Lent 1 February 18, 2024
Text â St. Mark 1: (9-11) 12-15
âThe Now and Forever Championâ
We understand temptation. We know what itâs like because we have experienced and succumbed to it. Weâve tasted it. We have been drawn along by it. We have fought it and we have more often lost to it than overcame it. When it comes to temptation, every sinner knows what itâs like, and the reason the Scriptures have rightly branded us sinners, trespassers, and workers of iniquity is because we have lost decisive battles to sin, self, and Satan.
We ought to be very objective in our understanding about what is at stake and what we lose when we sin. We can look, however, at Jesusâ life, and this particular incident from His life, and we can see more clearly the nature of temptation, the nature of the victory over it, and most importantly, the nature of the victor⊠the One who is our champion!
Temptation can be flagrant; it can be subtle. In Jesusâ life there is no more evident attack by the devil⊠the deceiver⊠than when Jesus spent those 40 long days in the wilderness. St. Mark doesnât give us the details that Sts. Matthew and Luke do in their Gospels, but we know how the devil tried to convince Jesus to perform a miracle in order to meet His own needs. We know how the devil sought hard to get Jesus to put God to the test. We know how, thirdly, Satan waved the âeasy pathâ in Jesusâ face: to gain the world but NOT through suffering and the cross. With each temptation Jesus found His strength in the mighty Word of the Lord. Furthermore, our Savior was resigned to take the âhard road, the way of sacrifice, and no one, most certainly, not the devil, was going to talk Him out of it.
Interestingly, Satan doesnât only try to tempt Jesus in this blatant fashion out in the wilderness, but throughout His earthly ministry the devil is lurking in unexpected places to trip up the One who had come to âcrush the serpentâs head.â
Think of the temptation to change the message to suit the crowds and to keep them on your side. Think of the temptation of seeking glory rather than the cross, and how much easier it is to follow the glorious path than the one that leads to certain and inevitable suffering. Still, Jesus kept on preaching a Gospel of repentance, and that âmeekness inherits the earth,â and that we should feast on His flesh and drink His blood if we want life. That message, all too quickly, became a stumbling block to the self-righteous, foolishness to the wise, and so much mumbo-jumbo to those whose thoughts could never rise beyond the needs of their own bellies. Think to Jesusâ prediction of suffering and death that Peter couldnât stand to hear. Jesus rebuked that man, and the satanic influence that stood in the way of the path that led to Calvary, and pointed out to Peter that he was not thinking the thoughts of God.
When Satan is working through friend and foe alike to trip you up, the tripping is very easily done when the devil is dealing with sinful and weak flesh like us. And donât think that because Jesus was God and man at the same time that His temptation was less real; less intense than what we go throughâŠÂ Those taunts, those jeers, those lonely moments, those lures and obstacles were just as real and just as intense; the difference, however, was that where we failed in every instance⊠Jesus did not! Where we lose so often, Jesus won!
When we are tempted, we play around with sin for a while. We toy with it until it appears quite savory and rationalize it until it seems totally innocent. We know better if we have taken any bit of our Christian training seriously. We know that when temptation comes, we are to turn from it, not let it rule over us, and we are to flee from it. We are not to allow any temptation, any lust, any passion or desire to get the best of us. But we never offer the intense resistance weâve been called to render.  We can sometimes be very lazy soldiers of the cross, allowing the enemy to sneak over the front line at his pleasure. We allow him, as did Adam and Eve, to wreak havoc on our souls and then for him to return to his dark, gloomy hole without so much as a whimper from us. And what is so sad, nowadays, is that many people have become experts at justifying their actions with so many lame excuses.
We realize, through the testimony of the prophets, that this is taking the shortcut around Godâs will. It is not to be! It puts us on the wrong side, the losing side. The worst part of this dilemma is that we cannot free ourselves of this vicious cycle. We are convinced of the good God would have us do, but attached to this feeble mortality, we still pursue and practice the evil we should avoid. The flesh prefers not going to church or growing in the Word of God. The flesh prefers self to selflessness. It would rather accept temporary pleasure than wrestle with long term discipline. The flesh enjoys sin or else we would not engage in it. The spirit knows better! Our spirit knows the dangers and wishes to be separate from it.
Our spirit also knows that the struggle we encounter demands greater than just an outward moral improvement. The stakes are higher than a few immoral acts with uncomfortable but temporary consequences. Satan wants us so that God canât have us. He wishes to possess us, and heâs got us when, through some carnal security, we are no longer concerned that he might steal us from our Creator, Redeemer, and Lord. When we shrug our shoulders to sin, weâve been possessed by it. Lurking behind every single temptation to sin is the temptation to unbelief. When we do not believe, Satan has us. When we believe wrongly, Satan is gaining the upper hand, and spiritual death is right around the corner. The devil lays claim to a lot more people than just those who are aware and just fine with their impending damnation.
