Who Do We Serve? (A Sermon on Matthew 4:1-11)

This is a transcript of a sermon I preached at Multnomah Presbyterian Church in Portland, Oregon, on March 12. I hope it is an encouragement to you!

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Matthew 4:1-11

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested by the devil. 2 He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was famished. 3 The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written,‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” 5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 saying 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, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” 7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, 9 and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” 11 Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

The first time I noticed that it was the Spirit who led Jesus into the wilderness to be tested by the devil - I was like, “What the heck?!” I felt a genuine shock and even a second-hand sense of betrayal for Jesus’ sake. Just after Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist, Matthew 3 tells us that the Holy Spirit descends on him like a dove and a voice from heaven announces: “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” This whole scene is God claiming Jesus as his own - Jesus is the real deal - God’s Son! And the Holy Spirit is there too - to help and guide Jesus and what does the Spirit do first? The Spirit leads Jesus right into a treacherous desert to be tempted!

I remember when my dad installed our family’s first GPS in the family van - this was before the days of Google Maps and touch screen phones. It was amazing to see the GPS up front, guiding us exactly where we needed to go with step by step instructions. Of course, GPS’s can’t always be trusted - for instance, in the show The Office, Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute drive a rental car to a client’s office. As they come to a stop, the GPS tells Michael to turn right. But, that would lead them directly into a lake! Dwight tries to stop him saying, “No, don’t do that, we’ll go into the lake!” Even as the front of the car hits the water, Michael can be heard saying, “The machine knows…” Dwight and Michael return to the office, soaked head to toe in lake water.

Is Jesus like Michael in this story - following the directions of a Guide that takes him to a place that seems like the total opposite of where he should be? Jesus has just been baptized and announced as the Son of God - shouldn’t he be starting his ministry, preaching and healing people, not fasting for 40 days and nights and facing temptations in a wilderness? It would seem like the Spirit has totally misled him!

But, if we see tests and temptations as only disruptions to the life we’re supposed to be living, we’ll miss an important part of how God has always worked with people, and we’ll miss the fact that, even amidst hard seasons, God can teach us and train us through them. Hebrews 12:7 puts it this way: “Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children, for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline?” The Greek word for discipline here is paideuo, and it does not just mean punishment or getting in trouble. Paideuo is also translated as “teach, instruct, train, or educate.” So, as the writer of Hebrews understands them, God’s tests are meant to train us, not to find fault or to punish.

So, it’s not that the Holy Spirit has led Jesus into a trap. Instead, Jesus’ time in the wilderness is supposed to train him for the ministry ahead and, when Jesus passes through all the tests, they simultaneously show that he is the long-awaited Messiah and could accomplish even what the Israelites could not do in their 40-year wilderness wanderings. The three trials Jesus faces here in the wilderness show up over and over again in the course of his life and they show up in our lives of faith as well.

Test #1: The Hangry Test

We could call the first trial the hangry test - if you’ve never heard this term, “hangry” is the word that describes a combination of hungry and angry. You’ve passed the point where you have a little rumbling in your tummy to being slightly enraged that you aren’t currently munching on a snack. Who has felt this way before? I certainly have - in fact, if I’m grumpy, one of the first things Grace asks me is “Sweetheart, when was the last time you ate?” Turns out, a snack, or making up for my missed lunch will often fix my bad attitude. But, Jesus hadn’t just missed lunch or breakfast when the tempter came to him - he was famished after 40 days and nights without food!

Richard Foster, in a classic book called Celebration of Discipline, describes what fasting feels like:

“The first 3 days are usually the most difficult in terms of physical discomfort and hunger pains. The body is beginning to rid itself of the toxins that have built up over years of poor eating habits, and it is not a comfortable process…by the fourth day the hunger pains are beginning to subside though you will have feelings of weakness and occasional dizziness…by the sixth or seventh day you will begin to feel stronger and more alert…your sense of concentration will be sharpened and you will feel as if you could continue fasting indefinitely…[however] anywhere between twenty-one and forty days or longer…hunger pains will return. This is the first stage of starvation and the pains signal that the body has used up its reserves and is beginning to draw on your living tissue.”

