READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Genesis 3:1-21
2 Corinthians 6:1-10
- St. Matthew 4:1-11
Grace to you and peace. (1 Thess 1)
Jesus speaks to you on this day from His Gospel heard, saying:
Thus far from God’s Word, written for us to believe that Jesus is both God and man. That God has come down from the heights, to us, like us in every way. This points us to ponder the higher things of heaven, which are the Word and Sacraments of Christ, in His Church. In order that, we and our neighbors find heaven on earth, inviting us to receive Him.
One word you could use to describe Satan’s temptation to Jesus would be “meaningless”. It is meaningless, Jesus, to say You are the Son, if’n You can’t poof these stones, bread, to fill Your belly. It is meaningless, Jesus, to say You are the Almighty if’n you can’t command all the hosts of the Lord. It is meaningless, Jesus, to claim dominion and authority if’n you can’t subdue all nations under Your feet, right now.
Meaningless. Vanity, as the book of Ecclesiastes is famous for saying. Of bread, Ecclesiastes 9 says, “ I returned and saw under the sun that—
The race is not to the swift,
Nor the battle to the strong,
Nor bread to the wise,
Nor riches to men of understanding,
Nor favor to men of skill;
But time and chance happen to them all.
For man also does not know his time:
Like fish taken in a cruel net,
Like birds caught in a snare,
So the sons of men are snared in an evil time,
When it falls suddenly upon them” (Ecc 9:11-12).
I’m sure this was in Jesus’s head as He was hungry and tempted. These words of God that it “is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all…what happens to the righteous, happens to the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath” (Ecc 9:3, 2).
Whether Jesus feeds Himself or not, nothing will change in this sinful world. He will get hungry again and will have to magic up more bread. Whether Jesus feeds 4000, 5000, or millions, same thing and they will all end up in the grave anyways, so what’s the point of bread in the first place. Meaningless.
And if He claims to be the Almighty, then it is still meaningless, for the Almighty is One. He is alone. Ecclesiastes says, “Again, I saw vanity under the sun: one person who has no other, either son or brother, yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asks, ‘For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure?’ This also is vanity and an unhappy business” (4:7-8).
Whether Jesus calls upon the armies of God, no one will remember Him. You call upon armies to fight a war. In war, there is death. And in death, there is no remembrance of God (Ps 6:5). Meaningless.
And who would ever want to be king? Revolutionaries wait for a head on a silver plate, “Long live the king!” Just a political puppet on a lonely string with a castle that stands upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand. Ecclesiastes 6:2, “a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil.”
What we are devilishly searching for is higher meaning, a higher purpose. The devil, next to Jesus, knows that he is close to it, but he can never reach it. That is his torment. Thus, he shares his torment with everyone and we, in our sin, agree with him. Why doesn’t Jesus just feed Himself? Why doesn’t Jesus just reveal Himself in majesty? Why won’t He just bring Himself down from the cross?
Funny enough, the undoing of all temptation is found on earth, not in heaven. What I mean is this: when Jesus was tempted to yeet Himself from the Temple, the devil uses God’s own Word against Him. Jesus responds saying, I already know the angels and the Scriptures, for they are mine. What you forget is that better than a fall are ladders and stairs. “He who loves danger will perish in it” (Sir 3:26).
God has made the heights. Yes indeed. But He has not made them as powers themselves. There is no glory in gluttony, no glory in vanity, and no glory in pride. Meaningfulness to God is faith and faith seeks the stairway to earth, because the angels ministered to Jesus on earth.
You may seek a higher state of being, but you will only find the devil if you look at any height above Christ being tempted. In this is the Love of God, that He is tempted as we are with belly, worldly glory, and power. Does God have a belly that He can relate to us? Is God subject to worldly glory and power that these would be bargaining chips against Him?
No and no. So what? He needs to learn those things and that’s why He appears as Jesus?
By this we know love, that He not only laid down His life for us on the cross, in the tomb, but also laid it down on earth. That in Jesus, God and man are united such that He humbles Himself to be susceptible to temptation.
Jesus is both God and man and has no need for learning anything about our humanity. He created it! He knows the most about it. Hebrews 2:17-18 says, “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”
Not for His own sake, but for your sake. That, in His suffering and temptation, you would find faith. Faith to trust in a faithful God Who does not stay far off, but comes to you in your own personal and private temptations.
