Jesus wages war?

On Jesus' hand-to-hand combat with the devil in the wilderness

“Though every man a liar, Christ is no liar” (Martin Luther).

Though everyone lie, God is no liar.

In the first two temptations of Jesus the devil says, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread… If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up…’” Right before this text is the baptism of Jesus. When John the Baptist dunks Jesus in the Jordan, the voice of God declares, “This is my Son with whom I am well pleased.”

Do you see the relationship between these successive texts? At the baptism, God declares that Jesus is the Son of God. Immediately after, Jesus is driven out in the wilderness and the devil questions this identity: “If you are the Son of God…” Jesus’ Sonship being interrogated right after its announcement clues us in to the fact that the devil’s temptations are meant to get Jesus to doubt his vocation — to question his identity. When Peter later tells Jesus that he will “by no means” suffer and die, Jesus calls his best friend “Satan!” because he, unwittingly, offers Jesus a temptation like the devil’s! By rebuking him for going to the cross, Peter is unknowingly tempting Jesus to doubt his vocation, to question his identity. In the wilderness, the devil is a liar.

Having looked a little forward in the life of Jesus, let’s take a look backward. As I said on Christmas, the Incarnation of the Son of God is not merely a cute Nativity play for children. When the Word became flesh, the invasion of a world ruled by the powers of Sin and Death had begun — the war against the “Prince of this world” commenced. In the wilderness, we see Jesus and the devil involved in hand-to-hand combat. Much like at his birth, the fight looks different than what we’d expect. We might think the best way for God to wage war against the powers that enslave us would be to be born as an emperor’s son — that way he might have the worldly strength to change the world. But you know the story, he’s birthed to sketchy characters with little hope on the outskirts of the empire. In the wilderness, too, the combat doesn’t look like we would have it — an epic Lord of the Rings-style battle — it looks like the Serpent tempting Adam; it looks like the trial of the people of God in the wilderness.

Tertullian, a Church Father from the 2^nd century, was the first to point out that Jesus’ temptations are a recapitulation of the experience of Israel in the wilderness. Immediately after their own experience of baptism in the Red Sea waters, the people of God underwent a trial in the wilderness, but where they failed Jesus triumphed.

But don’t take Tertullian’s word for it, take a look at the temptations themselves. The first, turning stones into bread, echoes Israel’s grumbling after food in the wilderness. The second echoes the people of God putting the Lord their God to the test in the wilderness. The third, bowing to the devil, echoes the people of God bowing before the Golden Calf instead of the Lord who had delivered them from the house of bondage.

Do you see what’s happening here? The temptation of Jesus in the wilderness is an image of the Gospel. It’s not merely an interesting story. It’s not primarily a call to resist temptation like Jesus. It’s much better news than that. Jesus has done what we’ve failed to do — what the people of God of the first testament failed to do, and what you and I so often fail at each and every day. In our place and on our behalf, Jesus has waged combat with the devil, and he has won. In microcosm, this battle is a glimpse of his ultimate victory at the Cross: Satan and Jesus have waged war, but the devil was no match for him. The God-human underwent the same trials that you and I (and the people of God) have experienced and he has triumphed. And the best news is he’s won it for you and for me.

Unlike the first Adam, the second Adam resisted the serpent. Unlike the people of God of old, the new Israel was victorious in the wilderness. And because Jesus waged this war in our place and on our behalf, we, Adam, and Israel are victorious, too. Through his triumph, we have been freed from the grip of the powers of this world and have been united to him. We have been adopted as siblings of Christ, which means that the same words God declared about Jesus are proclaimed over you and me, “You are my beloved child, with you I am well pleased.”

This is why infant baptism is such a powerful image of the love of God to the undeserving. Before we could bring forth any good works — and, if we’re to follow St. Augustine, a good deal of selfishness — in that very unmerited moment, God’s “well done” is declared over us. Because of what Jesus has done on our behalf and in our place, we can lean into the promise that we are God’s beloved children and with us he is well pleased.

This story that we read every First Sunday in Lent reminds us that these 40 days are about much more than remembering our mortality and repenting of our sins. (Both good things. In fact, the good news of the Gospel includes the reality that there will be a day when we will refuse to return to the vomit of our own sins that we revisit every single day — that there will be a time when we reject the toxic tonic that, for whatever reason, we can’t seem to quit.) But much more than a call to repentance, Lent reminds us that the next time the devil tempts you to doubt your new identity, the next time he questions, “If you are a child of God…,” we can reject his cunning deceptions. Even when we, like the people of God of old, are defeated by him in battle, we can reject his lies.

You are a child of God. Do not question your identity in Christ as beloved, because the devil lost his war with Christ long ago, and there is nothing you and I can do to undo his victory or negate his love.

My friends, it’s too good to be true. Jesus has recapitulated the experience of the people of God — not just for Adam and those under Moses, but for you and me. We are children of God. And though we doubt our newfound identities in Christ, there is nothing you and I can do to undo his victory or lose his love. The promise declared over us at our baptism is indelible, “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever.” Or, in the words of Martin Luther, “though everyone be a liar,” we can lean our whole weight into the truth that “God is no liar.”

Thanks be to God.