Rev. Lisa Lynne Kirkpatrick Sermon Manuscript
Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025
Oh geez! When was the last time The Devil popped up in your dinner conversations?
“Lawd Have Mercy, Jesus!” my grandma Lena used to say with her thick Louisiana drawl,
“Devil tryin’ to get me.” I used to think that was more of a Southern thing. Talk about “the
devil” or Satan or The Enemy. Frequency of mention features more prominent in
Charismatic Christian language, for sure Latinix, Korean and African communities of
Christians who tend to have a more heightened awareness of the presence of evil or what
they call “spiritual warfare.” We Western European Presby folks don’t much like to talk
about, think about, or much less even believe in the possibility of it. Martin Luther is
famous for saying, “you can’t prevent the birds of temptation from flying over you but you
can keep them building a nest in your head.” Fair point.
But I think one of my favorite perspectives comes from C.S. Lewis who said,
All of which is to say – to our peril, we disregard the realm of darkness as nothing, as if
the realm of evil doesn’t really exist and yet also, you can’t live your life looking for the
devil around every corner. Probably best to find a balanced approach somewhere in the
middle. Because temptation and the presence of evil has a way of sneaking up on us, we
are all vulnerable to falling prey to being overcome by darkness, making terrible decisions
that hurt both ourselves and others.
It turns out, we do, actually, engage discussion of evil as Presbyterians. When our new
officers made their vows last week – and when anyone joins the Presbyterian church for
the first time, there is in our Book of Order specific language in those vows which asks,
“do you renounce evil and rely on God’s grace.” And this is an important
acknowledgment, both theologically to be aware that there is a realm of darkness in our
world that we dismiss at our peril – AND – as part of our Christian commitment, that when
we see evil we renounce it, which is to say we formally declare it as evil, resist that evil
AND do whatever is possible to push back against darkness with the light of Christ. So the
evil of genocide simply must be renounced by all Christians – entire people groups wiped
out by some authority that has deemed them unworthy of life – there is evil there, yes? The
evil of sexual violence perpetrated against children and women, there is evil there, yes?
We could go on and on and name evil, abuse of power, there are sins of “commission” and
sins of “omission” and behind them all lies someone or some group or some system that
hoards power and misuses it. We, therefore, renounce evil in the name of Jesus.
So, at first glance, this text causes us to just focus on human temptations. Jesus
experienced temptation and resisted it and so, therefore, so should we. While that is true on
a certain level, perhaps we might see together what this wilderness moment is really about
here and what the power of evil seeks to manipulate and ultimately destroy.
Luke’s version of the story (Mark and Matthew have it, too, with a few variations but
essentially the same thrust) places Jesus as tempted in his humanity but having just been
named the Son of God in his baptism, he is faithful to God’s sustaining promises and he
uses Scripture in every one of his responses. This will be very important to us in the
coming months as we journey with Jesus in the gospel of Luke together. Jesus is the living
embodiment of the power of the Scriptures and he is also the fulfilment of the Scriptures.
We will also, in the coming months, see just how often Jesus will come up against the
presence of evil in his ministry, casting out demons from helpless victims, he renounces
the evil he sees in the Temple leadership, the Pharisees, Sadducees, the Sanhedrin, all of
whom are hypocrites he calls a “brood of vipers.” There are significant power encounters
Jesus will have throughout his ministry.
This particular narrative functions uniquely, perhaps best understood as a symbolic
narrative. In some ways, it summarizes and foreshadows the temptations that Jesus will
experience throughout his living ministry. In other words, he will be tempted to use his
power in ways that would satisfy his human needs, that would politically and
inappropriately exercise his authority over others, and to save himself. He was able to
avoid sin while being tempted. How is that? What does God want for us to see here in this
strange narrative?
So this morning, rather than focusing just on the temptations we experience in general or
further yet, rather than giving The Devil too much airtime, what if the Temptation of Christ
story is really about something else all together. Could it be LESS about Jesus identifying
with us in our humanity as we do our best (and often fail) to resist temptation and more
about who Jesus is and his extraordinary relationship with God, his dependence on his
heavenly Father. Jesus is showing us what kind of Messiah he is choosing to be, and it isn’t
what they all expected him to be and I wonder if sometimes we expect him to be a Messiah
other than what God intended, too. Fully present and clear about his identity. Stronger than
Evil. Trustworthy. Jesus takes this Time of Testing from The Devil and transforms it into a
Time of Trusting God with his life. Every aspect of his life. His physical well being, his
authority and leadership and his identity.
Luke says from the outset that Jesus is full of the Holy Spirit … and then “is lead by the
Spirit” into the wilderness. The Spirit didn’t pull up in the station wagon and drop him off
at the entrance of the wilderness and say, “see ya, buddy, I’ll be back in 40 days, good
luck.” No. The Spirit of God was with Jesus, empowering Jesus, holding Jesus,
strengthening Jesus. This will be a recurring theme of Luke’s gospel – and it will be
something we revisit together again and again in the coming months because Jesus models
for us what an intimate connection to God that is nurtured and cultivated really can mean
for our lives, too.
Three provocations are put before Jesus and they are indeed provocative. And in response
to each one of them, Jesus quotes passages from Deuteronomy by way of rebuke and
shutting them down. Before I go any further, The Book of Deuteronomy is part of the five
books of the Bible that are called The Torah, this is the Hebrew Scripture that is referenced
as “their Bible,” the law. Some of you know this already, so bear with me: The Torah is the
first five books of our Bible, they are: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and
Deuteronomy. What is interesting about Deuteronomy is that it actually repeats a good
deal of the material found in both Exodus and Leviticus, it reiterates specific laws that
were given to Moses by God for the people Israel, how they were to conduct themselves,
function, survive so that they would ultimately be “set apart” so that the world will see
God in them. This was the goal, the hope, the plan. Didn’t go so well. But that’s for
another time.