Sure, you may be tempted by the big ones: to blaspheme God or take His Name in vain, to covet your neighbor’s ox or donkey, or even to murder. But, just because you don’t do those things, does not fool God into thinking you are holy and righteous. True temptation comes at the more vulnerable level, for us. That is, the normal everyday humdrum.
Really. Who’s belly is not their master when they have just skipped one meal, of one day? Or pass by their favorite thing to eat? Who’s ambitions are not for a better life, more control, and praise from those around us? Better yet, if we could take over the world in God’s Name?!
Meaningless. Meaningless because it is unfruitful. It produces no good. So maybe our cure for meaninglessness is fruitfulness and our fruit comes from the Vine. And the Vine is planted on earth, in St. Mary, and continues to work and grow in you, in the Church.
What has meaning in this world full of vanity? The work of Jesus Christ, true God and true man, able to be tempted perfectly and able to resist perfectly, in order to purchase and win you from your temptations to sin and death, with His fruit from the Tree of Life.
Remember your catechism! We pray, “lead us not into temptation”, not “give us power over the devil” in hubris. It is endurance we need, because we daily sin much and daily need forgiveness. Daily we are attacked by these things and daily we will face them, until we die. In prayer, we beg for a savior.
And our Savior’s most fruitful work is uniting us to Him. For, “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Heb 2:14-15).
We are not promised victory in this world, but we are promised peace and comfort.
Our comfort in the cross and tribulation is this: just as the angels ministered to Christ after His temptation, they also minister to all those who believe in Him. For it is written, "They are all ministering spirits sent out for service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation" (Heb. 1:14); and "The angel of the LORD camps round about those who fear Him, and delivers them" (Ps. 34 [:7]).
So if the devil attacks us, and we fight valiantly, and stand and attend to our vocation, and do our duty to Word and Sacrament, many angels must minister to us, defend us, and protect us. And if we continue and remain steadfast in the faith, we shall lack nothing.
Just as they ministered to Christ, as our Head, they must in the end also watch over us, Christ's members, and bring our soul to Abraham's bosom in eternal life! (Spangenberg, 109)
The true meaning to Jesus’s Temptation is you. He could have saved you any number of other ways, but chose what is meaningless to accomplish His meaningful work. He chose what is fruitless to the world, in order to cause fruit to blossom where there is no fruit. He refused the world’s vanity for humility. The humility of Word and Sacrament, for you.
Jesus speaks to you on this day from His Gospel heard, saying:
“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness
to be tempted by the devil”
Thus far from God’s Word, written for us to believe that Jesus is both God and man. That God has come down from the heights, to us, like us in every way. This points us to ponder the higher things of heaven, which are the Word and Sacraments of Christ, in His Church. In order that, we and our neighbors find heaven on earth, inviting us to receive Him.
One word you could use to describe Satan’s temptation to Jesus would be “meaningless”. It is meaningless, Jesus, to say You are the Son, if’n You can’t poof these stones, bread, to fill Your belly. It is meaningless, Jesus, to say You are the Almighty if’n you can’t command all the hosts of the Lord. It is meaningless, Jesus, to claim dominion and authority if’n you can’t subdue all nations under Your feet, right now.
Meaningless. Vanity, as the book of Ecclesiastes is famous for saying. Of bread, Ecclesiastes 9 says, “ I returned and saw under the sun that—
The race is not to the swift,
Nor the battle to the strong,
Nor bread to the wise,
Nor riches to men of understanding,
Nor favor to men of skill;
But time and chance happen to them all.
For man also does not know his time:
Like fish taken in a cruel net,
Like birds caught in a snare,
So the sons of men are snared in an evil time,
When it falls suddenly upon them” (Ecc 9:11-12).
I’m sure this was in Jesus’s head as He was hungry and tempted. These words of God that it “is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all…what happens to the righteous, happens to the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath” (Ecc 9:3, 2).
Whether Jesus feeds Himself or not, nothing will change in this sinful world. He will get hungry again and will have to magic up more bread. Whether Jesus feeds 4000, 5000, or millions, same thing and they will all end up in the grave anyways, so what’s the point of bread in the first place. Meaningless.
And if He claims to be the Almighty, then it is still meaningless, for the Almighty is One. He is alone. Ecclesiastes says, “Again, I saw vanity under the sun: one person who has no other, either son or brother, yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asks, ‘For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure?’ This also is vanity and an unhappy business” (4:7-8).
Whether Jesus calls upon the armies of God, no one will remember Him. You call upon armies to fight a war. In war, there is death. And in death, there is no remembrance of God (Ps 6:5). Meaningless.
