Sunday February 21, 2010 Luke 4:1-13

Welcome, today is Ash Wednesday and the start of the season we call Lent culminating in Easter. Our Lenten text for Sunday is in Luke. Jesus has just been baptized by John. God has responded by saying “You are my Son, the Beloved; (which came from Psalm 2:7 and was a coronation Psalm spoken at the coronation of a Davidic King, so we have King) with you I am well pleased” (which came from the servant song in Isaiah 42:1, so we have servant). Putting these statements together we have God telling us we have a Davidic King that will be a servant.

V1-2 Jesus returns from his baptism in the Jordan River and is prompted to go into the wilderness where for 40 days Satan tempts him. Remember in Exodus when the Israelites were freed from Egypt God led them into the wilderness where they lived for 40 years. All this time he ate nothing and is famished.

V3 Satan appears and starts speaking to that hunger. Satan challenges Jesus by first saying “IF you are the Son of God” in other words casting doubt on his claim to be the Son of God. The word if means prove that you are the Son of God by doing these things and if you don’t maybe you’re not the Son of God. “Command this stone to become bread.” Jesus would have liked nothing better to eat as he hadn’t for 40 days. Fulfill your own needs first.

V4 Jesus responds quoting Deut 8:3. This also refers back to the people wondering in the wilderness Ex. 16:4 where they are told to only gather enough manna, which God has provided, for one day. God is testing their obedience to him and his provision.

V5-7 Satan then takes Jesus to a high place to show him all the worldly kingdoms. He tells Jesus that all of these kingdoms have been given to him and if Jesus will just worship him Satan will give them to Jesus. The reality is that the kingdoms weren’t given to Satan but instead he usurped them. He doesn’t own them. This is political domination. Political domination was what the Jews were waiting for. They believed it would happen when God sent the Messiah.

V8 Jesus replies to this offer by quoting Deut 6:13 that he must only worship God. He mission isn’t one of political domination but submission to God. His kingdom is not of this world but is in this world.

V9-11 Satan takes him to the pinnacle of the Temple. This would have been in the southeast corner of the Temple which rose 450 feet above the Kidron Valley. He then asks Jesus to prove that he is the Son of God by jumping off the peak, because if he is Gods’ son God will save him. Satan quotes scripture to encourage Jesus to do this. (Ps 91:11-12) Jesus put on a show of the miraculous for us so we can all see God catch you, and then we will know you are from God for sure.

V12 Jesus again replies quoting Deut 6:16 do not put God to the test. He knows that Satan has twisted scripture to try to get the result he wanted.

V13 When Satan had finished he departed until an opportune time, he will be back to test again.

As Israel was called the Son of God in Exodus, now Jesus is the Son of God, the new Israel. As the new Israel he must endure all that the first Israel had endured but in some ways failed. While they were in the wilderness they complained about the manna, the lack of water, the living conditions and their entry into the land- it would be too hard, there were giant people living there so God kept them in the wilderness for 40 years to attempt to teach them obedience. Jesus is in the wilderness for 40 days as the Son of God and demonstrates complete obedience to his Father. Satan didn’t use flashy overt methods to try to tempt Jesus but tried to cast doubt on Jesus’ mission. Satan had tricked Eve in Genesis by casting doubt in her mind on the instructions God had given them. She gave in to the doubt and ate of the fruit. This is how Satan can confuse us, by casting just enough doubt to make us question ourselves and even throwing in some scripture twists for good measure. It is usually sneaky not overt. Just as Jesus was tempted, we too are tempted and we must be on guard.