tl;dr
I preached this sermon on Matthew 3:13-4:11 at First Presbyterian SF on July 11, 2021. It was a sermon I desperately needed to preach to myself about how Jesus graciously deals with my own COVID Failures that had been haunting me since the beginning of the pandemic.
My Takeaways
- Jesus’ temptations are re-enacting Israel’s wilderness journey…which are an awful lot like our own COVID experiences.
- Each of Jesus’ temptations correspond to a specific failure of Israel in Exodus…and failures common to us.
- Where Israel fails and where we fail, Jesus succeeds and does it perfectly.
- When God looks at our own wilderness/COVID failures, He only sees the perfection of Jesus.
The COVID Wilderness
When the world shut down in 2020 and there was so much social and political and economic turmoil, I figured I would rise to the occasion. I was going to be diligent in my personal devotions, I was going to be serving people spiritually and physically left and right. At work and in my neighborhood, I was going to be a spirit-filled beacon of hope as the world seemed to crumble around us.
It didn’t take me long to realize that I wasn’t living up to any of those things. During COVID, I was constantly haunted that I wasn’t the man I wanted to be. It was like COVID was one big test that I was constantly failing. This feeling drew me to the stories in the Bible of Israel in the wilderness. Here they were, tired and wandering. Doing the same thing day after day after day. They had no idea where they were going or when they would get there. Their lives seem so uncertain and fearful and aimless, and they’re failing all the while. Sound familiar?
A lot of us have felt this same sort of “wilderness testing” during COVID. And for many of us, this testing started long before we even heard of COVID-19. The pandemic just added another trial on top of all the trials we already had, that we were already failing at.
In this passage, we see Jesus being tested and tried, also in the wilderness. You’ll notice right off the bat that some of these temptations seem a little…odd. In the first one, Satan is asking Jesus to make bread. That’s not a sin. Jesus can make bread whenever and however he pleases. The second temptation is also weird: “If you’re the Son of God, jump off this building.”
You remember when you were a kid and you friends told you to do something stupid, and you did it? What did your parents tell you? “If your friends told you to jump off a bridge, would you do it?” The reason that this is an expression is that the answer is obvious–No! Of course no reasonable kid would jump off a bridge just because their friends told them to do it. If a kid’s not going to jump off that bridge, why would Jesus, the Son of God, jump off the temple because the devil told him to? How is this a real temptation?
These temptations don’t feel like temptations until we look at how Jesus responds and processes them. Each response he gives is from the same section of Deuteronomy. It’s this speech that Moses is giving to Israel, after 40 years of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness. Each quote that we see here Moses is him talking about a specific time that Israel failed the wilderness test. The fact that Jesus returns to this passage in Deuteronomy again and again tells us something really important–Jesus is connecting his 40 days in the wilderness to Israel’s 40 years in the wilderness. This is great news for us–If Jesus is relating to Israel in their wilderness…that means he’s relating to us in our COVID wilderness as well.
COVID brought to us the same temptations the Israelites faced, which are the same temptations Jesus faced. So, for each one of these temptations of Jesus, we’re going to see how Israel dealt with that same temptation while they were in the wilderness. Then we’re going to see how we deal with it, and finally, see how Jesus succeeds where us and Israel fail.
The First Temptation
Let’s start at the end of chapter 3:
And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
There’s this amazing moment where all three members of the Trinity are on display: the Holy Spirit is visible descending on Jesus and the Father is expressing His love and approval for the Son. What a way to start a public ministry! Incredible spiritual high. Right after this though, BOOM. Wilderness.
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
The stakes are incredibly high here. Here’s why.
