The Text: Luke 15:20

He was still a long way from home when his father saw him; his heart was filled with pity, and he ran, threw his arms around his son, and kissed him.Shame is a painful feeling we have when our improper behaviour, incompetence, and bad judgement are brought out into the open. As we feel shame we feel guilt and disappointment in ourselves and the judgement of others as they wonder how we could have disgraced ourselves in such a way. Embarrassment, dishonour, disgrace, inadequacy and humiliation are associated with shame.

The origin of the word ‘shame’ is connected to an older word meaning to cover. We see this in the account of Adam and Eve when they realised that they had disobeyed God and heard him calling for them in the Garden of Eden. They felt shame for what they had done and so what did they do? They covered their nakedness and went undercover as they tried to hide from God. When we feel shame we want to hide from others, not make eye contact, and feel as if our faces are on fire as we blush.

Look into the history of our country you will find attitudes and events that are shameful. Every country has those times in their history that bring shame.

Shame and dishonour are very important concepts in the Middle East and one’s honour and that of the family are very valuable and to be protected at all costs. It was like that in Jesus’ time.

Remember the wedding at Cana when the wine ran out? That kind of thing brought shame upon the groom and his family and that stigma would stay with them for a long time.

You can imagine the shame Peter felt as he heard the rooster crow and realised that he had done exactly what he had so boldly stated he wouldn’t do – not once but three times he had denied that he ever knew Jesus. We are told he wept bitterly out of shame.

Today’s gospel reading from Luke gives us the story Jesus’ told about the father and his two sons and even though the word shame doesn’t appear in the text, there is still plenty of shame involved in this story. Let’s take a look at the instances of shame in this story. Part of understanding this parable is to view it from its Middle Eastern context.

Firstly, there is the shameful thing the youngest son does. He does something that is really low and unkind. He demands that his father immediately give him his share of the inheritance that would normally come his way when his father died. Making this kind of demand is like wishing his dad was dead so that he could get his hands on dad’s money. This is another way of saying to his father, “I no longer want to have anything to do with you. Give me what is mine so that I can cut loose from this family.”

Research has shown that this kind of demand is unheard of in Jewish culture and if the request was granted and a son was given a part of his inheritance that didn’t give the son the right to cash in his share. By selling his father’s property he would deprive his father of his own livelihood. Does the son care? No! His action in selling his share of the property only heaps more shame on himself. He is self-centred, ungrateful, and greedy and doesn’t care how much his family will suffer. He only cares about himself. In a Middle Eastern community that was very much family and community oriented, this kind of attitude is indeed shameful.

To treat his father and family like this not only brought shame on himself but also brought shame on his father. In fact, the whole of the community would feel the shame of the way this lad had treated his father and so the only way a father could restore dignity and pride again in the sight of his neighbours was to wash his hands of this shame by never speaking to his son again or even acknowledge that he ever existed. As far as the family was concerned that son was dead and there was no coming back again.

But the son’s shameful deeds don’t end there with his leaving father and brother to live off what they had left; he goes to a far off land indicating that he never intended to return and there he wastes his father’s hard-earned money with wild parties and spending as if there was a never ending supply of cash.

He ends up in a pig pen. Pigs were animals that Jews considered to be unclean and totally repulsive. Pigs were the garbage collectors of the time and were the way of getting rid of any household rubbish. What a pitiful and shameful picture this young man must have made as he sat amongst the filth of snorting, messy, sometimes dangerous pigs, especially if someone tried to muscle in on their food. He even tried begging from passers-by but no one cared. Maybe they had heard how he had treated his father and so believed he got what he deserved.

I think you get the picture and though his shame is so overwhelming his desperate situation calls for desperate measures. He is aware that he has cut himself off from his family and can never go back as a son, so he trudges toward home to ask for a job as a hired servant, and to live with the servants. As he takes the long journey back home, his heart is likely heavy with shame and guilt for what he has done and the broken relationship between him and his father.

