptations. So let’s look more closely at Jesus and his forty days in the wilderness as we begin our Lenten journey. 

Baptism → Temptation

The story begins by reminding us that Jesus “returned from the Jordan,” where he was baptized by John, “and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.” His baptism, in other words, is what leads Jesus into this time of trial and temptation. 

Sometimes we might think that our baptisms end our temptations, but it actually seems to just begin them, or at least exacerbate them. And that makes sense, in a way, because it is we who are baptized who concern the devil. We are committed to doing the Lord’s work in this world, and the devil definitely doesn’t want that. He didn’t want Jesus to succeed, and he doesn’t want us to succeed either. So he will do anything he can to stop us, just as he did with Jesus. 

And as we know, the devil tried to stop Jesus from fulfilling his mission in three basic ways, as shown in these three temptations. And each of them has something important to teach us about Jesus, and about ourselves. 

The First Temptation

Take the first temptation that Jesus faces. It’s a pretty basic and universal one: It is about food. We’ve all had temptations involving food, I suspect. But imagine going without food for forty days, as Jesus did.

At the end of those forty days, the devil approached Jesus and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.”

That must have been quite a temptation for Jesus. But what is this temptation, really? Is it just to eat food? Or is it about more than that? 

If you are the Son of God, the devil is saying, then use your divine power to turn a stone into bread. This is a temptation to use his divine power for himself. It is a temptation to do something for himself. Not for his heavenly Father. Not for humanity. But for himself.

I suspect that the devil knows that if he can get Jesus to think about himself, even just a little, then the devil has won. Because there is no way that Jesus will be crucified for our sins, if he begins thinking about himself in any way. 

And there is something universal in this. Because once we decide to live for ourselves, and not for God, even just a little, we have begun wandering away from the faith. Because there is no way that we will do anything sacrificial – for God or for others, if we are thinking about ourselves. It doesn’t make any sense to do that. 

So, when we are tempted in this way, how can we deal with it? What does Jesus do? He answers with Scripture. He quotes Deuteronomy to the devil: “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’” And the devil would know the next part of that verse: “But by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” 

We don’t live by bread alone. We don’t live for bread alone. Our lives are about much more than eating and drinking and working and sleeping. They are about the relationship with God that Jesus came to restore. That comes first, Jesus is reminding us.

When we put that relationship first, then everything else makes more sense. It becomes natural for us to make sacrifices in our life for God – because our relationship with God is our highest priority. And because we know what a sacrifice God’s Son has made for us. 

The Second Temptation

How about the second temptation? The devil showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and said to him: “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 

Now, think first about why this might have been tempting to Jesus. The temptation isn’t to worship the devil, of course. The temptation for Jesus is to take a shortcut to his goal – to agree to worship the devil so that he could be given control of the world. And wouldn’t the world be a better place if Jesus were in control?! Even if he had to make a deal with the devil, the world would certainly be better off if Jesus were in charge. 

If Jesus demanded that the world obey him, there would be far less suffering and evil in this world. And don’t we all long for that? 

I read this week that the most common reason why young people struggle to believe in God is because they “have a hard time believing that a good God would allow so much evil or suffering in the world.” 

Jesus could do something about that. But he doesn’t. Why? Because he chooses to rule the world by love, not by force. Even if that means that he doesn’t always get his way. Love does not insist on its own way, as scripture teaches us. And Jesus is love. 

But what does this teach us? Obviously, the devil isn’t offering us any deals like this, right? We certainly can’t take control of the world, even if we think we could do something positive for it. But aren’t we tempted to take control of our little corner of the world? We know how to fix our little corner, right? We know how to fix our family, or our friends, or our school or workplace. There are things that we could do that would be so simple, right? And it would fix them. We know it would! It really is a temptation sometimes. But does it ever work?

When we take control of our little corner of the world, instead of trusting our corner to God, it never works out. And it never works out for us for a very simple reason: Unlike God, we can’t see the whole picture. And we aren’t perfect. So it is always better to trust things to God. 

When Jesus was offered this particular temptation, he answered the devil by quoting Deuteronomy again: “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”

It is a matter of trust, isn’t it? Even for Jesus. Of trusting God with our little corner of the world. Worshiping God, serving God, remembering that God is in control, not us.

We can talk to God about it, and we should. We can join God in improving our corner of the world, and we should. But it really is God’s world, even our corner of it. And our task is to worship, serve, trust, and love. And leave the rest to God. 

The Third Temptation

So, how about the third temptation? The devil took Jesus to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple; and this time, the devil tried using Scripture on Jesus. The devil knows his Bible! So he quoted Psalm 91 to Jesus: “Throw yourself down from there, for it is written, ‘‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”

So, why would this be tempting for Jesus? Why would it be tempting for him to throw himself down from the temple, and trust God’s angels to protect him from getting hurt? 

Well, imagine how much easier it would have been for Jesus to teach and preach, to gather disciples and to build the church, to do everything that Jesus was doing in his years of public ministry, if he started with a splashy miracle like this one. Everyone would have believed in him right away. The Pharisees, scribes, tax collectors, fishermen. Everyone would have known, right away, that this man truly is the Son of God. And Jesus could have done a lot of good if everyone believed that right away. 

In fact, wouldn’t it be great if Jesus did that today? Did something so amazing in our world that everyone alive believed in him? I think it is pretty easy to see why this would be tempting. 

But, again, we don’t have this temptation in our life, do we? Not literally, of course. But aren’t there times when we are tempted to let the ends justify the means? Aren’t there times when we can see a shortcut to accomplishing something good, and it seems like it might be worth it in the end, even if it’s not the best way to accomplish it? 

But what Jesus is reminding us of today is that sometimes, it is better to do something in the right way, and fail, than to do something in the wrong way, and succeed. Success is not everything. Or, as Mother Teresa famously put it: “God has not called me to be successful, but to be faithful.” 

We are called to be faithful, and to trust the results to God. Jesus didn’t start his ministry with a splashy miracle because he knew that it was not God’s will. It would have been a shortcut, and it would have worked – and he would have been successful, but he chose being faithful over being successful. And he invites us to do the same. 

Closing

In this story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, we learn so much about our Lord and Savior. We learn that he is completely selfless, always putting God’s will before his. We learn that he always chooses the path of love over power. And we learn that he always puts being faithful over being successful. And we learn, above all, that Jesus defeated the devil at every turn. Jesus is the ruler of this world, not the devil. And he rules by love. 

And inspired by his love, we are invited to live in this same way. Not always successfully. But, we pray, always faithfully. To the glory of God. Amen.