We love to hate rich people that seem to have behaved badly, but how does Jesus feel about them. In this climactic encounter in Luke’s gospel Jesus meets Zacchaeus, a rich chief tax-collector, probably the most hated man in Jericho. How did Jesus respond to him?

Below is a You Tube video of the sermon recorded at St. Luke’s on the same day as a shorter version was preached at St. George’s and underneath that is a transcript of the sermon.

Rich People we Love to Hate

Throughout history we have loved to hate those who are both rich and have behaved in an outrageous way.

Even in the news in the last week, three prominent rich people have been roundly condemned in the mass media:

Prince Andrew widely assumed to have been mixed up in Epstein’s exploitation of young women for sexual gratification.

Roman Abramovich, the Russian billionaire and owner of Chelsea football club has been in the news, because of his ties with Putin and his oppressive regime that has invaded Ukraine.

Peter Hebelthwaite, C. E. O. of P. & O. Ferries, which abruptly sacked 800 crew in order to employ a cheaper foreign workforce was declared by a group of Scottish MSPs to be the  ‘Most hated man in Britain.’

Rich people who have done wrong become a favourite target of the mass media and social media condemnation. I guess there is that strong sense of injustice: there they are enjoying far greater material blessings than us, despite and often because of their abuse of power or oppression of others.

They are public renowned figures, that we can easily condemn from a distance and feel self-righteous in the process.

Yet, they are also personal figures, human beings like you and me. This was perhaps brought home by the queen’s insistence that her son, Prince Andrew escort her down the aisle at his father’s and her husband’s memorial service. It was a controversial act, condemned by some, yet it showed a mother’s concern for a son and desire to show solidarity and forgiveness at an emotionally sensitive moment.

So how as Christians should we think about these issues. How did Jesus respond to these issues? Luke’s gospel helps us with this. It is a gospel which shows us far more about Jesus’s attitude to wealth and money, but also about his concern for the lost.

Jesus and the Rich

In Luke, Jesus is often very critical of the rich. In chapter 6 as part of a series of blessings and woes he says:

“But woe to you who are rich,

for you have already received your comfort.” (Luke 6:24)

Parable of the Rich Fool – Luke 12:16-21

In chapter 12, someone approaches him asking him to adjudicate in a dispute about an inheritance. Jesus’ responds with a warning about being rich. He tells the story of a rich man who when he has a good crop stores up his riches to enjoy at a later date. But, God says to him, ‘You fool!’ Tonight you will die, who then is going to enjoy your riches!

Jesus’s point is that hoarding riches for yourself does you no good from the heavenly perspective.

Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus – Luke 16:19-31

Later on in chapter 16, Jesus tells another story about a rich man. The rich man dies in this story as well, along with a poor beggar called Lazarus, who used to beg at the rich man’s gates. Lazarus is brought to heaven and gets to share the delights of heaven with Abraham, whilst the rich man is left a tortured soul in hell.

When the man complains, Abraham says, that the rich man has had his time enjoying life and his riches, whilst Lazarus suffered. Now it is only right that the situation is reversed.

The Rich Ruler meets Jesus – Luke 18:18-23

Both those parables are unique to Luke, but in chapter 18, just before today’s reading, Luke tells about an event, that is also recorded in the other gospels.

A ruler comes to Jesus and asks what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus’s response is shocking and radical: “Sell all you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, then come and follow me.” (Luke 18:22)

Luke says the ruler was very rich and when he heard it he became very sad. He was not willing to give up his wealth for eternal life.

Jesus then says, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Luke 18:24-25)

Luke’s gospel makes clear that Jesus has a lot to say to challenge the rich and wealthy. Far from condoning the gathering of wealth he warns that failure to use it for God’s purposes and to care for others shows that you are outside God’s Kingdom.

Jesus and the Hated

But, Jesus also has a lot to say about those who are condemned by the people generally and labelled, ‘sinners’! Again this is a particularly strong theme in Luke’s gospel.

Levi called by Jesus

Back in chapter 5, Luke tells us about when Jesus called, Levi one of his disciples. Levi was a tax-collector.