We know what happens when his father sees him coming in the distance. He doesn’t walk or shuffle slowly but races down the road to meet him; throws his arms around him; there is no rebuke or accusations; only the joy of a loving father welcoming home a son whom he had considered dead. In the eyes of the people in his village, it was most undignified for a father to be seen running through the streets let alone running to greet and hugging this son who has acted so shamefully toward his father and his family. He is humiliating himself, likely demonstrating a spineless and weak character he is by treating his son in a way he doesn’t deserve and seemingly rewarding him with his love.

The father has become an embarrassment to the whole village because by accepting his son back he is also bringing shame on himself and he is doing this gladly. He is happy to take on his son’s shame because his son is back; this son that had once disowned his family is now back and can be restored to the family; this son who was once dead is now alive.

To our western way of thinking this is a feel good story – father and son are reconciled – but it’s not. This story is scandalous. To Jewish hearers, the behaviour of father and son is downright shameful. To Christian hearers this is an illustration of our relationship with God – we are the spiteful son and God is the loving Father who leaves his house and takes up this humiliating posture on the road. He has no shame and at a great personal cost greets, hugs and throws a feast for the one who had treated him so badly. The father takes on the shame of the son and becomes shameful in the eyes of the world as he restores the boy to his home and reconciliation between them occurs.

You can see why this reading has been included in the lead up to Good Friday because the father’s action is a symbol of what God has done and is doing for us through Christ. Like the son we have been oblivious to the pain that we have caused our heavenly Father. Just as the son wasn’t even aware that he had hurt his father, likewise we are too often quite indifferent to the way our speech and actions hurt our heavenly Father. But our Father in heaven was prepared to take on our shame and guilt, to embrace us, and welcome us back home. God takes our shame, our humiliation, guilt, and disgrace on himself and he is punished for us and as Isaiah tells us, is despised, struck, beaten for our sins. He is brought low and put to shame for us. He hung in shame from a cross – an innocent man treated as a criminal and mocked as a fraud all the while taking on our shame and reconciling us to our heavenly Father.

On the cross, Jesus is the greatest and most shameful of sinners – there he is made a liar and a thief and an adulterer and a murder, for you and me. Just as love was the driving force that led the father in Jesus’ story to be shamed in front of all his friends and neighbours so that he could welcome back his son, so Jesus’ love for us is the driving force that led him to be shamed and humiliated, nailed naked to a cross so he could welcome us back as his sons and daughters. This shame he gladly bears and makes it possible for those who were dead to now be alive; those who were lost to be found.

There are those who have used this parable to show that God is an old softy when it comes to sin and like a doting old father doesn’t take his children’s waywardness seriously. To our modern minds, this parable might be understood that way, but to look at it in its Middle Eastern context we can see that reconciliation is a painful thing. The father could have easily severed his relationship with his son and quite rightfully forgotten that he ever had a son. He and his family had been terribly shamed by his behaviour by Jewish standards. And so he could have quite rightly ignored the boy as he came up the road but instead he shamelessly raced to meet his son and, in spite of the stares of his neighbours, embraced and welcomed his son home.

As we move closer to Good Friday we become aware again just how much God has done for us and continues do for us especially when we come limping home and smelling as unclean as pigs in Jewish culture. Just as the father in Jesus’ parable wrapped his arms around his smelly, filthy, shameful child so also our heavenly Father wraps his arms around us when we are smelly and filthy and shameful because of our sin.

Our God loves us with a divine love. One who runs and leaps for joy when every sinner returns home. Amen.

3 Lent 2025
Isaiah 55:1-9

The large cardboard sign propped up against the curb and written in bold, black texta said ‘FREE STUFF’. 

It was as apt description. Behind the sign was a pile of what could only be described as ‘stuff’. Someone had clearly had a long-overdue clean out of their garage. Or perhaps they were moving.

