Preached 8/3/03

Dr. Ronald B. Rice

Temptation

LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION

Genesis 3:1-7; Matthew 4:4-11

          One of my heroes in seminary days and early in my ministry was the courageous German theologian and Christian martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer was a leader of the Confessing Church movement in Germany in the 1930s that refused to go along with Hitler and the state church which bowed to all of the demands and compromises of the Third Reich. In 1937, the year I was born, Bonhoeffer wrote his great classic, The Cost of Discipleship, in which he argued the difference between cheap grace and costly grace. His famous quote was, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” Perhaps he had a premonition of where his discipleship and resistance against idolatry would lead, for eight years later at the end of the war, just days before his concentration camp was liberated by the allies, at the age of 39, Bonhoeffer was hung by the Nazi SS Black Guards.

          Back in 1937, the same year he wrote The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer gave a daily Bible study to the students of the illegal seminary of the Confessing Church which he directed. It was a contrast between the two temptation stories, Adam and Eve in the Garden and Jesus in the wilderness. The manuscript survived and was published in English, so I have used that study is part of the basis for my sermon this morning.

          There are many temptation accounts in the Bible, but these two accounts summarize the whole story. All other temptations in human history have to do with these two temptations. Either we are tempted in Adam, or we are tempted in Christ. Either temptation leads to humanity’s fall, as in the case of Adam—or to the defeat of Satan, as in the case of Christ.

          Bonhoeffer made three very insightful observations about the temptation of Adam and Eve. First he observed that the temptation took place in paradise—in the midst of innocence. In fact, he said, the tempter is to be found wherever there is innocence. Where there is guilt, the tempter has already gained power. No life, no matter how pure, is free from temptation. No area of our lives, no matter how much we have it under control, is spared from the tempter’s cunning. As Paul said in 1Corinthians 10:12: “Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.”

          Secondly we notice that the tempter completely conceals himself and the origin of his seduction. We know full well that the devil does not parade about with a red suit, horns and a pitchfork, but that’s what makes the tempter so dangerous. If the devil did parade around like that, we would be on our guard. But the account says the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord had made. Sin is crouching at the door, as Paul reminded us last week. Sometimes it is the hunger-crazed polar bear, smashing down the cabin door, but other times it is a cat, darting in the moment the door is opened a crack.

          Many times we fail to see the subtleness and the concealment of temptation. Eve did not hear the tempter’s voice from a smoking cavern marked “hell.” No. Some translations begin, “Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature.” That should be a warning to all of us. Most of us do pretty well at resisting the temptation to rob a bank or some of the other gross, flashy sins that we know to be so wrong. But what about those subtle temptations John calls the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life? It is those seemingly small things that creep into our lives unnoticed. It is obvious from this story that the tempter’s goal is to seduce, and he will use any camouflage and any trick in his book to obtain his goal.

          Thirdly, we notice that the tempter denies his origin from the beginning until the very end. The very first word spoken to Eve was, “Did God say…Did God really say…?” The tempter introduces himself in the name of God. He bears with him the word of God and expounds it; “Has God really said? Have you understood the Lord rightly here? Do you really have the correct interpretation? Perhaps you misunderstood.”

          Oh the trickery of temptation. Evil introduced in the name of God! How many wrongs down through history have been committed in the name of the Christian faith? How many wrongs have we committed in the name of God, or in the name of friendship or patriotism or family responsibility or some other good cause. Satan is very clever in obscuring sin behind some cloak of respectability.

          Remember too, that the tempter did not tell Eve to murder her husband. No, it was just to eat some fruit, fruit that the Bible says was good for food and a delight to the eyes. It did not seem so terribly wrong to Eve, nor to Adam. The whole disobedient act was clouded with doubt by the tempter. “Did God really say? Oh, not really now, why certainly God didn’t mean that!” And so clouded with doubt by the trickery of the tempter, and not fully realizing the consequences of their act, Adam and Eve disobeyed God.

          The real temptations are exactly like that. The voice is so subtle, the evil so camouflaged, and the consequences seem so insignificant, that it becomes very easy to slip, as did Adam and Eve. The tempter lays the doubt so well—“It isn’t really wrong anyway”—that before we know it, we have disobeyed God.