Now, tax-collectors were generally looked down on by the Jewish people of the time. They worked for the Romans, who were seen as the enemy who had conquered their land and were oppressing their people. More than that, they took money off people to give to the Romans, often taking more than they really had to to help line their own pockets.

People had to give them the money, otherwise, Roman soldiers might come knocking!

It’s no wonder the tax-collectors were despised and hated. They were seen as those who had betrayed God’s people and so God himself. If anyone was outside the Kingdom of God, surely it was them!

Yet, Jesus called Levi, a tax-collector to become one of his followers. More than that, when Levi threw a banquet for Jesus and his friends, Jesus ended up meeting with lots more tax-collectors and sinners.

The Pharisees, the strongly moral religious group criticised Jesus for this. Wasn’t he condoning their wicked behaviour by spending time with them?

Jesus’s response was clear:

“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but those who are ill. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:31-32)

Jesus was not condoning their past behaviour, but he still wanted to help them to a place where they were part of God’s kingdom again. He wants to bring them to repentance, a turning from their past wrong ways to living God’s way.

Parable of the Lost Sheep, Coin, Son

That story is in the other gospels, but a similar situation also occurs in Luke’s gospel, where Jesus is criticised for hanging out with sinners and tax-collectors and Pharisees, this time in Luke 15.

On this occasion, Jesus responds with no less than three parables to make his point. In each parable, something is lost, then it is found and then there is a celebration because it is found. You probably know them as the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost or prodigal son.

In each case, the lost thing or person represents sinners, the one seeking represents God and being found represents a return to God’s family and God’s ways or repentance. Each time it is God who has a party when people repent.

Jesus does not disagree with the Pharisees that these people’s past behaviour was wrong, but he does challenge them to rejoice when they see people turning back to God, rather than wishing that they remain condemned.

Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector

Then finally in chapter 18, just before our reading, Jesus tells another parable. This time about a Pharisee and a Tax-collector.  The Pharisee tells God how good he is and the tax-collector pleads for God’s mercy. Jesus says it is the tax-collector who goes home right with God!

All these stories show that Jesus’s concern is not to join in societies condemnation of those who do wrong, like the self-righteous pharisees, but to seek to help those people back into God’s family and to God’s ways. When that happens it is a reason to celebrate!

Jesus and Zacchaeus

So, we come to the meeting of Jesus and Zacchaeus. Only Luke records this event, but he makes clear it happens at the climax of Jesus’s ministry. In fact it is the last event Luke records before Jesus enters Jerusalem, the place he is heading in order to be crucified.

It happens in Jericho, which is on the road to Jerusalem, the last major stop before reaching the temple-city. Jesus has clearly built up a good reputation among the people through his teaching and healing miracles and crowds from Jericho come out to see him.

Amongst the crowds is Zacchaeus. But Zacchaeus is a figure of hate in Jericho. He is also short. So the crowds become a barrier to him seeing Jesus and so he climbs up into a Sycamore tree to see Jesus.

Zacchaeus was:

But, it is not so much Zacchaeus’s height that is the issue. Verse 2 tells us two key things about him. He was a Chief Tax-Collector and he was rich. In fact, Jericho was probably a good place to be a tax-collector, because it was a wealthy town on an important trade route. So Zacchaeus was probably very wealthy!

But how was Jesus going to relate to him. Jesus had a long record of calling tax-collectors. But he also had a long record of challenging and condemning the rich and wealthy.

Jesus seeks the lost

When Jesus reaches the tree that Zacchaeus is in, he stops and looks up. He says to Zacchaeus, ‘I must come to your house today.’ Why must Jesus go to Zacchaeus’s house?

Well, verse 10 probably gives us the answer, Jesus says, he, the Son of Man, has come to seek and to save the lost. Zacchaeus may be rich and well off in human terms, but in spiritual and eternal terms he is lost. He has been living a life outside of God’s ways and God’s families. Like a lost sheep he needs to be brought back into the flock, like a lost coin he needs to be found and returned to the purse, like a lost son, he needs to return to his family. And this is what Jesus is all about!