After this long without food, Jesus has gotten past the stages of mental clarity and strength and is likely beginning to feel the first stages of actual starvation. Sometimes, we can make this passage about a kind of dualism - that there are material needs and spiritual needs, and the most important ones are the spiritual ones. But, the main issue in Jesus’ response is that we don’t live by “bread alone.” We are material beings with material needs, but that’s not all we are. The tempter wanted Jesus to think that all that mattered about him was his hunger - it’s as if he’s saying that Jesus’ material needs are all that matter. But, Jesus knows that there’s so much more to life, even in the most distressing moments, than just fulfilling our appetites. We’re more than just people who need to eat, we’re also people who sing, dance, worship, cry, and laugh. God, by the words of his mouth, has breathed life into us, and we’re more than just our impulses. This is why Jesus doesn’t turn rocks into bread, but decides to trust and wait on God, the great Giver of life.

The main issue here is who would he be led by? He had followed the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested. Would he waver now and listen to the leading of the Tempter instead? Or would he wait for the Spirit’s leading and continue to follow God’s voice? Jesus’ response reveals his answer - God’s words are what matter.

This test teaches us too that cheap imitations will come along. There are things that promise to fulfill us that ultimately won’t. And this is because, despite what the commercials tell us, friends, that cool new truck won’t fulfill us. That toothpaste will not fill the void in our heart. That relationship that promises companionship but comes at the cost of who we are, that’s not going to do it. We were created for more than just our appetites and impulses. We follow the One who created us, who by His Spirit, draws us toward the best and truest things in life. And, it turns out, Jesus’ own patience paid off, because instead of just rock-bread, he gets waited on by a staff of angels. And, I bet that they had a nice five course meal lined up.

Test #2: The Scripture Test

The second test is different from the first in that the devil doesn’t try to manipulate Jesus through his physical needs anymore. Instead, the tempter becomes a real holy roller in this test. He takes Jesus to the holy city, code word for Jerusalem, and then takes him to the holiest part of Jerusalem, the temple! And then, he takes him to the top of the temple and starts quoting bible verses against Jesus. This points to what one scholar calls “one of the most surprising sources of radical evil in the world: the perverse use of Scripture.” This test is important for Jesus as almost all of his biggest opponents were spiritual people - they regularly quoted scripture at him even as they tried to ruin his ministry and undercut his efforts.

Friends, I have been in the church since I was an infant, and it is an unfortunate truth that sometimes, people can do some of the worst things to each other while quoting scripture. When we think we’re right, and that God’s on our side, we can do some awful and nonsensical things.

Here, the devil tries to coax Jesus into throwing himself from the top of the temple. It seems that the devil wants Jesus to give him a spectacle - some flashy show that reveals God’s power and faithfulness. Later in Jesus’ story, others want him to put on a show. For instance, in Luke 23:8, Jesus goes before King Herod. “When Herod saw Jesus he was very glad, for he had been wanting to see him for a long time because he had heard about him and was hoping to see him perform some sign.” Jesus doesn’t end up doing it, just like he doesn’t listen to the devil here either. Jesus sees right through the devil’s use of scripture and cuts to the heart of the matter - “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”

Jesus models for us a quiet confidence in God, not one that needs to perform for others. He knew God was with him, and didn’t need to put God or himself through the ringer to be sure of it. There will be times in our lives when we might grow unsteady or insecure in our own relationship with God - the temptation might be there for us to start to grow discontent - to wish for the lights, camera, and action of a showbiz type of faith. Meanwhile, the everyday faithfulness of God is there.

If we follow the headlines about American Christianity these days, it seems like we are oftentimes drawn to the celebrity and show of faith: huge crowds, charismatic preachers, fog machines, and sophisticated lighting systems. And, there’s nothing inherently wrong with these things, but they can begin to feel like one big performance - a big spectacle that ultimately says something to us about the spiritual life. That the spiritual life is one in which the spectacular happens. And, don’t get me wrong, I’ve been following Jesus for a while now, and I’ve seen some spectacular things, but the vast majority of the Christian life is a quiet, daily plodding along with Jesus, isn’t it? It’s walking alongside others who are in pain or in need. It’s showing up to serve at youth group, Sunday School, or a bible study, even when you’d rather just call it in. It’s the discipline of quiet times of prayer and meditation with God, even and especially when you don’t feel anything spectacular.

The truth is, if we demand that God always give us the spectacular, we’ll soon find that we don’t really want God - we want a show. And, shows have performers and audiences, but they rarely have real relationships. And that’s what we’re welcomed into with Jesus - a call to follow him in being his disciples on the long road of our lives. Learning, day by day, the rhythms of his grace, becoming more and more like him, loving and serving our neighbor, forgiving our enemies, binding up the brokenhearted. There is something spectacular about this life, but it’s a slow burn - it happens over time, and it often is not for show.

