Matthew 4:1-11

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

But he answered, “It is written,
‘One does not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”

Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple,
saying 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,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’ ”

Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”

Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written,
‘Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only him.’ ”

Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

The wilderness is a wild and dangerous place. A desert filled with scorpions and snakes. There is little shade and even less water. It’s the kind of place where life itself seems as if it would run dry. And yet, throughout the history of our faith, it is where people have gone to meet God. It is where Jacob wrestled with God in the night; where Hagar was the first to name God-- “you are the God who sees.” The wilderness is where the Lord gave the Israelites the commandments for how best to be the covenant people of God. It’s where Elijah ran to when he feared for his life and longed to hear the voice of the Lord. The wilderness, for all its danger and inhospitable landscapes, somehow seems to be a place where the soul is laid bare and the fog of life can fade away until you are face to face with your creator. The vulnerability of the wilderness is a holy place.

The wilderness is where the Spirit of God leads Jesus immediately after his baptism. One moment, the Spirit is descending like a dove while warm white light descends from Heaven and God claims Jesus as God’s Beloved Son, with whom God is well pleased. And before we know it, the Spirit has led Jesus into this barren landscape in order to be tempted by the Devil. Is this the same gentle spirit? 

Jesus fasts for forty days and forty nights, and afterward, he is very hungry. He is weak and vulnerable to Devil’s snares.

Together: The first temptation

Satan: 40 days, huh? You must be getting pretty hungry.

Jesus: *sigh* I am okay.

Satan: It’s too bad there are only stones around here… You could really use a miracle right about now. Oh wait! Aren’t you the son of God? Command these stones to be loaves of bread and all your hunger will go away! 

Jesus: The Spirit led me here for a reason. I can wait.

Satan: Oh but can you? C’mon… you’re supposed to be the Son of God! You’re going to need your strength if you’re going to preach to all those people out there. Make the bread appear.

Jesus: No… no.

Satan: You know what I’m saying is true. If you have nothing real to offer, you won’t be relevant. You’re going to have to give them a little something to get them to listen. Do you think they’ll just want to hear what you have to say? Nah, you’ve gotta give ‘em something first.  

Jesus: I will tell them the good news of the love of my Father. They will listen.

Satan: Oh Jesus. What is the value of talking about God to hungry people? What is the use of proclaiming the Good News to people who lack food, shelter, or clothing? What is needed are people who can offer real help and support. Doctors that can heal, lawyers that can defend, bankers that can finance. But what can you do? What do you have to offer?”

Jesus: I am bringing them forgiveness of sins!  

Satan: And you think that is enough? Jesus, you are what you can do. If you aren’t productive, if you don’t have measurable outcomes about how you’re helping improve people’s lives then how dare you call yourself a good person?

Jesus: I know who I am. I don’t need you. 

Satan: Stop stalling Jesus. Turn these stones into bread. You think you’re better than everyone else because you’re pretending you’re not really hungry? You can’t spend all your time out here praying. People out there need you, don’t they? Isn’t it selfish to spend all this time alone? What are you doing out here anyway?

Jesus: “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’

Together: The second temptation

Satan: Well, here we are. Your favorite place: the Jerusalem temple, here in the holiest city on earth. This should be the safest place for you, right? The place where you can be sure that the presence of God dwells? 

Jesus: Yes. But...The God of my ancestors is the God who dwells with the people in the temple and in the wilderness.

Satan: Sure, but this is the place where your people have been worshiping for generations, where your people have heard from God, have gathered together in prayer and devotion, knowing that they are in the presence of holiness. Can’t you feel how holy it feels here? 

Jesus: I know that God is here. Yes. 

Satan: Can you hear the years of prayers echoing here on the pinnacle of the temple mount? They’re prayers of trust, prayers of thanksgiving for all that God has done through the ages. If you hear these echoes - and I know you do - you can certainly trust God enough to throw yourself off the top of this temple. You’ll be safe - I know what scripture says. It says God will send angels to keep you from hurting yourself! God will protect you; you won’t even scrape your foot against a stone. That’s what the scripture says.

Jesus: ...That is what scripture says. But it’s not an invitation to test God!

Satan: Don’t you want to be able to show people that you - you, Jesus - trust God enough to let God keep you safe? Wouldn’t that be such a spectacular way to show people how powerful and good God is? People would be so amazed. Not everybody knows who you are, Jesus. Not even everybody around here has heard of you. Don’t you want to be known and celebrated for your extraordinary faith in God?

Jesus: It’s not just about me. God does great things in the lives of individual people all the time! And it’s not even just about individual people: God does great things in the lives of communities. The Spirit breathes life into the community every single day, even when we don’t see it. Not everything has to be a spectacle.

Satan: Sure, God can do great things in community - your ancestors never would’ve made it out of the wilderness and into the promised land if they hadn’t stuck together. But think about it. In this day and age, we want a hero. We want someone who can prove that God is good and loving and powerful. If you throw yourself down from here, it’ll be such a powerful testimony.