If Jesus can resist these temptations, as well as every other temptation throughout his life, big or small, then the perfect Son of God dies as the spotless lamb, securing salvation for God’s people, making them perfect forever. On the other hand, if Satan can make even the tiniest blemish on Jesus’ record, then Jesus dies on the cross as just another guilty sinner, unable to work salvation for humanity. If Jesus doesn’t die as the spotless lamb in the place of sinners. And then you, me, everyone who has ever lived or will ever live are dead in their sins, condemned for eternity, and completely without hope of reconciliation to God. One tiny sin is all it takes for everything to be lost. Satan’s already made the first Adam fall in the Garden of Eden–and he’s going to pull out all the stops to do the same to Jesus, the second Adam. The reversal of the Fall and the redemption of the entire cosmos depends on Jesus being completely and utterly perfect in his humanity.
The stakes are really high. And unlike Adam who was tempted in paradise, Jesus meets the tempter when he’s weak, hungry, and alone.
And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”
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’ response shows us that this temptation has nothing to do with rocks or bread, but everything to do with how Jesus is going to respond to the tough situation his Father’s put him in.
His response is from Deuteronomy 8. In this section of Moses’ speech, Moses is reminding them about how God provided for them in the wilderness. They are delivered out of Egypt by these incredible miracles, walking through the Red Sea. Then, just like Jesus coming up out of the water from his baptism BOOM. Wilderness. They’re in the wilderness for about 40 days and their food runs out. They’re hungry. And they’re complaining.
So, God sends this fine, flakey, white…stuff for them to eat. Manna. Six days a week for forty years, they get up in the morning to gather the manna. Day after day after day–nothing but manna. You think lockdown was boring and tedious? This manna was given so that God “might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord”
In other words, the monotony and the boringness, this wilderness experience of barely scraping by, was supposed to teach Israel what is truly important, what is truly sustaining. God is deliberately withholding good things from them so that they can learn to love what is even better–the provision of God, whatever its form. God is saying “All these other things you think you need to survive won’t actually give you strength or life. All you need is Me and what I give you.” In this case, that’s manna.
Of course, in the monotony of manna and the desert, they don’t learn that. Instead, they start to loathe it. In Numbers, they say “we’re sick and tired of looking at this manna! We want…figs! We want grapes and wine and pomegranates! Egypt gave us fish and melons! All God gives us is this manna”. In doing this, they’re saying “the God who turned the Nile into blood and split the Red Sea…his provision is no longer enough. Miracles and manna got us this far, but It’s time for something different–let’s go back to Egypt. That’s what will really sustain us, now”
Let’s fast-forward to our own wilderness experience. Where did you try to find sustenance and refreshment in the drudgery of COVID? Maybe it was food. Maybe it was online shopping or exercise. Work or Netflix. A third of Americans reported they drank more alcohol during the pandemic. Did any of them really satisfy you? Did any of them give you real lasting joy that renewed your soul?
During COVID, there were too many nights where I was so exhausted and so depressed that the only thing my soul wanted was takeout and TV. When I was so crushed by Natalie’s health issues and felt like life was spinning out of control and I needed a break, I more often tried to find refreshment and sustenance in crossword puzzles and snacks rather than the Living God. Cory’s Wilderness Failure #1. But, as we’re going to see again and again in this text, where Israel fails and where we fail, Jesus succeeds!
Satan is in effect telling Jesus: “This wilderness doesn’t have what you need. You’re the Son of God and you’re hanging out in this wasteland? C’mon, you look tired. Practice some self-care, Jesus! Make yourself some food!” Instead, Jesus refuses to be dissatisfied with where his father put him. He knows that very presence that has sustained him those forty days in the wilderness is still enough for him. In a similar passage in John, Jesus is also hungry and thirsty. But, when his disciples offer him food, he refuses saying “I have food to eat that you do not know about…my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work” In that passage and here in this text, Jesus is saying “my real strength, my real source of energy and nourishment comes not from anything external, but from my relationship to God.” He knows the only thing that’s going to fill, energize and sustain him, is doing what God wants. Jesus knows where his real strength comes from.
When testing starts and you find yourself in the wilderness, do you find your strength in obedience like Jesus does? When you’ve had a really hard week and you need rejuvenation, Is your “self care” wrapped up in “every word that comes from the mouth of God”?