Test #3: The Salvation Test

The final test from the devil is one that offers Jesus all the power and all the glory. All that Jesus needs to do is fall down and worship the devil. It’s honestly hard for me to imagine Jesus being actually tempted by this one, and, if we’ve grown up in the faith or spent a lot of years in church, we get so used to the idea of Jesus being God that we forget that he was fully human too.

There’s a line in the Lord of the Rings that describes “the race of men” as people who, above all else, desire power. When we see how power is used and abused in our own world, this seems to ring true, doesn’t it? Could the devil have been trying to manipulate this core desire of humanity in Jesus? If Jesus had any idea of the journey he would take to the cross, bowing down to the devil might have looked like a much more attractive option…there was no cross in this option, no torture and humiliation, instead, he could just bow his head and receive all the power and glory in the world.

We should also remember that Jesus’ life has already been one marked by trauma and suffering - his family fled in the night to Egypt to avoid King Herod’s massacre of all the children 2 years old and younger in Bethlehem and its surrounding cities. He is part of a conquered people group living under Roman rule. We may have a sense of who Jesus really is, especially given his baptism story and the voice from heaven declaring him to be God’s Son, but don’t you think Jesus himself, with all of his human frailty, felt some doubt? In contrast to the messiness and difficulty of his story, in an instant, the devil could make him into someone who had all the signs of real power - kingdoms of the world would belong to him, it would be glorious! But, and this is a big but, Jesus would have to turn from his allegiance to God and to instead worship the devil. At this suggestion, Jesus would have none of it, and he says “Away with you!”

You and I don’t necessarily have dramatic moments like this when we are asked directly who we will serve or what type of life we will lead. Instead, our decision making tends to happen more quietly and more gradually over our lifetimes. We may find the pace of our lives getting faster and faster - working longer and longer hours for the next promotion, busying ourselves with distractions, literally bouncing from screen to screen, without much time for reflection or connection. We might find ourselves turning more and more to things that ultimately trap us, rather than things that lead us deeper into relationship with God, each other, and ourselves.

The German sociologist Hartmut Rosa believes that to live in late modernity in Western society is to be “caught up in an accelerating way of life that leaves us feeling that we must run faster and faster just to stay in place. We are continually seeking to expand our reach, and we live in fear that we will lose what we have already attained - as if we are on a down escalator and if we do not keep climbing we will inevitably fall behind.” You see, the vision the devil gives Jesus is one of hierarchy and power - it’s all about being the top dog, of holding power over others. But, the vision Jesus responds with is that only God is at the top - only God should have our ultimate allegiance.

Lent, the church season we’re in now, can help us begin to re-sort our lives, to see the areas in which things are out of whack for us. Maybe we find ourselves overworking. Maybe we find ourselves spending too much time on screens or social media. Maybe we’ve become a bit too attached to sweets, smoking, or alcohol. Lent is a time when we, like Jesus, fast. We let go of something in our lives that might not be all bad, but is just taking up too much space in our lives. It’s demanding too much allegiance. Lent is a time to recenter our lives on the only One deserving of our ultimate allegiance, the One who created life and teaches us how to live life well.

We may never have an experience like Jesus had - we may never be offered all the kingdoms and power in the world. But, through Jesus’s story, we’re reminded of the decisions we do have to make in our own lives. The quiet decisions we make each day about who or what we serve. Ultimately, these sorts of tests come to us as well and we have to decide if we will settle for rock-bread, hollow spectacles, and grasping after power and glory, or if we will be dependent on and draw near to the One who created us, who offers to walk with us, and who calls us to follow. This is not a road of perfection - we may lose our way and find ourselves doing things and giving allegiance to things that we know we shouldn’t. In those places, God’s grace abounds and draws us near again. My prayer is that, all along our plodding journey with Jesus, we would know that only God deserves our worship and that we are called up into a life of loving our neighbors, forgiving our enemies, and following Jesus. Amen.

Benediction

Friends, in an “instant society,” may we embrace instead a long obedience in the same direction, following Jesus. In an age of cheap tricks and spectacles, may we embrace real relationships with God, each other, and ourselves. And, in a power-hungry culture, may we instead embrace humility and hospitality. Amen.