Food for the Second Adam
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Good morning! “Happy Lent” is not supposed to be a thing, technically, so “A blessed season of Lent” to you and yours. In this season, we’re moving with Jesus from the mount of transfiguration toward Jerusalem and the Cross. And we’re doing this with a certain intentionality. If you’re doing something for Lent, giving a good thing up, whether food, or a kind of food, or drink, or some other good thing, or your free time in taking up a spiritual discipline like intentional prayer or Bible study or giving to the poor, the fasting of Lent is a beautiful way to focus our hearts and minds on the journey toward the Cross with Jesus.
Along the way we look at events that took place before Jesus’s journey toward Jerusalem, just as on a long walk you might reflect back on various relevant things from the past. The Bible doesn’t indicate that Jesus thought about his temptation in the wilderness on his trip to Jerusalem, necessarily, but it is helpful for us to think about his temptation in the wilderness as we move toward the Cross. So let’s take a few moments together and look at Jesus’s temptation in the wilderness.
It begins in Matthew 4:1
1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
This is right after Jesus’ baptism. Jesus comes out of the water and the Holy Spirit leads him out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Straight to it.
2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
So he’s in the wilderness for 40 days and nights. And Jesus is doing what Israel did. Our epistle tells us that Jesus is the new Adam. And here we see Jesus as the new Israel, the Person that the history of Israel was pointing to. Instead of 40 years in the desert crying out and complaining to God about the need for food, like Israel did in the wilderness, Jesus goes without food, and doesn’t complain. And it’s in this starving state that the devil approaches Jesus.
3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”
Jesus doesn’t need to prove to anyone that He’s the Son of God. Do you remember his baptism? The Holy Spirit, as a dove, rests on Jesus and the Father’s voice tells everyone: “This is my Son with whom I am well pleased.” And Satan says, “If.” “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” Let’s ask for a second what happens if Jesus caves at this point? What does Satan win? He would win control of Jesus in a weak moment. He wins the ambiguity of making Jesus question his need to prove himself. He would have been able to say that he made Jesus act out of insecurity and weakness. He also makes Jesus as the new Adam sin in the same way that sin came into the world through the first Adam: through eating. And not just eating, but by testing the will of God around food. Isn’t it interesting that the sin that caused humanity to sin came through eating. And now the first temptation of Jesus is around eating? I am clearly not a dietary expert or an Instagram health influencer. And I know there can be extremely complex issues that people can have in their relationship to food. But as someone who is called to explain the Bible to others, I can’t deny the connection between the use of food in making the first Adam fall and food being used to try to make Jesus, the Second Adam, fall. Not that food is intrinsically bad or evil. It’s meant for our good. But using the will to keep our relationship with food under control for obedience and the glory of God is more important here in Scripture than most Christians hear about. So fasting, especially from food, is a way to enter into the story of humanity as it was meant to be. You see something that looks edible and delights your eyes. Maybe you don’t immediately grab it and eat it. I am speaking here, as always, to myself first, and then to you all. And so fasting has become a part of how the church observes Lent and Advent, and other individual days if you really get into the intricacies of the church calendar, which we are not doing that this morning, and you are welcome. But I hope you see here in our readings that fasting has spiritual value when it’s done with the right things in mind. In fasting we align ourselves with the Second Adam instead of the first. We build the spiritual muscles of being able to approach God with obedience and the willingness to wait, even when it’s hard. Because there will come times in our lives when things get hard. And if we’ve only ever obeyed and trusted God when it was easy, when the difficulty comes, trust and obedience are a struggle at best. So fasting helps us practice trusting and obeying God with some added difficulty. For food that difficulty is hunger. For other Lenten fasting, that difficulty may look different, but the result is the same. We want to be able to trust and obey God in good times and bad, like Jesus, rather than like Adam.
I’ll also say that if you follow the pattern of humanity’s relationship with food in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, you see it go from abundance with limitations, to severe limitations, to all food being declared clean and on to a banquet and a feast in Revelation. The feast is coming. And that’s part of why we pause our Lenten fast on Sundays. Sunday, the day Jesus rose from the dead, also points forward to the great banquet and feast that happens in the new Jerusalem. And we partake of that feast in Communion.
And maybe Jesus had these things in mind, when he was tempted to turn stones into bread. We see his reply in verse 4.
4 But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
Jesus proves he isn’t weak like the first Adam. If Jesus is the Son of God, he doesn’t need to prove anything to Satan. And he doesn’t try. Instead he models for us what we need to do when the Tempter comes our way. He uses truth from Scripture. And that is why Scripture reading and study is one of the focuses of the 40 days of Lent. When Jesus was tempted after 40 days, he met the temptation with Scripture. He could have snapped his fingers and sent Satan straight into the abyss, and he will, but instead of flexing his power in this moment, Jesus models for us what we can do when we meet temptation. And that is to know Scripture and use it. The first step we can take here is to read it. And beyond that, you can journal your questions and insights, you can mark it up in various ways. There are all kinds of methods. But first, if you’ve never done it, or you haven’t in a while, start with simply reading it. If you do it consistently over time, the smile of God over you will become clearer and clearer. And that’s because through Scripture and the act of turning to the Word that he values so greatly, we can know him better and better and see that he is for us and not against us. When we draw near to him he draws near to us. But besides being close to God, becoming familiar with the Bible gives you wisdom in situations where you need it, when you are met with questions and temptations you are not otherwise ready for.
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ” 7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”
The devil gives Jesus a new challenge to face. You can imagine how amazing it would be to see Jesus follow Satan’s suggestion. He’s quoting one of the sweetest psalms, Ps 91. And you can imagine how grand the event would be to see Jesus in a remarkably fitting place at the top of the temple, fulfilling a life-giving passage from the psalms.
But Jesus just came up out of the baptismal waters to begin his mission and he is not taking suggestions from Satan about the time, the place, or the manner in which he accomplishes it. And he is done hearing Satan say his, “If.” Don’t put God to the test. Stop beginning sentences with “If you are the Son of God…”
And this goes back again to how important it is to become familiar with Scripture. We need to not only be able to stay strong in the face of temptation, but the Tempter knows Scripture better than we do. And he will use it against us. We need to know Scripture well enough that when it is misused by the devil, in our head, out in the world, that we won’t be led astray, but can fight our way to the truth, with the knowledge he’s left for us in the Bible.
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ” 11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
After denying himself over more than 40 days, Jesus might justifiably be looking for worldly comfort. He could get the fast track to being king of the world. This idea again shows that Satan wants to control Jesus and his mission, when Jesus’ body is very weak. Falling down would have been easy, and if he was about to do it anyway, he could do it in the right direction and it would be worship. And his fasting and temptation would be done. The temptation for the easy road, the good life, anything our heart could want is always before us. But the Second Adam did not come just to take the easy road and take whatever he wants, like the first Adam did. And he was not going to bow down to Satan to gain the whole world and lose his soul. He’s the Son of God. It’s not possible. Jesus was here to win. Not in the world’s way of winning, but to be the Israel that Israel couldn’t be, to be the Adam that Adam couldn’t be, and to equip us with everything we need to resist the devil so that he will flee from us.
The temptation of Jesus shows us how to be truly human, as humans were made to be, to trust in God in the face of temptation. And it shows us that he has faced whatever temptation we might face, what victory looks like, so that when he offers himself up for us on the Cross, his sacrifice is not only one of abounding love, but perfect righteousness.
So as we struggle imperfectly through our Lenten fast, wishing we had chosen something different to give up, remember Jesus, who though tempted, knew no sin, and died so that we might live and feast with him.