There’s nothing fancy about Manna, nothing exciting. Just common, boring, frosted flakes from the ground. Every. single. day. For 40 years. There have been several movies about the plagues on Egypt and the dramatic crossing of the Red Sea. Ever see a movie about manna? It’s… unexciting. Ordinary. But this ordinary means is exactly what God uses to supernaturally feed his people.
God deals with us in much the same way, except that Jesus is even more sustaining and life-giving than the manna the Israelites had. But, like the manna, he comes in such an ordinary way–through His Word and His Church. Don’t neglect these things! Even if you’ve had a hard week. Especially when you’ve had a hard week. Press into your Bible and your church family, because these things lead you right to Jesus. He is the Bread of Life! Feast on him and find the refreshment your soul is longing for.
The Second Temptation
Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple He 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.’”
We read this Psalm in our call to worship. Our worship leader used it to call our attention to God and to remind us, right off the bat, of his goodness. But now, Satan’s going to take this beautiful psalm and mangle it and twist it to use for despicable evil–trying to make Jesus test God by not applying God’s previous faithfulness to the present.
Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
There are a lot of ways we can test God. We can disobey Him, we can continue in our sin, and we can try his patience by finding our hope and happiness in things other than Him. But, Jesus has one very specific type of testing God in mind. The full quote from Moses here is “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test as you tested him at Massah.” Jesus is relating his own temptation to the specific temptation the Israelites experienced at Massah.
What happened at Massah? Right after God gives the Israelites manna, they come to a place without any water. They don’t have what they need, so they get mad, and start fighting with Moses. In Exodus 17, God says that they have “tested the Lord by saying, ‘Is the Lord among us or not?’” They put the Lord their God to the test by behaving as if He wasn’t going to help them.
“Is the Lord among us or not?” You kind of want to grab them by their shoulders and say, “Of course He is!” Look at his track record! Remember all the plagues on Egypt! Remember how God ripped the Red Sea in two so you could escape from 400 years of slavery! Look at that pillar of fire ahead of you–that’s the very presence of God in your midst! Look at that manna on the ground! How can you possibly ask ‘Is the Lord among us or not?’”
But don’t we find ourselves constantly in the same position? Coming out of church on Sunday filled to the brim with thankfulness for what God has done…and then by Wednesday you’re back to worrying? “Is God really going to act? Is He really good?” Maybe we never verbalize these things, but our worries and fears betray that this is the doubt that is driving our actions.
My current anxiety is wildfires. On the Fourth of July, we were up at our cabin in northern California. Super dry. There were some folks nearby setting off illegal fireworks which were spewing sparks everywhere. Instead of enjoying the real, professional fireworks in the distance, I had binoculars trained on these other people, just waiting for a fire to break out. I don’t know who was more afraid on the Fourth–me or my dog! (if you know Donut, you know how pathetic that is…)
Why was I so afraid? Because deep down, I was operating on the fear that “Everything I own is going to burn down, and I’m going to be ruined”.
Half of that statement might be true. Everything I own could burn to the ground. This fire season, it’s looking increasingly likely. But even if it does, I am not going to be ruined. He walked with me in the lowest points of my life, and he continues to do so. Even if He takes everything away, He has already shown me he is faithful. On the fourth of July, I was not remembering God’s faithfulness. I was testing God in unbelief–Cory’s Wilderness Failure #2.
What were you worrying about during our COVID wilderness? What kept you up at night? Maybe it was the threat of you or a loved one getting COVID. Or maybe you were concerned whether your job was going to last. Or whether our little church was going to survive. All of these worries have the same root: “Does God really care for us? Is the Lord really among us?”
All of these are big problems, and it’s not wrong to think about them. The problem comes when we allow our thoughts and actions to be governed by our present fears instead of God’s promises and actions. We test God when we don’t apply his previous faithfulness to our current situation.
Let’s turn to Jesus now. Unlike us and the Israelites, He does apply God’s previous faithfulness and promises to his present circumstances. Do you hear the challenge and the doubt in what Satan says?: “If you are the Son of God”. “Does God really love you, Jesus? Because if he does, you should have no problem jumping.”
