Lent I 2024

Give us Grace to use such abstinence, that, our flesh being subdued to the Spirit,
We may ever obey thy Godly Motions in Righteousness and True Holiness
To thy Honor and Glory, Who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost,
One God, world without end. Amen. 
(Collect Lent I)
 
         
One of the most important questions facing any human being who strives to know and love God is Who is Jesus Christ? The answer to the question very much reveals to us if and how God and Man can be reconciled. We seek to answer the question as our faith seeks understanding for the very practical purpose of our salvation. Who is Jesus Christ? Throughout Lent, we shall ask this question. Lent reveals Who Jesus Christ is by way of His having been tempted to be Who He is not. He was tempted not to be the Son of God as man. This means that Jesus Christ was tempted never to become the Son of God made man. Put more simply, He was tempted to redeem and save us not as Man.
 
And today’s temptation narrative by St. Matthew follows on the heels of John’s baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan when 

the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him: and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (St. Matthew iii. 16, 17)
 
Who is Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ is the Son of the Father and anointed in the descent of the dove. Mystified mortals are mesmerized by Messiah, who has come to save us all and will defeat the enemies of our Heavenly Father. This is our hope. But what we read next confuses us. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. (Ibid, 1) Who is Jesus Christ? Our faith seeks understanding in these words. The Spirit – the Holy Ghost, who has descended from Heaven with the Father’s blessing leads Jesus not into Jerusalem for a triumphal coronation but into the desert and wilderness for struggle, trial, and temptation by Satan. The Son of God begins the mission of our redemption with suffering! For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews iv. 15) 
John’s Baptism demands another Baptism, a Baptism by Fire and the Spirit. Jesus’ first order of business is to undergo the temptations that we all endure. Jesus was anointed to suffer and to be tempted, as we are called into suffering and temptation. Baptism is followed by the manifold assaults of the world, the flesh, and the Devil. Who is Jesus Christ? He is the Son of God made man. If He is to save and redeem us, as Man, He will redeem, repair, and reconstitute human nature.
         
Who is Jesus Christ? We read that when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an-hungered. The Spirit has led Jesus the Man into the isolated wilderness of the desert where He fasted successfully for forty days and forty nights. Thus, the Son of God made man, like us, is hungry. As Man, the Son of God knew real and extreme hunger. Satan tempts Man hardest when we are hungry and alone in a place of deprivation. 
         
Satan takes his cue. If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. (Idem) The Son of God, God’s Word, who brought waters out of the stoney rock (Ps. lxxviii. 16) nourishing the ancient Hebrews in the wilderness, can surely use His Divine Power to satisfy His earthly hunger by turning the flat rocks into bread. Satan tempts Jesus to prove that He is the Son of God by putting Man’s bodily needs before Divine nutriment. Who is Jesus Christ? Jesus will redeem us first by hungering and thirsting for [God’s] righteousness. (St. Matthew v. 6) The Son of God was made Man so that man might become a son of God once again.  Later, Jesus will insist Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, that….all things may be added unto you. (St. Matthew vi. 33) Submitting bodily need to the desire and love for God is the first order of business in Christ’s redemption of Man.

Who is Jesus Christ? He is the one who knows for certain that Man is tempted to prioritize earthly hunger and thirst before his need for God. But Jesus’ meat is to do the will of Him that sent Him. (St. John iv. 32,34) Jesus Christ responds to Satan, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. (St. Matthew iv. 4) With St. Paul, in today’s Epistle, Christ knows that in patience, afflictions, necessities, distresses, stripes, imprisonments, tumults, labors, watchings, and in fastings (2 Cor. vi. 4) – in the flesh, Man is forever tempted to make a false god out of earthly sustenance. Who is Jesus Christ? Jesus is the Son of God made Man, whose example calls us into a new way of life that places spiritual nourishment before bodily fulfillment. Stones are stones. Bread is bread. Yes, Man’s body needs bread, but it can never be satisfied truly until first we allow ourselves to feed on the bread of God’s Will.
         
