Finding Faith ... in Jesus trusting God one final time

EDITOR'S NOTE: In October 2017 I began a new venture as a synodically authorized minister at Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. The ride over the past 2.5 years has been an amazing journey of learning, growing and the deepening of my theological mind. This sermon originally took place on March 1, 2020.

If it’s not too painful this morning, I’d like to ask you to think about the deepest, darkest spot you’ve ever found yourself on this earth. … In this lifetime.

Now, please, practice self care. … If that’s too much and you don’t want to go there, then please don’t. ... Do what’s healthy for you.

But I will share with you again my darkest patch. … Many of you know a lot of it, and I openly share it when I can. It’s good for my healing.

It was 2008. … The boys and I had been living here in Moorhead for a year, having moved back from south of the Twin Cities. … And I’m not going to lie: It was a tough slog of a time in our lives.

Three years into the divorce, and we were all in a tough spot.

I was an emotional, physical and financial wreck. … And let’s not even talk about the spiritual state that I was in. … I was hanging on most of the time by a tiny mental string.

And the two boys weren’t doing much better.

Each day I’d wake up, stumble through the day’s chores … getting the boys off to school, going to work myself, coming home to fix dinner, getting homework and baths and nighttime tuck-ins done … then collapsing and repeating.

That is the Reader’s Digest condensed version, of course.

But the thought that kept running through my head each day back then was … hang in there, it’ll be better when I can get to this milestone … or when I get this next pay raise … or that job change.

The more miserable that I became, the more I was convinced that I could work my way out … or will my little family’s way to a better place ... or climb my way out of the ever-deepening hole.

Well, thankfully for me, you know the rest of the story. … I found a church, a church family and a set of pastors that eventually helped all of us turn things around.

And more than anything, I think that is what today’s gospel is all about.

I know that over the years we have popularized this scripture to be about something very much else. … About Jesus’s temptations … when I think, in fact, it is about something very much else.

I think it’s a story … about Jesus’s trust.

It is a story about Jesus’s unwavering trust in God.

The Son’s steadfast knowledge in his heart that regardless of where he found himself in the wilderness, God was there to provide. … And not even Satan was able to persuade him differently.

You see, this gospel is so appropriate for the first Sunday in Lent … this historical period during which early Christians would prepare for those to be baptized at the Easter Vigil. … Remember, infant baptism came along much later.

And although many Christians today still perform some type of ritualistic giving-up of some material comfort during Lent, it’s nothing like the church’s recognition in the early centuries.

Now, if you’ve given up something for Lent to prepare yourself for the Holy Week to come, I do not mean to belittle your worship. … I admire you for your effort.

However, I do believe that the importance of this story goes beyond giving up chocolate for 40 days. Or just eating McDonald’s fish sandwiches on Fridays instead of meat. … Or even just cutting down on your cell phone time.

Granted, each little act we commit to bring ourselves closer to Christ is important. … I sincerely mean that.

However, more importantly to me in this gospel is that it wasn’t about the specific temptations that Satan threw in Jesus’s path.

The importance of this story is Jesus’s steadfast and unwavering trust in God’s goodness, his promises to bring him through even his worst of times … that is the central crux of this story.

I mean think about this … Jesus had been wilderness -- think desert -- for 40 days. ... He had been fasting four 40 days and 40 nights and then Satan comes to remind him: “Pssst, hey, aren’t you the Son of Man? … Heck, just take those three rocks there and turn them into bread. … Problem solved. You must be starving.”

And what is Jesus’s response?

“Well, my Father tells us that there’s more to life than bread. We don’t just live on bread alone. … But instead we thrive on the words spoken from our Father.”

Man, I know that I am far too weak to have stood up that way.

And when the stone-into-bread trick didn’t work, Satan tried another tactic. ... He brought Jesus to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, and then taunted him … “Well, if you think you’re so great, then just throw yourself off this ledge. … Aren’t you Jesus, God’s only son. … If you are, you can’t be hurt anyway! … So let’s see you do it!”

Everytime I read that portion, I think back to every bully I’ve ever known. … It’s one of their most effective tactics isn’t it. … What are you chicken-n-n-n???? … And the reason they continue to use this tactic is that it works so well on our frail human egos.

But not Jesus. … How does Jesus respond? … “Sorry, Satan, but I don’t need to tempt my Father. I know his promises, and so I don’t need reassurance.”

And I know for sure that I couldn’t have stood up to Satan in this way.

Finally, Satan resorts to his last trick in his playbook, drags Jesus to a “very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor,” and says to Jesus: “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”

“That’s right, Jesus … You see that entire Roman Empire -- spreading from the Atlantic Ocean all the way to essentially India. ... It’s all yours, in all of its richness and splendor.”

“And those lands over there in the Far East. … Yep, yours too. … And even look over here, to the south, all of those African nations too. … All yours!”

“It’s all yours, and all you have to do is bow down to me. … Just once.”

And now I am certain that I would have failed Satan’s test.

Because one of my greatest sins is that in my heart, I want control of everything.

When I was going through the troubling divorce I mentioned above, I was convinced that I could find my way through. … I was convinced that if I just worked harder, or did this or did that, then it would be all OK. … And that was the tactic I used for years. Long, dark years.

Essentially, I was trying to turn stones into bread for myself. … Trying to show the world how tough I was. … Willing to bow down for just the smallest opportunity to own this earthly kingdom.

Because at that time, I believed that it was these things that were going to make me feel better. … It was being in control that was going to improve the boys’ lives. And take away the pain for all of us.

You see, my greatest sin, even until this day, is that I believe in my heart of hearts that with just a little more work … a little more knowledge … a little more worrying … that I can solve anything.

And I believe that it is that human propensity to believe we have we have all the answers to the temptations in this world that is at the heart of today’s gospel.

This scripture is not about giving up Facebook … or meat on Fridays … or chocolate. … It’s not that those actions in their own right are meaningless.

But what’s most important to remember in this gospel is that even in Jesus’s darkest hours -- when he had fasted for 40 days and was famished ... when Satan was taunting him to show off his power … when Satan offered him the world on a platter -- Jesus trusted in his Father.

First to provide the nourishment needed for his physical body. … Second to fulfill the promises made to his faithful son. … And, finally, third to give Jesus a much more important kingdom than this earthly realm.

Jesus trusted in his God. … And that, my friends, is what I’m still working on.

I fully admit that as soon as I sense a storm coming into my life, I am the first to resist it with all my earthly might.

And when I’m in the middle of the storm, I let it drag me down into the abyss. … No matter what, I still want to be in control, and I believe that I can steer the ship out of trouble.

But not Jesus. Not during his darkest hours.

Jesus just looked into the eyes of Satan and said, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’”

Heavens … If only I had that kind of heart. … If only I had that kind of faith. … If only I had that kind of trust.

But thankfully for all of us, Jesus did.

Because not much later after the story of Satan’s temptations, Jesus will find himself nailed to a cross, facing death … and yet he trusted in God one final time for our sake, for our salvation.

And that is the good news this Sunday. … Amen.