I cast an eye at the pile of ‘stuff’ as I drove past. It was the usual. There was a lounge chair without cushions, and three-legged coffee table, a couple of old car tyres, a couple of stacks of old 8-tracks, a rusted bicycle frame, a rolled up old carpet.

And what was that in the back? An old piano? No. I think it was a roll top desk. But then I was past.

Later that morning I thought about that pile of stuff. Was that a roll top desk? I had been looking for one of them for a while. They are not cheap, even second hand. And this one appeared to be about the right size. But who in their right mind would give away something like that. Surely there was something wrong with it. It was badly damaged or warped, poorly constructed, etc.

All day my mind went back to that roll top desk. I finally decided that afternoon to drive back past and have another look. Perhaps it really was a roll-top desk for free.

As I pulled up alongside the curb in front of the pile of free stuff, I could see clearly that it was indeed an old roll-top desk. And it was clearly in very good condition. I could see all this because it was being loaded into the back of a ute parked just in front of me!

I had waited and dithered too long, disbelieving that anything that good was actually being given away, or thinking surely there was something seriously wrong with it that I would notice as soon as I stopped to inspect it. Many other passersby had likely had the same thought.

It would have been a great desk. Just what I was looking for. But now it was gone. I had missed the opportunity.

In today’s Old Testament reading from the prophet Isaiah we have a similar situation. Isaiah is writing to a people in exile in Babylon. They are not accustomed to expecting much, and certainly nothing for free.

The prophet gets their attention in words that echoed the well-known calls of the spruikers in the market places of the ancient world selling food and fresh drinking water.

‘Ho! Everyone who thirsts come to the waters; and you that have no money; come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price!’

Many of you have travelled to places where this kind of selling still occurs. ‘You there, yes, you, Mam. You look like you could use a new hat. I have one just your colour that would match your outfit!’

Or, ‘You sir. You look like someone how could use a cool drink. I have fresh coconuts here. Just one dollar, and I will slice it open for you and include a straw. No extra charge!’

We tend to tune out these calls unless it is something we were looking for. But what if someone starts calling out, ‘You there! No money? No worries! I have food and drink for free. No gimmick. No charge.’

Well, that would get our attention. And that is the intention of the prophet in this passage. They now the familiar words of the spruikers. But who spruiks stuff for free?

We would likely be very skeptical of such an offer. It makes so sense. Surely there is a catch. Like most, we would likely walk on past, known free food and drink was too good to be true.

But that is exactly what God is doing. He is offering a people in captivity and exile grace. He is promising that they will return home. He reminds them of the great king David from their past. Those days will be restored. So come and drink and eat from the Lord’s table. By grace, he is providing this all for free.

The words of the prophet are a foretaste of the call God issues to us all in and through Christ. Come, eat and drink. Forgiveness and life everlasting are on offer – for free.

Well, as we know, free stuff, stuff that is not actually junk, just doesn’t make sense. Nor does it make sense that God would be giving away salvation for free. There must be a catch.

But the prophet knows that his readers are going to be asking these same questions. He reminds them (in verses 8 and 9) that God says ‘My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.’

Yes, free stuff – from God – doesn’t make sense. Not from a human perspective. But God reminds us that he is not us. God does’t think and act as we do. God acts on a whole new level. And in God’s world, and God’s reality, new life, forgiveness and salvation really are being given away.

But there is a proviso. We are warned that the offer is not unlimited. Now is the time to turn to God’s love, now is the time to choose to follow the path God has set before us. Now is the time to do those things we know God wants us to do. God calls us to choose him, to follow him. God calls us to his love. And he offers us life and life everlasting for free. But now is the time to respond to this unbelievable offer.

The prophet Isaiah writes these well-known words: ‘Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let that return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them and will abundantly pardon.’ (verse 7).

It is a bit like me and the free roll-top desk. I spent so long convincing myself that there was not a catch, and that perhaps it was a perfectly good old roll-top desk behind that pile of stuff that by the time I finally decided to go back and check it out, the desk was taken. I had dithered too long.

