When it comes to the temptation of our Lord, Mark is entirely too simple for our taste. We get nothing of the back and forth between Satan and Jesus, nothing of the hunger building within the fasting Jesus, and nothing of the response of Jesus from the Word of God. This is what we get. “He was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan.”
Part of our dissatisfaction with Mark’s account is that we want to believe that temptation is complicated. We like complicated things. The more complicated they are, the easier it is for us to find short cuts around the things we do not like or do not want to admit. Mark gives us nothing of that because in Mark’s account, temptation is straightforward and simple. Where we are looking for extenuating circumstances, Mark presents us with the bare facts and only the bare facts.
It does not matter how we are tempted, the battle always takes place within our minds. It is a battle of what ifs that we play against our own desires as much as the devil’s wiles. It is a battle of images played out not on the screens outside us but on the screen of our own imagination. It is a battle of words said to make sin appear not to be sin and to make giving into temptation noble rather than evil. Temptation will not go away if you never hear another vulgar word or if you never see another erotic image or if you never have the chance to cheat or steal what does not belong to you. Temptation is not about out there but always about inside of us.
Some churches have renumbered the Ten Commandments to add in the prohibition against graven images as a separate command and then end up lumping the two commands not to covet as one. How foolish that is. For the temptation to sin always begins with covetousness. The will is broken on the altar of desire for that which does not belong to you. If we have a will that is separate from our Father in heaven, we will always be vulnerable. Jesus does not overcome temptation because He is God’s Son or because He has the answers down pat to Satan’s lies. No, our Lord overcomes temptation because His will and the will of the Father are one. There is no daylight between them.
Let me say this clearly. Arguing with the devil is disaster. It is futile. He knows the Bible better than you and He is more committed to his long term goal than you are to God’s. Adam and Eve had already lost in the Garden as soon as they got into a conversation with the serpent. At that point the devil already had them.
As soon as you argue with the devil, you grant to the devil a status he does not deserve and you give him a place at your table. Jesus did not argue with the devil. He answered the devil not simply with the Word of God but also with His confidence in that Word. The devil said one passage and Jesus responded with another. Jesus is not simply speaking to the devil but also to Himself and to His own will. For in this conflict of the will, Jesus knows that the battle is not with Satan but with Himself.
The devil constantly tries to shift the conversation away from God’s Word and back onto Jesus Himself. The Lord Jesus speaks the Word of God to insist that the conversation remain about the Word of the Lord and not Him. Do you see now why we find ourselves so weak in the face of temptation? We gladly make it about ourselves and so we give into the devil and he has the edge over us. We face the Word of God with our own doubts and fears and so there is always distance between God’s will and ours. We pray “Thy will be done” but under those good and pious words lurks a heart and mind that wants to shape God’s will more than be shaped by His will, to make God pay attention to us rather than we pay attention to Him.
None of us will ever convince the devil he is wrong but all of us can believe that God is right. The Word of the Lord will not silence the devil from twisting that Word or betraying it for his own evil purpose and intent. But the Word of the Lord will comfort us sinners, strength us weak, forgive our sins, and restore us to Himself. It is not a matter of picking which Bible passage will shut the devil up but knowing the Word of the Lord well enough that we listen to its voice and follow where it leads, knowing that His Word will not ever fail us.
If you ever go to court over some contract dispute, the evidence that counts is not what you say or what you think you heard or what you felt but the fact of what the contract actually says. The words count most of all. God does not need the Word to be written because He is the writer. The devil fears the written Word of God because it is concrete and not imagined. We are the ones who need the written Word of God. We forget what we read and once knew. We imagine things in our minds one way only to find out we remembered them wrong. We feel things differently and cannot trust our emotions. We need a written Word. We need the Word of God to be objectively true. We need the written Word of God to be yesterday, today, and forever the same, the Word that endures forever.
Temptations are not the same from person to person or from time to time. The devil has the luxury of making things up as he goes along. We do not. We need the Word that endures forever, the Word that will not fail us like our memories do and our intentions have. Like Job of old, we cry out “Oh that the Words of God were written!” For if they are written, we have something to read, something to hear, something to hold onto – something that is not fragile or frail but profound and eternal.
Temptation befalls all people. You cannot run and hide. You can not outrun it. You cannot argue it away. You cannot win because in this battle of wits you are the halfwit. But Jesus shows us what will not fail us. The Word of the Lord that endures forever. Know this Word and you will be strong. Believe in this Word and you will resist. Live in this Word and you will not lose your way. The Word of God will prevail and so will you. If you resist, you will be kept in the grasp of grace. If you succumb, you will be rescued through forgiveness. When the Psalmist tells us to trust not in earthly rulers or kingdoms, he is also telling not to trust yourself. But the one who trusts the Word of the Lord will not fail. So let your will be captive to God’s will, trust in what you cannot understand and are not even sure you want, and pray daily “Thy will be done.” This is the only strategy that prevails against the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh. Amen.
Thanks be to God that we have faithful pastors to help us to understand His Word.
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