Yet, in Christ Jesus, our Savior, God took the initiative as He must always do. Jesus was compelled by the Spirit of God to go into the wilderness. He was all a part of the master plan for the worldâs purchase and release. And though He was tempted to disobey Godâs will. Jesus withstood that temptation, and all the rest, and who did He do it for? He did it for us! He was tempted by Satan to take the less costly way and yet the way He took gladly and willingly was the way of the cross. For no one took His life from Him but He gave it voluntarily. He laid it down for His friends, who He loved to the end. He âcame not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.â
From the beginning He put Satan in his place. Like a principal who seizes the facultyâs attention by firing two incompetent and lazy staff people in his first month on the job, Jesus let Satan know early in His ministry that He was in charge. From chapter 1:13 on, in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus was clearly in charge of every encounter He had with demonic powers. He was, and still is, in charge! We can take comfort in this, if we seek our comfort and strength alone in Christ, our Savior. He exercises His rule in our midst by His pity, His merciful disposition toward us, and by His work of grace done to absolute completion. Our champion is kind and compassionate! Our hero and victor is strong and mighty, and our total confidence should rest on Him always.
It is in the Gospel of forgiveness that Christ brings His Satan-defeating power to bear on us in our need. Thatâs why we must hear this Word, read it, mark, it, and inwardly digest it as the most important thing. The Gospel is that âone little wordâ that can bring down the father of lies and murders. The time has been fulfilled and we are living in the Messianic age. He came to bind Satan, and that accuser stands bound, leashed, and very much defeated. The kingdom of God is near so that the kingdom of darkness need not be the only fate for those who, by nature, can do nothing but sin. The kingdom of Heaven is near, as near as Jesus and the Gospel proclaimed in His name.
Use that word and to use it you must know it, use it as a protective shield with which to defend yourself âfrom the fiery darts of the wicked one.â Use it as Jesus Himself used it. âMan cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.â The devil hears that, and he knows that he is doomed. âYou shall not put the Lord your God to the test.â The devil hears that and he knows that in the life of the person who relies on those words there is no room for any way but Godâs way. âYou shall worship the Lord your God and serve only Him.â Those are the words spoken by a person whoâs headed for eternity and wonât allow himself to be dissuaded, distracted, or diverted. To such a person nothing is worth exchanging for the wonderful undeserved love of our heavenly Father.
My friends, temptation is not a game to be taken lightly. There are many who wrongly think that we have the will and resolve, the power and the strength to fight it all by ourselves. Ogden Nash once said, âWhen fleeing temptation, always be sure you leave a forwarding address, for the only real way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.â That may be Nashâs way, but itâs not Godâs way!
It is extremely important that we recognize both the strength of our temptations and our limited ability to deal with them, even as Christians, in whom flesh and spirit spar and fight and haggle incessantly. Only then will we begin to understand all that Christ has done for us. It is not because we have won the battles of life that we are so confident, but it is because the Son of God went off to war and won, once and for all. It is certainly in His presence in which we now stand that makes us unafraid of Satanâs onslaughts.
Atomic submarines are built strong enough to batter through the ice at the North Pole, but they have a maximum depth limit beyond which they may not safely go. The submarine Thresher exceeded that depth some years ago. As the pressure increased, the seawater crushed the subâs heavy steel bulkheads as if they were made of cheap plastic. Searchers found only little pieces of that huge submarine.
Yet there are fish that live at that same depth in which the Thresher was crushed. How can these fish survive? The answer is that they have equal pressure in them as outside them. The parallel for us should be obvious. The same should hold true of all Christians. In ourselves we are doomed⊠the pressure gets to be too great, and we are too weak. But in clinging by faith to Christâs temptation victory, the devil, sin, and death cannot crush us!
A girl once said in response to a question about how to deal with temptation: âWhen Satan comes knocking at the door of my heart, since Jesus resides there, He answers the door. When Satan sees Jesus, he has to say, defeated as he is, âoops, I must have the wrong house.â Sin is not to have sway here. Jesus is the Lord and Master here and the devil is not. The devil has no power because our Champion has all the power.
Repent and believe in the Gospel. Turn from sin to forgiveness and righteousness. Here, the weak are made strong in Christ. Thatâs the reason for THIS season of Lent. It is a time of deep and personal reflection. It is a time to contemplate where and what our sin would get us and what Jesus has done for us so that we donât end up getting what we deserve. Our Christian lives should be one long Lenten season in which we are so aware of sin, temptation, its guilt, and dangers. We should also be thinking constantly of the cost of eternal life, namely, that the blood and the righteousness of Godâs own Son was necessary and thatâs exactly what it took to win the greatest battle of our lives. As we are turned to Jesus by the Spirit through the preaching and teaching of our heavenly Fatherâs holy Word, I pray that neither we nor our children nor our childrenâs children ever take this Word of life as anything less than the substantial treasure it is.
People are easily led. Walk into a room full of strangers and say youâre in charge, and you can get away with quite a bit. Jesus, the victor, our Champion is the One in charge here. To the victor go the spoils⊠Satan is defeated⊠and to Jesusâ glory and for our good â we are declared ânot guiltyâ and we are forever His!
Amen