A Sermon on Matthew 4:1-11.

I said on Ash Wednesday that the problem that ensnares the world today is the same problem that has plagued humanity since the beginning, namely, our rebellion against God. Part of going through Ash Wednesday and going through the season of Lent is to remind ourselves that even though we are the people of God, we are not excluded from this human predicament of sin. We have to come to God and repent, holding up our brokenness and weakness to him as an offering, so that we can be the people he created us to be and so that we can go out into the world to do the work of his kingdom as his broken-but-healed, weak-but-strong people. And I also said that our repentance takes place as part of a story that starts in the Garden, makes its way through Abram and his offspring, climaxes in the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus of Nazareth, and then continues in the Church. It is that same story that is on display in our readings this morning. 

God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden to be his image-bearers, the vice-regents of his creation. Their task was to rule over creation, to govern it wisely, and to expand the Garden over the face of the earth. But Adam and Eve failed to listen to the Word of God. God commanded them not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the serpent twisted what God had commanded, deceived Eve, she and Adam ate, and ever since the world has been subjected to futility–ever since all created things have been under the curse. 

And then God called Abram and promised him that he would bless the entire world through Abram and his offspring, that he would take all that had gone wrong and make it right. The story weaves its way from Abram through the Patriarchs and Joseph until it comes to Moses, who stands before Pharoah and says that the God of heaven and earth has commanded, “Let my people go.” God’s solution to the problem of sin is Israel-shaped. Redemption is to come through Israel, and so he frees his people from slavery in Egypt, baptizes them in the Red Sea, and brings them to Sinai, like Adam and Eve in the Garden, to give them his commandments and to tell them how to live as his people. 

God’s solution to the problem that plagues creation is Israel-shaped, but even as God is on Sinai giving his Law to his people, Israel is following in the footsteps of Adam and Eve. They are rebelling against their creator and worshipping a golden calf at the foot of the mountain, and herein lies the fundamental problem that permeates the Old Testament. God’s solution to the problem that plagues creation is Israel-shaped, but Israel itself is part of the problem. They are just like Adam and Eve. They don’t listen to or obey the Word of God, and this rebellion, which manifests itself at Sinai, flows through the Old Testament from Exodus to Malachi. And so the question remains at the close of the Hebrew Bible: How can God use an Israel-shaped solution to the problem of sin when Israel itself has become part of the problem?

In answer to this question, God steps into the story of human history, unites himself to humanity in general but to Abraham’s offspring in particular, and will be faithful where Israel was faithless. So, when Jesus is led by the Spirit back out into the wilderness, this is not merely an exciting tale where Jesus is tempted by Satan. When Jesus encounters Satan, the whole Gospel is at stake, and the entire narrative of our redemption is at risk. Will Jesus be faithful where Israel was faithless? Will Jesus be faithful where Adam was faithless? And the answer to both questions is a resounding yes. Of course, those questions won’t be answered fulled until the cross where Jesus was obedient to the point of death. But here in the wilderness, as Satan comes and twists Scripture, Jesus succeeds where Israel and Adam failed.

Adam’s sin brought sin and death into the world. Israel’s sin put God’s plan of redemption in jeopardy.