Matthew 4.1-11
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. 3The tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’4But he answered, ‘It is written,“One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” ’
Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written,“He will command his angels concerning you”, and “On their hands they will bear you up,so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” ’ Jesus said to him, ‘Again it is written, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” ’
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour; and he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! for it is written,“Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” ’ Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
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Two figures dressed in black are fighting furiously, one on the side of good and one on the side of evil. Both have great skills and are great fighters but something is wrong with the good man, he is clearly full of rage, fighting wildly, and furiously forcing the other man back. Eventually he overpowers him and the evil man falls down, his sabre arm cut off at the elbow. And that is the moment, the good man has a look of rage and satisfaction and victory on his face, the evil man holds his hands up, seemingly asking for mercy. But then a silky, cackly voice in his ear appears, says ‘good, your hate has made you powerful, now fulfil your destiny, and take your Father’s place at my side.’
You may recognise this as one of the pivotal scenes from the Star Wars film, Return of the Jedi; Luke Skywalker, the hero of the story has defeated the force of darkness, Darth Vader, his own Father. But an even greater evil comes whispering in his ear, saying ‘kill him now and you will take his place; you will have power unimaginable, you will be able to do anything you want.’
Luke ultimately calms his mind and refuses the temptation, he switches off his lightsabre and throws it away, recognising that the whole thing is a test to see if he will succumb, because that is what the emperor, the whispering cackle, wants. He had the power to do what he chooses, to use his power as he would like, not in the service of others, but of himself, and he chose rightly.
It was the great philosopher Plato who once commented that to measure the worth of a person, give them power. Give them power and see what they do with it. We see the falling into temptation all the time. We see it in governments, they come into power on a wave of hope, popularity and affirmation, they say that they will ‘not be like the last lot.’ And somehow each time we are taken in, believing that somehow things will be different. But of course things remain the same, of course they are like the last lot, and by the end a government is ridden by scandal. They’re human, all too human, and to be human is to fall into temptation. This is why in the lectionary today the first reading is from the Genesis narrative, Genesis chapter 3; God gives Adam and Eve freedom, in other words, power to choose, and they choose wrongly.
The tempter, the accuser (that’s another name for Satan) comes to Jesus, whispering his seductive words to Adam and Eve and they choose wrongly.:
‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’
‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down [from the temple summit]; for it is written,“He will command his angels concerning you”, and “On their hands they will bear you up,so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” ’
‘All these [kingdoms of the world] I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.’
And Jesus resists, he resisted. Nobody in the history of the world was tempted more than he was, he could have had it all, yet he resisted, he chose rightly.
He resisted the temptations of the Devil. It’s tempting to think these days that there is no devil, that he is some kind of old antiquated medieval idea designed to scare people into behaving well. He’s dressed in Red and has horns and a trident that he uses to poke people with. There’s an old episode of the Simpsons where the devil is actually Ned Flanders, the most holy ‘god botherer’ in the show, he’s effectively a comic character.
No
The scriptures speak of him, so we have to take him seriously, he is far more dangerous then the comic vision of him that we have. The medieval vision of him, the medieval vision of hell is terrifying, and thought it may be an allegorical vision or interpretation, I certainly don’t want to experience that reality. My old vicar once said ‘I don’t know what hell looks like, but what I do know is, I don’t want to go there.
The reality of Satan is more terrible than any of us can ever imagine, he falls into darkness through his own pride that he could be like God, and humanity came with him. The devil doesn’t want to do tempt any of us because he wants to ruin our fun, or because he’s a spoil sport does it so that he will destroy us, and destroy our relationship with our heavenly father. He ultimately wants to destroy God, to kill him so that he can reign supreme. If you want an incredible depiction of the devil and what he is actually like, have a read of G K Chesterton’s book ‘the man who was Thursday’ as there his character is portrayed almost perfectly.
He will do whatever he can to tempt a person away from the Lord. What’s ironic is that he knows that he’s ultimately doomed, Jesus has won the victory on the cross, the war is won; but he still battles and battles, and will take as many people with him into darkness and damnation of possible before he falls.
His words are like silk but they are poison. In my study at home, on the wall I have verses from 1 Peter chapter 5 to remind me that he is always there, tempting us. In that letter Peter says
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith.
How then do we resist the temptations that come out way, how do we do it? If the adversary is so great, what could possibly stand against it.
We do it through the power of the Holy Spirit, remember that before this passage in the scriptures that Jesus had just been baptised; he has just been told ‘you are my son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased.’ Jesus has been affirmed by God, told again who he is, affirmed in his purpose. He is given God’s authority to preach the good news and to heal the sick. He was anointed by God’s Holy Spirit, and it’s the Spirit who sends Jesus into the wilderness.
What does this mean, it means that the Spirit himself led Jesus into the desert knowing that he would be tempted, sometimes God has to do that, he has to do that to see if we will remain true to our calling, he trusts us with a little and sees what we do with it, before giving us more.
Jesus had the power of the Spirit within him, which helped him to resist the temptations. When he quotes from the scriptures, he’s not saying that as a kind of ‘these are the rules, follow them.’ he says it because he has experienced the power of his Heavenly Father within him, empowering him to resist, it is in that power that he says ‘the scriptures say’ He believes them because they are Spirit inspired, and he says them to the devil because he knows that the Spirit of God is at work in him.
So we need to pray, pray for the protection of the Spirit, pray for his power, read our scriptures and be encouraged by them.
That passage on my wall from Peter doesn’t end by just saying ‘resist him, strong in the faith,’ this is the whole passage:
‘Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.’
God will protect us, God will give us the power to resist temptation. We are not on our own in being tempted, we all are.
There’s a prayer that my son says every afternoon in school just before classes finish for the day; it’s the same prayer I said when I was at school:
‘Lord keep us safe this night, secure from all our fears. May angels guard us while we sleep till morning light appears, amen.’
We dismiss this prayer as a prayer of a child, a prayer that you ‘grow out of’, but it’s not is it. there is a spiritual reality, there is a devil, whom if we let him, will make our lives hell, and there are angels who protect us. Angels are presented to us these days in the form of a nativity, where Gabriel appears in a white dress, looking all meek and lovely; they are basically presented as human beings with halos and wings. Nowhere in the scriptures are they portrayed that way. But whenever angels appear in the scriptures, the person whom they come to is scared. They’re scared because they are in the presence of a heavenly being. And yet the angel says ‘don’t be afraid.’
Ask the Holy Spirit of God to help you, to help you to resist the temptations that come your way. Be filled with the power of God as Jesus was, and use it for good, use it for God’s purposes not your own; ask his angels to protect and guide you, every day.
Amen.
