Scripture: Luke 4:1-13
Today is the first Sunday in Lent. During the next 40 days, I’m going to preach a series of sermons using traditional Lent-related scriptures, including today’s text, the three temptations of Jesus in Luke chapter 4.
And I want to make three points. Number One: Jesus is relatable… Number Two: The temptations of Jesus are relevant… And Number Three: The temptations made Jesus ready.
But first, number one…
Surely every man around my age—I’m 55—remembers what it was like being a boy back in 1978, going to the movie theater, and seeing Superman: The Movie when it first came out… And come to think of it, this is a timely illustration, because I recall that the late Gene Hackman co-starred as the villain, Lex Luthor. But for any boy in the ’70s, the movie was nothing less than magical… The tagline of the movie was, “You’ll believe a man can fly.” And they weren’t kidding! These were the days long before digital photography, computer animation, and CGI, and the special effects were seamless. Christopher Reeve was flying alright… without visible strings, straps, or ropes suspending him in the air!
I loved that movie, and I love Superman. And I remember: because of his super strength and speed, Clark Kent’s adoptive parents wouldn’t let him play on the high school football team—even though he could kick the ball literally for miles and could run “faster than a speeding bullet.” Instead, the young Clark had to pretend to be a weakling… He was the equipment manager, or water-boy, as I recall. To keep his superpowers under wraps, Clark acted shy, cowardly, clumsy, awkward… No one would suspect someone like him of being the mighty Man of Steel.
And once he put the glasses on… I mean c’mon! Who could possibly ever guess that Clark Kent was Superman?
I bring this up because… I wonder if we Christians don’t sometimes read the gospels and imagine that Jesus is a little bit like Clark Kent. Jesus is God in the flesh, after all… the Second Person of the Trinity. Therefore… even though by all outward appearances he is a flesh-and-blood human—like Clark Kent… we’re tempted to imagine that Jesus often has to “hold back” his superpowers… he has to pretend…
“He wasn’t really like us,” we may think. “He didn’t have to struggle like us. He had it easier than we have it. He didn’t face the same trials and temptations that we face.”
Of course the Bible says this is untrue in a hundred different ways… But how about the “Christ hymn” of Philippians 2? “Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being…” 1 Or how about this, from the author of Hebrews? “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” 2
The gospel of Luke, more than Matthew, Mark, or John, I think, emphasizes Jesus’ humanity. Remember the incident in the temple when Jesus was twelve? When he returned home with his parents, Luke tells us, in chapter 2, verse 52, “Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people.”
Hmm… “Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature…”
You may recall that scene in the Superman movie when Jonathan Kent is working on something under his truck. The truck falls off the jack with Jonathan underneath. He would have been crushed… except… this toddler from the planet Krypton is holding up the truck. And smiling… like it’s nothing heavier than a child’s toy.
Luke 2:52 tells us, by contrast, that Jesus wasn’t like that. He had to learn the same way that we learn, and he had to grow, in height, in strength, in physical stature, the same way all of us learn and grow. As Philippians 2 says, although he was truly God, he emptied himself or set aside all the privileges that come with being God… he humbled himself. He enjoyed no shortcuts, no cheat codes, no “heavenly hacks,” when it came to being human. He was fully human, just like us… only without sin.
And he had to rely on faith in his heavenly Father… just like us… and he had to rely on prayer… just like us.
Luke’s gospel, especially, emphasizes Jesus’ dependence on prayer. For example, all four gospels describe the Spirit’s descending on Jesus after he was baptized by John, but only Luke adds the detail that the Spirit came upon Jesus while he was praying. 3 Matthew, Mark, and Luke each describe Jesus’ call of the twelve disciples, but only Luke tells us that Jesus had been up all night praying before he called them. 4 Matthew, Mark, and Luke each describe Peter’s great confession of Jesus as the Messiah, but only Luke tells us that it happens after Jesus had been praying by himself. 5
And again, those same three gospels describe the Transfiguration, but only Luke tells us that this miracle occurred while Jesus was praying. 6
Jesus didn’t have access to any “superpowers” apart from the Holy Spirit working through prayer. Just like us! Jesus didn’t automatically know what his Father wanted him to do… apart from seeking his Father’s guidance both in scripture (as we see three times in today’s scripture) and in prayer. Just like us!
And how else is Jesus “just like us”?
He’s just like us in the sense that he was tempted to sin, as we see in today’s scripture. Based on what I’ve already said about Jesus’ full humanity, of course, this shouldn’t surprise us. But listen to the way C.S. Lewis describes the temptations that Jesus endured—these words come from Mere Christianity. Lewis writes:
A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. [Lewis wrote during World War II.]You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later… We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means—the only complete realist. 7
To say the least, Jesus knows all about the same temptations we face! Jesus relates to us, and we can relate to him. And that’s Point Number One… Jesus is relatable!
