Loving God, you make yourself known to us through your Son, Jesus, and call us to submit ourselves to your wisdom.  Help us to grow this day in our faith and our trust, empowering us by your Holy Spirit; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Amen.

    Every so often, there is something in the Scriptures that will jump out at you in a new way.  This happened to me this week with the gospel that we heard this morning.  It begins with Jesus, who has just been baptized and is full of the Holy Spirit.  I can just imagine Jesus wanting to get out there and perform some miracles.  Surely he could feel the Spirit’s power at work in him.

    However, instead, it is the same Holy Spirit that leads Jesus out into the wilderness, where he spends forty days being tempted by the devil and eating nothing.  It is easy to imagine how hungry Jesus is when the devil comes along with the first temptation that we heard today.  “You’re hungry, Jesus, but you have some power that you could use.  Just say the word, and you can turn this very stone into a loaf of bread!”  What jumped out for me in this temptation is the unwritten question that stands behind it.  Is Jesus going to submit himself to God or dictate things himself?  Is Jesus going to submit himself to God’s will, or go by what he wants at the time?

    In the response that Jesus gives, we hear only part of a verse from Deuteronomy.  Here is the whole verse from Deuteronomy 8:3.

[God] humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

When the Israelites were in the wilderness, God knew that they were hungry, and God knew what they needed, and God knew how he was going to provide it for them.

    When Jesus is in the wilderness, we see from him all of the things that we do not see from the people of Israel.  Jesus is patient.  He is relying on God’s timing for when he will eat once again.  Jesus is disciplined.  He will fast for as long as he needs to and rely on God for sustenance.  Jesus trusts in God’s wisdom and goodness.  He knows that God will provide, just as he did for the people of Israel in the wilderness and for the prophet Elijah (1 Ki. 19:5-8).

    The devil is actually partially right in the Scripture that he quotes.  God does send angels to minister to Jesus at the end of his time of temptation, just as God sent an angel to bring food to Elijah in the wilderness.  We don’t hear about the angels in Luke’s gospel, but both Matthew and Mark mention the angels coming and waiting on Jesus (Mt. 4:11;Mk. 1:13).

    With the next two temptations as well, the same question stands behind them.  Is Jesus going to submit himself to God or take things into his own hands?  The devil, of course, knows how to hit Jesus where it hurts.  Jesus is well aware that if he submits himself to God, suffering and death by crucifixion await him.  Who wouldn’t rather take charge of all the kingdoms of the world?  Who wouldn’t want to avoid the suffering and death that await Jesus?  The devil knows what he’s doing!  But once again, Jesus chooses submission to God.  “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him” (Lk. 4:8).

    With the final temptation, the devil basically says, “Oh – so I see that you believe the Scriptures!  Well, here’s a promise for you.  Do you believe it?”  Jesus could be oh, so spectacular.  He could hurl himself off of the highest point on the temple and miraculously be rescued by angels, and the devil quotes Scripture to prove it!  However, this, too, is nowhere even close to God’s will for Jesus.  And so Jesus refers to a different Scripture: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test” (Deut. 6:16).  And the devil “departed from him until an opportune time” (Lk. 4:13).

    Was Jesus going to submit to God or take things into his own hands?  The tension of the whole story could almost be made into a thriller.  Now, of course, we know what decision Jesus made.  But couldn’t the same question be asked about us?  Are we going to submit ourselves to God, or are we going to take things into our own hands?  There’s actually a verse from the letter of James that lays the same thing before us: “Submit yourselves therefore to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (Jas. 4:7).

    Now, of course we are not tempted quite as directly as Jesus was, but certainly some of the same things seek to draw us away from God.  The first temptation, we could simply call “bodily appetites.”  And I’m not just talking about being tempted to eat chocolate or something like that.  Rather, we’re talking about the difference between what we need and what we want.

    There are all kinds of people in this world who simply allow their appetites to dictate what they will do.  Some follow their sexual appetite wherever it leads them.  Some eat or drink everything that they want.  Some live to eat rather than eating to live.  Some want certain things, and so they just take them from others.  Some even have an insatiable appetite to collect more and more stuff.  Far too many of us are driven by wants rather than needs.

    For Jesus, I’m pretty sure that he wanted to eat.  However, he didn’t need to until the time when God provided for him.  For us, when we seriously submit ourselves to God, it is God who is in charge rather than our wants and desires.  And so, submitting ourselves to God means having some patience and discipline and trust just as Jesus did.

    If I eat and drink absolutely everything that I want, not only does my own health suffer, but my over-consumption affects others in this world who do not have enough.  In the same way, if I indulge my sexual appetites whenever and with whomever I please, I not only expose myself and others to disease, but I turn other people into objects that are to be used.  However, when I submit myself to God, God’s will for the health and well-being of all people becomes more important than anything else, and people’s basic needs become more important than indulging every whim.

    As for the temptation to worldly power, we also are asked if we are going to submit ourselves to God or take things into our own hands.  While we are not given ruling the world as an option, we are asked if we are going to work for God or for ourselves.  In everything that we do in this world – our relationships, our vocation, our work, our choices – we can submit ourselves to God’s will and purpose or we can go after as much money and power and stuff and adulation as we can get.  Are we working for God, or are we only in it for ourselves?

    As for the final temptation, perhaps the temptation for us could be described as "taking Scripture out of context as seems convenient."  For example, there are a couple of verses that say, “Be strong and very courageous... For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall be successful” (Josh. 1:7, 8).  I have heard these verses used to say that God wants you to prosper and to have a big house and to make as much as possible and to be successful in all that you do.

    However, isn’t this the same God who came as a servant in Jesus Christ and commanded his followers to be servants for one another and to love one another as Jesus has first loved us (Jn. 13:14-15, 34)?  Would such a God really want me to get as much as I can for myself?  It seems to me far more likely (and in line with the Scriptures) that God wants us to use the gifts that we have been given for the glory of God and the good of all people.

    So, are we going to submit ourselves to God, or are we going to take things into our own hands?  “Submit yourselves therefore to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (Jas. 4:7).  We are not talking about submission to a tyrant, or a fear-monger, or even to one who seeks to take away our personal freedom.  Rather, we are talking about the God who loves us so much that he would send his only Son for our salvation, that all who believe in him may have eternal life.

    Let us then turn our hearts to God, submitting ourselves to God’s will for us, and discovering life in all its fullness, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Lent 1(C)                                    Luke 4:1-13
February 21, 2010
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2010 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved