Luke 4:1-13
Tempted for Us
No one needs to suffer alone. It’s actually the worst thing you can do when you’re struggling with something, isolating yourself from any means of support. Now, I know that many people get uncomfortable sharing their baggage with other people unless they’ve built up enough trust to do so. After all, we don’t want whatever we share to suddenly start getting shared around with everyone. So, I wanted to teach you about our understanding of private confession. Perhaps, many people don’t realize that as Lutherans, we still observe the practice of confessing sins in private. I know many people will look at it and say, “oh that’s too Catholic for me.” Maybe... or maybe it’s just your own discomfort with being vulnerable. For as Lutherans, we uphold the practice of private confession for this very reason... no one needs to suffer alone. If you’ve been struggling with temptations or sins, if you feel beaten down by the law, there is no better place for you to hear that God still loves you and forgives you personally and directly. Yes, it’s easy for us to think our general proclamations are for everyone else, but not me. It’s easy for us to think that no one else will understand my problems, or as I mentioned earlier, that people may share it and then I’ll be humiliated. But you see, as a pastor, I take an oath before God and before you that whatever is confessed to me shall never leave my lips even until the day I die. And I take that oath very seriously. For when I pronounce to you God’s forgiveness for your sins, God has forgotten it... and so have I. When our sins are forgiven, they’re gone completely! So, if you ever find yourself struggling, I want you to know that my door is always open.
Today, we observe Jesus as he’s tempted in the wilderness by the devil. While we may take a few notes on how to withstand temptation, we must understand that Jesus isn’t just an example for us. Rather, Jesus is tempted so that we need not face our temptations alone. As we learn:
WHEN TEMPTATIONS ARISE, LOOK TO JESUS!
I.
It’s maybe easy to brush off Jesus’ temptation as something other than what it is. Satan likes us to think that because Jesus is perfect, he wasn’t really tempted as we are. Yet, this is another one of Satan’s big lies that Jesus can’t help us. But let us understand this temptation of our Lord so we may be encouraged and strengthened. For as we read, “The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone,’” Luke 4:3-4. The devil has one goal when it comes to temptation. He wants to separate you from God. He wants us to give in to our desires and wants, like hunger, pleasure, or greed, so that everything becomes all about you. So goes the other two temptations, giving the power and authority of the kingdoms of the world (v.5-7), or putting God to the test (v.9). Both temptations have the same aim… to get Jesus to toss aside his Sonship of God.
For don’t think that Jesus isn’t actually tempted. Jesus is one hundred percent man like you and me. Every temptation he faced, he had to overcome as a man, weak and vulnerable. And so, we must turn towards our own temptations. What is Satan’s purpose for tempting us? Is it not the same… to separate us from God? Satan comes to us and says, “If you are a child of God, take that money for yourself! After all, God wants to bless you, right?” Yes, Satan wants you to think only about yourself, your own wealth, happiness, and pleasure. Same goes for every sin with which we struggle. Greed, anger, lust, gluttony, and so on. For so our flesh weakened by sin struggles against the temptations Satan throws our way. And when we succumb to these temptations, Satan tempts us again by getting us to believe we’re too horrible for God. He wants us to believe that no one else struggles as we do. This is particularly true with those that struggle with sexual temptations and sins, be it pornography, homosexuality, transgenderism, promiscuity, and so on. But the thing to remember with these temptations and sins, along with every temptation… is when temptations arise, look to Jesus!
II.
The very thing that Satan doesn’t want you to see is that Jesus has suffered too… for you! Jesus faced temptation… and won! Jesus faced temptation and remained sinless. And yes, while we could all certainly stand to learn our bible better, Jesus isn’t here to offer us a five-step plan on how to do it ourselves. No, he was tempted, so that he may lead us not into temptation. As Paul quotes, “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart,” Romans 10:8b. The word of God is near you… this is what Jesus understood. He faced the temptations of Satan not by his own power. Rather, Jesus overcame Satan knowing that God his Father was near to him in His word. And Jesus is that word for us. He’s near us when we’re tempted to strengthen us and encourage us in his way. And even when we sin, when we fall to the temptations of Satan, don’t fall to his second temptation, that is believing you’re all alone. For no one must suffer alone. You’re never alone when you’re tempted or even when you sin. For Jesus is still holding out his hands to forgive you. It doesn’t matter how far you’ve fallen or how horrendous you believe your sin is. Jesus knows. This is why we confess. Jesus already knows… and he’s here to stand with you through it all.
Yes, when temptations arise, when we fall into sin, look to Jesus, not as your example, but as your savior. By your baptism, you’ve been united with Christ that just as he overcame temptation, so now that victory is yours. Now, Jesus stands with you through every temptation that you need not face them alone. And then, consider this also, “And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time,” Luke 4:13. Satan’s opportune time, his last-ditch effort to defeat Jesus was the cross. It was putting Jesus to death as a sinner, a criminal, as one completely cut off from God. Jesus suffered all this for you, so that no sin, be it greed, lust, anger, gluttony, sexual sin, or any other, would be able to separate him from you. Jesus died on the cross so that he may offer you forgiveness for your sins, life beyond the grave, and eternal salvation in paradise eternal!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, don’t suffer in silence. Don’t let Satan win by believing you’re all alone. For Jesus suffered every temptation that we have, and remained sinless, even going to the cross to die in your place, that he may lead you out of temptations and into new and eternal life! In Jesus’ name! Amen!