This sermon was first preached at St Stephen’s Church, Carlby on Sunday 26th February 2023.
There is a cupboard in our kitchen that is set aside for a very important purpose. It is such an important cupboard that I am sure that you have one of these cupboards as well. I am of course talking about the snack cupboard. Our snack cupboard is an assortment of sweet and savoury snacks. I am more interested in the chocolates and sweet treats, whereas Cecily, my wife, is more interested in the savoury crisps and nuts. The cupboard is closed most of the time, but when I am in the kitchen, I know that it is there staring at me, tempting me to indulge in the sweet treats. When I am alone in the house by myself, the snack cupboard can call to me from across the house, beckoning me to those sweet chocolates, and at the moment, some deliciously sweet and rich baklava. Can anyone relate to this? Do you have a cupboard that calls out to you from across the room and in the middle of the night? And does it practically shout at you when you are feeling hungry, or stressed, or tired?
Sweets and snacks are not bad in and of themselves, but many of us have to wrestle with the temptation that they offer to lead us away from healthy eating and balanced diets. But temptation often takes form in the same way as the snack cupboard. Temptations are things that can stare us in the face, even behind a closed door, and call us to turn away from the path that we are on, be it healthy eating, or good language, or a generous and sharing heart. Temptations can be small, but ultimately, we know that temptations can lead us away from God and his path for our lives.
We are not alone in facing these temptations. Jesus himself also faced these temptations when he lived on earth. Though he was the Son of God, he was with us on earth in human form, and so he faced and experience temptation in the same way that you and I do.
In our gospel reading today we heard that before Jesus began his public ministry, he went into the wilderness for forty days and nights and fasted from food. And whilst he was in the wilderness, Satan came to tempt him. Jesus was about to begin his public ministry. It was the start of what Jesus came to do on earth. Like with Jesus, it so often when we are following God and his plan for us, that we find Satan comes to tempt us.
Satan offered three temptations to Jesus. The first temptation was to turn stones into bread. Seeing that Jesus was painfully hungry, he said, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.’ You reasonably might think that there is nothing wrong with this. Jesus is hungry, and as the Son of God, he has the power to turn these stones into bread. Turning stones into bread could also be a cool miracle to convince people that God is real and is the God of all things.
However, this was a temptation for using his powers selfishly for his own gain rather than as God was calling him use them for others and for God’s will for his life. Jesus responds, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” The reason he says this is that he knows that physical and earthly bread is not enough to give us life, or at least as God intends for us. Jesus knows that full and eternal life comes from God alone. For Jesus to use his powers to claim earthly food would lead him away from turning to God who alone gives the full and eternal life – life to the full.
Additionally, turning stones into bread could convince people of the power of God, but it would be drawing people under false pretences. As William Barclay said:
It would have been to bribe people to follow him. It would have been to persuade them to follow him for the sake of what they could get out of it, whereas the reward Jesus had to offer was a cross. He called men and women to a life of giving, not of getting. To bribe them with material things would have been the denial of all he came to say and would have been ultimately to defeat his own ends.[1]
To turn stones into bread may give a bit of wow factor to the power of God, but it doesn’t mean that people are coming to God for him. They are coming to God for what they can get from him.
Sometimes, we can treat God as an ATM that gives us money and provision every time we go to him. We say our prayer to God and out comes what we want. True, God does answer prayer, but this approach completely misses the point of life with God. God is a father who provides for our whole care as people, rather than an ATM that gives material provision. The life that God calls us to is a life built on the things of God and his kingdom, not the riches and power of an earthly kingdom. Food, clothes, money, cars, houses are not going to give us the full life God has for us. Instead they can be a distraction that turns us away from God and his call on our lives. They are not bad things of themselves; they are good, like bread is good for food and nourishment. But it is never enough. We need to fullness of spiritual food that comes from God.