Number Two: Relevant…Jesus’ experience with temptations is relevant for us…
Jesus has been fasting for 40 days… That’s about as long as a healthy adult male can last before starvation begins to kick in. Jesus is physically very weak. This weakened condition makes Jesus dangerously vulnerable to sin. So these temptations will test him to the core!
By the way, if you’ve ever read the classic Christian book, Celebration of Discipline, by Richard Foster, which is about the kinds of spiritual disciplines that the church often emphasizes and practices during Lent, Foster makes this point: He says that fasting can’t “make” you become something or do something that contradicts who you already are, in your heart. In other words, let’s say you fast during Lent by skipping a meal, or two meals, some time during the week—as I encouraged you to try a few weeks ago.
Chances are, before you break your fast, at some point during the day, you will feel short-tempered. You will become grumpy and irritable. Or at least more irritable than usual!You will snap at someone. You will say something impolite. Why? Because you feel “hangry,” right? “Hungry” and “angry”… Foster says that fasting doesn’t make you that way. Rather, the anger that comes out during a fast is already a sinful problem in your heart… perhaps deep down deep in your heart… Fasting just unearths what we are usually able to keep hidden.
To say the least, then, Jesus’ 40-day fast is going to reveal who Jesus really is. If there were anything false about Jesus’ faith in his Father, it’s going to come out! If there were any pride or anger or lust or anything impure within Jesus, it’s going to come out!
Also, please notice verse 1: “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”
Who is ultimately responsible for this time of trial and testing? The devil? No… Before the devil shows up, we’re told that God himself—the Holy Spirit—has led Jesus to this place, in order to be tested.
I talked last week about the “trouble” that Jesus promises will come our way in Matthew 6:34. Remember? But whatever trouble comes our way, it only comes because God himself sends it… or because he allows it to happen for his good purposes. And when trouble comes, it doesn’t mean God is punishing us for some specific sin because… look at the trouble Jesus is going through right now! And he was without sin.
When I graduated from seminary in 2007, Lisa and I were about as broke as broke could be. As a result, we were driving two very old Hondas. And one of them, Lisa’s minivan, was demon-possessed. No, not really… But maybe. Anyway, we replaced the transmission in it three times in just over three years. I’m not kidding. Each time the transmission failed just outside of the warranty. How convenient! And that set us back financially, as you can imagine.
So one time the minivan was in the shop for yet another new transmission. It was 4th of July weekend in 2010. I was getting into my 18-year-old Honda Accord—which was just shy of 300,000 miles. And I cranked it. [Imitate crank sound.] It wouldn’t start. No big deal, I thought. This was a recurring problem. When it was really hot outside, for some reason, the car sometimes wouldn’t crank. So I tried again, Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch.
But in that moment, I was thinking to myself, “We are driving two embarrassingly old Hondas—trying desperately to keep at least one of them running—using bailing wire, chewing gum, and duct tape, if necessary—while the other car is facing yet another expensive repair.” And we’re driving these two old cars, holding our breath each day, hoping that they will get us from point A to point B. And at least the one I drove hadn’t had working air-conditioning in seven years!
So when that car wouldn’t start I was fed up! I lost it!
Why are we living like this, I thought?
Oh yeah… Because I decided to answer God’s call into ministry eight years earlier—completely unprepared for the huge financial sacrifice that it would ask of my family and me! And I felt guilty, too. Like, I’m the one putting my family through this!
So I’m sitting in my driveway, cranking my car in vain. Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch. Feeling sorry for myself. Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch. Thinking, “I was doing fine in my previous career as an engineer.” Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch. “We didn’t have to live on such a tight budget before.” Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch. “We could’ve bought a couple of new cars by now.” Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch. “We didn’t have these kinds financial worries back then.” Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch… Ch-ch.
So I go back in the house, and I’m beside myself with anger. And Lisa told me, among other things, that I did not trust that God would really take care of us—that, despite what I preach, I don’t actually believe these pretty words that I tell you each week. And she reminded me of how much God has taken care of us so far, how faithful God has been to us, how happy and healthy our family is, how nice our home is, how, in spite of all the challenges, we’ve made ends meet. And how, in spite of our car troubles, there hasn’t been a single time when we couldn’t get from point A to point B.
And she said, “Maybe God keeps sending us this car trouble, because he’s trying to get your attention—to teach you something about what it means to trust in him!” And I’m like, “Whoa!” I thought I was the theologian in this family! Her words literally brought me to my knees.
This test I was enduring caused me to ask deep questions of faith: “Do I believe that God keeps his word? Do I trust God to keep his promises—including the promise that he’ll always love me?”
These questions are at the heart of the three temptations Jesus faces in today’s scripture. To understand this point, let’s consider what happened in Jesus’ life immediately before Jesus was led into the wilderness for these temptations: Turn back to Luke chapter 3. Jesus was baptized by his cousin John in the Jordan River. And after he was baptized, Luke 3:22 says, “the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’”
So in this baptism, God gives Jesus a visual, audible, and supernatural demonstration of the meaning of Christ’s baptism: It means that he is God’s beloved Son, with whom his Father is well pleased.
