Matthew 4:1-11 [Lent 1—CWS A]
Pastor Ron Koehler
Grace—Benson/Vail, AZ
March 1, 2020
In the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and our Savior from sin, dear friends, The arena is filled with people yelling and cheering and anticipating death as one man enters the dirt field. He’s dressed in a somewhat fancy black and gold uniform complete with a unique hat. He holds in his hand a large red cape. The matador—the bullfighter—faces an enormous beast, a bull bred to kill. The anticipation of the clash between man and beast swells in the crowd as the raging bull begins his charge on the matador. There will be blood and suffering. And there will, with virtual certainty, be death. Death will, with rare exception, come to either the man or the bull. Today we see Jesus, right after his baptism by John, first stepping into the ring of his earthly ministry. And who is right there, charging straight at him like an enraged bull? It is the Devil himself—Satan, the angel cast out of heaven by God because of his rebellion against the Lord! As the Devil makes his charges at Jesus, trying to take him out before he can complete the work of salvation, you and I find in Jesus’ words and actions A LESSON IN COMBATTING THE DEVIL Don’t play by his rules There is a tight circular alley that runs around the bullfighting ring. Only the bullfighters are led into this area before they face their opponent. Nervous bullfighters peer over at the gate from which the bull is released. There is a reason why that entrance is called “The Gate of Fear.” It is said that matadors live in constant fear—not just of the animal, but of failure. Jesus too was led into the arena and prepared for his fight with the devil. His arena was the wilderness, and his training for this might seem like more of a detriment than a strength. Matthew tells us that right after his baptism Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil. After he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The Tempter came…to him… The bull charged in. Satan came to attack, to dismantle the Savior. He came at the Savior with questions designed to demolish Jesus’ perfect life before he could publicly preach and teach and offer that life for the world’s sin. This is what he did: Satan tempted Jesus when he was in a weakened human state—he had not eaten for 40 days. To us, it might not seem like such a strong run at Jesus: “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread.” But God calls the devil “the Tempter” here for a reason. Satan was trying to get Jesus to use his divinity to solve a human dilemma. Jesus was hungry; food, of course, would be welcome. Turning stones into bread might seem like no big deal because certainly Jesus possessed such power. But had he fallen to this temptation, he would not have relied on his Heavenly Father for his daily bread, like you and I and every other human being must do. This was not something Jesus could do and remain true to his Father.
Satan was trying to change THE RULES. He was twisting things just like he did in the Garden of Eden when he asked Eve if God “really” said they couldn’t eat from any tree in the garden. He brought the rules into question and tried to change things in order to get Jesus to go against his Father’s will. Doesn’t the Devil do the same with us? Of course he does—he hasn’t changed a bit! “You don’t have to wait for God to provide, take things into your own hands! Who needs to wait for marriage to have sex? Do what you want to do. Who needs to work constantly to make ends meet? There’s a shortcut to honest work and managing your money and trusting God to bless that—go to Vegas—certainly you can defy the odds and outsmart ‘the House’. A little dishonesty on your tax return doesn’t really hurt anyone either. After all, the tax system isn’t fair. The Devil twists things and tries to change THE RULES by challenging what you know is true and God-pleasing and planting doubt in your mind. He tried it with Jesus and he does it to us. Don’t let him do that! Be on your guard. Recognize what he’s doing and stick to what you know is right. The first thing we see in this LESSON IN COMBATTING THE DEVIL is to know the Devil for who he is so you don’t get sucked into playing by his twisted rules and thinking. Use Scripture You’ll notice that Jesus answered the Devil’s first mad rush by using Scripture. Watching Jesus avoid the charge by quoting God’s will in his Word teaches us that we too can USE SCRIPTURE to combat the Devil as he rushes at us. To the Devil’s first temptation, Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God.’ ” What Jesus meant by that was this: all the bread in the world would not keep him alive if his Father did not want him to live. The Father would determine his living or his dying— even after his 40 days of fasting and his extreme hunger. That scriptural statement was true for Moses who wrote it, for Jesus who quotes it here, and for us today. It is the will and Word of God that gives life. We trust that word of God. A matador has attendants who get into the ring before him and torment the bull, not only enraging the beast, but also getting it to reveal its tendency to turn to one side or the other as it charges. The bullfighter watches to know how to protect himself and know how best to defeat the animal. As Jesus dodged the first attack, the Devil, like an irritated bull, turns and approaches again. But Jesus knows what this beast will do. Satan appeals to Jesus’ great trust in his Father. He trusted him to provide his daily bread. Would he trust another specific promise from God? Then the Devil took him to the holy city. He placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, and he 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 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” The Devil used Scripture too! But as usual, he can’t be trusted. He pulls out one passage and ignores the other things God says in his Word. Jesus shows us that we can combat the Devil by USING
