LENT 1A - Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7; Psalm 32; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11 -

10 February 2008 - A sermon given by The Rev. Peter A. Munson for St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, Boulder, Colorado

 

Satan, Temptation, and God

 

INTRODUCTION - Do you believe that Satan exists?

 

It has been fashionable for a while now - maybe even for a few centuries - for many people, even for quite a few Christians, to not believe that Satan exists. Satan, the Devil, the Accuser - do you believe that he exists?

 

I’ll tell you, in a nutshell, what I think. I believe that there is force for evil in this world. In a way, it doesn’t matter what we call this force, this spirit. Jesus called him, according to the different gospels, “Satan” (Matthew 4:10 - today’s passage; also Matthew 12:26; 16:23; Luke 10:18; 22:3), “the devil” (John 8:44), “a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44), “the evil one” (Matthew 5:37). “Satan”, in Hebrew, means “adversary”, and the function of this adversary is to accuse us. Satan is like your inner critic, multiplied by a million. Satan knows we fall short of who God calls us to be. Satan knows we are easily tempted, and rather easily distracted from God, and from doing the will of God. So Satan starts there, and begins prying away, accusing us, hammering away at our week spots. Sometimes, even oftentimes - the prying and the hammering is quite subtle. Perhaps the best little book written on this Accuser - Satan - and what he tries to do to get us off track, is the classic, The Screwtape Letters, by C. S. Lewis.

 

When you start talking about Satan, it is helpful - even necessary - to very quickly say what you believe about God. I believe in God, revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The word “in” there is critical, because it means that I believe in the love, the power, the steadfastness, and the goodness of God, and it means that I put my whole trust and allegiance in God. God is my Savior. God is the only one with ultimate authority over my life. I believe that Satan exists. The word that there is critical. I don’t believe in Satan, because that would imply that I worship or set my heart after Satan. I believe Satan either wants believers to not believe that he exists at all - that is, to take him way too lightly - or to believe in him, that is, to give him so much due that you end up thinking he is the most powerful voice in the world, the final and ultimate authority. He is not. Satan can be overcome, as is demonstrated by Jesus’ time in the wilderness. And Satan has been overcome for all time, for even death has been overcome, by Jesus’ death and resurrection. Satan is a force behind evil in the world. But he is not an equal and opposite force to God. God has already won the victory, and when we put our trust in God, and call on the name of God to help us, Satan quickly flees, because Satan is ultimately a coward, one who is afraid of God and the people of God. And if you want the final “kicker”: Jesus believed that Satan existed. I call Jesus “Lord”, so what Jesus thought is good enough for me.

 

SATAN AND TEMPTATION

 

If Satan is largely about accusing us and tempting us, then we have four great examples of that in today’s readings. Three of them are found with Satan’s temptations of Jesus, at the end of his forty days and forty night of fasting in the wilderness. The other temptation is the classic story of the temptation in the Garden of Eden. Let’s look at them for a few minutes, and see what we can learn, for each one of these temptations zeroes right in our spiritual life with God.

 

Jesus, coming off this forty-day fast, he hears, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” Do yo hear the challenge to Jesus’ identity, right off the bat? The accuser will challenge our identity, too, as the beloved children of God. But here’s the heart of this particular temptation: We are tempted to believe that we can live on food alone. For that matter, we are tempted to believe that if we have enough material goods, we have all that we need. But Jesus knew that wasn’t true. “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”(Matthew 4:4, quoting Deuteronomy 8:3). All people need food and clean water, clothing and shelter, for these are the necessities of life. But we also need God’s word to sustain us, God’s presence with us. It is as precarious as our dependence on food on water. But we are also dependent on God’s voice, God’s word, God’s guidance - for without it, we die.

 

Satan moves on. “If you are the Son of God [there’s the challenge to Jesus’ identity again], throw yourself down [from the pinnacle of the temple]; 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.’” (Matthew 4:6, quoting Psalm 91:11-12) You don’t think that Satan is crafty? He quotes part of Psalm 91 to Jesus, as a way of trying to convince him that what he is asking him to do is fine!

 

We are made in God’s image, and that is saying something. But the temptation here is to be more special than anyone else. Wouldn’t it be cool if the laws of gravity didn’t apply to me? Wouldn’t it be cool if some of God’s other laws didn’t apply to me? We want to be invulnerable at times, or at least feel invulnerable. Because being a human being, with all the vulnerability that that entails, can lead to some serious hurt. Jesus knows that Satan is challenging him to force God’s hand. He rejects that suggestion as a terrible violation of simple trust in God. “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” (Matthew 4:7, quoting Deuteronomy 6:16). And Jesus knew that it is when we risk being the most vulnerable that we make the deepest connections with God and with other people.

