In a couple of weeks we will enter the period of the church calendar known as “Ordinary Time”. In following the history of Christendom, our devotional meditations
will focus on the life and ministry of our Savior from the Gospels. Although I am currently preaching through Luke’s Gospel I thought it would be good to go over the material again.
And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 2
for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. 3
The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 4
And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” 5
And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6
and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7
If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 And Jesus answered him, “It is written,
“‘You shall worship the Lord your God,
and him only shall you serve.’”
9
And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10
for it is written,
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
to guard you,’
11
and
“‘On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
12
And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”13
And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.
More than likely, the account of Christ being tempted was told to Matthew, Mark and Luke by Jesus himself. No one else was there in the wilderness. It is of importance
that we note that Jesus was led by the Spirit of God into the wilderness…into these days of intense testing. This is at the very beginning of His earthly ministry, before dealing with people and our sin, God the Holy Spirit directed Him into the path of the
Evil One. This makes clear the road that our Savior would take…obedience through suffering…that He might defeat sin, evil and death.
The subtlety of the temptations cannot be missed. The Devil tempted Jesus to use his powers for his personal use but also for the physical benefit of others…He tempted
the Christ to be a social reformer and benefactor of the poor. Because of Jesus’ love for humanity, which is why He was in the world to begin with, this would have appealed to the Lord’s compassionate heart. Satan knew, as did our Savior, that the Christ had
unusual powers. You and I could not be tempted by the challenge to turn stones into bread…but Jesus could.
As one author wisely points out: Take note of the devil’s guile and craft. He formed his temptations with subtle insight into the Lord’s mind, his loyalties, and
his purposes in the world. The devil doesn’t craft temptations that fall on deaf ears. Poorly crafted temptations don’t work. The devil never says to us “Wouldn’t you like to betray your heavenly Father and your Savior and everything that you stand for? Ruin
your life? Shame your loved ones?” That may be what he is after, but he tempts us more subtly and hides the consequences well out of sight. All we hear is, “Wouldn’t a bit of this taste good? What’s the harm in a little pleasure? Who
will know?”
Satan tries to use Scripture to trip up the Savior. Oh, and how often are Christians lured into a false confidence due to some passage of the Bible being taken out
of context or twisted to a perverse use! Beware of Scripture quoting demons!
Verse 13 says that after these temptations, that went on for the entire 40 days but only the last three recorded for us, had ended, Satan left…until there was opportunity
for him to tempt the Christ, yet again! Have you ever stopped to think of what a wearying, exhausting life Jesus had to live? He had to endure and resist every temptation to the bitter end of it and the tempter being exhausted and forced to finally admit defeat
and leave Him alone for the time being. We have little to no idea of what that is like, because we, so much of the time, give in to temptation without so much as a fight. We will not know the power of temptation, until we have resisted it to the end.
Perhaps the ultimate temptation that came to Jesus and one that is a frightful weapon in Satan’s arsenal against us, is again quite subtle, yet powerful: “If you
are the Son of God…” (3,9). There is a question of doubt regarding Christ’s identity. If… Are you really who God says you are? You seem a mere man…maybe You are not who You are said to be…maybe what God said about You is not true…so prove
it…prove You are, who it is said You are.
The question of identity, who am I, WHOSE am I, is being answered by many voices and is hurting people deeply. Sin…your sin, will tell you in a thousand different
ways, who you are. It will seek to convince you that you are your transgression…you are no better than your worst sin. The voices around you want you to answer the question, ‘who are you’, by looking into your malevolence, your failures, your disappointments,
your shame and guilt. It will try and get you to turn in on yourself even to seek relief from the guilt with and through destructive behaviors through which you prove to yourself you are sorry by self-harm, self-loathing and self-pity.
Sometimes the voices convince you that the answer to ‘who am I, what is my identity’ is to be found in bravado. Puff out your chest, proclaim your greatness, take
nothing but what you want and let no one stand in your way. Be a self-made man, climb the ladder, be accomplished in the eyes of man and proclaim to the world, “This is who I am…and I have made it, on my own.” But this of course fails to answer the most basic
of questions: “This is who you are, that is true enough, but what about your sin? What about your guilt before a holy and perfect God? What does ‘yourself’ say to Him?”
Christ knew who He was; God the Son, in the flesh, come to destroy sin, death and hell and to rescue the world from the clutches of everlasting destruction. Your identity
is not ultimately found in your accomplishments, your race, social status, sex and most importantly not found in your sin. Some of those things describe you and how God has wonderfully made you, but they are not your identity.
Your identity is as a child of the living God and brother or sister, to His Christ, who is King of the World. All that is true of Jesus, because you are covered by
Him, is also true of You. You are not defined by your sin, but by Christ’s holiness and love for you. This is the victory of the Savior that we are called to live in, to walk in, to breathe and rejoice in.
It is almost too marvelous to take in, that the Father looks at us, He sees His Son. Our identity given to us in our Baptism, says that we do not belong to the world,
the flesh or the devil, we don’t even belong to ourselves…We belong to Him who lived, died and resurrected for us. THAT is the answer to the question, “Who are you…?”
Prayer: Gracious Father, words cannot express the joy and gratitude that is mine knowing that I am Your child, clothed in the righteousness of my elder Brother
and Savior! Oh how undeserving! Oh, how rapturously wonderful! Give me a greater sense of my identity in Christ that I may stand firm against the onslaught of sin and temptation. Help me to face down all that the world, the flesh and the Devil bring my way
in the confidence that I am Yours and You are mine, through Jesus Christ my Lord, Amen!
Hymn: Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness