Lent 1
Preaching
PREACHING MATTHEW'S GOSPEL
A Narrative Approach
The Gospel text appointed for this week has allusions to many, many stories throughout the Bible. We will not be able to do justice to them all. The Spirit who has just alighted on Jesus in the baptismal scene now leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil for forty days and forty nights. The wilderness, of course, was the arena of temptation of Israel of old. Even the numbers match up: Israel was in the wilderness for forty years. Moses is also attested to have spent forty days and forty nights being tested by God: Deuteronomy 9:6-12, Exodus 34:27-28. The testing of Moses is a test on Mount Sinai as he receives the Ten Commandments. Elijah, too, spent forty days on a mountain, Mount Horeb, prior to God's revelation to him in a still small voice: 1 Kings 19:9-18.
Jesus' wilderness adventure narrates the first major conflict for Jesus as Matthew tells the story. Conflict will be a major theme of this Gospel. The first conflict is with the devil. The first conflict is with those powers of death that oppose the power of life. Two kingdoms, two spheres of power, engage in cosmic battle. See also 13:36-43.
On the one hand, there is the Kingdom of Heaven, which has by God's design become a present, though hidden, reality in Jesus son of God.... On the other hand, there is the kingdom of Satan (12:26). In this sphere of power Satan himself rules, and he has at his command both angels (25:41) and demons (10:8, 12:24), or unclean spirits (10:1). In both Israel and the world, Satan is at work to bring humans under his control (13:24-30, 38-39). The mark of those who serve him is that they are evil (13:49) and lawless (13:41), for they live contrary to the will of God. By withstanding the testing of Satan following his baptism, Jesus Son of God demonstrates that he is stronger than Satan.1
This first conflict, of course, is the granddaddy of all conflict in Matthew's story. Kingsbury goes on to point out that the religious leaders of Jesus' day act very much like the devil acts in this temptation story. The religious leaders also put Jesus to the test. They are portrayed as evil and as the enemies of Jesus bent on destroying him. (See 12:14; 13:25, 39; 16:1; 26:3-4.)
The temptation of the devil centers in that wondrously little and inventive word that the devil just loves: IF. "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." This temptation is a direct challenge to Jesus' baptism. God had declared to Jesus in the baptismal event, "You are my son." The devil tests Jesus just here. "If...you are the son of God." Two of the devil's three temptations come at just this point. IF! The devil challenges Jesus. Does your heart, soul, mind, and strength really belong to God? These are the words of the Shema: Deuteronomy 6:4-9. This is what is at stake in each of the devil's temptations. "Do you love God above and beyond everything else? If so, then I have a little test for you."
Jesus answers each temptation with a Scripture quotation from the verses which follow upon the Shema in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy: "...one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord" (Deuteronomy 8:3). "Do not put the Lord your God to the test" (Deuteronomy 6:16). "The Lord your God you shall fear; him you shall serve, and by his name alone you shall swear" (Deuteronomy 6:13).
Robert Smith proposes an interesting theory to explain these three temptations. Roman rule, he proposes, was marked by three realities: (1) providing bread and circuses; (2) displaying the power of their legions; (3) demanding worship of "Caesar is Lord."2
The temptation of the devil is that Jesus demonstrate that his "messianic" power equals the power of Rome.
He can produce bread. He has legions of angels at his beck and call. He, too, will worship at the world's altar of power. "IF!" says the devil. "NO!" says Jesus. Jesus won't grasp for the glory and power. He won't grasp at being like God as Eve and Adam did in the garden.
The Old Testament reading for this week tells of the devil's "if" word to our first parents. "IF you eat, you will be like God." Our ancestors in life grasped for that. Jesus did not. He "did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited [grasped]" (Philippians 2:6).
This IF word will come Jesus' way again in the Passion story. "IF you are the Son of God, come down from the cross" (Matthew 27:40). Again, Jesus said, "No!" He was obedient unto death, even death on a cross. And so the author of Colossians can proclaim that through the obedience of the Son the powers of evil are finally destroyed. "He [Jesus] disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it [the cross]" (Colossians 2:15).
This ultimate victory of Jesus over the powers of darkness and death is foreshadowed in the temptation story. Jesus can finally say, "Begone, Satan." Jesus says this same word to Peter when Peter aligns himself with those who could not understand that Jesus must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the religious leaders, and be killed and on the third day be raised (Matthew 16:13-28). Peter did not want a Messiah who would die. The devil did not want a Messiah in hiding. "Show your glory, Jesus." They did not understand that the glory of Jesus is the cross!
The temptation narrative reveals the inmost workings of the mind of Jesus. Standing as prologue to the entire ministry, this account declares that Jesus will wield speech and silence, power and weakness, action and passion with total disregard for self and in total harmony with the plain will of God.... Jesus, moved by the Holy Spirit and supported by God's holy angels, will press the attack against Satan and his evil empire, sweeping the world clean of demons (12:22-29). In and through Jesus, God touches the universe to cleanse and restore it, to make it "all right," freeing humanity from lawlessness and empowering lives of wholeness and righteousness (1:21).3
Homiletical Directions
There are far more narrative possibilities for a sermon on Matthew 4:1-11 than we have time or space to investigate. We'll put forward two possibilities and mention others. The first possibility is one that makes use of the Old Testament story for this day. Tell first the story of Eve and Adam. Their call to worship God with heart, soul, mind, and strength is what the verses appointed from Genesis 2:15-17 explicate. Satan had other ideas. "Did God say?" the devil gushes as he engages this primeval pair in theological conversation. The temptation, the test, is put simply. IF. "If you eat of it, you will be like God." The Christian community through the ages has referred to this story as a fundamental way of describing the nature of human sin. Sin is pride. Hubris. Wanting to be like God. Egocentricity. Grasping at divinity. It might be well to draw some lines from this story to our own forms of "grasping for divinity" today. Pride and egocentricity always usher in the age of fallen humanity. They are, in fact, key aspects of life in a fallen world.
Story Two will be the story of the text for the day. Tell it in all its power. Jesus, too, faced the question: IF. Jesus said, "No," where humanity says, "Yes." He is the One "who did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited."
A closing proclamation might go something like this: "I faced the temptation to play God also.
I faced the same temptation Eve and Adam faced. I faced the same temptation you face each day. I said, 'No.' I did not count equality with God a thing be grasped. I sent the devil and his empty lies packing. I have the power to send the devil packing. I have the power to enable you to send the devil and all his empty promises packing as well. I accept you just as you are. I accept you as humans. There is no need to play God.
I have come to make of you the truly human person that God created you to be." Amen.
A second narrative possibility would be to deal primarily with the role of Jesus as the One who conquers the devil, conquers the powers set against life. This would be a traditional theme to engage on the First Sunday in Lent. Some of the material we have discussed above could be included in this sermon. In this proposal we would stick to the narrative at hand. Tell each of the temptations in as much breadth and depth as you can. After each of the stories we might have Jesus proclaim: "I have pushed back the powers of darkness. I have made room for your life to be human again. I have made things 'all right' with the world."
This sermon might well move next to a reference to the book of Hebrews which talks about Jesus as the One who was tested as we are and who can, therefore, be of help to us when we are tested. See Hebrews 2:14-18 and 4:14-16. Closing reference could be made to the reality of the cross as the ultimate test of Jesus. In the dark of the noon-day night Jesus disarmed the principalities and powers of darkness: Colossians 2:15. "I have pushed back the powers of darkness. I have made room for your life to be human again. I have made things 'all right' with the world." Amen.
These narrative possibilities for preaching don't yet touch upon the typology of the wilderness as Israel's world of failure and Jesus' world of conquest. Ezekiel 20 is the clearest Old Testament description of Israel's failure in the wilderness. Jesus, of course, succeeded where Israel failed.
Nor have we touched upon the men and the mountain and the forty days typology. Moses was tested forty days on the mountain. Elijah was tested forty days on the mountain. Now Jesus is tested for forty days and nights.
Still another narrative analogy would take a look at the way the leaders of the people "tested" Jesus just as the devil did. The passages for this series of events are given in the above material.
____________
1. Jack Dean Kingsbury, Matthew As Story (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988), p. 56.
2. Robert H. Smith, Matthew: Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament (Minneapolis: Augsburg Press, 1989), p. 61.
3. Ibid., p. 67.
Jesus' wilderness adventure narrates the first major conflict for Jesus as Matthew tells the story. Conflict will be a major theme of this Gospel. The first conflict is with the devil. The first conflict is with those powers of death that oppose the power of life. Two kingdoms, two spheres of power, engage in cosmic battle. See also 13:36-43.
On the one hand, there is the Kingdom of Heaven, which has by God's design become a present, though hidden, reality in Jesus son of God.... On the other hand, there is the kingdom of Satan (12:26). In this sphere of power Satan himself rules, and he has at his command both angels (25:41) and demons (10:8, 12:24), or unclean spirits (10:1). In both Israel and the world, Satan is at work to bring humans under his control (13:24-30, 38-39). The mark of those who serve him is that they are evil (13:49) and lawless (13:41), for they live contrary to the will of God. By withstanding the testing of Satan following his baptism, Jesus Son of God demonstrates that he is stronger than Satan.1
This first conflict, of course, is the granddaddy of all conflict in Matthew's story. Kingsbury goes on to point out that the religious leaders of Jesus' day act very much like the devil acts in this temptation story. The religious leaders also put Jesus to the test. They are portrayed as evil and as the enemies of Jesus bent on destroying him. (See 12:14; 13:25, 39; 16:1; 26:3-4.)
The temptation of the devil centers in that wondrously little and inventive word that the devil just loves: IF. "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." This temptation is a direct challenge to Jesus' baptism. God had declared to Jesus in the baptismal event, "You are my son." The devil tests Jesus just here. "If...you are the son of God." Two of the devil's three temptations come at just this point. IF! The devil challenges Jesus. Does your heart, soul, mind, and strength really belong to God? These are the words of the Shema: Deuteronomy 6:4-9. This is what is at stake in each of the devil's temptations. "Do you love God above and beyond everything else? If so, then I have a little test for you."
Jesus answers each temptation with a Scripture quotation from the verses which follow upon the Shema in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy: "...one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord" (Deuteronomy 8:3). "Do not put the Lord your God to the test" (Deuteronomy 6:16). "The Lord your God you shall fear; him you shall serve, and by his name alone you shall swear" (Deuteronomy 6:13).
Robert Smith proposes an interesting theory to explain these three temptations. Roman rule, he proposes, was marked by three realities: (1) providing bread and circuses; (2) displaying the power of their legions; (3) demanding worship of "Caesar is Lord."2
The temptation of the devil is that Jesus demonstrate that his "messianic" power equals the power of Rome.
He can produce bread. He has legions of angels at his beck and call. He, too, will worship at the world's altar of power. "IF!" says the devil. "NO!" says Jesus. Jesus won't grasp for the glory and power. He won't grasp at being like God as Eve and Adam did in the garden.
The Old Testament reading for this week tells of the devil's "if" word to our first parents. "IF you eat, you will be like God." Our ancestors in life grasped for that. Jesus did not. He "did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited [grasped]" (Philippians 2:6).
This IF word will come Jesus' way again in the Passion story. "IF you are the Son of God, come down from the cross" (Matthew 27:40). Again, Jesus said, "No!" He was obedient unto death, even death on a cross. And so the author of Colossians can proclaim that through the obedience of the Son the powers of evil are finally destroyed. "He [Jesus] disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it [the cross]" (Colossians 2:15).
This ultimate victory of Jesus over the powers of darkness and death is foreshadowed in the temptation story. Jesus can finally say, "Begone, Satan." Jesus says this same word to Peter when Peter aligns himself with those who could not understand that Jesus must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the religious leaders, and be killed and on the third day be raised (Matthew 16:13-28). Peter did not want a Messiah who would die. The devil did not want a Messiah in hiding. "Show your glory, Jesus." They did not understand that the glory of Jesus is the cross!
The temptation narrative reveals the inmost workings of the mind of Jesus. Standing as prologue to the entire ministry, this account declares that Jesus will wield speech and silence, power and weakness, action and passion with total disregard for self and in total harmony with the plain will of God.... Jesus, moved by the Holy Spirit and supported by God's holy angels, will press the attack against Satan and his evil empire, sweeping the world clean of demons (12:22-29). In and through Jesus, God touches the universe to cleanse and restore it, to make it "all right," freeing humanity from lawlessness and empowering lives of wholeness and righteousness (1:21).3
Homiletical Directions
There are far more narrative possibilities for a sermon on Matthew 4:1-11 than we have time or space to investigate. We'll put forward two possibilities and mention others. The first possibility is one that makes use of the Old Testament story for this day. Tell first the story of Eve and Adam. Their call to worship God with heart, soul, mind, and strength is what the verses appointed from Genesis 2:15-17 explicate. Satan had other ideas. "Did God say?" the devil gushes as he engages this primeval pair in theological conversation. The temptation, the test, is put simply. IF. "If you eat of it, you will be like God." The Christian community through the ages has referred to this story as a fundamental way of describing the nature of human sin. Sin is pride. Hubris. Wanting to be like God. Egocentricity. Grasping at divinity. It might be well to draw some lines from this story to our own forms of "grasping for divinity" today. Pride and egocentricity always usher in the age of fallen humanity. They are, in fact, key aspects of life in a fallen world.
Story Two will be the story of the text for the day. Tell it in all its power. Jesus, too, faced the question: IF. Jesus said, "No," where humanity says, "Yes." He is the One "who did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited."
A closing proclamation might go something like this: "I faced the temptation to play God also.
I faced the same temptation Eve and Adam faced. I faced the same temptation you face each day. I said, 'No.' I did not count equality with God a thing be grasped. I sent the devil and his empty lies packing. I have the power to send the devil packing. I have the power to enable you to send the devil and all his empty promises packing as well. I accept you just as you are. I accept you as humans. There is no need to play God.
I have come to make of you the truly human person that God created you to be." Amen.
A second narrative possibility would be to deal primarily with the role of Jesus as the One who conquers the devil, conquers the powers set against life. This would be a traditional theme to engage on the First Sunday in Lent. Some of the material we have discussed above could be included in this sermon. In this proposal we would stick to the narrative at hand. Tell each of the temptations in as much breadth and depth as you can. After each of the stories we might have Jesus proclaim: "I have pushed back the powers of darkness. I have made room for your life to be human again. I have made things 'all right' with the world."
This sermon might well move next to a reference to the book of Hebrews which talks about Jesus as the One who was tested as we are and who can, therefore, be of help to us when we are tested. See Hebrews 2:14-18 and 4:14-16. Closing reference could be made to the reality of the cross as the ultimate test of Jesus. In the dark of the noon-day night Jesus disarmed the principalities and powers of darkness: Colossians 2:15. "I have pushed back the powers of darkness. I have made room for your life to be human again. I have made things 'all right' with the world." Amen.
These narrative possibilities for preaching don't yet touch upon the typology of the wilderness as Israel's world of failure and Jesus' world of conquest. Ezekiel 20 is the clearest Old Testament description of Israel's failure in the wilderness. Jesus, of course, succeeded where Israel failed.
Nor have we touched upon the men and the mountain and the forty days typology. Moses was tested forty days on the mountain. Elijah was tested forty days on the mountain. Now Jesus is tested for forty days and nights.
Still another narrative analogy would take a look at the way the leaders of the people "tested" Jesus just as the devil did. The passages for this series of events are given in the above material.
____________
1. Jack Dean Kingsbury, Matthew As Story (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988), p. 56.
2. Robert H. Smith, Matthew: Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament (Minneapolis: Augsburg Press, 1989), p. 61.
3. Ibid., p. 67.
