Basket
0 Items
Sunday 9 March 2025 Lent 1
Attracted by the dark side?
Luke 4:1-13
Context: a mixed age, culturally diverse urban congregation including teenagers and some newcomers
Aim: to explore how to deal with the challenge of life’s temptations
Today is the first Sunday of Lent, a period of forty days ending in the tragedy and triumph of Easter. This space of time echoes the fasting and temptation of Jesus in the desert where he fought against the lure of the dark side through the enticements of the devil. What a battle it was between them! Alone, hungry and vulnerable, Jesus needed all God’s strength to resist the devil’s offerings. We too need the power of the Holy Spirit and the example of Jesus to fortify ourselves against the influence of the dark side.
The temptation to take shortcuts to what seems a better life is attractive! We see an opportunity to make some fast progress in the world or some easy money and we lose our sense of what is God’s will and purpose for us. Like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden we are tempted to listen to the devil’s smooth promises. Ultimately, they paid a heavy price for giving in to temptation, just as we will if we allow pride, ambition or greed to lead us away from God. Thankfully Jesus shows us how to stay in control and resist the dark side.
Jesus was tempted firstly in a very physical way, to turn stones into bread to satisfy his hunger. Many people who go hungry today might applaud this action. Such ability might solve the world food crisis. But even if the act might have brought some human benefit, the motive behind it was wrong. For Jesus to have agreed would have meant compromising his own credibility as God’s son, wholly obedient to his Father’s commands and his God-given mission. He was not there to act as a human aid agency, but to bring spiritual transformation, salvation and eternal life to all who believed in him. Despite his human hunger, Jesus pushed away the temptation to make bread, relying on the strength of his relationship with God his Father to sustain him.
As God reminded the Israelites as they wandered in the desert, God’s people do not ‘live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord’ (Deuteronomy 8:3).
Secondly, asked by the devil to worship him, Jesus refused to agree with his arrogant claim that he ruled the world. It is God who reigns, and he demands his people to worship only him, and no other (Deuteronomy 6:13). We too must reject the false claims of anyone other than God to be the ruler of our lives.
In his third temptation, the devil challenged Jesus to prove his divine power by throwing himself from the temple in Jerusalem, relying on angels to save him. Slyly the devil quoted from Psalm 91 to try and convince Jesus to accept the challenge. The Psalm was misused; God’s powerful protection is for his people, not for showing off in some stunt. Jesus’ response is firm: God is not to be tested (Deuteronomy 6:16) but obeyed, even if it means giving up his life on the cross.
The devil may have lost this round, but his parting shot makes it clear that there will be other chances for him to derail Jesus’ God-given mission on Earth. Whether we are at a high point in our lives or living through a difficult time, temptation to solve an issue quickly by unethical means, or to use our position or role to our own advantage, is always present. That is when we need to remember God’s words, his values and commands, and strive to keep to them, to reject temptation as Jesus did. Of course, such obedience is not easy. Perhaps we may consider it a comfort that Jesus was the perfect human being, but he still struggled – remember his cry to his Father in the Garden of Gethsemane, to take away the cup of suffering he was about to drink (Luke 22:42)? Despite the pain and humiliation, obedience to God took precedence over his human anguish.
What an example we have to follow! And what power in Jesus Christ we have to push away the dark side and walk in his light!
Welcome to The College of Preachers
To explore the website fully, please sign in or subscribe.
Non-subscribers can read up to three articles a month for free. (You will need to register.)
This is the last of your 1 free articles this month.
Subscribe today for the full range of resources from The College of Preachers, including Lectionary sermons for every Sunday, book reviews and more.
Issue 195: Speaking of Last Things
