Sermon 3-16-25

Pastor Ray Lorthioir

Trinity Lutheran Church

W. Hempstead, NY

The Second Sunday in Lent

One Thing Not To Do

We frequently teach and remind ourselves of what Jesus did for us. He atoned for our sins. Atonement is when the outrage and demands of an injured party are satisfied by reparations. Our sin and rebellion against our Creator God has most definitely outraged Him. Our treatment of each other cries out to Him for justice and punishment. Yahweh’s outrage and justice will be satisfied only if we are removed from His presence forever. That’s what Hell is all about.

However, this is an unsatisfactory resolution for Yahweh. He did not create us to be separated from Him forever. He created us to be in His presence forever. Therefore, so that Yahweh’s real outrage and His real justice might be satisfied, He took on the project of atonement for our sins Himself. As Jesus said in John 3:16-17, “16 ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.’”

Because Jesus atoned for our sins He also made it possible for Yahweh to forgive our sins. And so, we read in 1John 1:8-9, “8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

When Yahweh forgives sins, nothing remains of sin before Him. It’s gone. But what does remain is righteousness. Therefore, through the forgiveness of sins our lives are justified before Yahweh. When someone is justified before Yahweh, Yahweh declares them righteous and not guilty. And so it is written in Romans 3:22-25, “. . . there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.”

Now in what we just read, there’s another interesting word: propitiation. This word is coupled with another word: expiation. Here’s a good definition of both. “Expiation refers to the act of removing sin or guilt, while propitiation involves appeasing God's anger and changing His disposition towards humanity.” So these words are synonymous with forgiveness of sins and atonement.

But there was another word in that Romans passage: redemption. To redeem something is to buy it back for a price. Thus, we read in Romans 8:23, “. . . we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” By His sacrifice, Jesus also bought back new bodies for us from death. Death no longer has dominion over our bodies. And this is understandable from Yahweh’s perspective. Our human bodies are the apex of Yahweh’s creation. How do we know this? Simple. Yahweh, the Son, came incarnate in a human body in order to redeem all human bodies from death. Even those who will spend eternity shut out from Yahweh’s presence will spend eternity in a resurrected human body that will never grow old and will never die. So, being that our bodies are the apex of Yahweh’s creation, it’s quite understandable that He will not permit Death to rule human bodies forever. Indeed as we read several weeks ago from 1Corinthians 15:25-26, “25 For he [Jesus] must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”

So, we’ve just made a list of all the things Jesus did through His sacrifice on the cross. But none of those things would have been possible unless He didn’t do something. This something is what both Satan and Adam did. They both attempted to grasp and hold onto equality with Yahweh. Satan did this deliberately. He wanted to be God. Adam did it because he got talked into it by Eve, who got deceived into it by Satan.  But the result was that both Adam and Eve became their own gods. And they have passed this situation down to all their descendants, including us. We’ve all been born in Adam and Eve’s Original Sin. It means that all of us must play God whether we like it or not. It also means that we’re born enemies of God. We resent God interfering in our God-playing. Thus, everything we experience in this life from birth to death is a result of both Satan and Adam grasping at equality with God.

Therefore, to undo the fundamental problem of Original Sin, Jesus had to NOT do something — and that was to grasp at equality with God. Jesus was successful at this. This is why He is lauded in the ancient hymn that St. Paul quoted in Philippians 2:5-8, “5. . . Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Jesus is Yahweh, the Son. But He’s also the Messiah, the human Son of Man. As Yahweh, the Son, Jesus has nothing to grasp. He already is God. But as the Son of Man, the Second Adam, grasping at equality with God was up for grabs, so to speak. If Jesus had succumbed to grasping at equality with God, as Adam did, it would have been game over. 

Satan, the enemy, knew this. Therefore, as we examine the temptations of Christ, we’ll watch Satan use all of his power and guile to bring the Son of Man to defeat. As I said last week, studying Scripture on this matter is like watching a recording of a game. We already know the final score. Christians 777, Lions nothing. Therefore, what we’re going to do in this Lenten series of sermons is a play by play analysis of the contest between Jesus and Satan.