 

Satan was not through with Jesus yet. He took Jesus to a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world. All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” (Matthew 4:9) We are all tempted, in one way or another, by the desire for power, for dominance. If you don’t relate to those words, how about his one? Control. You can be in charge. You can put yourself above others. All that it will cost you is your soul.

 

Jesus knew that the path of dominance was not in line with God’s ways. “Away with you Satan! For it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” (Matthew 4:10, quoting Deuteronomy 6:13) It was the first of many times, on the way to the cross, that he would forsake the way of dominating power. Jesus’ power, God’s power, is of a different sort. His calling - as is ours if we are to follow him - is about serving, not about lording it over others.

 

And that brings me to the temptation that Adam and Eve faced. Unlike Jesus, they succumbed to the temptation. It is the biggest temptation of them all, and Satan waves it in front of each of us.

 

Adam and Eve were smart. They knew what the boundaries were. They remembered. God had made only one tree off limits, after all. That’s not a whole lot to remember! All the rest was permissible. There was an incredible amount of freedom given, a tremendous amount of joy to be experienced. But it is Satan’s way to focus - to zero right in - on the one thing that God says is out-of-bounds, and - here’s the key - make it sound like God is depriving us of the whole world. It is also Satan’s way to lie, of course, for another name for Satan is the Father of Lies.

 

In the guise of the serpent, he said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden?’” (Genesis 3:1) Notice how this is worded. He plants seeds of doubt, and makes it sound like God forbids everything. When Eve correctly recounted what God had said, he responded, “You will not die, for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4-5)

 

Ah - there it is! The ultimate temptation. “You will be like God.” Why settle for being a human being, when you can be like God? Everyone knows it’s exasperating not to know everything. More than that, everyone knows it’s exasperating to not be in control, and to be limited. “Go ahead. You will be like God.” We want to be like God. It doesn’t always stop there. At times, we want to be God.

 

JESUS’ IDENTIFICATION WITH US

 

Funny thing, though. God decided to be one of us. In other words, God has a way of limiting himself. And Jesus, God’s only begotten Son - fully divine and fully human - followed God’s lead. Listen to some amazing words that Paul wrote to the Philippians:

 

“Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human from, he humbled himself, and became obedient to the point of death - even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:4-8)

 

He had the Son of God thing going for him. But instead of hanging on to that, he decided to identify himself totally with us, and become the ultimate human being - the Son of Man.

 

Here’s how Martin L. Smith, a modern-day Episcopal monk puts it: “In the stillness of the desert Jesus looked into his heart and saw how his sense of specialness as the Anointed could be distorted into a demand to be exempted from hardships and to have control over others. His surrender to the Spirit allowed him to break through to the truth that his specialness as the Beloved Son gave him the freedom to take human suffering upon himself and be the Servant of all.” (A Season for the Spirit: Readings for the Days of Lent, p. 14)

 

THE FREE GIFT

 

In today’s lesson from Romans, Paul has grace and “the free gift” on his mind. What is that free gift? It is justification - being made right again with God, through Jesus’ “act of righteousness.” (Romans 5:18). The free gift is also forgiveness from God, for, as we read again this past Wednesday, “as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12) And the free gift, finally, is new life - new life in Christ.

 

These then, are the temptations that Satan puts in front of us:

               - the temptation to believe that we can live on bread alone

               - the temptation to want to be more special than anyone else

               - the temptation for power, for dominance, for control

               - the temptation to be like God.

 

What Satan never tells us, of course, being the Father of Lies, is the cost associated with succumbing to these temptations. Ultimately, it comes down to this - separation from God, which is death. When we succumb to any of these temptations, we are paying for something that doesn’t satisfy, instead of receiving the FREE GIFT that is offered to us by God, through Christ.

 

CONCLUSION

Do I believe in Satan? Most certainly not. Who is he that I should pour out any kind of devotion upon him? Do I believe that Satan exists? Most certainly. But here’s the thing. I believe in the One who has the power to crush Satan under his feet, and who has done exactly that. I believe in the power of the Spirit, the One who came to Jesus’ aid all through his time in the wilderness, the One who brought God’s word to him when he most needed it - to combat the tests of the Devil - and the One who sustained him, again and again, through all of his trials and temptations. And I believe that that very same Spirit has been given to you and to me, and that - by the power of the Spirit - we can overcome all the temptations (and any other obstacles) that Satan tries to throw in our path, and be about serving others and building a kingdom, just as Jesus was.

 

May we draw close to that Spirit this Lent, and whenever we find ourselves facing the temptations put before us by the Father of Lies, let us remember that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and that He is the One - the One who humbled himself and became obedient, even unto death on a cross. He is the One who has our best interests at heart. And He is the only one who calls us his Beloved.