          We have seen the fall of the first man and woman, now let’s look at the account of the temptation of Christ, a story not of defeat, but of victory. This account is very significant—not only for an understanding of temptation, but our understanding of just who Jesus is. For here we see Jesus the man. One of the problems that many Christians have, is that there has been such an emphasis on the divinity of Christ, that we have failed to take seriously the true humanity of our Lord. In the first few centuries this was called docetism, the denial of the humanity of Christ. This belief was rejected by Paul and the church leaders who followed him. For we believe that Jesus Christ was both fully God and fully man. To exalt exclusively the divinity of Christ is to deny the message of scripture.

           The imitation of Christ should be the norm for our Christian lives. But how can Christians be expected to imitate someone who is not even human? The issue of the divinity of Christ versus his humanity becomes most acute in this story. It raises all kinds of questions. If Christ was God, how could he be tempted? Temptation implies a possibility of yielding to the temptation. Was Satan wasting his time? Was there a real possibility that Satan could have seduced Jesus just like he seduced Adam and Eve?

          There are all kinds of questions here that we don’t have time to deal with this morning, but the important question we must tackle boils down to this: Was Jesus really tempted like we are? We are inclined to look at this passage and say, it has no relevance for me. After all, he was God. He had to win. He didn’t really know the frailty of human flesh. He didn’t know the ease with which we yield to temptation. He was so much different from us. How can we be expected to follow his example?

          The Bible answers that question for us. The writer to the Hebrews affirms: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet without sin” (4:15). Jesus’ temptation was as a human being, with all the frailties of the flesh. He was tempted as we are. This account is relevant for all of us.

          The parallel between Adam’s temptation in the garden and Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness is very interesting. Paul calls Christ the second Adam, and the parallel is certainly apparent here. The poet John Milton, author of the great epics Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, has often been criticized for making Christ’s victory in the wilderness the event that reversed the tragedy of Adam’s fall and “recovered paradise to all mankind.” Of course it is true that the real victory of the second Adam over sin was achieved by his death on the cross and resurrection, but Milton does set in perspective the crucial importance of the confrontation of Christ and Satan in the wilderness.

          It is significant that Jesus’ temptation took place in the wilderness. There in solitude and loneliness, completely abandoned, Jesus faced the ultimate tests. God took from his Son all help of companions and creatures. The hour of temptation found Jesus weak, lonely and starving. This indeed was the ultimate test. Someone has said that the most important test of a person is what they are when they are alone. It is easy to be a Christian at church, or with a group of other believers, but what about when you are by yourself in front of a computer screen, or on a business trip, or somewhere else where no one is watching? When you are alone is the true test of your character. There in the burning desolate wastes of the Judean wilderness, Jesus faced the power of Satan alone.

          The first temptation was the temptation of the flesh. Jesus had fasted for forty days. Obviously the tempter was going to focus on Jesus’ extreme hunger. “If you really are the Son of God, and you suffer from hunger, then command these stones to turn into bread.” Satan knows that one of the biggest fears of the flesh is the fear of suffering. Why should the Son of God suffer in the flesh? The purpose of Satan’s question is clear. If Jesus, with his power as God, were to withdraw from suffering in the flesh, then all flesh would be lost. If Jesus were to use his heavenly powers to turn the stones into bread, and end his suffering in the flesh, then he would no longer be one of us. The Incarnation would no longer be true. God would no longer be participating in the agony and suffering of human existence.

          Jesus’ reply to Satan was also very significant. “It is written: Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Jesus affirmed that material goods are not the ultimate necessity in our existence. If only we in America could learn the truth of Jesus’ statement. We are so involved in the pursuit of material wealth that too often we have forgotten the word of God. We have lived by bread alone at the cost of truth and justice and righteousness. “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

          The second temptation was the temptation of Jesus’ faith, the temptation of the spirit. Jesus was on the pinnacle of the temple. Satan asked Jesus to seek a sign of power from God. “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

          Satan even quotes Scripture! That should be a lesson to us. How many evils have been perpetuated with the rationalization of some verse of Scripture, quoted out of context. After all, you can prove almost anything out of the Bible if you use it incorrectly.

