Today’s Scripture

Psalm 91         Deuteronomy 26:1-11             Romans 10:8b-13        Luke 4:1-13

 

            Today is the first Sunday in Lent.  Lent is the period of forty weekdays prior to Easter, beginning with Ash Wednesday.  (Sundays are not considered days of Lent).  These forty days are associated with the forty days of Christ’s forty days of fasting and temptation in the wilderness.  We are reminded to of the forty days that it rained during the flood, washing the earth of the evil that persisted at Noah’s time.  Purple is the color designated for Lent as it reminds us of our need for repentance and preparation for the celebration of Easter.

 

            As we read the passages assigned for today, this First Sunday in Lent, there is an emphasis on the first commandment and the first article of the creed.  You may speak the first commandment and explanation with me:  You shall have no other Gods.  What does this mean?  We should fear and love and trust in God above all things.  The first article of the creed is; I believe in God the Father almighty, Maker (creator) of heaven and earth.

 

            Psalm 91, a psalm of great comfort to believers, tells us, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.”

  In these words God reiterates to all believers that those who believe and trust in him will be saved.  The Psalm later states, “Because he (the sinner) loves me (God) I will rescue…protect…hear…answer…deliver…and honor him with long life and salvation.”  How does God “honor” a poor, miserable sinner as you and I?  He does so by loving you and restoring you into his glory again as he does by grace in the blood of Jesus and by your faith in that great gift.

 

            In Deuteronomy, God calls on all of his people to present him with gifts from the first fruits of the year’s labors.  God knows how s sinners are.  He knows we can conveniently forget all that he does for each one and for all of his children here on earth.  By giving back first to him, we put him first in our worship, in our thanksgiving to him as he has given us everything, including our reason and our senses.

 

            As the confirmands lead us in today’s services, this activity is one that begins the process of reviewing all that we learn about God’s grace and salvation his gives us in Jesus Christ.  That begins with the first commandment and a great emphasis is on the first article of the creed.  All that God does for us in and through Jesus Christ begins with these.  Romans 10 states saving faith clearly as we believe with the heart, but we are saved as we confess with the mouth and are saved.  When one believes in with the heart, he cannot contain this faith within him, but explodes expressing that faith in thought, word and deed.

 

            But why does Jesus have to endure these forty days fasting and suffering temptation in the wilderness?  It is because we are all lousy sinners and cannot, without God’s almighty power and everlasting love, do anything about that condition.  The confirmands know these basics quite well.

• Can you live a moment, even breathe without sinning?    No
• Can you remove any sin from your record before God? No
• Can you enter God’s holy presence with even one sin?  No
• Do you need a savior from your sins?                            Yes
• Who is the one and only savior?                                                Jesus

 

            God created all.  Jesus died for all.  The Holy Spirit works faith in the hearts of those who hear the word of Jesus.  You and I cannot, by one’s own reason or strength, believe in Jesus or come to him, but the Holy Spirit has called each one by the Gospel.

 

            Now, back to the temptations in the wilderness.  No one person in this world can overcome Satan’s temptations, the world’s temptations, and the drive of our inborn sinful natures.  Jesus overcomes all temptations.  He overcomes them by having but one God, honoring one God, obeying one God alone.  Jesus does this not just in the three temptations recorded in the Gospel accounts, but all temptations you and anyone else has ever been assaulted with, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-- yet was without sin,” [Hebrews 4;15].  From conception on until the moment he gave up his spirit on Calvary, Jesus overcame every temptation Satan throws at anyone.  He did not need to give up his heavenly throne to endure this abuse from Satan.  He did need to do it if he wanted you to be with him in paradise.  So he did do this.  He did it obeying his heavenly father.  He did it on your behalf and gives you himself.  Jesus overcame all, even the desire to have just anything for himself, ” "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head," [Luke 9:58].  Jesus gave up everything imaginable on this earth so that you will be in his kingdom when your earthly life is over.

 

            A confusing phrase from the end of Psalm 91.  God promises to “honor” the one who loves him.  How does God honor you?  Remember how he made you in his image?  Then you fell to dishonor and remain in that dishonor in sin, don’t you?  God restores you to honor as he gives you Jesus “glorious dress” to wear from blood shed on the cross, to waters that cleanse in baptism, to life everlasting in the resurrection of all flesh.

 

            Jesus’ temptation now becomes your salvation.             Amen.