Who Will You Listen To?

Jesus is still drenched from the waters of the Jordan when the Spirit leads him into the wilderness. There in the middle of nowhere he fasts for 40 days and 40 nights. He is exhausted and completely famished. He is at the end of his rope when Satan begins to tempt him.

Isn’t this how the enemy works? Darkness waits until our defenses are down, when we will take any shortcut just to feel better.

Jesus was a mere month past his baptism in which the voice of God affirmed him and said, “this is my son, my beloved; with him I am well pleased.” Jesus’ identity was spoken over him.

But now he is weak and tired, starved and spent. There’s that temptation. That voice.

Satan says, “Look , I know you gotta be starving. Just use your power to turn these stones into bread. It’s just you and me here. No one would really know. A little bread would do you some good. What kind of king would you be if you’re hungry. If you are the Son of God, it shouldn’t be a problem right?

If you are the Son of God.

Already Jesus’ identity was being questioned and challenged. The text from Genesis today reveals a similar situation. God tells Eve and Adam one thing. Don’t eat the fruit from the tree of good and evil. They are close to God. But almost immediately the serpent starts bringing all that into question. Did God really say that? Don’t you wanna be like God? It would be so easy. It’s just one bite.

Nadia Bolz Weber reflects on this saying, “The Word that had most recently come from the mouth of God was, “This is my beloved in whom I am well pleased.” Identity. It’s always God’s first move. Before we do anything wrong and before we do anything right, God has named and claimed us as God’s own. But almost immediately, other things try to tell us who we are and to whom we belong: capitalism, the weight-loss industrial complex, our parents, kids at school–they all have a go at telling us who we are. But only God can do that. Everything else is temptation. Maybe demons are defined as anything other than God that tries to tell us who we are.”

So who will you listen to?

Satan was trying to plant doubt in who Jesus was, but Jesus was listening to another voice. He responded “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Jesus will later reference himself as the Bread of Life in John 6:35 and then say that “my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work” in John 4:34.

The tempter raises the stakes now and takes Jesus to the top of the temple, the center of the holy city and Jerusalem. Just as Jesus had answered him by quoting Scripture, Satan now tries to distort Scripture to serve his own means.

Satan says, “If you are the Son of God…throw yourself down from this temple for it is written that God would command his angels to break your fall so you wouldn’t even dash your foot against a stone.

But Jesus says, “Do not put your Lord God to the test.”

Once again the Devil raises the stakes and takes Jesus to the top of a mountain, even higher than the temple, and offers him all the kingdoms of the world, if only he will fall down and worship him. But Jesus says, “Away with you Satan, for it is written ‘worship the Lord God and serve only Him.”

Stones into bread. A miraculous feat. Power and rule.

Here’s the thing, Jesus will go on to do all of these things that the the tempter was whispering into Jesus’ ear. He will turn water into wine. He will feed the five thousand. He will go on to perform many healings and miracles: casting out demons and raising some from the dead. Jesus will go on to have all authority in heaven and on earth, of all the kingdoms of the world.

Jesus is not afraid to use his power, but he does so on God’s terms, not Satan’s. Jesus will pour out his power, but it will be out of compassion and a showing of God’s love, never as a measure of oppressive power. Satan keeps trying to take Jesus higher, but Jesus’ power is reached by going low.

But I wonder sometimes if we are really that far off from the tempter. Andy Goodliff says, “This isn’t just a story about how Jesus was a human being like us, who gets tempted, but its’ a story of how we wish Jesus would discover that he isn’t the Jesus we want. What kind of Jesus do we want--

We want a Jesus who can turn stones into bread. We want a Jesus who would just take charge and fix the world. We want a Jesus who would do something spectacular. And so make it easier for all our friends, families, and colleagues to believe in him.”

Maybe the hardest part of coming face-to-face with our sin in Lent is realizing that we too can be the voice in Jesus’ ear trying to get him to turn stones into bread or perform some miraculous feat for a show of faith. We become the ones that say, “if you are the Son of God, won’t you do this for me?”

But Jesus didn’t listen to the voice of the tempter, and I am so glad. Jesus listened to his call as a suffering servant, as a wounded healer, and as one who showed extravagant grace and mercy.

Jesus’s ability to resist temptation is because he is in tune with his identity as the Son of God. The same spirit that anointed Jesus at the Jordan is the same Spirit that led Jesus and sustained Jesus in the wilderness. The Great I Am stood firm against the “If You Ares.”

I wonder how much would change in our lives this Lent if we focused on grounding ourselves in who we are as children of God instead of all the chatter in our lives from everyone else telling us who we are or who we need to be.

I love the song by Hillsong worship called “Who You Say I am” in which it says,

“I am chosen not forsaken I am who You say I am You are for me not against me I am who You say I am”

Nadia, in response to this text began encouraging her congregation to shout back at the darkness and say, “I am baptized.”

When you are tempted to feel you aren’t enough. … you are who God says you are. When someone tries to mock you or accuse you… you are who God says you are. When temptation tries to tell you that you have no other choice, that no would believe you, or that you’ll never get through this....you are who God says you are.

There is a journey ahead. There will be chatter and distractions and noise that will try to pull you away. But take heart. Listen. There is a still, small voice, and it is calling you by name.