Who is Jesus Christ? Jesus is determined to become the bread of God’s will. Satan persists and will tempt Jesus a second time to imperil His calling. Satan’s temptations prolong the hunger of the Son of God made Man. The body is deprived of food; so the soul is tempted to provoke God.  The Man is famished. Perhaps Jesus should tempt the Father to prove that He is the bread of God’s will. He trusts in God, then let Him deliver Him now, if he will have Him: for he said, I am the Son of God. (St. Matthew xxvii. 43)

Then the devil taketh Him up into the holy city, and setteth Him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto Him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou thy foot against a stone. (St. Matthew iv. 5,6)
 
Satan tempts Jesus to prove His true nature as the Bread of God’s will by throwing Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple. Pious men are gathered in the court of the Gentiles, always waiting for heaven’s signs. Who is Jesus Christ? Jesus is the Son of God made Man. Grace does not destroy but perfects human nature. The Son of God made Man will not command faith from miracles, as Satan commanded bread from stones. Christ is tempted to avoid and flee His call to become the bread of God’s will for man. Man was not made to be redeemed by threatening to risk His own life with death, banking on Divine intervention. Man is a rational creature. Man’s reason and free will, the most divine attributes of his nature, have alienated him from God. The Whole Man must be redeemed as the Bread of God’s Will.  Christ must redeem man from sin. The Bread of God’s Will must suffer the effects of fallen man’s reason and free will – his sin, to make him good, true, noble, and acceptable to God once again. Who is Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ will redeem reason and free will by suffering at the hands of sinful men. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. (St. Matthew iv. 7) The Bread of God’s Will made Man never provokes and tempts God irrationally and arrogantly for Divine approval or intervention. Faith does not seek to turn stones to bread or death into life. Faith seeks to understand sin and conquer it through suffering and sacrifice.
Who is Jesus Christ? Satan has one last temptation. Surely if Jesus is the Son of God made Man, He can still be tempted by the will to power. The Son of God made man is tempted to covet with greed the Divine Nature. The Bread of God’s Will is tempted lastly to be as God before He has endured all that He must as Man and for Man. Jesus’ last temptation is secure His own power and glory over the world. Jesus the Man is tempted to become His own god as the master of his own destiny.

Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. (St. Matthew iv. 8,9) 
 
Satan tempts Jesus to become the Bread of God’s Will as God and not as Man. The Bread of God’s Will is tempted to redeem all men as God and not as Man. The last temptation is the worst. It tempts Jesus to become not earthly bread as Man becoming not earthly but the Devil’s bread. Jesus is tempted to become one with the Devil and separated from God. Jesus is tempted to give it all up –to do evil that good may come of it. (Idem, Knox, p. 65) Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. (St. Matthew iv. 10) The Son of God has come to reveal the Father’s wisdom and truth as Man and for Man. The Bread of God’s Will must become broken bread and poured out wine, or broken body and poured out blood. Then the devil leaveth Him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto Him. (St. Matthew iv. 11) 
         
Who is Jesus Christ? The Bread of God’s Will made Man. The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. (St. Matthew xx. 28) At the end of our Gospel lesson, we read that Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him. (St. Matthew iv. 11) Luther tells us that the good angels came down from Heaven to feed Him. The Bread of God’s Will, Jesus Christ, the Man, can now be fed in body. The Bread of God’s Will can now be ministered to by angels charge concerning [Him]. The Bread of God’s Will made Man can now become the suffering and sacrifice that identifies with fallen Man’s nature to repair and redeem it. Now Christ can become our broken bread and poured out wine, our broken Body and poured out Blood. The Bread of God’s Will made Man. Food for Men Wayfaring, ever obeying [God’s] Motions in Righteousness and True Holiness (Collect), as Man for all men and their salvation.

Amen.
©wjsmartin