          Jesus’ answer to the tempter’s Scripture is another quotation from God’s word: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”

          The third temptation was the most deadly of all. Finally Satan unveiled himself. He came in his wholly unconcealed display of power as the prince of this world. Satan fought with his very own weapons. “Be a realist Jesus. You know that men and women, wherever they live, whoever they are, whatever they do, are my subjects, and live under my control. Acknowledge my status by an act of recognition, of worship, and the world is yours.”

          Jesus was being asked to accommodate himself to the realities of human life and history. By adopting a secularist policy of expediency and opportunism, he would be acclaimed Lord of the world, without having to change the world, or become seriously involved in its problems. In other words, “Compromise! Come to terms with me! Don’t pitch your demands quite so high. Wink just a little at evil and questionable things—and then people will follow you in droves.”

          So this was the temptation to come to terms with the world instead of uncompromisingly presenting God’s demands to the world. That of course is the temptation that faces every serious Christian. The demands of the gospel are so contrary to human nature and the ways of the world, that we are tempted to accommodate ourselves to the realities of human life and history. It seems we are forced to be realists. After all, how am I, one person, going to change the world? What can I do? So we are tempted to accept human nature, with all its sin, as being normal and inevitable. We are tempted to bow down in silence or in compromise before our contemporary gods of greed and wealth, of self-interest and self-indulgence, of sexual freedom and pleasure. We are tempted to adopt a policy of expediency, instead of uncompromisingly upholding God’s standard and presenting the gospel’s demands.

          We are tempted to try to change the world by becoming like the world. But Jesus’ answer puts a stop to that. “Worship the Lord God, and serve him only.” Jesus was certain we can never defeat evil by compromising with evil. The Christian faith is uncompromising. Christianity cannot stoop to the level of the world; it must lift the world to its own level. Nothing less will do.

          So Jesus was tempted in the flesh, in his faith and in his allegiance to God. But Jesus temptation was not that heroic struggle of a man against the wicked powers as we so fondly suppose. For in the temptation, Jesus was robbed of all his strength. He was alone, he was tired, he was starved. In anguish he had to suffer Satan’s bribes. He had fallen into deepest darkness. He was left with nothing but the word of God. It was the word of God that held him and fought for him and conquered for him.

          That is contrary to much of human nature. The natural man or woman wants to prove his or her strength in adventure, in struggle, in encounter with the enemy. If you do not risk your life, you will never win it, they argue. The moral person also knows that his or her knowledge is true and convincing only when it is tried out and proved. So the moral person also welcomes the struggle with evil, that he or she may test out the power of good in themselves.

          But even Jesus Christ himself did not look upon temptation as a testing of his own strength—nor should we. We are not dealing with a power that can be resisted by merely flexing our moral muscles. All we need do is look at the account of Adam and Eve to see that we are dealing with a power that we cannot resist in our own strength. It is impossible to win every battle with evil on our own. Paul wrote to Ephesus: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (6:12).

          We are dealing with an enemy that is far beyond our strength. Anyone who would deny that is fooling himself. We need help. We need power to resist temptation. If we do not receive help, or seek help, we shall go down to defeat, as did Adam and Eve. Instead, we need to look to the example of our Lord. He relied entirely on the word of God. It was God’s strength that won the victory. It was only by God’s word that temptation was overcome. In every instance, Jesus quoted from God’s word to resist the power of Satan.

          Two of my favorite verses are from Psalm 119: “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word…I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (9,11).

          That is not to say that rattling off a Scripture verse is going to ward off the evil spirits like some magical incantation. But there is a power in the word of God which becomes ours as it becomes more and more part of our lives. It is as the Holy Spirit speaks to us through the pages of Scripture, that power is given to overcome temptation.

          We are either tempted in Adam, or we are tempted in Christ. If we are tempted in Adam, in our own strength, the outcome is inevitable. We are doomed to defeat. But if we are tempted in Christ, temptation can be resisted and overcome by the word of God.

          For Martin Luther, the power of evil was an ever-present reality. That’s why he wrote those famous words in his great hymn, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God :

For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;

Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:

Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,

We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:

The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.