So his Father has just told him, “You are my beloved Son,” and here we are, in today’s scripture, 40 days later, and what’s the first thing Satan says to Jesus when he comes to tempt him? Verse 3: “If you are the Son of God…” In other words, “If the last thing you heard your Father say to you—40 days ago—is true, then of course you’ll want to turn these stones into bread. After all, if your Father loves you as much as he told you he does, then naturally he wouldn’t want you to starve out here in the wilderness. Would he? I mean, what kind of loving father would want that for his son?”
So you see the devil is trying to sow seeds of doubt in Jesus’ mind about whether his Father was telling the truth when he said that he loved him and cared about him.
This is a tactic straight out of a very well-worn playbook. Let me give you just one example from the Old Testament, of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3: Satan convinces Eve that God was lying to the couple about how dangerous the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil was.
“That’s not true,” Satan tells her. “God just doesn’t want you to become like him, and know good from evil. He’s not looking out for your best interests. He’s withholding something good from you out of spite or jealousy.” Satan is sowing seeds of doubt in her mind about God’s love for her… about whether he truly cares for her. “If God did love and care for you,” the devil says, in so many words, “then of course he would let you eat this fruit.”
So, in the same way, Satan is tempting Jesus to doubt his Father’s word when his Father told him he loved and cared for him. But not only that… The reason God’s Son came into the world in the first place was to be Israel’s Messiah and the world’s Savior. When his Father told Jesus that he was his beloved Son, he was also saying something about his mission: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son…” How could Christ accomplish his purpose for coming into the world if he dies of starvation before he even gets started on that mission?
So the devil would also love for Jesus to ask questions like, “Was my Father telling the truth about my mission? Can I trust him? Will he keep his word?”
Like I said, this is a tactic straight out of the devil’s playbook…
And he uses it against us today. He tempts us to ask, “Does God really love and care about me? Will God keep his word when he tells me that nothing will separate me from his love? Will God keep all the promises that he’s made to me in his Word?”
Before I leave this point, I want to remind us of the many cartoons we’ve seen over the years about temptation. Remember? There’s always a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other. And each is making their case for why the person should do something… or not do something.
That’s not what’s going on here… at all. There’s only one voice speaking during this trial. And whose voice is it?
The devil’s voice. Jesus doesn’t hear a word, not only from an angel… He doesn’t hear a word from his Father. Sure, forty days earlier Jesus heard his Father’s voice, but not here… not now!
So many of us know exactly what that feels like!
It feels like God is silent. We want desperately to hear a word from God, and we don’t. And the temptation, in those moments, is to think God doesn’t care about us. That he’s abandoned us. Or even that he doesn’t even exist at all!
Take heart! Jesus knows how you feel! He’s been there! He’s been tempted in the same way!
But notice this… in those moments we have at our disposal the exact same thing that Jesus had… We have God’s Word, the Bible. Three times Jesus says, “It is written,” or “It is said.” Then he quotes scripture. God has spoken, and does speak, through his Word. Of course it helps to know God’s Word. And that’s, again, why I’m giving you scriptures to memorize each month.
And that’s Point Number Two: Relevance… Jesus’ experience with testing and temptation is very similar to ours… It’s relevant. And we can learn a lot from his experience.
Point Number Three… Ready…
The reason Jesus’ Father wanted him to be tested here at the beginning of his ministry was to help prepare him for an even greater testing later on in his ministry. In other words this testing helped make him ready for what he would face later on.
Let’s look at verse 13: “And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from [Jesus] until an opportune time.” Until an opportune time.
Most Bible scholars believe that this “opportune time” occurred when Jesus was sweating drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane, saying, “If possible take this cup from me, but not my will but yours be done.”
And this opportune time occurred when Jesus was arrested, falsely accused, beaten, spit upon, mocked, when soldiers placed a crown of thorns on his head.
This opportune time occurred when he heard the crowd, the onlookers, the soldiers, and at least one of the criminals being crucified next to him saying, in so many words, “If you are who your Father says you are, then save yourself!”
This opportune time occurred when Jesus carried his own cross to Golgotha, when he experienced separation from his Father and cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
This opportune time occurred when Jesus experienced God’s wrath, when he experienced hell itself, on the cross.
All the while, Jesus undoubtedly heard the voice of the devil saying, “If you are Son of God, you don’t have to put up with this! Are you crazy? You don’t deserve this! Free yourself! Come down off that cross and save yourself… If you are the Son of God.
And in part because of the testing in today’s scripture, Jesus could reply, “You don’t get it, Satan. “There’s no if… ‘If I am the Son of God.’ It’s ‘because’: Because I am the Son of God, I refuse to ‘save myself.’ Rather, through my death on the cross, I’m going to save all these people I love.”
Amen.