Jesus: The testimony of God’s presence through the ages is the most extraordinary testimony there is. I don’t need to make a scene to prove that - just read the stories of Scripture. God is faithful.

Satan: Well, good luck getting people to believe God is faithful and good without giving them a sign to prove it. Seriously, if you really think God will keep you safe like the scripture says, throw yourself down from here! The angels will protect you! Go for it!

Jesus: Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’

Together: The third temptation

Satan: The view sure is nice from up here. Look at all the kingdoms of the world you can see from here. Look at all those people hurting, suffering, never knowing about the good news you claim you’re here to bring.

Jesus: They will know it. Someday they will.

Satan: How can you be so sure of that? What if the messaging gets messed up along the way? What if they get distracted by petty arguments about what you “really” meant or which way is the “right” way to worship you? What if your followers do more harm than good? Isn’t this approach you’re taking a pretty big risk? 

Jesus: The powers of this world will never win in the end. Domination is not the same thing as irresistible love.

Satan: Don’t you see? People will resist you! For centuries, they will hear your “irresistible” message and walk away anyway. You can’t take that chance. But you can rule them all. You can have all that you see and more. All you have to do is worship me.

Jesus: I don’t need your permission and I’m not looking to be their ruler.

Satan: Ah, but they need a ruler. And you can feel it, can’t you? Wanting to control them. Wanting to control how they respond because if only they knew what was best for them, certainly they would listen to you!

Jesus: Power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. 

Satan: Then love them if you insist, but I’ll make it so much easier for you. I’ll make them finally *get it.* You just have to do is worship me.

Jesus: “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’ ”

I wonder what you think of when you hear the word “temptation.” For us, it brings associations of food - “don’t tempt me with that cheesecake!” - or sex - when else do we use the word “temptress,” for example? We don’t use “temptation language” very often when we talk about our spiritual lives, or when we talk about how our Christian faith informs the way we live. But today’s Gospel lesson reminds us that temptation comes to us in many forms, even when we aren’t having a real-life conversation with Satan, as Jesus did. It can be hard to identify temptations, or outright lies when they don’t have a face to them. The temptations Jesus is confronted with here are the same that many of us face today. Jesus is first tempted by the false gospel of productivity; that you are what you do, or you are what you produce. Then he’s tempted by the allure to be spectacular- to be admired by others and the allure of testing God’s faithfulness by manufacturing something that looks incredible. Finally, he’s tempted by the desire for material things and by the desire for power and control. These are temptations straight from the mouth of Satan, but they’re temptations that we hear and experience today, in our day-to-day lives. 

And notice how crafty Satan is in these pieces of dialogue. He quotes Scripture to Jesus - those words about angels are straight from the book of Psalms. But Jesus, almost as if to say “two can play this game,” quotes Scripture right back at him. Jesus pulls from his own storehouse of scriptural knowledge to sustain him. He knows scripture backward and forward and it helps him resist the devil’s lies that sound awfully close to the truth. He quotes from the book of Deuteronomy, a book that has guided the people of Israel in their communal life throughout the generations. We know, and Jesus knows, that quoting Scripture doesn’t always mean you’re right, or that you’re doing so faithfully. Scripture quotations have been used to legitimize and promote slavery, homophobia, sexism, and a number of other forces of dehumanization. It takes a well-trained ear and a heart that is attuned to the gospel to hear these arguments as the lies that they are. The gospel of Jesus Christ has to underlie the way we read Scripture. The gospel does not end in the wilderness of temptation but continues on to the cross and the empty tomb.

This is the same gospel that will ground us in these Lenten days of dwelling in the wilderness. In this season that we have just begun, we journey with Jesus in the wilderness of temptation, allowing ourselves to be made vulnerable in the presence of the Creator. This is why Lent has been a season of spiritual discipline from the very earliest days of the Christian Church. We know that when we enter into practices like prayer, fasting, Scripture reading, and works of love, we often come face-to-face with our own humanity. Just as Jesus encountered temptation in the face of his own human weakness, we see for ourselves in the midst of these practices that perhaps the life of Christian discipleship was not as simple or easy as we thought. Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer used the phrase “cheap grace” to describe the ways that we cheapen the enormous and costly gift of God’s grace by imagining that it does not really require that much of us, or that it doesn't really have to influence how we live our lives. In this story, Satan is offering up cheap grace.

But God’s grace is costly. It requires something of us. Not in order that we might be saved - God has already accomplished the work of salvation in the person of Jesus Christ. But in response to the gift of such grace, we’re called to offer back our lives in gratitude. During the season of Lent, in the midst of the wilderness, I pray that we might take a hard look at the lies temptations that come our way and how we are responding to them. Resisting the devil’s lies is difficult work but God will meet us in the wilderness - of that much we can be sure. Together with Christ, let us journey with Jesus through the wilderness on the road towards the cross and the empty tomb.

Amen.