And who would ever want to be king? Revolutionaries wait for a head on a silver plate, “Long live the king!” Just a political puppet on a lonely string with a castle that stands upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand. Ecclesiastes 6:2, “a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil.”
What we are devilishly searching for is higher meaning, a higher purpose. The devil, next to Jesus, knows that he is close to it, but he can never reach it. That is his torment. Thus, he shares his torment with everyone and we, in our sin, agree with him. Why doesn’t Jesus just feed Himself? Why doesn’t Jesus just reveal Himself in majesty? Why won’t He just bring Himself down from the cross?
Funny enough, the undoing of all temptation is found on earth, not in heaven. What I mean is this: when Jesus was tempted to yeet Himself from the Temple, the devil uses God’s own Word against Him. Jesus responds saying, I already know the angels and the Scriptures, for they are mine. What you forget is that better than a fall are ladders and stairs. “He who loves danger will perish in it” (Sir 3:26).
God has made the heights. Yes indeed. But He has not made them as powers themselves. There is no glory in gluttony, no glory in vanity, and no glory in pride. Meaningfulness to God is faith and faith seeks the stairway to earth, because the angels ministered to Jesus on earth.
You may seek a higher state of being, but you will only find the devil if you look at any height above Christ being tempted. In this is the Love of God, that He is tempted as we are with belly, worldly glory, and power. Does God have a belly that He can relate to us? Is God subject to worldly glory and power that these would be bargaining chips against Him?
No and no. So what? He needs to learn those things and that’s why He appears as Jesus?
By this we know love, that He not only laid down His life for us on the cross, in the tomb, but also laid it down on earth. That in Jesus, God and man are united such that He humbles Himself to be susceptible to temptation.
Jesus is both God and man and has no need for learning anything about our humanity. He created it! He knows the most about it. Hebrews 2:17-18 says, “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”
Not for His own sake, but for your sake. That, in His suffering and temptation, you would find faith. Faith to trust in a faithful God Who does not stay far off, but comes to you in your own personal and private temptations.
Sure, you may be tempted by the big ones: to blaspheme God or take His Name in vain, to covet your neighbor’s ox or donkey, or even to murder. But, just because you don’t do those things, does not fool God into thinking you are holy and righteous. True temptation comes at the more vulnerable level, for us. That is, the normal everyday humdrum.
Really. Who’s belly is not their master when they have just skipped one meal, of one day? Or pass by their favorite thing to eat? Who’s ambitions are not for a better life, more control, and praise from those around us? Better yet, if we could take over the world in God’s Name?!
Meaningless. Meaningless because it is unfruitful. It produces no good. So maybe our cure for meaninglessness is fruitfulness and our fruit comes from the Vine. And the Vine is planted on earth, in St. Mary, and continues to work and grow in you, in the Church.
What has meaning in this world full of vanity? The work of Jesus Christ, true God and true man, able to be tempted perfectly and able to resist perfectly, in order to purchase and win you from your temptations to sin and death, with His fruit from the Tree of Life.
Remember your catechism! We pray, “lead us not into temptation”, not “give us power over the devil” in hubris. It is endurance we need, because we daily sin much and daily need forgiveness. Daily we are attacked by these things and daily we will face them, until we die. In prayer, we beg for a savior.
And our Savior’s most fruitful work is uniting us to Him. For, “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Heb 2:14-15).
We are not promised victory in this world, but we are promised peace and comfort.
Our comfort in the cross and tribulation is this: just as the angels ministered to Christ after His temptation, they also minister to all those who believe in Him. For it is written, "They are all ministering spirits sent out for service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation" (Heb. 1:14); and "The angel of the LORD camps round about those who fear Him, and delivers them" (Ps. 34 [:7]).
So if the devil attacks us, and we fight valiantly, and stand and attend to our vocation, and do our duty to Word and Sacrament, many angels must minister to us, defend us, and protect us. And if we continue and remain steadfast in the faith, we shall lack nothing.
Just as they ministered to Christ, as our Head, they must in the end also watch over us, Christ's members, and bring our soul to Abraham's bosom in eternal life! (Spangenberg, 109)
The true meaning to Jesus’s Temptation is you. He could have saved you any number of other ways, but chose what is meaningless to accomplish His meaningful work. He chose what is fruitless to the world, in order to cause fruit to blossom where there is no fruit. He refused the world’s vanity for humility. The humility of Word and Sacrament, for you.
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