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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Winter Olympics are well underway in South Korea, filling hours of television programming on multiple networks, at least trying to satisfy fans of sports such as figure skating, ice hockey, all kinds of skiing, and even curling. Spectators here may largely be rooting for Team USA, but there is no “right” or “wrong” medal winner of any of those competitions. There is a competition of a different sort in today’s Gospel Reading, where there is a right and wrong “winner”. And, that competition matters for us who, like it or not, are no mere spectators but perhaps unwilling competitors. Already this Church Year we have heard the Gospel Reading’s accounts of the events of Jesus’s Baptism and the beginning of His public ministry, so this morning we focus on the Gospel Reading’s two verses pertaining to Jesus’s Temptation, and we reflect on those verses under the theme “Testing the Baptized”.
As we heard, immediately after Jesus’s Baptism, the Holy Spirit, Who had just descended like a dove on Jesus, Whom the Father’s voice from heaven had identified as His beloved Son, drove (or “cast” or “sent”) Jesus out into the wilderness. And, Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by Satan, a testing that God the Father at least permitted. Jesus may have been isolated from other people in the wilderness, but, the Divinely‑inspired St. Mark uniquely tells us, Jesus was with the wild animals, for worse or better, and the angels were ministering to Him.
The Greek word used in the New Testament for “tempting” is also translated as “testing”, usually depending on whether the “trial” is coming more-directly either from Satan or from God. The Hebrew word used in the Old Testament, likewise does not necessarily have the negative connotation of “enticing to do wrong”, but rather it has the idea of refining one’s character so that one walks more closely in God’s ways (Wilson, TWOT #1373, p.581). Take Abraham in today’s Old Testament Reading (Genesis 22:1-18), for example. God tested Abraham, and Abraham proved faithful, offering up his only son Isaac, whom he loved, and, at least figuratively speaking, receiving him back from the dead (Hebrews 11:17-19). Of course, if you know more of Abraham’s story, you know that at other times he was at least less faithful, for example, earlier Abraham had taken the fulfillment of God’s promises into his own hands at the instigation of his wife Sarai and had complicated matters by fathering Ishmael through Hagar (Genesis 16:1-16). Yet, Abraham believed God, and that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3; etc.). God forgave Abraham by grace through faith in his Offspring, through Whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed.
In many ways, you and I are like Abraham. At times we, the Baptized, may prove faithful under God’s testing, even if it comes more directly from the devil and we think of it as tempting. And, to be sure, at other times, we are less faithful. The Divinely‑inspired St. James in today’s Epistle Reading (James 1:12-18) correctly says God Himself tempts no one, but each of us is tempted when, among other things, we are lured and enticed by our own sinful desire, which desire all too often gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. Yet, God does not want us to die but calls and thereby enables us: to turn in sorrow from our sin, to trust Him to forgive our sin, and to want to do better than to keep on sinning. When we so repent, then God forgives our sin—all our sin, whatever our sin might be—for the sake of His Son Jesus Christ.
Jesus is God in human flesh, and He needed that human flesh both in order for Him to be tempted by the devil and in order to make up for our failures under temptation, by dying for us on the cross. Jesus was tempted as we are in every respect, yet remained without sin (Hebrews 4:15). And, for our sake, God made Him to be sin, Who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). God loved the world by giving His only Son, Whom He loved, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16). Like with Abraham, the faith that God works in us is counted as righteousness to us who believe in Him Who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, Who was delivered up to death for our trespasses, and Whose resurrection shows forth our justification (Romans 4:24-25). Because Jesus Himself suffered when tempted, He is able to help us who are tempted (Hebrews 2:18). Jesus sympathizes with our weakness, and so we can, with confidence, draw near to His throne of grace, where we receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need (Hebrews 4:15-16).
As an example of that mercy and grace, we can point to our Baptisms as times and places where we know that God worked the forgiveness of our sin, rescued us from death and the devil, and gave us eternal salvation as we believed His words and promises. At the Font, the unclean spirit departs and makes way for the Holy Spirit, Who then, as He did with Jesus, in a sense, casts us out into the wilderness of this life, where we are tempted by Satan. When so tempted, we can and should point to our Baptisms and tell Satan to get behind us, because, as we are baptized into Christ Jesus, we share in His victory over the devil—not only His victory in the wilderness but especially also His victory on the cross. When we fail to resist temptation, as we in this life always will continue to fail, we daily repent and are forgiven. When specific sins particularly trouble us, we privately confess them to our pastors, for the sake of individual Absolution, forgiveness from the pastor as from God Himself. And, we remember that our adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8), and that reality keeps us hungry and thirsty for the Sacrament of the Altar (Small Catechism, Section 4, #20). For, our Lord Jesus Christ’s Body and Blood strengthen and preserve us in body and soul to life everlasting. Not angels sent from heaven, but God’s messengers nonetheless, in all of these ways, minister to us, the baptized, who are being tested in the wilderness of this life.
The testing of the baptized is no friendly Olympic competition, and there is a “right” and “wrong” winner. By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, St. Paul writes to the Ephesians that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12). And, likewise St. Peter writes that we should not be surprised and think something strange is happening to us when fiery trials come upon us to test us, but we should rejoice as we share in Christ’s sufferings that we may also rejoice when His glory is revealed (1 Peter 4:12). St. Peter’s letter, like St. Mark’s Gospel account, may well have been heard by those who would be killed by wild animals on account of their faith. Probably none of us have yet had to face that extent of persecution, although secular society’s mocking of Christianity and even Olympic celebration of godless immorality seems to increase on a daily basis. Morning and evening, we pray as the Small Catechism teaches us: for God’s holy angel, arguably Christ Himself, to be with us, that the evil foe may have no power over us. And, God is faithful, He will not let us be tested or tempted beyond our ability, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape, that we may be able to endure it (1 Corinthians 10:13). Ultimately, as we heard in the Epistle Reading, the baptized who remain steadfast under such testing or tempting are blessed, for, when we have been approved by such testing, we will receive the victor’s crown of eternal life, which God has promised to those who love Him.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +