Audio of the sermon is here:

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

There are three temptations here: for Jesus to make stones into bread; for Him to gain the kingdoms of the world by worshiping Satan; and for Him to test God’s faithfulness by throwing Himself down from the temple. There are three temptations, but it is, in the end, only one. “If you are the Son of God…” What is that one temptation? What is Satan really asking Jesus to do? It is possible that he is questioning whether Jesus really is the Son of God, but if the demon in 4:34 knows that He is “the Holy One of God,” it seems very unlikely that the prince of the demons would not know. No, Satan knows who Jesus is, which is why He tempts Him this way. “If you are the Son of God, you have power to turn stones to bread, right?” After all, you’ve been in the wilderness for 40 days, and you haven’t eaten anything, and, as Luke puts it: “when the days were completed, He was hungry.” That’s probably an understatement. If you are the Son of God, you can get all the kingdoms of the world, and you don’t even have to go through all that suffering and death stuff. If you are the Son of God, you can throw yourself down, and Your Father won’t have a choice but to send His angels to save You. The single temptation underneath all three is for Jesus to be a different kind of Son than the one He is.

It was exactly the same for Adam and Eve. The serpent is tempting them to be a different son and a different daughter than the son and daughter they are. God is their Father and Maker. He provides for them. They are not in a wilderness, barren and empty. They are in a garden, full of every good thing that their good God could give them, including each other. To whom else would they listen? He has the words of eternal life. Their God is life itself. It is not the case that if Adam and Eve go away from God, they will have some other, lesser life; some kind of different life. If they go away from God, they will have no life at all. They will be the walking dead, desiring and doing nothing except what comes from their own evil hearts. So, the ancient serpent—the dragon, who is called the devil and Satan (Revelation 12:9)—says, “Did God actually say that you shall not eat from any tree in the Garden?” God made all this for you, and He won’t even let you take whatever you want? No, no, Eve says; we can eat from all the trees except the tree in the midst of the garden—and we can’t even touch it—or we will die. You will not die, the serpent says. God just wants to keep you from being like Him, knowing good and evil. Be a different kind of daughter, listening to the voice of the serpent, rather than to the voice of your good Father, who has already made you in His own image and likeness. And she saw that it was good, and she saw that it was a delight to her eyes, and she desired it to make herself wise, and she chose to eat it. And she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he became a different kind of son, who listened to the voice of his wife, instead of to the voice of His good Father, who had made Him and given her to him, and him to her.

Be a different kind of son, who gives up the image of his creator, not even to be made in the image of his earthly parents, as Seth was made in the image of Adam, but to remake himself in his own image. So the myth of Narcissus goes, that he was so infatuated with his own image in the water, that he stayed there and stared at himself until he died. Be careful with selfies! Be a different kind of daughter, who would rather see and decide and desire and choose for herself what is good and right, rather than hear the loving voice of her loving God. This is the fundamental temptation of the serpent, the devil, the dragon, Satan.

And he hasn’t stopped whispering this temptation into your ears and mine, either. Your heavenly Father created you, the Son shed His own blood and rose from the dead to regain you from the ownership of the devil and your own sin, and the Spirit opened your ears and called you by the Gospel to hear the voice of Jesus. Into this Name you were baptized. You were made a son and brother to Jesus. You were made a daughter and sister of your Lord. We are the children of God, born again from above by water and the Spirit, but do we deny that Name that was put on us? Do people see us as the children of God, walking the way of Jesus? Or do they see the slithering offspring of the ancient serpent? Perhaps to ask the question is to give the answer. Be a different kind of son, he says. Be a different kind of daughter. Ignore the Name He put on you, and make a name for yourself. Did God really say? We see, we desire, we choose, we eat.

There is only one Son of God by nature: “when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus had also been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, ‘You are My beloved Son; with you I am well pleased’” (Luke 3:21-22). And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is My Son, My chosen one; listen to Him!’” (9:35). It is not you whom the Father sends into the wilderness. You’re already there. This Lenten, wilderness world is all we have ever known. We have never seen or known the perfect Garden into which Adam and Eve were put. But Jesus had never known the wilderness. But after His baptism, anointed with the Spirit, full of the Spirit, He allowed Himself to be led into the wilderness by the Spirit. This was the will of the Father, and it was His own will. He was led into temptation, and He had no one to deliver Him from the evil one. He was hungry, and He was tired, and He felt the full weight of this world pressing down on Him. But when the devil tried to get Him to be a different kind of Son, to choose desire and take the food for Himself, to listen to the smooth words of Satan, rather than to the words of His Father, to test God to see if He was holding out, if He wasn’t giving Him everything; when the devil said, “If you are the Son of God…” Did God really say, at the Jordan, that You’re His Son? Maybe You dreamed it. Maybe it was Your own wish-fulfillment.

No. God will give Me My daily bread when He chooses. I will be the Son who suffers, dies, rises, and is glorified as Lord over all the earth, and I will worship Him alone. I will be the Son who knows that God will do what He says, who will send His angels to strengthen Me (Luke 22:43). I could call down angels to save Me, but I will drink the cup of death. I will give My own body as bread to My disciples. The faithful Son, the incarnate and anointed and chosen one, full of the Holy Spirit, refuses to be any Son but the Son of His eternal Father.

And He is the faithful Son who has risen from the dead, and given you the privilege of calling His Father your Father. Because He was led into temptation, you can pray that you will not be led into temptation, and you will not. Because He overcame the devil by the word of God and unwavering faith in the Father, you will be delivered from the evil one. Because He knew that no one will get eternal life from the bread that perishes, you will live from the word of God and the living bread that comes down from heaven. Oh, unfaithful sons and daughters, this Son is faithful! And you have been baptized into His death and resurrection. You have been covered and clothed with His faithfulness, and He does not count your faithlessness against you. You are dear children of the heavenly Father, and you are still marked by His holy Name. Shall we go on sinning, then, so that grace may increase? How can we, who have died to sin, still live in it? You are not sons of the serpent or daughters of the dragon! He purchased and won you with His holy and precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, so that you will no longer have the devil for your Lord, but that you would be Christ’s own and live under Him in His kingdom, just as He is risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity.

Today the faithful Son, who did not give an inch to the devil, is here for you, who have so often given the devil and inch, a yard, a mile. Today the faithful Son covers you again with His mercy, who have worshiped yourself and your own desires, instead of worshiping the Lord God, and serving Him only. Today, He pulls that rotten and rancid fruit of rebellion and unbelief from your mouth. To you, who are not a son or daughter of God by nature, who cannot change stones into bread, He has given His adopted sonship, and changes bread and wine to be body and blood for you. Take and eat, take and drink. You are the Spirit-filled children of God. Now that faith has come, you are no longer under a guardian, for you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free; there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:25-28). Sons in the one Son. Named with His Name. Today, and tomorrow, and forever.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7, ESV). Amen.

– Pr. Timothy Winterstein, 3/7/25