Wait for the Inheritance

Deuteronomy 26:1–11 ESV

“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it, you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there. And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God. “And you shall make response before the Lord your God, ‘A wandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me.’ And you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God. And you shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you.

Luke 4:1–13 ESV

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’ ” And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’ ” And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ and “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ” And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.

The promises that Satan made to Jesus were not empty. They were deceitful. But they were not empty. 

Jesus could have done all those things. After fasting in the desert for a while, his empty stomach is aching and hollow. And Satan knows that. The adversary knows what Jesus’ physical weakness is in that moment and the liar knows what Jesus is capable of doing. Once his ministry begins, Jesus will make water into wine. He will feed thousands with nothing more than a little boy’s lunch. Surely this Jesus can make stones become bread to fill his aching empty stomach. The lie is not that Jesus could do this thing. The lie is not even that Jesus needs physical sustenance of some sort. The lie is that God will not provide it when the time is right and that Jesus therefore should handle it himself outside of the promises of God.

Jesus, very God, could have made the world bow to him right then. Satan knows that. The adversary knows Jesus’ divine capabilities and the liar knows what the people expect Jesus to be. It could have all been his kingdom at that very moment. He could have come sweeping into Jerusalem like the military, political savior the people were hoping for and squash the Roman authorities in an instant. The lie is not that Jesus could do this thing or even that the people would lift him up and celebrate him for doing it. The lie is that God does not already have something even more astounding in the works and that Jesus therefore should do what the world expects and sweep in as a political and military hero. 

Jesus healed countless people suffering from every sort of ailment imaginable. Jesus said to Lazarus – who was rotting and stinking in his tomb – “GET UP”. . . and Lazarus. . . got. . . up. Three days after his own death, Jesus lived. Jumping off the top of the temple would have been no big deal. Again, the lie is not that Jesus could do this thing. The lie is that Jesus should do this now to reveal his glory by saving himself rather than revealing himself by saving others. 

Satan did not tempt Jesus with anything outlandish or impossible. Satan did not tempt Jesus with things that were outside of his reach as the Son of God. Satan tempted Jesus with things that were attainable and that were just true enough to be very dangerous. Things that were true in the realm of the world around them even if they went against the words of Scripture. 

Jesus replied to Satan’s seemingly reasonable suggestions with the words of scripture. Jesus replied to Satan with not just any words of Scripture, but with the words of eternal promises made by God. Promises, that one often must wait for, but truthful ones that outlast and outshine the deceitful promises made by Satan. In each of these temptations posed to Jesus, the lie is more about the timing and who is in charge than about the thing Jesus is asked to do. Satan doesn’t try to “trip Jesus up.” He doesn’t tempt him with outlandish things that one could never picture Jesus doing – murderous rampage or some grave violence or theft – he simply tweaks the timeline of the truth just a tiny bit. But Jesus, knowing the promises of Scripture, knowing all the words that had been passed down to God’s people for their guidance, protection, and direction, sees the discrepancies in the suggestions that the adversary makes and calls them out. 

“Yes. I’m hungry.” 

“Yes. I can turn this rock into bread.”

“But no. I cannot break this fasting time – this sacred communion with God – I cannot end it early because the spiritual importance of it outweighs the physical need for having a little bit of dinner right now.”

“Yes. I am the Son of God.”

“Yes. I can make all these kingdoms bow to me right here and right now.”

“But that’s not how this is meant to shake down – these people and all their children and grandchildren to come have an eternity that I have to consider.”

“Yes. I could jump off this tower right now and be totally fine.”

“Yes. I’m here as a revelation of God’s love and glory and the revelation of God’s love and glory is very, very important.”

“But no. This is not how God says that is meant to happen.”

Jesus doesn’t just know the Scripture and use it as rote argument against Satan either. Jesus knows that the path God laid out isn’t easy by worldly standards. He knows that it’s a harder road to walk. But to say yes to these requests, to give in to the just-true-enough suggestions that Satan makes, would be to say no to the eternal things of God. It would be to say no to what really matters. 

It is not just Jesus’ memorized knowledge of God’s promises and scripture that enables him to resist these temptations – it’s his trust that these promises are real. These promises are true. He knows them and he believes and relies on them. These promises are worthy of his trust and his faith. It is not will power or knowledge that resists these temptations – it is his faith.

The promises that Satan makes to us are not empty. They are deceitful. But they are not empty. That is what makes them so hard to resist. 

Temptation is more than just giving in to doing something bad. Resisting temptation involves more than just not doing bad stuff that’s on the list of bad stuff not to do. The most dangerous temptations are not the outlandish ones that are clearly lies.  The dangerous ones are the ones that are just true enough to be appealing or to look completely true. The dangerous ones are the ones that are just true enough that the world has bought into them. 