SCRIPTURE properly. Jesus said to him, “Again, it is written: You shall not test the Lord your God.” Had Jesus listened to the Devil, he would have been testing the Father to save him. We are not to dare God to action! And Jesus would not do it either, especially when the Lord’s revealed Word specifically warns us against it. Like a bull that charges and misses, the Devil turns and charges a third time. Again, the Devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. He said to him, “I will give you all of these things, if you will bow down and worship me.” This temptation might appear to be the craziest one to us, but it might have been the most appealing to Jesus. Jesus had come to save all the people of the world—people of every color, culture, and kingdom. Could it be this easy? If he would bow to Satan he could have it all and never have to go through the three years that lay ahead of him, especially the unjustified suffering he would endure and the pain of the cross and death itself—and he knew that all of that was waiting for him. What a solution this would be! Except that it was no solution. It couldn’t happen this way. The kingdoms of the world were not the Devil’s to give! And this could not bring about the result that his perfect life and his suffering and death would bring. So Jesus USES SCRIPTURE once again: “Go away, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.” The bullfighter challenges the bull with a mere cape. Some would say that’s crazy, yet the matador artfully avoids the deadly horns of the bull. Rarely is the bullfighter the one who dies in the ring. By one count, only 534 matadors have been killed in the ring since 1700. You and I have even better than “bullfighter odds” when using God’s Word against our evil foe! Jesus shows us that we can COMBAT THE DEVIL and the spiritual dangers he presents by properly using SCRIPTURE! Kick him out Much is made of the stories of Martin Luther shouting at the devil during times he felt tempted to do wrong. You can even go to Wartburg Castle and see an ink splotch on the wall of Luther’s study, where he supposedly threw an inkwell at the Devil to chase him away. The story has been told in many ways and apparently there were places all over Germany where Luther had stayed, each sporting an ink stain on the wall and claiming that Luther defied the devil there too! While the story may not be true, his defiance of the devil is fact. You can find many quotes of Luther where he spoke directly at Satan, claiming Christ as his Savior as a way to make the devil flee. Jesus did that, didn’t he? “Go away, Satan! …Then the Devil left him, and just then angels came and served him. Jesus confronted the devil’s temptations with Scripture and then commanded him to leave. We can do that too! Satan works behind the scenes in the spiritual realm, bringing temptations to us also. But you and I can KICK HIM OUT too. We can tell him to go away. This is how Luther spoke to Satan. He said:
"‘I am a Christian, of the same flesh and blood as is my Lord Christ, the Son of God. Settle your account with him.’ Then he wrote: Then the devil does not stay long Yes, Jesus as true God can command the devil, but he was also true man when he underwent these temptations and gave Satan the command to go away. You are a child of God, saved by Jesus Christ, and because of that, you too can recognize the Devil’s presence and work and, like Jesus himself and Luther after him, you can KICK HIM OUT! We’re further encouraged by the book of James which assures us: Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7). Rely on Jesus Finally, you can do all the things you learn in this lesson from Jesus, but you won’t do them perfectly; you will still sin. However, there is one more thing to be learned here— the most important thing: RELY ON JESUS. We need to COMBAT THE DEVIL to avoid sin, to protect our souls, and to show God that we love him. God’s thankful people want to do that. But ultimately, Jesus’ actions when he was tempted by the Devil make the difference for us. He did perfectly what we fail to do. He was sinless in the face of temptation. That’s why his life given on the cross matters. It paid for all the times the Devil has stuck his horns into us, leading us to sin and spiritually wounding us. It’s said that the style and bravery of the matador is regarded as being at least as important as whether or not he actually kills the bull. Well, that’s not true of Jesus. We don’t just admire him for his style points as he artfully fended off the Devil’s charges. He isn’t just a great example for us to follow. We love him because he totally defeated Satan. Yes, the Devil thought he had Jesus beaten and gored as the Savior hung on the cross bruised up and bleeding…and as his head sunk…and the air left his lungs. But his death wasn’t the end of the fight. To use the prophetic picture from Genesis, the Devil had merely “struck Jesus’ heel.” The complete victory came when the Savior “crushed Satan’s head” by rising from the dead on Easter. You could be the best Christian ever, studying the behavior of Satan and knowing his tendencies, waving the red cape of Scripture around, avoiding his charges, and finally telling him to get out of here, but you’d never be perfect and you’d always have to use this last lesson learned. You and I must RELY ON JESUS. Our victory over sin and the devil and death is found only in him. Look at how perfectly he handled the Devil! Our Lenten season has just begun. Throughout the coming weeks and through Good Friday there will be blood and suffering. And there will, with certainty, be death. Death will come to Jesus, but Easter morning will proclaim his victory over sin and death and the Devil. He fought the bull—Satan—perfectly in order to win for us forgiveness and salvation! Christian friends, you and I must fight the Devil out of love for God and for the protection of our souls, but we must rely on Jesus for our certain defeat of Satan and for our salvation! Amen. Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.