For the second temptation, Satan took Jesus to the top of the temple and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: “He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”’ Satan has tried to be clever here. Where Jesus has said that we must live on every Word from God, Satan has tried to take God’s words from the Bible and use them to tempt Jesus to test God. So often when Satan comes to test us, he uses bits of truth to deceive us by pointing these truths in directions away from God. Like in the Garden of Eden, when Satan deceived Adam and Eve by saying, ‘Did God really say that?’ Satan makes us doubt God’s words to us and twists them in our mind to turn us away from God. Sometimes we do this by taking things that God says to us and twisting it to mean something else. For example, we know that Jesus says love your neighbour as yourself, which people can argue is a justification for putting yourself first over others. But this confuses self-care with selfishness. Instead God calls us to love in a generous way, that is selfless, like Jesus’ selfless love on the cross.
But Jesus uses God’s words to rebuke Satan, saying ‘It is also written: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”’ To test someone or something is to push against it, to see if copes when pressed against. To test God is to push against him and turn away from him. It is to not trust who he is. Jesus knows that God can and would save him, but to test him is to doubt who he is. Jesus sees the trickery of Satan’s words and knows that he should not test God, because it is a form of unbelief, of turning from God as his trustworthy God.
For the third temptation, Satan took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. 9 ‘All this I will give you,’ he said, ‘if you will bow down and worship me.’ Satan offers Jesus ultimate power and authority over the world. He could have everything; he could rule everything. He was in control and could shape everything as he wanted it to be, and he could probably make the world really good and great. But there was one condition, Jesus had to bow down and worship Satan. Satan knew who Jesus was, and he knew that Jesus believed that it was only God who was truly worthy of worship. Therefore, if Jesus bowed down and worshipped him, he was declaring that Satan was his god.
It is rare to be in a position like Jesus where he is offered the whole world, but there are times when we are offered money and power and status in exchange for making something else our god. You can have lots of money, but it might require making work your god, and you end up neglecting your family and those in need. You can have lots of power, but it might require manipulating others and taking advantage of them in order to obtain your power. You might think that even if you came by the money and the power by bad means, once you have it, you can use it for good. You may do. However, the problem is, that to get to this point you had to turn away from God, making money and power and status your god, the thing you worshipped. And as a result, your whole life is not in the place that God wants you to be. The first moments of giving into temptation have led you and your life on a path away from God. Even if you tried to do right by your power and money, it will take time to re-find God’s path for you.
But Jesus saw through Satan’s temptation. He says, ‘Away from me, Satan! For it is written: “Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.”’ He knew that God alone was the true God and that only he was worthy of worship. He remembered that it is only from God that we receive all the things we need for life. We live not by the provisions of earthly bread and material things, but we look to all the spiritual provision and life that comes only from God.
After this, Satan left Jesus, and angels came and attended him. Jesus knows what it means for us to face temptations because he faced serious temptations of his own. And it wasn’t easy. I imagine that if angels came to attend on Jesus after this, it is because that he had been through a very challenging experience through these temptations. But he made it. Jesus overcame these temptations and kept his sights on God. He looked to God and his will for his life. He didn’t give into temptation for his own gain but sought the will of God. He sought God for his provision, not earthly powers and materials. He did not turn away from God, knowing that it is God alone who gives everything in life, and life to the full.
This same Jesus, the one who overcame the heaviest of temptations, is with us when we face temptations. When I face struggles and temptations, I rejoice that the Jesus who overcame temptation is there with me, helping me overcome temptation and stay true to following God and his call for our lives. He works to bring me through the wilderness and back to God.
The reality is that even though we know that Jesus is there with us, we still struggle with temptation, we still struggle with the snack cupboard calling to us from across the room. And often we give into temptation. We turn from God and his call on our lives. This is hard for us, but the good news is that Jesus brings us back to God and renews his call on our lives. It can take some time working back towards God, but Jesus brings us back in the end.
So when we face temptation, I pray that you know that Jesus, the one who overcame temptation and was without sin, is with you and helps you through temptation. If you are struggling with temptation, maybe something which is tempting you right now, I encourage you to turn to God and stay with him. Don’t turn away. It is when we look to God that we see his eternal provision that brings us through whatever life throws at us, and through every temptation. When we stay true to following God, we see and receive all the goodness he has for us in life to the full.
So, let’s pray as well look to Jesus to bring us through all the temptations we face.
Amen.
[1] William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, 3rd ed (Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press, 2001), 78.
Shakeel Nurmahi 