Zacchaeus

And so Jesus visits Zacchaeus and the result is transformational!  Zacchaeus sees this as Jesus’s offer of a second chance and grabs it gleefully.

• Repents: From Greed to Generosity

Zacchaeus shows that he is repenting from his old ways. As a tax-collector his main motivation has been greed, getting as much money as possible no matter how he treated people or who he worked for.

Now, Zacchaeus shows he wants to reverse that and become someone who is generous and not greedy.

He offers to give away half of his wealth to the poor and to repay four-fold those he has cheated. Zacchaeus has come to realise that wealth is not there to be hoarded, but to be used for God’s good purposes.

• Believes: A Son of Abraham

Secondly, Jesus says that Zacchaeus is a son of Abraham.

What does he mean by that? It maybe that he is just saying to the other Jews in Jericho, look Zacchaeus is family! You should be pleased that he is now coming back into the fold.

Yet, in the Bible, Abraham is also seen as the father of all those who believe. Jesus goes on to say that ‘salvation has come to this house.’ When Jesus tells people they have been saved in the gospels, he usually links it to their faith! So, it is likely that Jesus is saying, look here is someone that has come to believe! He believes that belonging to God is far better than having loads of stuff belonging to you! That it is better to have treasure in heaven than treasure on earth! That God will welcome him back with rejoicing!

• Is Saved Today!

So, Zacchaeus repents and believes and Jesus says he is saved.

But, importantly he says, “Today, salvation has come to this house.” The word today is important. Jesus does not say, that when Zacchaeus has sorted out his finances and shown he has really changed he will be saved. He doesn’t have to achieve anything to be saved.

He doesn’t have to do anything to make up for his past sins. He is forgiven on the spot. The sins are remembered no more.

His decision to change his ways and trust in Jesus, to repent and believe means that his status is changed instantly. He is accepted by God, accepted by Jesus and his salvation is secured.

So, what are we to learn from these events?

Is Jesus seeking you?

It may be that you are here and realise that you are a bit like Zacchaeus before. Perhaps life has been all about trying to get rich without worrying about the consequences for others or using your wealth for God’s works. You’ve seen no need for God, just money.

But perhaps God is seeking you and wants to invite you back into his family. Are you ready to believe he is offering you a second chance? Are you ready to believe he can forgive you for your past greed? Are you willing to repent and move to a life of generosity rather than greed?

Will you seek God’s salvation?

What is our attitude as a church?

And if you are already a member of God’s family and part of his church, then are we still living with the priorities of Jesus. He said he came to seek and to save the lost. Is that our desire or are we slipping into the ways of the Pharisees?

Are we content to sit back and criticise bad behaviour in others from a distance? Easily joining in the condemnation of the crowd?

Or are we actively praying and seeing how we can help people to come to Jesus and be transformed like Zacchaeus?

What does Peter do when Jesus enables a massive catch of fish? Does he employ him as a new business partner? No! He falls at Jesus’ knees. Peter has realised something profound about Jesus and himself. Now his life will be transformed.

This sermon was preached at St. Luke’s and St. George’s by Rev. Paul Worledge on 20th March 2022. The video was recorded at St. Luke’s.

Eureka!

In about 250BC, a Greek mathematician called, Archimedes was having a bath. As he sat in the bath he noticed that the more of his body was in the bath, the higher the water level was in the bath. Suddenly, he realised something profound: the volume of an object will push up the same volume of water. He had discovered a way of measuring volumes!

He famously shouted, Eureka! which is Greek for I’ve found it. Apparently, he was so excited that he jumped out of the bath and ran around the streets telling everyone – even while he was still naked!

Ever since, whenever someone realises something profound, it is called a Eurkea moment. You may have had the experience yourself, you’ve spent ages trying to solve a problem, perhaps a crossword clue or some other kind of puzzle. You keep thinking about it and it as though your thoughts are blocked by a kind of damn. Then suddenly the damn breaks, the solution comes to you. What had seemed so hard to work out is suddenly obvious.

For Simon Peter, the first person that Luke’s gospel tells us decided to follow Jesus, there was a similar kind of eureka moment when it came to Jesus. Suddenly, he realised something about Jesus that was profound and important and his life was never the same again.

Of course for anyone to become a Christian they need to realise these same things about Jesus. For most people the realisation is perhaps a slower process with many small steps. What matters is not the speed or suddenness about the realisation, but the fact that the realisation happens.

So what was Peter’s Eureka moment. What did he come to realise? Well he came to realise something about Jesus, something about himself and something about his purpose in life.

Peter’s Eureka Moment about Jesus!

We need to be clear that this was not Peter’s first meeting with Jesus. In John’s gospel we are told about an earlier encounter with Jesus and even in Luke’s gospel in the previous chapter we are told that Jesus had stayed at Simon Peter’s house and even healed his mother in Law.

As chapter 4 makes clear, Peter would have already been amazed by Jesus along with everyone else. For Peter, Jesus was already someone that provoked amazement, excitement and respect.

Clearly, here was a man of God who could help people in amazing ways. His powerful teaching showed that here was someone you could come to for advice about life and knowledge of God. His authority over evil spirits showed that here was someone you could come to for help with spiritual oppression. His power to heal showed that here was someone you could come to when you were ill to be healed.

Peter along with the crowds already realised that Jesus was someone who could help you in these profound spiritual ways. That is why he was happy to let Jesus use his boat to preach from, while he and his fellow fishermen sorted out the nets after a hard night of unsuccessful fishing.

Yet, in what happened next, Peter had a eureka moment and came to see something more profound and earth shattering about Jesus.

When Jesus finished preaching, he told Peter to get into the boat and to put the nets into the deep water. Here was a preacher telling a fisherman how to fish! Peter points out to Jesus that this is a stupid idea. After all they had been fishing all night and not caught anything, why would they catch anything now?

More than that, the fishing nets were designed to be used at night, because the fish could see them in the day time. Peter knew how to fish, he knew that what Jesus was telling him to do was a waste of time. Yet, he was impressed enough by Jesus to at least play along and do what Jesus told him.

Then something amazing happened. The nets started to fill up. In fact they filled so much they were beginning to break. There were so many fish they had to call over the other boat to help them and before they knew it, both boats were so full of fish they were in danger of sinking!

Yet, although it looked like the nets were breaking and the boats sinking, what happened was that something inside Peter snapped. He had a sudden realisation of something profound about Jesus. So much so that he fell at Jesus’s knees and begged him to go away!

On the Apprentice, Alan Sugar decides each week to fire someone that he has decided he does not want to go into business with. In the end he is left with one person who will become his business partner and help him make money. A lot of people see Jesus as a potential partner to help us with some aspects of our life. That is the way the people around Peter were seeing Jesus – here is someone that can heal me, or teach me or cast out demons from me.

If Peter still saw Jesus in that way, then this miracle would have been proof to him, that Jesus was worth hiring as the ideal business partner! Just think how Peter’s fishing business would have grown if Jesus could do the same trick every week!

Yet, for Peter the master fisherman, Jesus’s authority over fishing showed him that Jesus was in charge of every aspect of life, even those aspects that Peter still thought was his expertise.

Rather than someone he might hire to help him with aspects of life. Here was the person who had the power to hire and fire from life itself! Jesus was the ultimate judge of all. It was Jesus who was in the position of Alan Sugar, not Peter!

No wonder this realisation made Peter so terrified he was begging Jesus to leave him alone.

• Have you come to realise who Jesus really is? Many people today think of Jesus as a great person to turn to for help in their life. Here is someone with words of wisdom, here is someone to call on in prayer when things are tough.

They come to church, when they think they are in a stage of life where knowing Jesus is helpful for that aspect of life, but when life moves on to the next stage, they move on from Jesus.

Yet, true discipleship, true faith recognises that Jesus is far more than a spiritual help or guide. He is not someone we choose to help us with some parts of our life, he is Lord over every part of our life. True discipleship accepts that Jesus is Lord, that God is rightfully in charge and following him is an eternal commitment not just something to do when it seems to suit us.

