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.