Homily: Shortest Sermon Ever Recorded (First Sunday in Lent 2008)

Matthew 4:1-11

1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. 3. The tempter approached and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread." 4. He said in reply, "It is written: 'One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.'" 5. Then the devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on the parapet of the temple, 6. and 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 'with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.'" 7. Jesus answered him, "Again it is written, 'You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.'" 8. Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, 9. and he said to him, "All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me."

10. At this, Jesus said to him, "Get away, Satan! It is written: 'The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.'" 11. Then the devil left him and, behold, angels came and ministered to him.

The shortest sermon ever recorded, which you won’t be getting this morning, consisted of the preacher going into the pulpit and quoting Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death”, and adding “there has been no change in the rate of pay. Amen”.

It’s difficult to hear about the Christ being tempted and seeing any connection with ourselves. But perhaps Christ is letting us know that he was being tempted to abandon his kingdom for ours.

Christ told the devil that he was here to go through everything he had to do as a human so he could bring salvation to all the humans as the Christ of the triune God – God in Three Persons – after his Resurrection. Of course, this was one of the many things that the devil did not want to have happen.

Christ was able to enter this world as both a human and as the Creator, but he did not use his Divine nature to make things easier for himself. He only did this to help others.

The Roman act of Crucifixion was a very brutal and horrific event to those on whom it was sentenced.

Christ made the choices to do everything that had to be done in order to bring Salvation to all of humanity. Each of his trials was leading him to the point of the Crucifixion, and he was fully aware of that.

Christ was tempted by the devil because the powers of the earth wanted Christ to become king of the world without going through the Crucifixion and Resurrection so that the devil, or the powers of the earth, could maintain power.

Satan did not have any power to offer anything to the Christ, because he did not own or possess any of the earthly items he was offering. This was an attempt to get Christ to assume his kingdom without going through the resurrection which is the means for all of humanity to have life everlasting.