We begin by checking out team Jesus. And for this we have to go back to the Garden of Eden. On the day the Serpent led Adam and Eve into sin, all three were standing before Yahweh as He pronounced judgment on them. Yahweh cursed the Serpent by turning him into a snake. But then Yahweh said something strange to the Serpent in Genesis 3:15, “‘I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Enmity is hatred and warfare. It’s true that we don’t much like snakes and poisonous snakes are a danger to us. But this statement is much more than that. First, the word translated “offspring” is singular — one offspring, not many. Second, this word most literally means sowing seed. This is why in a figurative sense it is consistently used in the Old Testament to describe what males do to father children. But here, it’s used of a woman alone. A woman will bear a male child who will kill the Serpent by crushing its head. At the same time the Serpent will try to kill Him.

Both Adam and Eve took God’s word as good news. By naming her first born Cain, Eve showed that she thought she had given birth to the man promised in Genesis 3:15. However, Cain became the first murderer and proved that no one born in Original Sin can master sin and thus become Messiah.

So fast forward to Jesus. His birth is highly unusual. The angel Gabriel told Mary of Nazareth — a virgin woman — that the Holy Spirit would hover over her and cause her to conceive a child. She would give birth to this child as a virgin. Gabriel also told Mary that the child would be called Son of the Most High. And so, we recognize that the woman of Genesis 3:15 is the virgin, Mary. Therefore, Jesus’ human body is descended from Mary alone. And although Jesus was born with a mortal human body, because of His unusual birth, He is recognized as not having been born in Original Sin. As a result, Jesus was a truly free agent unencumbered by sin, just like Adam originally was. This is why Jesus is referred to as the Second Adam. And it is as the Second Adam that Satan, the ancient serpent, tried to lure Jesus into grasping at equality with God.

In last week’s Gospel lesson we read about Satan’s first attempt at this in Luke 4:1-4, “1 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.’ 4 And Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone.”’”

The reason Jesus was returning from the Jordan was that He had just been baptized by John the Baptist. Back on January 12th we celebrated Jesus’ Baptism in the Jordan River at the hands of John the Baptist. If you remember, John the Baptist was not happy at first with baptizing Jesus with a baptism of repentance. For, John had been preaching that Jesus would be the Holy One who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. And that was and is true. However, before Jesus could baptize anyone with the Holy Spirit, He had to win the contest with Satan concerning grasping equality with God. Apparently Jesus convinced John of this and John consented to baptize Jesus with the baptism of repentance.

In accepting John’s baptism of repentance, Jesus did two things. First, He identified Himself with us sinners who need to repent — even though Jesus had nothing to repent of. By being baptized into a baptism of repentance, Jesus took our place, so that He might perfectly repent for all of us.

Second, in the baptism of repentance, Jesus laid at the Father’s feet any right He had to be Messiah on His own terms. And this is most important. For Satan tried to tempt Jesus into defining the work of Messiah for Himself and then acting on that definition.

We have to recognize that there are many words about the work of Messiah in Moses and the Prophets. As we just saw, these prophecies begin with what Yahweh said in Genesis 3:15. But the most puzzling words are found in places like Psalms 16, 22, Isaiah 53 and Zechariah 12:10-13:1.  These passages all speak of a suffering Messiah — a Messiah who will die and be resurrected from death. The path that Messiah must follow to fulfill prophecy is a path that will lead to a cruel death.

Now, it’s not clear Satan knew this. For speaking of Jesus’ crucifixion, the Apostle Paul writes in 1Corinthians 2:7-8, “7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” In other words, if the rulers of this age — Satan among them — had known that they would be defeated by Jesus’ crucifixion, they wouldn’t have done it.

However, Satan knew very well the path that would lead to his victory. He had done it before with Adam and Eve. Just get Jesus to give up the Image of God and fall into the Likeness of God as Adam and Eve had done. Then Satan would be the master of the human race.

So, Satan’s consistent attack against Messiah Jesus was to get Jesus to define the work of Messiah in some other way than what is written in Moses and the Prophets. If Jesus will do that, then He will fall. As Yogi Bera once said, it will be Deja Vu all over again.

Satan’s first attack looked very innocent on the surface. Forty days is a long time to not eat food. The body is literally chewing up its own muscle to survive a little longer. Therefore, at the conclusion of the fast, it was time to eat. But why leave the wilderness and go back into civilization to buy food, when you are Yahweh, the Son, and can do absolutely anything? Just turn a stone into a loaf of bread and eat it. What could be wrong with that?

One thing we have to understand about the work of Messiah is that it’s very closely scripted in Moses and the Prophets. There are approximately 308 prophecies that Jesus fulfilled. And some of them — like the place of His birth — He had no control over.

Who did the scripting of Messiah’s work? Yahweh — Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So, Jesus scripted His own coming as Messiah.