When we know what God wants us to do, when we know that we need to change our lives or actions, when we know that we need to respond to the love that God shows to us in Jesus, there is no point putting it off, forever considering our options or trying to find the catch.

God is near to us now, he is able to be found now.

We do not know what the future might bring. Jesus, if very strong words in today’s Gospel reading, made the same point that Isaiah is making. He reminded the crowds of a couple recent tragedies, including a tower falling over and killing eighteen people. None of these eighteen expected that this would be their last day. No one saw the tower collapse coming. Some of them may have been thinking: I need to start doing the things God wants me to do. I need to make amends with my neighbour, my parents, my siblings. I need to give up some thins I am doing that are wrong. Perhaps they had been considering these things for some days, or weeks, or months, or years. But now it was too late. Jesus warns his listeners that their time might also be limited. He finishes with the story of the fig tree. It has no born fruit and the owner (God) says it is time to cut it down. But the gardener (Jesus) says give it another year. Let me work on it for another year.

Jesus does not easily give up on us. But he also warns us that and end may well come to the opportunity to choose to follow him, to choose to return to him, to do that thing that we know God wants us to do.

Free stuff? Hard for us to believe, but in God’s case, he really does offer us his love for free. And now is the time to seek him, while he is near and may be found.

Free love and mercy. It’s a deal that is hard to believe. But God’s thoughts and ways are very different to our own.

But we may not always be is position to respond to God. We do not know when Christ will return, we do not know when our own earthly journey will end, we do not know when circumstances will change and the opportunity to do something that we felt God was calling us to do will pass.

So the message of both Jesus, expressed in stark terms in today’s Gospel text, and that of Isaiah, expressed more gently, is the same. It is one of urgency. God’s grace is on offer. God wants us to return to him. But now is the time to respond.
Amen.

Pastor Mark Worthing.
Port Macquarie.

2 Lent 2025

Philippians 3:17-4:1 

Citizenship is a big issue today. There has been much in the news about citizenship ceremonies and when to hold them, and each election year several pre-selected political candidates are forced to withdraw because it is found that they are citizens of more than one country. We read also of those who have live most of their lives in Australia, but never formally took up citizenship, being deported if they are convicted of a serious criminal offence.

In our own congregation we have a number of people currently working through the ever more complex process of getting a visa that will eventually allow them to obtain Australian citizenship.

Being a citizen is a big deal.

It was a big deal in earlier generations also. Early German Lutheran migrants in the mid-19^th century were keen to swear their allegiance to the king and be Australian citizens. It was symbolic of their new life and the fact they were here to stay.

After the second world war waves of migrants came to Australia, most eager to take up citizenship as soon as they could.

But others in this period resisted taking up Australian citizenship, choosing to live their whole lives here as permaent residents. They were reluctant migrants in the aftermath of war and it was too hard emotionally to let go of their previous citizenship – because that citizenship continued to mean a great deal to them.

Citizenship also becomes important if someone gets into any legal or medical strife while traveling overseas. Citizens of strong countries who actively care for their citizens get consular assistance quickly and are often flown out of dangerous situations by special flights. Citizens of impoverished nations get no such help. So in such cases, again, the question of citizenship becomes important.

In the Roman world, the world in which the Apostle Paul lived, citizenship was also important. The prized citizenship to have at that time was Roman citizenship.  If you had Roman citizenship you had some special rights. You could not simply be arrested and tried anywhere in the world by local authorities without Roman involvement. And if you were convicted of a series offence anywhere, you had the right to appeal, all the way to Ceasar.

Paul, by virtue of his birth in Tarsus and other considerations, was in the rare situation of being a Roman citizen. This is something that assisted him often in his travels and in times of difficulty. Many would have been envious of him for having Roman citizenship as it was greatly prized.