Peter’s Eureka Moment about Himself!

Yet, as Peter realised this about Jesus, he realised something equally profound about himself. He fell at Jesus’s knees and cried out, ‘I am a sinner!’

After the ‘I am Mark’ event a couple of weeks ago, some of us stayed behind for a question and answer session with Stefan Smart, the man who performed ‘I am Mark.’ Someone asked him how he became a Christian. For him it was a kind of eureka moment in some ways like Peter’s. His girlfriend at the time had said that she wanted to start going back to church. Stefan did not really believe in God, but provoked by his girlfriend and alone in his room one night he decided to ‘speak to the ceiling, ‘ just in case God was really there. He started telling ‘the ceiling’ about his day. But as he did so, something odd happened. Stefan started becoming aware of all the bad things he had done that day, in a way he never had before. Then he became more aware of the bad things he had done in his life up to that point. It was as he spoke to God that he became more deeply aware of his sin and brought him to tears. Not long after he became a Christian.

Peter was a Jew and would have had a strong sense of right and wrong and an understanding of sin. In fact there is nothing to suggest that he was a particularly bad person, certainly no worse than anyone else and probably from what we read in chapter 4 a respected member of the Synagogue (the Jewish church community). Later on in chapter 5, Jesus is accused of hanging out with ‘sinners’ and tax collectors by the religious authorities. There the reference is more to those who were disloyal to God’s people and working for the Romans for money and probably involved in the kind of Roman ‘partying’ lifestyle looked down on by any good Jew.

So, up to this point, Peter probably thought that he was a basically good person, who had done nothing particularly bad and was better than most. The kind of attitude that is fairly common today.

Yet, when he realises that Jesus is the ‘Lord’, the one who is judge of all, he suddenly becomes acutely aware  of his own sinfulness. When measured against others, he was good. When measured against the purity and standards of God, suddenly his wickedness became all too clear! So much so that he feels too ashamed to be in Jesus’s presence.

But, Peter has moved from one false understanding to another. From a complacency about his sinfulness to a feeling that his sinfulness means that he is unacceptable to God. This too is a common attitude today. It is equally wrong.

Jesus’s response makes this clear. He simply says to Peter: ‘Do not be afraid! From now on…’ Jesus does not deny that Peter is a sinner, neither does he accept that this means he is unacceptable to God. In fact a bit later in chapter 5 in response to the religious leaders’ criticism of him hanging out with ‘sinners’ he says:

“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:31-32)

• Peter’s eureka moment about himself and Jesus’s response show us how radical is the Christian way of thinking about ourselves. Today’s society focuses on the importance of ‘self-esteem’, which seeks to reject any negative thinking about ourselves. This is right in the sense that to focus merely on our failings is destructive. Yet, it either leads to a kind of arrogance and pride, which is equally destructive or can too easily crumble at moments of failure or rejection.

The realisation about ourselves as disciples of Jesus is profoundly different. We realise that:

Jesus does not want us to think we are acceptable,

but to know that we are accepted.

Jesus does not want us to think we are good enough,

but to know that we are loved enough.

Jesus does not want us to think we are all right,

but to know that he makes it all right.

Such an understanding guards against pride and arrogance, but also despair and discouragement.

It also enables us to grow and change into better people.

It stops us being thinking we don’t need to change, so that you just carrying on with the same old sins.

Neither does it leave us despairing about how bad we are so that we give up, because we know we are still accepted by Jesus.

Peter’s Eureka Moment about His Purpose!

So, Peter has realised that Jesus has ultimate authority and that Jesus calls sinners, of which he is one. Yet, now Peter comes to another eureka moment. This time it is about his purpose. Jesus says to him:

“Do not be afraid! From now on you will fish for people!”

