In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The temptation of Jesus in the wilderness shows us two main things about temptation. First, it shows us the way that we’re supposed to fight against it. And second, it shows us where we find the real victory over it.

The way that you fight against temptation is always with the written Word of God. That’s how Jesus fought against the Devil in our reading today and that’s how we’re called to fight against him too. As Saint Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter 6, “take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” We wield God’s Word, and the truth of the Scriptures in the face of every temptation to sin, because all temptation, in some way other another, is an attack on God’s Word.

Think about the temptations that Jesus faced. The first one had to do with hunger and whether or not God could be trusted to provide for Him. Satan said to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” Notice how the Devil tried to get Jesus to doubt His identity as God’s Son by pointing to the difficulty of His circumstances. He wanted Christ to look at His suffering, instead of God’s promises, to know whether or not God loved Him.

But that’s not how we know whether or not God loves us. We don’t come to that conclusion by adding up all the stuff that we have or don’t have. We do so by listening to what God’s Word tells us and trusting it.

Remember what happened right before Jesus went into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil. He was Baptized in the Jordan River and voice from heaven declared Him to be God’s beloved Son. Well, that’s what happens in our Baptism too. God puts His Name on us and makes us part of His family. He promises to wash away our sins and give us exactly what is most beneficial for our eternal salvation. So, even if we are faced with hunger and adversity, like Jesus was in the wilderness, we can rest assured that God is not out to get us, but is still at work to save us. We know that not because of what we see, but because that’s what He promised. And God always keeps His promises.

How did Jesus respond to that first attack from Satan? He quoted the Bible. He said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God.” That’s how we live our lives as Christians too. Our true food is not what we eat and drink off of our tables, but the promises of God’s Word, which assure us of His mercy and love in the face of every trial.

The next temptation that Jesus faced was the temptation to add to God’s Word. The first time the Devil came to Him, he tried to get Him to ignore the Scriptures, but this time, he tried to get Him to go above and beyond them. Satan took Christ to the pinnacle of the Temple and said, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angles concerning you,’ and ‘on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” 

If the Devil cannot get us to sin by making our lives miserable so that we’ll ignore God’s promises, the next step is to use our faith against us by trying to get us to add to God’s promises. He preys upon our belief that the Lord will provide by pushing us to demand that He give us even more than what we have. But that’s not what it means to have faith. Having faith is about trusting in what He has given, not demanding that He give other things too.

This kind of temptation is especially challenging because often times it’s cloaked in religious sounding language. The Devil even quoted the Bible to Jesus, and appealed to the written text of God’s Word too. But when you look at the verse he used more closely, you quickly realize that he left out something very important. The passage that Satan appealed to in his temptation to Jesus was Psalm 91. But the Psalmist doesn’t just say that “God will command his angels concerning you lest you strike your foot against a stone.” He says, “He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” Satan left out the part where God specifies that He only promises His blessing and protection when we are doing the things He’s called us to do. Well, has God called us to throw ourselves off buildings to see if He will catch us? No, He hasn’t. So, once again Jesus responded with what God has said and quoted another text from the Bible accurately. He said, “Again, it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Adding to God’s Word is just as bad as taking away from it. In either instance, eventually, we will be led away from the Lord in the process. Whether that is by making up teachings that aren’t found in the Bible, or challenging the ones that are already exist there, neither case ever ends well. Both of them will eventually leave you lying dead on the ground outside the Temple. 

And the last temptation that Jesus faced was the temptation of wealth and worldly pleasure. First, the Devil tried to get Christ to forsake God’s Word, then he tried to get Him to add to it, and when that didn’t work, he tried to distract Him from it entirely. Satan showed Jesus all of the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and said, “All these things I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” This was a very overt temptation, but many times it’s much more subtle. Perhaps the Devil was getting frustrated with his lack of success, and made the mistake of showing all of his cards at once. Either way, we should not expect him to be so straightforward when it comes to us.

More often than not, the temptation of wealth, riches, and earthly pleasure does not replace the worship of Christ immediately, but gradually overtime. It starts with something small like choosing a college or job based off which one will get you the most money, even if leads to you going to Church less, and before you know it you aren’t going to Church to all. At the beginning it’s something not that drastic, like dating someone because of their looks, despite the fact that they don’t believe the same things as you, and all of a sudden, you’re in agreement with them instead of the Bible. Without you even realizing it, your bowed down in front of the Devil chasing after the world. Idolatry, as Luther reminds us in the Catechism, always begins in the heart. First, there’s the craving for something that you don’t have, then there’s the decisions that you make to get those things at any cost, until eventually it comes at the cost of your faith.

