C, Lent 1 - Luke 4:1-13 "By The Authority"
By the authority of God the Father, a human being is given
a renewed being of life in Jesus Christ!
When we are baptised into Jesus’ death and resurrection, we receive life
anew, full of the Holy Spirit, giving us a holy life before our Father in
heaven!
Just as Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tempted by
the devil, we leave the baptismal font full of the Holy Spirit and are led into
a worldly wilderness that seeks to starve us of the holy spirituality we’ve
received in baptism.
From the spiritual heights of holy baptism, we wander in
the wilderness of earthly existence like a wandering Aramean, tempted to wonder
if our baptism is really holy. All of
God’s baptised children are tempted to believe baptism is not eternally
effective.
Therefore, some wander away from God and their holy baptism
into hopelessness, and find nowhere to dwell, so that their thirst or hunger is
not satisfied. (See Psalm 107:4-9)
Some, like sheep flop down and sulk. They clearly see the darkness of death, the
painful reality that life is death
preceded by hard labour. In flopping
down in their darkness, they forget the light of eternal life given to them in
baptism. Therefore, they believe no one
can help them in their trouble or distress. (See Psalm 107:10-16)
Some are led away by their desires, into foolish
afflictions and addictions. The food of
life first given in holy baptism is rejected. The baptismal life first received
then dwindles away and dissipates back into the death that baptism once
overcame. (See Psalm 107:17-22)
Some, figure when the going gets tough the tough get
going. They seek to work their way out
of the wilderness. They don’t realise,
in doing so, they’re putting aside the very things given to support them in
tough times. A baptismal faith in which
the Holy Spirit causes one to be still and know that God is God. A baptismal faith that demonstrates God’s
strength in our weakness. That in his
power, God allows and tempers the tides of worldly turbulence and troubles, in
which we’re tempted to wander and wane. (See Psalm 107:23-32)
Jesus faced all of this in the wilderness. But he did not lose what he received in his
baptism at the Jordan – the Holy Spirit, and his Sonship as God the Son. In your baptism, you have been sealed in
Jesus’ Sonship by the Holy Spirit.
As you hear the Word of God, in this worldly wilderness,
the Holy Spirit works belief in you.
Like Jesus, you have received the Holy Spirit in holy baptism, and the
Holy Spirit seals you with the promise of salvation, in the good works of Jesus
Christ.
The Apostle Paul tells the Ephesians, “In him we have obtained an inheritance…
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.”
(Ephesians 1:11a,13 ESV)
And later, he warns, “…do
not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of
redemption.” (Ephesians 4:30 ESV)
Jesus seals us for the day of redemption by not grieving
the Holy Spirit in the wilderness. He
faces the fiery trials of the devil but doesn’t succumb to his temptation.
Jesus put aside the power of his Sonship and took on the
weakness of our human flesh. Then, he
was baptised into death as the servant Son of Man. With the same weakness as us, he was given
the Holy Spirit and was tempted as we are tempted, yet he did not sin.
We hear of three temptations put before Jesus by the
devil. The first is physical hunger and
the temptation comes through a question, “If
you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” (Luke 4:3 ESV)
The devil seeks to get Jesus to prove his Sonship, to use
his heavenly power, by turning a stone into bread. Later on, five barley loaves and two fish are
used to feed five thousand, but not now in the wilderness and not the way the
devil wants Jesus to do so.
Jesus doesn’t give in to the temptation to use his Sonship,
to make bread when he was hungry, nor does he when he feeds the five
thousand. Jesus responds to the devil
with God’s Word, “It is written, “Man
shall not live by bread alone.” (Luke
4:4 ESV)
Jesus, the Son of Man, lives with faithfulness to the
Father, not on bread alone! At the
feeding of the five thousand, with his divinity set aside, he faithfully prays
to the Father. Then, in the weakness of
his human flesh, he faithfully feeds the five thousand as the servant Son of
Man, full of the Holy Spirit.
Then in Luke’s Gospel, the devil temps Jesus with pride and
power to receive all authority and glory from the kingdoms of the world. But to get this he has to turn his back on
the Word of God. He has to break the
first commandment, bowing to worship the devil.
Yet again, Jesus remains faithful to the Father in his
baptismal mission of mercy. Like in the
first temptation, Jesus’ defence is the Word of God, and he rebuffs the devil,
saying, “It is written, ‘You shall
worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’” (Luke 4:8 ESV)
The devil can’t separate Jesus from the Father, despite
showing him humanity from one moment in time.
I imagine Jesus was shown humanity in all its ugliness and
suffering. But there is no way Jesus
abandon’s his relationship despite the devil’s coercion that might seem
rational to get control for the “greater good” of humanity. The only good is
the good of the cross in all its ugliness.
Jesus is faithful to God, looking to the good and evil of the tree of
the cross, to repair God’s creation for the greater good of God.
In the third temptation, the devil uses the Word of God,
having been foiled by the Word of God in the previous two temptations. Of all places to tempt Jesus, the devil takes
Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem, and says, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself
down from here…” (Luke 4:9b ESV)
Again, comes the questioning of Jesus’ Sonship but the
devil uses parts of Psalm Ninety-One. It’s
shrewd, but like anyone who uses parts of God’s Word to deceive, a wider
reading reveals the weakness and shallowness of their deception.
The devil begins his quote with the same words with which
Jesus rejects the devil the previous two times, saying, “for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,
to guard you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike
your foot against a stone.’” (Luke 4:10–11 ESV)
Yet, as we have spoken in Psalm ninety-one earlier, we know
the deception of the devil. For the next
verse of the psalm reveals the deceit of half-truths. We hear that Jesus will,
“tread on the lion and the adder; the
young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.” (Psalm 91:13 ESV) This
is the promise and fulfilment of Jesus at the cross, first proclaimed by God in
the Garden of Eden, “he shall bruise your
head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15 ESV)
This is repeated by Paul for the encouragement of the
Romans and us, “The God of peace will
soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with
you.” (Romans 16:20 ESV)
The devil who is bound and crushed by Jesus in his victory
over sin and death, still has limited authority, but only on earth for a period
of time. Though judged and condemned, the devil has been allowed to test us to
further condemn himself. We like Jesus,
full of the Holy Spirit can crush the devil underfoot with Jesus and his Word,
saying, “In the name of Jesus Christ,
‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (Luke 4:12 ESV)
In Revelation chapter twenty, John sees the last day where,
“the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulphur
where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and
night forever and ever.” (Revelation 20:10 ESV)
Be encouraged in these days of difficulty, walking in the
wilderness, to walk with Jesus. He went
into the wilderness full of the Holy Spirit and came out of it and into Galilee
in the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus
endured in his hometown of Nazareth, full of the Holy Spirit. Jesus having endured in human flesh endures
in us. In Jesus’ baptismal Sonship, walk
in the wilderness by the authority of Jesus Christ, full of the Holy Spirit.
Know that being filled with the Holy Spirit in God’s holy
baptismal reality, you are being daily renewed in Jesus’ reality because he
endured our reality and promises, “The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news
to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering
of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim
the year of the Lord’s favour.” (Luke 4:18–19 ESV)
Amen.