Paul uses citizenship several times in his writings to illustrate a point. Today’s Epistle reading is one such text.

After talking about the way some who do not know Christ live, Paul reminds his readers that they are not to be like that. ‘But our citizenship is in heaven,’ he says.

There are three important points about citizenship that the Apostle makes in this text.

First, citizenship is about identity and belonging.

Everyone wants to belong somewhere. There are few things more difficult than the situation of those people who are considered ‘stateless.’ They are in a terrible limbo in which no country will officially recognise or claim them. When we migrate to a new country, it is often very important to officially belong to this new country. That is why citizenship ceremonies continue to be very popular despite disputes about when they are held. New citizens want to celebrate that they are now officially Australian. They want to celebrate that they belong here.

Paul reminds his readers that there is a citizenship that is even more prized and more important than Roman citizenship. That is the citizenship of heaven.

It is nearly impossible to gain citizenship to some countries if you were not born there, and born to citizens of that country. Even immigrant countries like Australia, the US, Canada and NZ are increasingly difficult to gain citizenship to.

In Paul’s time, if you were not born a Roman, Roman citizenship was not only prized, it was rare.

But the greatest and most powerful kingdom of all, Paul reminds us, is the kingdom of heaven. And citizenship of heaven belongs to everyone who is in Christ. If you are a follower of Jesus, then you are a citizen of heaven. That is our true identity. The citizenship of heaven trumps all other citizenships. When we are in Christ, we belong to Christ. And we are citizens of his heavenly kingdom, and of the kingdom that will one day also be manifest on earth.

The second point the Apostle makes is this: Citizenship comes with expectations.

We see this in our own context today. When one takes an oath of citizenship, it is clear that there are certain expectations. It is expected that one will be loyal to one’s country, follow its laws, etc.

Paul reminds us that as citizens of heaven we are expected to live like citizens of Christ’s kingdom. We are not to live like those who care only about the flesh, about filling our bellies, about earthly glory. We are to live as those following the Way that Jesus showed us. We are to live lives modelled on the love we have in Christ and the love he calls us to show to one another. We are to live lives focused on the importance of heavenly things. We are to live lives of service and discipleship.

Paul is telling us that being a citizen makes a difference. And being a citizenship comes with certain rights and expectations. And this is true especially of being a citizen of the heavenly kingdom.

Finally, citizenship brings with it the right and expectation of assistance.

I think we are all familiar with the expectation of consular assistance that we, and citizens of most other countries, can expect if we get into strife abroad.

Paul reminds us that as citizens of Christ’s heavenly kingdom, we are all living ‘abroad’ on this earth. Our true citizenship is in heaven. And we can expect help from there. The Apostle writes: ‘It is from heaven that we are expecting a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.’

The kingdom of heaven does not simply send some consular staff member to check on our well-being. The king himself will come to us, and will come as the one who rescues and saves us.

And what services can we expect when this heavenly assistance comes to its citizens? It is a pretty impressive. Pual tells us that when our king, Jesus, comes to the citizens of his kingdom, ‘he will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory.’ In other words, when Jesus returns, he will transform us all and we will be given resurrected bodies that no longer faulter under the strain of sickness and age and other mortal limitations.

And Jesus can do this because his is the king, he can do it through ‘the power that enables him to make all things subject to himself.’ Our king is more powerful than any other king, and he does not forget the citizens of his kingdom.

So in knowledge of who we are in Jesus, of who we are as citizens of Chrit’s heavenly kingdom, Paul urges us to stand firm. That is, we are not to become overwhelmed. We are not to lose heart. We are not to stop living as citizens of Christ’s kingdom.

We know who Jesus is. And we know who we are citizens of his heavenly kingdom, awaiting the return of our king.

 Amen.

Pastor Mark Worthing.
Port Macquarie

The Text: Luke 4:1-13

 

It’s one of the most recognisable icons throughout the world—the logo behind the i-Phone, i-Pad and i-Mac computer brand: Apple. So I thought this memo that has been circulating on the internet is quite ingenious: “Adam and Eve—the first people to not read the apple terms and conditions.”