I was listening to a podcast recently about ‘scaling up.’ That is how to take a successful business like a restaurant and turn it into a chain of restaurants. Often such ventures fail. Why? The issue is why the initial restaurant is successful. If it is successful because it has a fantastic chef, then when you create a chain of restaurants, they won’t all have fantastic chef’s and so they will fail. However, if the restaurant is successful, because of the menu and the ambience created, despite having a mediocre chef, then it is possible to change it into a successful chain of restaurants, because these things can be copied. So, the secret to testing whether a restaurant can be turned into a chain of restaurants is to make sure that you only employ a mediocre chef in the first place!

That is a great insight from a top 21st century economist. Jesus, however, knew this 2,000 years ago. When Jesus came to select his first disciples, he did not choose people from among the religious experts of the day. He chose a rather mediocre ordinary banned of disciples. The fact that these very mediocre people like Peter, could set up churches successfully, showed that its success was not down to the quality of the missionaries, but the quality of the message.

So, what does qualify Peter to the role that Jesus is calling him to? Not his Biblical knowledge or his academic ability, but the realisation about Jesus’s authority and that he has come to call sinners, of which Peter is one.

It is knowing these things that equips Peter to fish for people! You can’t call people to accept Jesus as Lord and saviour, unless you’ve come to realise that he is your Lord and saviour. But, knowing these things also helps us to understand why the command to fish for people or catch people for Christ is so necessary.

There are three points I think we need to grasp from Jesus’s call to Peter.

1. Firstly, this is also the call to our church today. When the church forgets that part of its essential character is to catch people for Christ, then it has lost something fundamental. As Emil Brunner says, “The church exists by mission as fire exists by burning.” Praying for and seeking to call people to be true disciples of Christ must be a fundamental priority of our church life.
2. Secondly, we should not feel that we are ill-equipped for the job or that it is only possible if we have the best leaders of preachers. Jesus called people of mediocre ability to the role precisely to show that it can be achieved by people of mediocre ability – as long as they have grasped who Jesus is and that he calls sinners like you and me!
3. Thirdly, we should not let past failures put us off. Jesus calls Peter to fish for people, having just helped him to a phenomenal catch of fish after a night of abject failure. We may look at our churches and see a recent history of steady decline. That does not mean that God will not suddenly fill the nets and boats once more. Like Peter, we may feel that going out again is a waste of time, but let us do it anyway and see if God might not surprise us!

Mission statements are common for many businesses and organisations today. In this passage, Jesus reads part of Isaiah and applies it to himself to show what his mission was.

(This is a slightly longer version of the sermon preached at St. George’s on 13th March 2022. The sermon was recorded at St. Luke’s.)

Giving in to temptation leads to disaster. It is a tragedy common to us all. Yet Jesus never gives in to temptation. How does he do it? How can we become more like him?

(This is a slightly longer version of the sermon preached at St. George’s on 6th March 2022)

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Why Resist Temptation?

Yesterday, I went to a prayer breakfast and someone came around with extra sausages. Can I tempt you to have another sausage he said!

Temptation these days is often associated with the temptation to eat too much. Lent is also associated with giving up eating or drinking things, chocolate, wine, coffee and possibly even sausages!

The danger is that our attitude to temptation becomes trivialised. For Jesus and the Bible temptation was a much bigger issue.

Chapter 4 of Luke comes immediately after a long genealogy of Jesus, which goes all the way back to Adam, who is referred to as ‘the Son of God’, because he was the first man created in God’s image. Yet, Adam’s legacy was that he gave into temptation. The one thing he was told not to do, he did when tempted by Satan and the results were catastrophic. He was kicked out of the Garden of Eden, away from the tree of life and death, suffering and pain became the lot of humankind.

The results of giving into temptation, do not mean just putting on a bit more weight, they can be incredibly destructive and catastrophic. You could argue that Ukraine is being destroyed now, because Putin gave into the temptation to prove his power by military means.

Yet, the new Son of God, Jesus Christ came and he never gave into temptation. It says in Hebrews:

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet was without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15).

It was only because Jesus did not give into temptation that he could save us. It is only as we learn to not give into temptation that we can be increasingly useful for God.

