First Sunday of Lent: Our Victory over the Tempter

Unedited transcript follows:

My son Augie, uh, he does this. It's called faces of History as a part of his like final project for school, so he. In different periods of world history. He, like, dresses up as a character from world history, and he presents facts about their life as if he's that person.

So that's kind of the story. That's what he does so in first person. And this year, he's in the time of history that he's been waiting for for three years now. Where he gets to pick Saint Augustine, so he, uh, he gets to dress up, like Saint Augustine, and he's going to.

Be, he's, I mean, there's plenty of material for him to read to get his sources and stuff on Saint Augustine, uh, a lot better than last year. When I put in his mind that he should do Thomas kramner. And then my wife said you will get him to change his mind about this.

Or, uh, you will be looking for kid sources for Thomas gramner. So, uh so, so we did King Henry VIIII instead. Uh, so, uh, uh, so we still kept it Anglican, but, uh, but we, uh, we, we got away from Thomas kramner, um, real quick. But this year, we get plenty of sources and one of the things we're doing to prepare is I'm getting to read the confessions to him, so I'm reading.

The confessions with with Augie? And we're having a blast, and he he, uh? He shares like one of the things that's just striking about Saint Augustine is. He's so introspective, he, like, knew himself really well, and um, both knew himself before Christ, and after coming to know Christ and and really highlighted the difference between those things.

Uh, he shares a a famous story. It's probably fairly famous, you guys might. Many of you might know about it, but he talks about shaking a neighbor's tree and knock down all the pears. So that he could steal them with his friends. And he stole the pairs with his friends, and then he hardly ate any of them, he said.

Um, instead, he fed them to the pigs. And according to Augustine, what was particularly wicked about that act? Was that he was interested in sinning. For the pleasure of sin itself. Rather than the benefit he might get from the sin. He wasn't interested in the pairs he was interested in the stealing, in other words.

He said, this is what he said, uh, what I stole. I already had in abundance. And of much better quality, too. I did not steal so much as to enjoy the fruits of my crime, but rather to enjoy the theft itself and the sin. He goes on to say.

I did not love what I hoped to gain by Rebellion. It was Rebellion itself that I loved. See Augustine knew himself. He knew himself apart from Christ better than perhaps anyone? That I've ever read. When John Calvin opened his story that institutes or his book, The Institutes of the Christian religion, he said, our wisdom insofar as it ought to be deemed true and solid.

Wisdom consists almost entirely of two parts. The knowledge of God. And the knowledge of ourselves. And Augustine had part both these parts of true wisdom, and he had them in space. You know, every good thing that John Calvin said came from Augustine. So, just so you know, so? So, John Calvin said a lot of things, and not all of it was good.

But every good thing, he said, came from Augustine. So if you're going to spend your time reading somebody, don't waste your time with Calvin is everything good, he said. He just took it straight from Augustine, so just read Augustine instead. Um, but Augustine looked at this gospel reading that we read today, and he said knowledge of God and knowledge of ourselves is Central to right.

Understanding of the entire universe? If this is true? It may not seem surprising that when our Lord Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by the devil, his temptation was centered on these two questions. Who are you and who is your God? Right? Today, we're going to be looking at this temptation of Jesus, and we're going to specifically be looking at the first of the two parts.

Who are you knowledge of self? Because yes, Augustine was brutally honest about who he was apart from Christ. But we're still in the first part of the confessions when I'm reading it with Augie. Augustine also knew who he was in Christ. And he knew how that was a complete identity shift, who he was changed when he came to know our Lord.

He knew who he was once he found the love that is so longed for. Today, we're going to take a look at as our identity as people United with Christ in his baptism. And therefore, in his Victorious Temptation, we're going to see how the knowledge of who we are changes everything.

And before we do that, there's something to clarify so much. Discussion revolves around identity today. Do you realize that so much of the public discourse revolves around identity who you are? And everything from our careers to our sexual preferences are spoken of as if they are core identity questions.

Who you are? Right? When the scriptures talk about who we are? None of these things are Central to what describes who we are. Right? The scriptures teach. Two things are true about us simultaneously. On the one hand in most fundamentally, you and I were created in the image of God.

We are image bearers of God. We're made to look like him, and we're of incredible value because we're made to look like him. That's true about us. And when Adam fell, his nature was corrupted, right? That's the other thing that's true about us. And he passed on that corrupt nature to to those who would come after him.

That means, even though we're in the image of God, we're unable to take steps toward him. Unaided by Grace. If God doesn't show us Grace, we can't take a single step toward him because we inherited a fallen nature. Right? Will rebel against. God will rejoice in evil for evil's sake, just like Saint Augustine talked about.