That’s a clever pun referring to the Devil’s tempting Adam and Eve to disobey God and take a bite from the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. The temptation, though, was so much more than simply taking a bite from an apple—or whatever the fruit was. It was a temptation to be like God, knowing good and evil…in other words, to put themselves in the place of God himself and decide right and wrong for themselves. The consequences of this were serious; a matter of life and death…actually, just death…for everyone. The Apostle Paul put it this way: “…sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all humankind…” (Romans 5:12).

In today’s Gospel reading, there is also a temptation involving food. Luke tells us that Jesus returned from the Jordan after he was baptised, to be tempted by the Devil in the desert for 40 days. During that time Jesus ate nothing, and at the end of the 40 days he was hungry. Remember that Jesus is fully human, born to Joseph and Mary. He has real human cravings and needs. Imagine how difficult going without food for 40 days would have been. Then the devil comes to Jesus and strikes right at the centre of his need: “If you are the Son of God tell this stone to become bread.”

Like it was for Adam and Eve back in the Garden of Eden, how Jesus responds to this temptation is also a matter of life and death. With his tempting of Jesus, I wonder whether Satan is really questioning if Jesus is the Son of God. The Greek word for ‘if’ can also mean ‘since’—and I think that’s how ‘if’ is functioning here. Even the demons know Jesus’ identity; it is later in this chapter that Luke tells us that “demons also came out of many, crying, ‘You are the Son of God!’”

Although Satan doesn’t know all things, he does know that Jesus is the Saviour that God promised right back in the beginning in Genesis 3; the one who would bruise his heel as he crushed Satan’s head. He knows that Jesus is the Saviour of the world the whole Old Testament pointed to. This is the Messiah the prophets spoke of and the people were waiting for. What the devil is saying is: “Since you are the Son of God tell this stone to become bread.”

For Satan knew that all that stood between him and the human race being forever enslaved to his demonic power, is Jesus. Right there in the desert, with Jesus famished and physically and emotionally weak from hunger, there’s never been a better opportunity. Satan knows Jesus could turn the stones into loaves so he tempts Jesus at Jesus’ time of desperate need, to live independently of his Father’s will. If he can get Jesus to think of himself and use his power to satisfy his cravings instead of being obedient to his Heavenly Father, Jesus will be his, and the whole world will be lost and condemned forever.This is Satan’s power play for eternal world domination.

This is most clear with the second temptation in the text. The devil led Jesus up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to Jesus, “I will give you all their authority and splendour, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours” (verses 5-7). What a lie! For we hear at the close of Matthew’s Gospel Jesus say to his disciples: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

It was Satan who had bitten off more than he could chew. For Jesus is not only fully human, he shares the same divine nature of his Father and the Holy Spirit from all eternity. Where Adam and Eve failed to live by God’s word and sought their own will, Jesus, the second Adam, faithfully lives by God’s word and rebukes Satan with Scripture.

In response to the first temptation to turn the stone into bread, Jesus responds with Deuteronomy 8:3: “one does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” The context of this was God feeding his people Israel with manna as they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. They too, like Jesus, were hungry. God had freed them. But unlike Jesus they lacked faith. They complained against God by complaining against his leader, Moses. They despised the manna God sent from heaven. God was teaching them that they should trust him. There in the desert, Jesus trusted that just as his Father fed the Israelites in their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, so too his Father will provide for him in his 40^th day of hunger.

To the temptation of worshipping Satan to gain the world’s kingdoms, Jesus responds with Deuteronomy 6:13: “Fear the LORD your God and serve him only” and then from a few verses on: “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” All temptation is a temptation to live independently of God, to be masters of our own fate, to do what we feel like doing for a fleeting moment of pleasure, or to feel good about ourselves, or to cope with stresses or problems in ways that clearly contradict God’s word. When we succumb to temptations, we say “No thanks God, I’ll do it my way” We break the first commandment, to fear, love and trust God above everything else and we put God to the test. That’s a complete reversal of things for it is God who is the perfectly faithful one to test us; to refine our faith.