Satan fills the air around us with lies and partial truths – with these almost true and entirely deadly lies. They are just true enough, have just enough grounding in reality, that they are hard to separate from the truth. 

“If you just work harder and buy another car, then you’ll be truly happy. God wants you to have everything you need, after all.” 

“Once you get that promotion, you’ll finally have all the respect you need and then you’ll really be worthwhile in this world. God wants you to know how great you are.”

“It’s his own fault he’s homeless, you don’t need to help him. If he wanted to, he could get help.”

“It’s none of your business, turn away. You just have to pray for them, you don’t have to get involved. Someone else will help.”

“Well, you’d be happier if this other person would just get their act together and treat you right. After all, God calls that person to have healthy, Christian relationships with other people.”

“You’re too busy. It’s not worth your time.”

“Nobody will ever know about this.”

“This won’t actually hurt anyone else, so it’s OK.”

“It doesn’t matter if you go to church anymore. You’ve gone to church enough in your life.” 

“You don’t really have to read your Bible. You’ve read it before.”

“It’s none of your business, turn away. You just have to pray for them, you don’t have to get involved. Someone else will help.”

“Well, you’d be happier if this other person would just get their act together and treat you right. After all, God calls that person to have healthy, Christian relationships with other people.”

“Nobody will ever know about this.”

“This won’t actually hurt anyone else, so it’s OK.”

That liar knows every single word of Scripture, my dear friends. That liar knows what we are capable of and what God has promised us. That liar knows our desires, our weaknesses, our abilities. And that liar is crafty. 

We don’t get some sort of holy brownie points or stickers on our Jesus charts for knowing the Bible. This is not about some memory verse contest. This is about knowing the truth as well as the liar does because if we don’t, it’s really hard to separate the truth from the almost-truth and the liar’s temptations from God’s promises. 

The only way to truly resist the temptations – the deceitful promises that Satan makes to us – is to reply to Satan with the words of scripture.  And just memorizing bits and bobs of scripture here and there isn’t helpful. It must be written on our hearts – carved into our very being. Known – not just recited. 

That is why it’s so very important for us to spend so much time studying the Bible. We have to know God’s promises and be able to pry apart the lies from the truth. We must know in our core the promises, that one often must wait for, but the truthful ones that outlast and outshine the deceitful promises made by Satan.

“Man shall not live on bread alone.”

It is not all about today. Oh, today matters. And Jesus doesn’t say, “People don’t need to eat.” What Jesus says is that we are more than just physical beings. And when our physical desires are put before the spiritual, we have bought into the lies. As we pray and fast and wait in the quiet for God during Lent – this is what we are doing. We are putting the spiritual first. That’s why fasting is considered so important during this season. It reminds us that we can’t just live on bread. We need so much more than that. 

“Worship the Lord your God and God alone.”

There are many things to worship in this world. There are many things we worship without even thinking about it as worship. Money, status, politics, other people. We make people out to be a political or military messiah like the Jewish people expected Jesus to be. We believe the lies that money and status are something that we are owed as followers of God. So we spend extra time during Lent setting those things that get in the way aside. We give extra time and money to charity, we remember others in prayer and remember our need for God. 

“Do not put the Lord you God to the test.”

This is not a time in which we ask God for specific signs. This is not a time in which we agree to believe God’s promises if. . . This is a time in which we, like Jesus, step out in faith and declare those promises. We open ourselves up to them by reflection and reading scripture. We stand on the foundation of that Word, even when it doesn’t look like we expect. We open ourselves up, like Jesus, to the ultimate promises of God.  

We have available to you in the kitchen, a daily Lent devotional book that will step through daily Gospel readings. There’s just one page per day. That’s it. But just one page per day is one page more of scripture per day than most Americans read – churchgoers included, according to recent studies. Many Americans have never read anything in the Bible at all and only know what they know about it from TV and facebook memes or maybe a few words that someone else has shared with them. Many have never stepped foot in a church. Most – including people in churches – don’t read their Bible outside of Sunday morning services, let alone every day. How on earth can we expect to combat the almost-true lies of the adversary when we don’t know the actual truth? When the liar is speaking things that are so close to the truth, we can’t expect to take someone else’s word for it – we need to know the truth and test those things we hear for ourselves. There is nothing that gives me more delight than when someone asks me to clarify what I meant by something in a sermon because that means you’re not just taking my word for it. You’re listening and reading and wrestling and asking the Holy Spirit to reveal if I’ve been listening and reading and wrestling to get to the truth. 

I invite you all to enter this journey through Lent with open hearts and minds. With quiet and thoughtful reflection on Scripture – lots of it. Let it be such a part of your being that a great sign of your faith is your ability to say to the liar, “That is a lie. This is the truth.” 

This Lenten season, let the scripture wash over you and into every crack and crevice of your being.