The Scripting of Messiah’s work is scattered throughout Torah and the Prophets. It was written in bits and pieces through Moses and various prophets over a nearly 1,000 year period. That it all hangs together in one person, therefore, is more than amazing. It’s miraculous.

And as we noted above in the quote from 1Corinthians 2, the reason that the script for Messiah is divided up into little pieces and scattered throughout Moses and the Prophets was to keep it hidden from Satan and all of Yahweh’s enemies. And to this day no one can string together and properly interpret the work of Messiah as written in Moses and the Prophets without Yahweh, the Holy Spirit. This is the reason the rabbis still can’t see that Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled the 308 prophecies.

So, in Messiah’s script is there anything about stones and bread? There’s very little about stones. But a lot about bread. Jesus performed two mighty miracles with bread, feeding a group of 5,000 men and their families and again 4,000 men and their families with just a few loaves of bread and a few fish. In doing so, He followed a script laid out for Messiah by the prophet Elisha about 700 years earlier. You can read about it in 2Kings, chapter 4. Elisha received a gift of 20 loaves of bread and set them before 100 fellow prophets. There wasn’t enough to feed that many men. But, by the Word of the Lord there was bread left over.

Then, there’s Holy Communion. On the night before His death, Jesus forever changed the Passover unleavened bread and cups of wine. He called the bread His body. And the wine, His blood. He said that whoever consumed them in faith would receive forgiveness of sins. He said to eat the bread and drink the wine in memory of Him. And so we obey His command to this day, believing the mystery of His body and blood truly present in consecrated bread and wine.

But in His verbal response to Satan, Jesus brought up something equally profound — the manna that Yahweh sent from heaven to feed the people of Israel in the wilderness for forty years. Manna means, “what is it?” Because that’s what the Israelites said on the morning they first saw the stuff on the desert floor.

Here’s a little context to what Jesus said to Satan. Deuteronomy 8:1-3,  “3 ‘The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.’”

Did you see it? Yahweh made Israel hunger. Jesus was hungry. Yahweh tested Israel to know what was in their hearts. Jesus was being tested.

Yahweh fed Israel in the desert with manna for a specific reason. We are spiritual beings living in physical bodies. The joint between the two is so tight that it’s hard to tell the difference. Without food our physical bodies will perish. That’s the First Death. But, much more importantly, without the very Words of our Creator God, our spirits will be condemned in resurrected bodies to the Second Death which is eternal exile from Yahweh and His righteousness. Therefore, by quoting, “man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD,” Jesus showed that He knew all this. He absolutely knew this. He was living it.

This was most important. For we clown sinners, born in Original Sin, deny our spiritual nature up, down and sideways by most of our actions and words. Thus, we are a terrible danger to ourselves. Who can rescue from this cursed Likeness of God and restore us to the Image of God? It would have to be someone who absolutely knows that we can only live in eternal righteousness only if our spirits are fed by the Word of the LORD. And Jesus knew this absolutely. The Good News of the Gospel is that He absolutely takes our place before the LORD in this matter.

Finally, we go back to Luke 3:21-22, “21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’” This had happened only weeks earlier. And now in this first temptation Satan reminded Jesus what the Father had said. Aren’t you the Son of God? Aren’t you the all-powerful Son of the all-powerful Creator God? Well, then, why can’t you do anything you want.

Why can’t you do anything you want! This was the horrible, deadly danger. Jesus could either follow the script laid out for Messiah in Moses and the Prophets — the Word of God — or He could write His own script. As the only human ever born without Original Sin, Jesus was truly free to do either. But, there is nothing in Moses and the Prophets about Messiah turning a stone into bread. According to the Word of God in Genesis 3:19, Jesus had eaten His daily bread by the sweat of His brow up to this time and He wasn’t going to take a stupid shortcut now.

So, the outcome was that Jesus refused to write His own script. That’s the one all-important thing Jesus didn’t do. And so, He saved us all.

Writing our own scripts in life as little gods born in Original Sin is the source of all humanity’s difficulties in this life. The only way out of it is to be born again of water and the Spirit in Messiah Jesus. And this is possible only because Jesus, the human being, didn’t count equality with God a thing to be grasped. Jesus refused to do what Satan had done. He refused to be tricked like Adam had been tricked. And so, all who put their faith in Jesus have a way out of this mess.

In life, we’re called to be disciples of Jesus. Just as He won the battle by not writing His own script, so He wins it for us, in us, in the same way. All we have to do is submit and follow Him. Amen.

All Bible quotes are from the ESV.