A sermon preached by the Reverend Canon Dr. David Anderson on the First Sunday in Lent, March 9, 2025, at St. Jude’s Church. (Text: Luke 4:1-13)
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
My friend Lori Hale tells the story of her son, then just shy of four years-old, attending Children’s Church on the First Sunday in Lent. He is a gregarious fellow and was so at that time as well. On this day the little guy went off to his children’s worship while Lori remained in the main worship service. The leader of the Children’s Church that day was a dynamic storyteller. Lori was, therefore, not surprised when her son pulled her aside later that day to ask her some questions. “Hey, mom,” he started, “what do you know about the devil?” What a question! Where to start? She looked at him and remembered that he was still just three.
She asked, “What do you know about the devil?” A good response, I think.
“Well,” he began, “the devil talked to Jesus.” The young fellow had been paying attention. “The devil was mean,” he continued. Then the boy continued, leaning in closer to his mother, dropping his voice to a whisper. He said, “If we were at a store, and you and Dad were in one aisle, and I was in another, and”—his voice dropped even quieter to what Lori described as a “downright conspiratorial level—“and there was candy,” he said before pausing for effect. “The devil would say to me, ‘You should take some!’
Lori was startled to see how her very young son could retell the story in such a dramatic fashion and that he had learned so much about temptation.
So Lori asked the boy, “Honey, if we were at a store, and Dad and I were in one aisle, and you were in another, and there was candy, and the devil said, ‘You should take some!’ What would you say back to the devil?
A sweet little grin lit up the boy’s face and without hesitation he replied, “Oh, I would say thank you!”
Its not surprising that such a young child would miss the point, but many of us miss the point all the time. It is easier to say, “Thank you,” when the tempter comes calling. But our Gospel Reading is only partly about temptation. This account in Luke’s Gospel is also about Jesus’ choice—and ours—to be obedient to God.
This season of Lent invites us to embrace an intentional way of life: the way of life that Jesus shows us. For the forty days of Lent (which doesn’t include the Sundays), we follow the example of Jesus, who Luke tells us was “led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil (vv. 1-2). The Spirit doesn’t just ‘drop him off’ in the wilderness to fend for himself; the Spirit continues to abide with Jesus, enabling him to grow stronger through the season. This is a preparation for Jesus’ mission. He has already been chosen and anointed, as we have, but this is not for us sufficient preparation for participation in Jesus’ mission. We must be tested so that we learn dependence on God, who graciously provide for all our needs in all of life’s seasons.
This morning we have helpfully read from the Book of Deuteronomy, where we hear of the Lord putting ancient Israel to the test, in humbling circumstances and testing what is in their hearts. They face temptations. The first is that they might become complacent, believing that they no longer need God to protect them from hunger and hostile threats. For us today there is a similar great temptation. In the midst of our prosperity, and living in the milieu a predominant secular worldview, we face the temptation of spiritual forgetfulness. There is a close parallel with Israel’s temptation in the wilderness and that of Jesus. The difference is, of course, that Jesus’ response is faithfulness. He renders to God the obedience that ancient Israel did not give.
Many years ago, there was great controversy over the release of Martin Scorsese’s film, The Last Temptation of Christ. Jesus’ final temptation is described somewhat differently at the end of Luke’s Gospel. There, Jesus’ faithfulness to God’s will is fully embraced in his perseverance in prayer. “Not my will, but yours be done,” Jesus prays. By contrast, the disciples, like ancient Israel, fail in their time of trial and testing. Jesus had warned them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation” (22:40 RSV). For these disciples, faithfulness in their participation and embrace of God’s mission involves persecution, suffering, and death. It was a difficult path, not easily embraced. Only by joining Jesus—being in total solidarity with him in his mission—could the disciples grow to walk the walk.
We should notice that temptations are often subtle. If the devil appeared to us in bodily form, we might not think it too subtle. But Jesus is tested and tempted to do things that we would normally think are good and desirable, however, these are not good for him. Jesus is tested to see whether even good things can lure him from a focus on God’s will, or can lure Jesus’ followers into following a more comfortable messiah.
The devil does not challenge Jesus to do bad things. The first temptation, to turn a stone into a loaf of bread, would cure his hunger after the long fast. If Jesus could do that, he could also turn the abundant stones across Israel’s landscape into amply food to feed the many hungry people in the land. Jesus responds by citing a verse from Deuteronomy. Bread is good, but not sufficient to define Jesus’ mission. We do not “live by bread alone.”
The second temptation portrays the devil as the “ruler of this world” (see Jn 12:31, et. al.) who can govern the world’s kingdoms. For the price of honoring that authority, the devil promises to hand that authority over to Jesus. When we remember that most of the known world in that day was under the heavy-handed control of Rome and its military, we can only conclude that a ‘regime change’ would be for the world’s good. Yet again Jesus’ answer is no. The price is too high. Jesus’ reply, again quoting from Deuteronomy, is to acknowledge that all authority belongs only to God. Playing the world’s game for a good purpose would be to risk serving something less than God.
The tests conclude in Jerusalem, the place where Jesus’ ministry will culminate with his passion and resurrection appearances, and where the church will begin its life. The devil’s challenge draws on Psalm 91, which promises God’s protection to those who are righteous. The Jerusalem temple is perhaps understood to be a special location for righteousness. “Go there,” the devil challenges Jesus, “and test the promise. Many of the professional “righteous” people of Jesus’s day, the priests, the scribes, and the Pharisees, were however, living out their role by working hand in glove with the Roman occupiers to the detriment of Israel’s poor and suffering. There was little that was righteous about their service. Surely reform was in order! But again, Jesus replied from Deuteronomy: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test” (Dt 6:16).
Jesus answers the devil three times, “No, no, no.” But his ‘no,’ was in another way a ‘yes.’ His ‘yes’ was to God. His ‘yes’ was his obedience to God. He refused to turn stones into bread, but he does feed the hungry, and calls his people to do the same. He refused political power, but his proclamation of God’s reign of justice and peace is the focus of his teaching and preaching, and informs our understanding of God’s mission to this day. He refused to jump off the temple to see if God would send angels to catch him, but he does go to the cross in confidence that even as he lays down his life, God will raise him up—in confidence that God’s will for his life will win the day over the world’s decision to execute him. Game, set, match to Jesus!
When the devil offers us candy, it is hard to say no. One of the wonderful ironies exposed in our texts for today, however, is the difficult idea—hard to understand and more difficult to embrace—that the way God calls us to is simultaneously the way of obedience and the way of freedom. Certainly, such an understanding is a lot to ask of a three-year-old. I know that personally, I am still working on it.
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