We'll rejoice in law, breaking for law-breaking sake apart from God's grace. And yet, in Christ, we have the one who took on human nature. So that we can partake in divine nature. Christ took on Humanity so that we might participate in Divinity. In Jesus Temptation, we see a human being overcoming Temptation.

This is an example to us, but it's much more than an example to us. We are united actually with Christ in his baptism and then right, right after that in his temptation. His victory actually is. Are Victory? When he is Victorious, we were Victorious, too. We actually were. He wasn't just an example of how to get through temptation or get through our day.

He went into the Wilderness if you ever wonder why the spirit would lead him into the Wilderness to be tempted by Satan. Is, remember that it says the spirit led him into the Wilderness to be tempted by Satan. Why would the spirit do that? Don't we pray lead us not into temptation?

Every time we pray the Lord's Prayer, and here we have the spirit leading him, why is he doing that? He's leading a human being United with us into temptation in order to be victorious over Satan and to come out Victorious because his victory is our Victory. Jesus had to go take Humanity with him into temptation and emerge Victorious, not just as the one who can overcome Temptation, and we can look at him as an example.

But as the one who brings Humanity into confrontation with Satan, who held it captive. He held Humanity captive, right, and won the victory over him. Is what's happening in the Temptation? When Christians in the scriptures talk about who we are? Post fall and before the resurrection, they talk about it in two ways.

And I think it'll be helpful to look at both of these ways. And and learn about who we are in ourselves, but also who we are and who we're meant to be in our Union with Jesus. So, first, we look at who we are in ourselves. You know, we really talked about this a lot in our Ash Wednesday.

Homily, right? Like Father, Andy gave a great homily on Ash Wednesday. Um, and he talked about. By the way, Ash Wednesday was awesome. For those of you that were there, there was like, there were a ton of people here. I felt like I felt like I felt like I knew, like, maybe half the people that were in the room.

If that was, it was, it was cool. We had a bunch of University students come and hang out with us, but Um, he gave a really. He made a really important point, and he talked about when we're fasting, right, that maybe we're tempted to dismiss sinful Behavior? Because we're like, because we're uncomfortable, right?

So, when we snap at our spouse or at our children, or like, we say, well, I'm just grumpy because you know, because I'm fasting, you know, I'm like, it's not really me. It's, I'm just grumpy, because I'm fasting, right? And he reminded us rightly. That we might actually get a clearer sense of who we are when we're fasting.

When we're a little uncomfortable when things aren't, uh? Everything isn't right, and then we might actually get a clearer sense of who we are. Feeling content in our bodies can make us behave more nicely, but it doesn't always mean that we've dealt with the illnesses of our soul. Right?

We may just not notice. Those illnesses of our soul as much. When we're hungry, a spotlight can be shined on some of the things about us that need the Light of Christ. And father Andy exhorted us that we might find things about ourselves that we don't like when we're fasting.

This is all good. This is half of what the scriptures tell us about who we really are. And it was really appropriate to zoom in on that half and Ash Wednesday. Because these dark aspects of Our Lives that persist even after we're baptized, right? They're the reason that the churches said, hey, the whole church goes into Lent, not just the catechumens.

The whole church goes into Lent, right? It's because all of us need repentance. All of us need to be able to find where the parts of us that are broken. All of us need that light shined on us. More specifically, though, if we start getting into that second part of what's true about us.

That were in the image of God, and that that's meant to be restored, right? This is only who we are. In as much as we are acting apart from God. When the scriptures talk about? You and I, and who we are. They say you were created in the image of God, and you were made to be partakers of the divine nature, your true identity.

Is a son or a daughter of God? All of you who are in Christ, right? And because you and I were made to partake in the divine nature, the scriptures would say that when we sin, we actually become less of who we truly are. That we enter into, like, non-being.

We enter into walking away from what God made us to be where, when we participate in sin, we're actually turning away from who we are. That's why Paul can say things. It's the scriptures this attention so that, I hope you guys are having fun with attention because the scriptures will say, hey, like?

Like what father Andy said, don't don't look at your actions because you're hungry and say, that's not the true me. They're going to say no, like, you do everything you do, right? The real you does it, but the scriptures are also going to say Saint Paul says it was not I who sin, but the sin, who lived within me the true me, the one that God's redeeming the person that God made me to be.

The my true identity is found in the fact that I'm a son of God. With him and like him, and to be a partaker in the divine nature. And when we participate in sin? We participate in becoming less of who we are becoming less of who God made us to be.

We participate in walking away from what God made us for, right? In Christ Temptation. What we're meant to see. Is our Victory? Our Victory. And who we are truly meant to be. Who we were made to be. We were made to be Victorious because we're Sons and Daughters of God United with Christ in his baptism.