But again, what did Jesus do in response to Satan’s attack? Once more, He brought things back to the Bible. “Be gone, Satan!” He said, “For it written, ‘You shall worship the Lord Your God and Him only shall you serve.” God didn’t make us to serve ourselves or our possessions. He made us to serve Him. Living your life only in the pursuit of pleasure won’t make you any happier. In the end, it will leave you empty and hollow, trapped in the lies of the Devil.

So, instead, we should surround ourselves with the teachings of God’s Word, and let the Scriptures lead and guide us. We should look to the Bible for how we’re supposed to live and what sort of things we should believe. God’s Word won’t ever steer us wrong. It will protect us from every enemy, and send even our worst enemy, the old evil foe, running away from us. That’s one thing we learn from the temptation of Jesus. We learn how to fight against temptation by using God’s Word.

But that isn’t the only thing that we learn from this text. In fact, that isn’t even the most important thing. We don’t just learn how to do battle against the Tempter by wielding the sword of the Spirit and holding fast to God’s Word, we learn where the true victory over him is found. It isn’t found in us. It’s found in Christ.

Yes, Jesus is our example in all things. He gives us a perfect picture of what it looks like to live and act like a true child of God. When He did battle against the Devil and applied the Scriptures flawlessly to every temptation, He showed us what kind of things we’re supposed to do too. The problem, though, is that we don’t always do it. Sometimes we fail. In fact, if we are honest with ourselves, it seems like for every time that we have succeeded in overcoming one temptation, there are countless other times that we haven’t. And if the only purpose of this text is to show us what we should be doing, but so often fail to do, then we’re missing out on the real benefit of it.

This is where our other readings for today help give us a fuller picture. There are two different Old Testament lessons that you can use on the first Sunday of Lent. One of them is the account of the fall into sin from Genesis 3, and the other one is the story of David and Goliath. Both of these passages remind us how the Devil is really defeated, and where our true confidence comes from as Christians.

On the one hand, there’s the clear prophecy about our salvation from Genesis chapter 3. Adam and Eve succumb to the Devil’s temptation by disobeying God’s command and eating from the tree that He told them not to. They laid aside the clear Word of God for their own ideas only to bring upon themselves great shame and sorrow. That’s what we’ve done too. As the hymn we sang earlier said, “All mankind fell in Adam’s fall.” We have the same sinful nature as they did and we’ve committed the same kind of sinful acts as they did. But what did God say to our first parents after they fell into sin? How did He tell them that they would be delivered from the Tempter’s power? Would it be through their own work, or the work of another? God promised that it would be through the Offspring of the woman. He said to the Devil, “You will bruise his heel, but He will crush your head.” That’s what Jesus began to fulfill when He resisted temptation in the wilderness, and that’s what He fulfilled for good when He died for us on the cross. Our Lord crushed the head of the Serpent. By doing the things that we failed to do, and then trading His life as a ransom for ours, Jesus silenced our accuser. He purchased for us the forgiveness of all of our sins and made up for every time that we’ve ever fallen into temptation.

And what about the story of David and Goliath? People always want to make themselves into the hero of that story, but that’s not what it’s supposed to be about. They turn it into some kind of self-help analogy for overcoming your own personal fears, when really, it’s meant to be yet another reminder of the Atonement. Who are we really in the story? We’re more like the Israelites who stood cowering on the sidelines too afraid to face the enemy. Day after day Satan mocked us with our sins and made us lower our heads in guilt and shame. Not even the best of us had the courage to face him alone. But then along came our Champion. Despite His humble appearance and lowly estate, a Good Shepherd, born in the town of Bethlehem, volunteered to fight in our place. And just like Goliath stood on the edge of the battlefield and taunted the Israelites for forty days, Jesus fasted for forty days before coming face to face with the Devil.  With a piece of wood in one hand, and five smooth stones in the other, David approached the giant in front of him with all the strength of the Lord. And with a cross upon His shoulders, and five wounds from the nails and the spear on his hands, and feet, and side, Christ approach the fiercest Giant of all and silenced Him forever. 

What did the soldiers of Israel do after they saw that Goliath was dead? They let out a mighty shout, and they rushed into battle to finish off the rest of the enemy. That’s how we get to live our lives now, because of the life that Jesus Christ already lived for us. We can face temptation and resist it with the confidence that our salvation is secure. Even if we should stumble and fall, there is one among us who stood His ground. As Luther writes in the hymn, “But for us fights the valiant one, whom God Himself elected.” Jesus is on our side. He overcame every one the Devil’s assaults and gives us the credit for His victory through faith. And with the promise of God forgiveness ringing in our ears, and the sword of His Word strapped to our side, there’s no enemy that stands a chance against us. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.