But of course, Jesus doesn’t need to prove that God loves Him because He remembers what God has already said and done. Just before the wilderness, what did he hear God say? “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased”. He doesn’t need to jump off the Temple to show that He really is God’s Son–God just told him that!
After 40 days in the wilderness, Jesus could have thought, “If God really loves me, why is he putting me through this?” But Jesus remembers. He remembers the highs when he’s in the lowest low. He remembers God’s faithfulness and beauty where Israel doesn’t. Although we test God by acting like he isn’t really with us, Jesus remembers what God has already done. He applies God’s previous faithfulness and promises and applies it to the present.
I know a lot of us here have been suffering for a very long time. We’ve been praying for so long without getting any answers. When we’ve been suffering for so long, it’s so easy to not see God’s goodness. Sure, we can look back on the stories of God’s faithfulness in the Bible and on God’s faithfulness in our own life. But sometimes even that falls flat when faced with the crushing realities before us.
In these situations, we need to look to the cross. There Jesus, the perfectly righteous God-man, died in your place so that you could be adopted as a child of the almighty God. Does it feel like God doesn’t care about you or your situation? Look to the cross. In the midst of our sadness and our longing and our pain, when we cry out, “God! Where are you???” look to the cross. There, God puts himself to the test! At the cross, He demonstrates His own love for us in this: that while were still sinners and still sad and alone and still failing in the wilderness, Christ died for us.
When the darkness is crushing in around you, remember Christ’s death on the cross and day after day apply that to your circumstances. He’s already proven his love and faithfulness towards you. Cling to that hope in the darkness, and remember.
The Third Temptation
Let’s move on to the third and final temptation of Jesus.
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”
In the Old Testament, the prophets constantly compare Israel’s idolatry to adultery. They say, sometimes very graphically, that going after other gods is like cheating on your spouse or selling yourself into sexual slavery. So, this third temptation is particularly egregious. Imagine if Satan said, “I’ll give you everything…just have sex with me, Jesus”.
That’s completely disgusting and outrageous, right? I feel blasphemous just saying that. That’s how repulsive idolatry is to God. And it’s how repulsive idolatry should be to us.
No wonder Jesus rebukes him:
“Be gone, Satan! For it is written,“‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”
In the Bible, Israel has a long track record of serving other gods. The first time, the one Jesus and Moses probably has in mind is about three months into the Israelite’s wilderness experience. Moses climbs Mt. Sinai, God gives him the covenant law.
But while Moses is up on the mountain, the people get antsy. So they melt down their jewelry, and make an idol–a golden calf. Before God even finishes writing out the covenant that’s going to bind Israel to himself, they’re already breaking it.
They’re not making idols because they’re foolish superstitious ancient people–they’re making idols because they’re people. God has hardwired humanity to worship. So, if we’re not worshipping God with everything we have…we’re worshipping something else. In our modern context, it’s usually work, bank accounts, retirement funds, influence, or sex.
But, it’s been interesting to see how the pandemic has exposed some of our more subtle idols. During an extended lockdown, the things we used to look to for hope, happiness, significance and security were suddenly unavailable. Entertainment, friends, dining out, visiting family, work. the list goes on. When these things were taken away, they were shown for the subtle idols they were. The question is…what did we replace them with? If we replaced our pre-COVID idols with anything other than the God of Creation, we are still idolaters.
I was talking to my coworkers the other day about what we’ve learned through the pandemic. A common theme among them was “I used to focus so much on work, but now I’ve learned what’s really important”. They talked about how they were going to reorient their lives around family or travel or their newfound passions like baking sourdough. While these things are good they’re still not ultimate. All they’re really doing is trading in their work idol for another idol.
What about you? How did you deal with the temporary removal of your idols? Did you turn back to the living God? Or did you find other idols that were going to help you feel more in control?