So that that Deuteronomy reading that we read. I was struck by the movement of the Declaration that the people were to make this old Covenant, by the way, but they were the the people were to make before God when they offered their offerings. He, it starts with a Wandering or aramian was my father.

He went that he went down to Egypt. There he became a nation, and then it says the Egyptians treated us harshly. We've moved to the first person plural. The Lord brought us out of Egypt, brought us into this place, right? And then it moves to. Behold, I bring the first fruit of the ground that you have given me.

First person singular. You're starting with him. And you're moving to us, then you're moving to me learning that his story. Is my story? His story is my story, and it's teaching us what the people of God are to do, ultimately, with Jesus. Our representative is that his story becomes our story through our Union with him.

This is how the people of God are going to be in all ages. When we read either the old Covenant people of God's story or the New Covenant people of God's story, the goal is ultimately. Being brought together in Union with God. That's what lends about, about enacting and bringing about our Union with God.

Becoming one with God, one with Christ, and that changes who we are. No place in scripture. Is this more explicit than we talk about the baptism and Temptation of Jesus? The passage, right before the temptation of Jesus, is his baptism, right, where he hears his identity spoken over him.

He hears who he is. Who are you, Jesus? You are my beloved Son. Do you think he didn't need to know that going into the Wilderness? What was the Temptations in the wilderness? They were all centered on his identity. If you are the Son of God. If you are the truly a Son of God?

Make the stones become bread, right? Satan is walking him through. Should a true Son of God have to deal with Hunger? Should a true Son of God? Shouldn't the true Son of God get a shortcut and not have to go through what you're going to have to walk through in your life.

You can just bow down before me. I'll give you the kingdom now. Right? Should the true Son of God face consequences for his actions? Jump off the temple Lounge, and let's see if the Angels will. Catch you like. The scriptures say you won't strike your foot against a stone, right?

All of it centered on. The true Son of God is what God Said about you at your baptism. True about you? Right? And what Jesus does is he wins the victory over Satan. He goes to battle with Satan in the wilderness, and he wins the victory, but we say he.

And then we're supposed to make the same move. A wandering airman was my father. He was there. You're with us. You're with me. Jesus because we were United with Christ. See, this is the important. This is how the scriptures make it so explicit. You know what Paul says about our baptism.

In Romans 6, you were buried with Christ. In your baptism, you were buried with Christ. In your baptism. I was buried with Christ in my baptism. His baptism is my baptism. When Jesus walks out of that water and goes and does battle with Satan in the wilderness, and he emerges Victorious.

He took me with him. He took me with him. He took you with him. You've already won victory over Satan. Ultimately. And you know, what's really cool is Satan? Quotes the psalm. He, he quotes the psalm to try to try to say that we, actually, the song that we chanted today, right, where he quotes the psalm, where he says, you won't strike your foot against a stone.

Do you know the very next verse of that Psalm? Did you notice? Satan quotes the storm. That is a prediction of how Jesus was going to win victory over him. Right. Remember, we read our Psalms crystallogically. They're all about Jesus, right? So, he, he rightly talks about how verse 12 is about Jesus.

You won't bury your foot against a stone, but look at verse 13 you shall tread upon the lion and Adder the Young Lion and the serpent. You shall trample under your feet. Satan is quoting a Psalm that's about his demise. Remember what Genesis 3 said? The Satan's going to be trampled under the foot of Jesus.

What what did we just pray when we were walking around, chanting the great litany that you will put Satan under our feet? That you will put Satan under our feet as Grace's favorite part of the great litany right. And so, yeah, it's. It's a crush Satan under our feet and what happens and Satan is a is quoting a verse about his demise and trying to use it against Jesus.

This Psalm is about how he's going to be crushed under his feet. And when, when Jesus crushed his Satan under his feet when he's victorious over the temptation? You and I were. You were already Victorious. Listen. Everything that we heard on Ash Wednesday is true about you. When you're tempted?

It's because of illnesses and urinary soul. It's true about you. It's not because you're hungry. It's because you actually have a problem sin that needs to be dealt with, but hear this as well. When you're tempted? I want to invite you. To see what's also true about you. That in Christ, you have already been Victorious over Satan that you have everything you need as a child of God to stand in the face of Temptation that the spirit of God resides in you that you were United at crisis baptism and that you have all that you need.

To be victorious, because what's truest about you? Is not only who you are today, but who you will be. You are a son of the most high God. You are a daughter of the most high God. And you were made for Glory. And you will get it because God keeps his promises.

So as we enter into temptation? During this Lent and afterward. May we do it as people that know who we are united with Christ Victorious over the evil one? Satan has been and will be crushed under our feet. And may we walk into this season as people who know that the victory has been won because Jesus overcame the tempter.

Amen.