Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Matthew 4,1-11. Invocavit Sunday (1. Sunday in Lent)

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Matthew 4,1-11 (Mark 1,12-13; Luke 4,1-13) 1415

Invokavit 24

St. Peter’s Chair at Antioch in Turkey, 33 ✠

22. Februar 2015

1. O Jesus Christ, our Savior, You were tempted and were victorious over the devil. Strengthen us when we are tempted so that we testify of Your great mercy and support. (VELKD, Prayer for Invokavit § 1). Amen.

2. »Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him: „If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.“ But He answered: „It is written: »Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.«“ [Deuteronomy 8,3] Then the devil took Him to the holy city and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to Him: „If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written: »He will command His angels concerning you,« and »On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.«“ [Psalm 91,11-12] Jesus said to him: „Again it is written: »You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.«“ [Deuteronomy 6,16] Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him: „All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.“ Then Jesus said to him: „Be gone, Satan! For it is written: »You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.«“ [Deuteronomy 6,13-14] Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels arrived and were ministering to Him.«

3. Lent is a liturgical season of solemn preparation for the events of Holy Week that conclude with Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection. The theme of the 1. Sunday in Lent is invocavit: he will call, and it named for today’s Introit »When he calls to Me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him« (Psalm 91,15).

4. Our First Reading from Genesis 3 reminds us that we have had a dark adversary since Adam and Eve dwelt in the Garden of Eden. There Satan tempted our First Parents to rebel against God and take for themselves knowledge that God had forbidden them at the time. The First Adam’s failure to resist the devil’s temptation lead to mankind’s fall into original sin. We live with the consequences of that fall to this very day as the cursed creation and our own impending death remind us.

5. The knowledge wrought from eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil has plunged this world into endless cycles of suffering, violence, warfare and death. The mainstream news media nightly shows us man’s inhumanity to man. We cannot escape this fallen cycle of pain and death, but as Lent reminds us: we set aside times for penitent reflection, repent of our sinfulness and trust in the mercy of God to redeem us.

6. Jesus shows us His Father’s loving heart. The Apostle Matthew tells us in his Gospel: »Then the devil left Jesus, and behold, angels arrived and were ministering to Him.« God promises to help His people. We were created in His Image and Likeness, and God does not forsake us. »No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, so that you may be able to endure it« (1. Corinthians 10,13). The devil tempted Jesus with temptations that he has used against men and women since Adam and Eve. We have been tempted to put physical needs ahead of our spiritual needs; and we have succumbed to those temptations. We have been tempted to put God to the test; and we have succumbed to those temptations. We have been tempted to trust in idols over God; and we have succumbed to those temptations. The temptations Jesus experienced in Matthew 4 are no different than what has afflicted mankind since our fall into sinfulness.

7. The difference is that where we continually yield to temptation, Jesus has successfully overcome temptations and has beaten the devil. Immediately after His baptism, Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Jesus had arrived vicariously for the nation of Israel, to be in its place and to repeat its history (Gibbs 193). When Israel went into the desert under Moses, God tested the people for faith and righteousness (Gibbs 193). Israel failed, however, falling into sin and gross idolatry time and time again (Gibbs 193). Now that the True Son has arrived in the place of Israel, He will be tempted to sin by Satan himself (Gibbs 193). Because the people of Israel failed their testing, Jesus must be subject to the tempting in their place (Gibbs 188). This is the Father’s good pleasure, and this Son will show His perfect Sonship by perfect obedience (Gibbs 193).

8. The Gospel according to St. Matthew tells us that Jesus is „Israel reduced to one“. This term was first coined by Lutheran theologian Dr. Horace Hummel in the 1970s, and was put into print in 1979 with his book The Word Becoming Flesh. Dr. Hummel explained the term this way: „That is to say that Old Testament history really is our history via Christ…. Since Christ is ‘Israel reduced to one,’ and since Israel’s inner history was all recapitulated and consummated in Him, the ‘new Israel,’ the church, expresses [her] identity and mission in terms of the promise given the old Israel“ (Hummel 17). Jesus was tempted by the devil, and He endured this temptation vicariously in our place.

5. In Jesus’ temptation, we see a dovetailing of two Christological themes found in the pages of Holy Scripture: 1. Jesus is Israel reduced to one standing in our place, 2. Jesus is the Christus Victor who triumphs victorious over our old, evil foe, the devil. Jesus was tempted as we are tempted, and Jesus overcame His temptations. His victory is our victory. What the First Adam could not do, the Second Adam has done, and Jesus has done it perfectly for us in our place.

9. The Apostle Paul explains it this way in his 1. Epistle to the Corinthians: »The first man Adam became a living being; the Last Adam became a Life-giving Spirit. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the Second Man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the Man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the Image of the Man of heaven« (1. Corinthians 15,45.47-49).

Jesus undid what Adam did vicariously. The Second Adam overcame the devil who tempted with knowledge of good and evil.

10. The Psalmist writes: »When he calls to Me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him« (Psalm 91,15). God did this for His Son, for »behold, angels arrived and were ministering to Him.« Jesus now answers and rescues us in our times of need. He sends the Holy Spirit to comfort and exhort us, and often the Holy Spirit does this through the Holy Scriptures. Jesus also sends His angels to attend us and minister to us. We may not even be aware of this, for as the Epistle to the Hebrews says: »some have entertained angels unawares« (Hebrews 13,2).

11. Jesus is our Victor. No matter how many times we fall to the devil’s temptations, Jesus has overcome the devil. Christ’s victory is our victory. We have it by our Baptism in God’s Triune Name. We have it by faith in Jesus. We have it by Jesus’ death and resurrection. We are saved, and Jesus did everything necessary to merit our salvation. Amen.

12. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, Thou Son of God who appeared to destroy the works of the devil, help us to trust in Your victory so that we rejoice in Your righteousness that You have freely give us by grace through faith. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Soli Deo Gloria

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Monday, February 23, 2015

Matthew 4,1-11. Invocavit Sunday (1. Sunday in Lent)

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