And while COVID made us shuffle around our idols, it also made some idols bigger, particularly the idol of self. Social distancing made us focus more and more on ourselves and less and less on others. This brings us to Cory’s Wilderness Failure #3, which is actually the root of all the others. I spent most of the pandemic feeling crushed under the weight of the expectations I had set for myself in being a good husband or good elder. I’m commanded to pursue these very good things–but I was pursuing them not out of true holiness, but so I could look awesome and holy. These good things I was seeking were being undermined and spoiled because I was seeking my own glory, not God’s. My idol was myself.
Now, let’s turn back to Jesus’ temptation to idolatry. Even though Satan is demanding worship, Satan is not the real idol here. You only make an idol out of something you think is beautiful. In this scenario, that’s not Satan. The real idols set before Jesus are the “kingdoms of the world and their glory”.
I wonder if this was the hardest temptation for Jesus to resist. If he takes Satan up on his offer, Jesus could immediately be the messianic king ruling in righteousness and justice. He could put an end to hunger and violence and injustice right then and there. Having the whole world subjected to God’s Son is an amazing thing, and it’s something that we still long for and pray for today. What Satan is offering to Jesus is, without a doubt, a Very Good Thing.
But, even something as significant as Jesus’ messianic role is only partial without true and proper worship to God alone. In fact, this Very Good Thing would be spoiled if His Father were not right in the center.
If even the glorious reign of Christ cannot be truly good apart from undivided worship of the true God, then how can any of the good things in our life be truly good without Him?
In this final temptation, Jesus passes up these idols and turns down Satan’s offer to rule over the earth. He’ll get those kingdoms and the power and the glory soon enough, but through an entirely different path–one that is completely fixed on worship of God…and one that passes right through the cross.
With this, Satan leaves him. The second Adam remains spotless and has avoided the catastrophic mistakes of the First. Jesus is one step closer to completely reversing the Fall and restoring the entire universe to a right relationship with God.
I want to close with a passage from Hebrews 4. Talking about Jesus, the writer says:
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
During COVID, when we looked to food and Netflix and so many other things for our sustenance, Jesus finds his strength and energy in God and His word. He does this perfectly.
Although we tested God by not applying his past faithfulness to our current COVID situation, Jesus remembers God’s promises perfectly.
And when we fail to worship God and shuffle around idols in our hearts, Jesus worships God and God alone. perfectly.
In every respect, Jesus experienced all the temptations of COVID-19, and he did not sin, even the tiniest bit. Jesus passed our wilderness test. Perfectly.
This is in stark contrast to me, to us. At the beginning of the pandemic, I thought I was going to come out of COVID triumphant with a rock-solid faith and stronger than ever. But, as the threat of COVID seems to be decreasing (at least in the US), I find myself stumbling out of it the same way I stumbled through it…weak-willed and weak-faithed. Far more like Israel than Christ.
But today, if you are in Christ, when God looks back on your time in the wilderness, he doesn’t see any of those failures. He doesn’t see your dissatisfaction with his provision or your forgetfulness or your idolatry. When he looks at you, he only sees Jesus, who walked through COVID and resisted Satan perfectly.
And even now, Jesus, your Great High Priest, the Second Adam, is worshipping, praying, and repenting on your behalf. Even if your prayer-life is mediocre and your repentance imperfect, you get credit for Jesus doing all of this perfectly.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
The author of Hebrews goes on:
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
This is a COVID-19 promise! This is a promise for every wilderness and test and trial you will ever face in your Christian walk. Because Jesus’ successes in the wilderness now belong to you, you can confidently approach the holy presence of God. So, run to him! Run shamelessly to his throne and repent of your wilderness failings! God will draw you near and help you to withstand your wilderness temptations like Jesus did.
Today, if Jesus is your savior, you can be confident that his grace, mercy, and perfection is fully applied to you. Jesus’ perfection is so good that it fully covers your Wilderness Failures Number 1 through nine hundred billion, with plenty to spare.
And, no matter how badly you’ve failed, because of Jesus’ merits, our Father says the same thing to you as He said to His Son: “YOU ARE MY BELOVED CHILD. AND WITH YOU, I AM WELL PLEASED.”