As much as we hate to hear it, we put God to the test and often live by bread alone, failing to fear and serve God only. We might think we do OK because we haven’t taken drugs or robbed a bank or murdered anyone. But Satan tempts us to live by bread alone in everyday, subtle ways. The Ten Commandments show us that our missing the mark of God’s standards is endless: using God’s name in vain in grumbling against him like the Israelites in the desert. Laying his word aside rather than gladly hearing and learning it, or maybe using our way of helping in the church, or our worship, as a way of trying to get God to show us more favour than he has before. To criticise rather than respect, or using our tongue to get even with those who have caused hurt, rather than to forgive them. To covet what our neighbours have and think we are not really complete unless we have it, rather than be content with what God has already blessed us with, and to work hard at gaining the approval of others instead of resting in the approval the Father gives us through faith in Christ.

There is another way the Devil tempts all of us. When we follow Adam and Eve’s footsteps and live independently of God’s word, and the Devil heaps condemnation upon us, and tempts us to disbelieve the promise of God’s word—that we are justified by faith alone and there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. The Devil tempts us to think that we need something in addition to Jesus for us to be properly reconciled to God. He tempts us to doubt God’s favour could be for us, or to think that God is punishing or cursing us for past sins when calamity comes our way. He tempts us to disbelieve that God’s love for the world could ever really be for us.

But Satan is the one without hope! What happened in our Gospel reading is part of Jesus’ total redemptive work for the world. Jesus’ overcoming temptation in the desert points ahead to the Cross, where further on in Luke’s Gospel, we again hear those mocking words and the temptation to Jesus to not carry out God’s plan: “The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, ‘He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God.” The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself“ (23:35-36).

But again Jesus thinks not of displaying his power and authority for his own sake—although completely innocent and blameless, he suffered to the end of his bloody and brutal death, and once for all overcame sin, death and the devil, so that we might live. And just when Satan thought he had Jesus where he had him, comes the glorious afterglow of the resurrection, which our Lenten season culminates with. Satan’s empire has collapsed!

Baptised into that same death and resurrection, we are united with Christ and are clothed in his own perfect righteousness as the Father’s dear child. We are freed from Satan’s power and his dominion of darkness and brought into the Kingdom of glorious light in the life of Jesus. In our baptism we have received the same Holy Spirit that Jesus did in his baptism, and our Heavenly Father continues to pour out his Spirit on us through his Son as he meets us and serves us through his life-giving word. This word brings divine nourishment for our body and soul that cannot come from bread alone.

Though we all struggle to a lesser or greater degree as Satan waits for the opportune times to tempt us, God promises to bless us through Jesus’ powerful, life-giving gospel, with grace and strength to resist temptation. Jesus himself prays for us, as the crucified risen Christ leads us in prayer to his Father: “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.”

Jesus gives us food for the journey in your times in the desert. He is the bread of life who feeds you, God’s people, with true bread from heaven. He doesn’t make stones become loaves, but when he speaks, simple wafers are at the same time his true body, and the wine his precious blood. As he gives it to you, hear him say: “This is my body, given for you. This is my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins. Believe him because then we have the fullness of what he promises: forgiveness, life and salvation; the sharing in of Jesus’ own victory for the world over sin death Satan and hell.

Satan cannot give us anything. He can only lie, deceive and bring fear. But our Father in heaven has given us a Kingdom greater than all the kingdoms of the world. For his kingdom has come to us in the Christ, the Son of God, who does not just give us an example to follow. He has given himself, for us. So when the devil knocks at the door, send Jesus to answer it—since he is the Son of God who has already won the victory over sin, death and the devil for you. Amen.