For now, it is important to understand that Jesus is taking direct language that was given
By GOD to Moses that is not only the anchor for Jewish Life and a reflection of Yahweh
Elohim but would then be lived out by Jesus in real time. Jesus is not merely litigating his
position with the Devil by using Torah language. Jesus is pulling from the broadly known
Law of God and then embodying these truths with his actions and decisions. Just as the
people Israel were tempted in the wilderness and ultimately failed to stay strong in their
identity as the chosen ones to shine the light of God on the world – Jesus, by contrast, has
redeemed all of humankind through his ability to be human and also be intertwined with
God and overcome the power of evil.
So, what are the three questions and responses Jesus gave here. The devil said to him, “If
you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” 4 Jesus answered
him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’ ”
I’ve put on the screen here the actual text from Deuteronomy that Jesus
quotes. For Jesus, the word that comes from the mouth of the Lord is my bread. It isn’t that
bread is bad and he knows he needs it to survive. It is just that bread alone is never
enough. And he is not interested in using whatever transformative spiritual gifts that God
has given him to perform for the Devil, and he is determined that trusting God with
provision in due time will be enough. The food, the nourishment from the word of God is
what gives true life and will help him to survive this moment.
Notice how with all three questions, the Devil will say “IF you are the Son of God,” as if
trying to taunt him with doubt about his identity. Then, showing him “all the kingdoms of
the world” and offering him to have complete authority over them all, the Devil says “If
you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 Jesus answered him, “It is written,
‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’ ”
Jesus seems to be saying “The power you want to give me is not the
power that God will give me. Political power is not why I am here, I am not interested in
dominating the kingdoms of the world.” Oh how this frustrates his disciples and his
followers and all the people Israel who are desperately hoping Jesus will be authority of
this world, THIS is their Messiah, God’s anointed to come and rule and give them back
Jerusalem and restore their kingdom to its former glory. Nope. When it became clear to
Jesus that he would be crushed and defeated by the Roman political authorities, thanks to
the cooperation of the Temple leadership, he would become the exact opposite of the kind
of Messiah that all the people had hoped for and dreamed of as he hung on the cross and
died. Jesus does not waver from worshiping his Heavenly Father alone. Because the plan
that God has for Jesus’ authority is so far greater than what the kingdom of any nation
could contain. It will come through the work on the cross. And it will culminate in the
power of the resurrection.
Third and finally, The Devil says “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from
here,” and then he quotes Psalm 91. The Devil says, “watch this, I’m
gonna use your strategy, Jesus, and pull from the Scriptures to get you this time. Deliver
yourself from death, jump and the angels will carry you, right?” Jesus does not take the
bait. He will not test God but he will trust God. There will be no rescue,
so it would seem, from his suffering. But Jesus will overcome evil when the power of
death has been defeated. The irony of the location of this temptation is that they are in
Jerusalem, where he will again refuse the temptation to save himself. He was taunted on
the cross, “if you really are the Son of God than get yourself down from there!”
And this is what it really comes down to, this deep connection, this relationship between
Jesus and God IN the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, that allows him to be so
unwavering. He is not swayed because he already knows who he is and there is nothing
that is being offered here that is consistent with the Messiah that God is calling him to be.
He transforms this time of testing into a time of trusting.
And that is what the Spirit of the Living God can do for us, too. Our temptations can not
really be compared to these temptations of Christ. And yet Scripture says in the book of
Hebrews, “in every respect he was tempted as we are and yet without sin.” So there is
always the fundamental truth that Jesus identifies with us in our humanity. And yet this
encounter helps us to understand Jesus as Messiah from the outset of his life, in deep
connection to God and unwavering in his worship and devotion to God.
Our experiences of being pulled away from who we really are in light of God’s love for us
are real and we find ourselves listening to voices that do not have our best interest at heart.
As one theologian explained, that this story reveals for us, too, the profound “temptations
to forget one's baptismal identity, to attempt to use one's religion for personal gain, to try to
be successful rather than faithful, to be dazzled by the riches of the world, to make
compromises where one is called to stand firm, and to avoid the path of sacrifice and
suffering.” We may not think of this as the outright work of “The Enemy” in our lives.
Similar to the image on the cover of your bulletin today, where this Devil just casually
ambles alongside Jesus attempting to lull him away from his true calling, it is shocking
how subtle and small temptation can be until it becomes something hard to contain.
Beloveds, how often have you find yourself believing things that are lies and then make
decisions with your life based on those lies? Being a Christian is just being religious, it
doesn’t have to guide your choices, right? Just do this and you will be so much more
satisfied. Just do that and you will have so much more power. Surrounded by those
messages – subtle and not subtle – we need the Holy Spirit with us to guard and guide.
Friends, I struggle with the popular notion: “God is testing me.” NO. God is loving you
through the testing you are going through. Life tests us. The pressures of our culture and
society test us. Our failing physical bodies test us. Our relationships test us. God is not
some cosmic, finger-wagging authority that shames us when we fail under the weight of
the stress and pain, longing and sorrow that comes our way. He sent his Son, the Beloved,
Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit, to be Messiah we really need. Your Savior, worthy to
be trusted, becomes, for us, in his birth, his life, his death and his resurrection the
embodiment of this truth: you can trust God even in the wilderness. The call on our lives is
not gritting our teeth in obedience, but rather, responding to the love of God and trusting in
his purposes for our lives. Let’s continue to reflect on this together in the coming winter
weeks. And draw near to God, learning to trust more deeply. Amen?