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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. (Amen.)
Some say that in war one cannot be neutral. Of course, the Aggies and Longhorns’ rivalry is not really a “war”, nor is the Democrats and Republicans’ opposition. But, the conflict between Iran and Israel, or between Russia and Ukraine? Romanian-born Holocaust‑survivor and Nobel‑Laureate Eliezer Wiesel reportedly said that neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. At a member’s request, Pilgrim’s Prayer of the Church for some time has been asking God to protect non‑combatants in war zones, especially “innocent” women and children. Yet, in some conflicts, everyone is a combatant, including all of the children. Take, for example, Phoenix Elizabeth, who was baptized this morning. When any unclean spirit departed from her and made way for the Holy Spirit, Phoenix Elizabeth, like each of us before her, essentially “changed sides” in the spiritual war that each one of us is waging, a war in which we neither never have been nor can we ever be neutral (confer Ephesians 6:12).
In today’s Gospel Reading, we might say that “the two lead combatants” in our Spiritual War faced off. As we heard, the Divinely‑inspired St. Luke uniquely reported how Jesus “full of the Holy Spirit” returned from the Jordan River, where, as you may remember from near the beginning of the Epiphany Season, when Jesus had been baptized, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form, like a dove, and a voice came from heaven, saying “You are My beloved Son, with You I am well‑pleased” (Luke 3:21-22). In between Jesus’s closely‑connected baptism and temptation, St. Luke’s account traces Jesus’s genealogy, His being the son, as was supposed, of Joseph, all the way back to Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God (Luke 3:23-37). Jesus, the Son of God arguably in at least a little different way, as we heard, was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days. Wilderness perhaps not all that far away was the place where God tested Israel, sometimes referred to as God’s “firstborn son” (Exodus 4:22), and the place also where the Israelites wrongly put God to the test, asking whether or not the Lord was among them (Exodus 17:7; confer Psalm 78:18; 1 Corinthians 10:9). In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus was being tempted by the devil, the prince of the demons or unclean spirits, who also led Jesus around, no doubt as Jesus permitted the devil to do so, tempting or testing Jesus about His Sonship.
A little more than half of Americans reportedly believe that the devil exists, but, whether or not one believes that the devil exists does not change the reality both of the devil’s existence and of His work in the world! In the Gospel Reading, the devil’s twice telling Jesus to do something “if” Jesus is the Son of God can prompt us to ask both Who Jesus is and, in some sense more importantly, who we are in relationship to Him. Whether or not we believe that Jesus is the Son of God in human flesh also does not change the reality both of Jesus’s existence as the Son of God in human flesh and of His work in the world! Rather, what we believe about Jesus determines which side we are on in the spiritual war that each one of us is waging. Like the ancient Israelites, do we question whether or not the Lord is among us when we face hardships in our lives, such as difficulty at work or school, conflict in our family, declining health of a loved one or ourselves? Do we so wrongly put the Lord to the test? Like Phoenix Elizabeth, before the Holy Spirit changed her, before the Holy Spirit changed us, all of us were not children of God but children of the devil (confer John 8:44). Not neutral but captive to him by our sinful nature and all of our sin, we were subject to temporal and eternal punishment. But, God calls and so enables us to turn in sorrow from our sin and to trust Him to forgive our sin. When we do so repent, then God forgives us. God forgives our sinful nature and all our sin for Jesus’s sake!
Jesus is “The Winner of our Spiritual War”, and, as we are in Him, Phoenix Elizabeth and each one of us is also “The Winner of our Spiritual War”. In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus clearly resists all of the devil’s temptations. So little effect did the battle between Jesus and the devil have on Jesus that, after the temptation, Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee and went on proclaiming liberty to those who were captives of the devil (Marshall, ad loc Luke 4:1-13, pp.165-166, with reference to Luke 4:18). Yes, the devil departed from Jesus until an opportune time. Yes, Satan later entered Judas Iscariot, who was one of Jesus’s twelve apostles, who conspired to betray Jesus (Luke 22:3-6). Yes, Jesus and the other disciples wrestled with temptation in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:40-44). Yes, Jesus’s identity as the Son of God was central both to His conviction by the Sanhedrin (Luke 22:70-71) and to His mocking by passers‑by of the cross (for example, Matthew 27:40), but all of that served God’s larger purpose of having Jesus die on the cross, there defeating the devil once and for all! Some commentators suggest that the Holy Spirit had St. Luke even sequence the temptations in such a way that they climax in Jerusalem where that decisive battle took place. Regardless, we see Jesus hunger and be tempted as a real human being but not succumb to temptation as Holy God. Jesus was a true Son of God and faithful to His calling as the Christ in the temptations in the wilderness and elsewhere throughout His life, death, and resurrection. As a real human being Jesus died, and, since He was true God, His death atoned for the sins of the world, including your sins and my sins. As we heard in today’s Epistle Reading, when we believe in our hearts and confess with our lips that Jesus is the Lord Whom God raised from the dead, then we are justified, saved (Romans 10:8b-13). Our sins are forgiven, sins of putting the Lord to the test or whatever our sins might be. Jesus was tempted as we are and so sympathizes with our weakness, the Divinely‑inspired author of Hebrews says, so we can with confidence draw near to His throne of grace and receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:15).
Our Spiritual War as we heard it waged in today’s Gospel Reading and see it waged in our daily lives does not appear as we in our digital‑age from high-resolution first-person video games might expect! Rather, the simple Word of God read and preached and with means of water, touch, and bread and wine work to win us from the devil’s side to God’s side. As was the case with Phoenix Elizabeth this morning, we are baptized into Christ and so benefit from His death and resurrection. The sins that particularly trouble us, we confess to our pastors for the sake of Holy Absolution. And, in the Holy Supper, the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ strengthen and preserve us, body and soul, to life everlasting. The Israelites had put God to the test over His providing them food; the devil tempted Jesus to command a stone become bread; but, Jesus commands bread be His Body and wine be His Blood. In all of these ways, God equips us for our Spiritual War.
Some may look at Phoenix Elizabeth and wonder how she is able to wage the Spiritual War. For that matter, how are any of us able to wage the Spiritual War? Yes, Jesus is an example of using God’s Word to resist the devil’s temptation, but Jesus is far more than an example: He is our forgiveness for our failing to use God’s Word and for all of our other failures in our Spiritual Warfare. We try to trust that God is present among us despite the hardships that we face in our lives. As described in today’s Old Testament Reading, we try to bring first‑fruits of what the Lord has given us (Deuteronomy 26:1-11), and we may even try to keep the Lord’s unusual command to put Him to the test by our bringing in a full tithe and His opening the windows of heaven for us and pouring down for us a blessing until there is no more need (Malachi 3:10). Yet, regardless of our age or ability, we cannot give enough, pray enough, fast enough, or do good works enough that we can earn our forgiveness or righteousness before God. Jesus is “The Winner of our Spiritual War”, and only as we are in Him are each one of us also “The Winner of our Spiritual War”.
Neutrality of course is possible in the rivalry between the Aggies and Longhorns and maybe even to some extent in the opposition between the Democrats and Republicans. Much less so is neutrality possible in the conflict between Iran and Israel and between Russia and Ukraine, and not at all is neutrality possible in our Spiritual War against the spiritual forces of evil. We do not ask whether the Lord is for us or for our adversaries, but, like Joshua with the commander of the Lord’s army by Jericho, by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ, we are aligned with the Lord, and we honor Him on His holy ground, both now and forever (Joshua 5:13-15; confer Exodus 3:5).
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +