February 21, 2015

What a Savior!

1st Sunday in Lent, 2/22/15
Mark 1:12-15


What a Savior!
I. Defeating the Tempter
II. Rescuing the tempted


Some people just fall into greatness. For instance, who among us ever heard of Chesley Sullenberger, a.k.a.”Sully,” before January 15, 2009? But now his name likely rings a bell. He’s the US Airways pilot who made an unpowered landing on the Hudson River with a jet full of passengers. All 155 occupants, the passengers and crew, successfully evacuated from the partially submerged airframe as it sunk into the icy river. All were rescued by nearby watercraft. Not a single life was lost. Several occupants suffered injuries, a few of them serious, but only one required hospitalization overnight. What could so easily have ended in tragedy came to be known as the “Miracle on the Hudson” and Captain Sullenberger became an instant hero. He literally fell into greatness.

While it’s true that Jesus is the Son of God who came down from heaven, it’s not true that he simply fell into greatness and is now the one who has had a greater impact on the lives of human beings than anyone else. Whoever occupies second place on that list, he or she is light years behind him. Although there are plenty of people who will challenge his greatness, every one of them is eternally foolish. The day will come when they, too, will bow the knee before him, not in love and joy, but in fear and despair.

That greatness was on display in today’s Gospel reading from Mark. Did you catch it? Maybe not. This reading is one of the shortest of all the gospel readings we use. Four short verses. Just 66 English words in this translation. Only one word more with more than two syllables. What’s more, Mark’s account reads more like a police report than a description of greatness. It’s almost mundane. No exclamation points. Not even a description of a flashy miracle to impress us.

But don’t miss his divine greatness! This 1st Sunday in Lent is a victory celebration. And since it’s your Savior’s victory, it’s your victory by faith in him. What a Savior! What a Savior! May this word of our God fill you with astounding amazement and heartfelt joy.

Part I.

It was big national news about a month ago, now you only hear about it once or twice a week. I’m speaking about the measles outbreak. Years ago contracting measles was unheard of because the overwhelming majority of people in our country had been properly immunized. Not anymore. It seems likely that someone who was infected with the measles virus visited Disneyland in CA. That’s all it took. Just one infected person.

In the event described in today’s text—the temptation of Jesus—Satan knew it would only take one. We’re not talking this time about one infected person. We’re talking about one successful attempt at tempting Jesus to sin. When I say everything was on the line, I’m not exaggerating. If Satan could get Jesus to slip into sin just once, every human being would belong to him forever. The stakes were eternally high.

With that being the case, does it startle you to read that the “Spirit sent him out into the desert”? Shouldn’t the Holy Spirit have been preventing him from going? In fact, the Greek verb here literally means that the Holy Spirit cast him out or drove him out. What’s going on here? Don’t think that the Holy Spirit forced Jesus into the desert against his will. The exact opposite is true. Jesus knew that it was his Father’s will for him to strive against temptation for these 40 days. He wanted to go and battle Satan. And so did the Holy Spirit. He was behind Jesus the whole way.

In typical fashion, Mark simply states, “and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan.” Mark doesn’t describe a single one of the temptations. But the way he writes indicates that the 40 days were days of continuous temptations. And all the while, as other gospel writers inform us, Jesus ate nothing during those 40 days. He relied completely on his heavenly Father to sustain him.

We are aware, however, what the last three temptations were, again from the other gospel writers. The first was the temptation to use his almighty power to turn stones into bread. Since Jesus had eaten nothing for 40 days, the temptation must have been extremely compelling, but Jesus resisted. The next temptation was to jump off the highest point of the Temple and to trust his Father to send the angels to catch him. It was a temptation to falsely trust his Father. Jesus successfully resisted that temptation as well. The third was to bow down to Satan in exchange for all the kingdoms of the world. It was a temptation to seek glory without going through the soul-wrenching agony of the cross. Jesus resisted that temptation, too.

And do you recall what he used to defeat Satan in every one of these enticing temptations? The word of God, a.k.a. the double-edged sword of the Spirit. Jesus used the very same words that our gracious God has given us to defeat our greatest enemy, the one who wants to murder us forever. What we have before us this morning is the Victor, the One who always overcame Satan because we can’t and don’t overcome him. We listen to our enemy, we place ourselves under his influence, and we fall. But not Jesus! What a Savior, defeating the Tempter!

It sounds fairly simple, doesn’t it? Just recite a passage from Scripture and Satan crawls back under a rock. Right? Your life and mine as sinners are ample proof it’s not so simple. Why not? Two reasons. On the one hand, we have moments when we think we’re far stronger than we really are. It sounds like this, “I can handle this. I can disregard what God says in his word. I know what I’m doing. Let’s go, Satan.” And Satan crushes us. We’re no match for him—not without the word of God. At the other extreme we simply give in. We convince ourselves that God is wrong and Satan is right. What Satan is telling us is better for us right now than what God tells us. We’re putty in Satan’s dirty hands. But not our Savior! See him battle with Satan right here and win every time. And the amazing thing is that he did it not to amass an impressive record of victories over Satan for himself, but for you. Where we so easily fall prey to Satan, Jesus never did. Now his perfect winning record is your winning record by faith in him. Every time Satan wants to pummel you with being the loser that you are, remind him and yourself that you are a winner through Christ. What a Savior, defeating the Tempter!

Part II.

Obviously I don’t experience the immediate aftermath of World War II, but I did experience the aftermath of the Vietnam War. It was almost as if the war wasn’t over. Now the struggle was to locate and bring home every last man who was missing in action or a prisoner of war. There were prisoner exchanges and top level investigations. Excursions were made in an attempt to rescue whomever was left.

Mark ends his account of Jesus’ temptation with the words, “And angels attended him.” But there were still spiritual POWs and MIAs that needed to be rescued. Once again, Jesus wielded the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Mark writes, “Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.” Do you recognize that term, “the good news of God”? That’s not simply the news that our God is kind and loving, wise and powerful, that he preserves and protects us. The good news of God is the gospel, the good news of a Savior. It isn’t enough that Jesus sent Satan packing. God’s creatures who had been made in his image but who lost that image due to Satan’s deadly deceptions, needed to be saved, rescued, brought back home to God. And so Jesus preached the good news that he was that Savior.

He wanted to be sure that his hearers recognized the urgency. Jesus wasn’t offering them an option that might come around again later. Jesus declared, “The time has come. The kingdom of God is near.” He was speaking to people who were still in the deadly clutches of Satan’s kingdom and he wanted them to realize that he was offering citizenship in God’s kingdom—eternal bliss and glory.

The way into that kingdom is a two-fold process. Jesus stated it as succinctly as possible. “Repent and believe the good news.” The first is accomplished by the law of God which crushes sinners. It’s God’s holy mirror which reveals even every sinful thought, desire and attitude. It rightly declares how deserving of hell we are.

But then the good news. It’s the gospel. We have a Savior who suffered the punishment our sins deserve. He suffered hell in our place. The Holy Spirit uses that good news to bring us to faith in Jesus. The Father planned our rescue. The Son accomplished our rescue. And the Holy Spirit brings the rescue to us through faith in Jesus. But it’s all due to the work of Jesus.

What a Savior, rescuing the tempted!

A few weeks ago the world observed the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Jews from the death camp named Auschwitz. Survivors recalled the horrors of the torture and the grief of losing multiple family members. We shudder as we hear and see the details.

As horrific as that was, there’s a far worse death camp and we’ve all been there. It’s called Satan’s kingdom and it’s our kingdom of origin. So often we fail to recall it. And so often we fail to appreciate this amazing truth: we were heading for eternal separation from our God, but Jesus rescued us! He bought us back with his holy precious blood and his innocent sufferings and death. We’re now members of his kingdom by faith in him. We’re now eternal victors with him. What a Savior! What a Savior! Amen.