Bible: Learning from the mistakes of others…

So how can we resist temptation? Well, we can learn from Jesus’s example in this passage. In it all he does is quote from the Bible!

We might think that all Jesus is doing here is memorising a few clever quotes. But actually, what Jesus is referring to with each quote is a lesson learnt from the experiences of God’s people. In fact all the quotes are from Deuteronomy, which records Moses’s final sermon to the people, where he outlines the lessons they have learnt as they travelled through the wilderness for 40 years.

The texts are therefore totally relevant to what Jesus is doing in spending 40 days in the wilderness. Jesus is not just quoting cleverly picked proof verses, he is referencing the lessons learnt by the people of God. He is learning from their mistakes. We too need to read the Bible as a story. It is the narrative that plays a key role in training us to resist temptation.

Listen to God not your stomach!

The first temptation is to do with Jesus’s stomach. He was fasting in the wilderness and no doubt would have been very hungry. So, the devil comes along and tempts him by saying,

“If you are the Son of God tell this stone to become bread.” (Luke 5:3)

In other words the devil wants Jesus to use his divine authority to meet his natural bodily desires.

Jesus’s response is to quote from Deuteronomy 8:3. But let me give you the whole of Deuteronomy 8:3:

“He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” (Deuteronomy 8:3)

Do you see how Moses is drawing on the history of Israel travelling through the wilderness to show them the lessons God was teaching them.

Actually, God used the Manna in a very particular way to teach them the importance of listening to his word, rather than their stomach!

He gave them very specific instructions about how and when to collect the manna. When they obeyed his instructions everything went well, they collected just what they needed to live on and came to see that God would provide. When however, they were driven by their hunger and tried to circumvent the instructions their efforts were wasted!

So, God sent don’t keep the manna until the next morning. Some however, worried that they would go hungry the next morning, didn’t listen to God and kept some for the next morning. The result was that it full of maggots and smelly – completely inedible. Not listening to God meant that it had all gone wrong!

Then at the end of the week, God said that they should collect twice as much on the day before the Sabbath and keep it overnight and not collect any on the Sabbath. However, this time, when it came to the Sabbath some did go out to collect some and found that their efforts were wasted and there was no manna to collect! Once again they lost out because they listened to their stomachs rather than God’s word.

Jesus gives Satan a short pithy quote, but behind the quote is a story, which much more powerfully and memorably teaches us the lesson. We live by hearing and obeying God’s word, not ignoring it and being led by our stomachs.

• Lent is a time when people often give up eating or drinking certain things. This can be a great way to train ourselves not to be too controlled by our desire for these things.

This is perhaps increasingly important in a world, where advertising and our phones are set up to appeal to our bodily desires. Whether it be take aways, alcohol or even the way our phones are set up, we are constantly being manipulated to do and buy things through an appeal to our natural impulses.

So yes, it is good to train ourselves not to be controlled by them.

But, for us as Christians, Lent needs to be more than about freeing ourselves from false impulses. We need to also train ourselves to listen to God’s word and to obey it. That is what Jesus was seeking to do in the wilderness.

When it later came to obeying God’s will and facing the physical agony of the cross, Jesus proved that God’s word was more important than his bodily desires by his act of obedience. If Jesus hadn’t managed to do that then we would not be saved!

So what drives you? Your stomach or other bodily desire or the word of God? Perhaps this Lent you could commit not just to giving up something, but to taking up God’s word and seeking God’s help to live by it more fully.

Submit to God not others

The second temptation is that Satan offers Jesus full authority over all the kingdoms of the world – if only he would worship the devil!

Jesus’s response is to quote Deuteronomy 6:13. But let me quote you the verses leading up to it:

“When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you–a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant–then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you;” (Deuteronomy 6:10-14)

The LORD their God had defeated the Egyptians. He was about to defeat the people in the land of Canaan. Israel would owe their existence, their freedom and their occupation of the land to God, because God had shown that he was really in charge of the world. He had the ultimate power. He then was the one they should fear.

The temptation, however, faced by Israel was to look to other gods to help them. Perhaps when other nations seemed to be prospering or doing better, when they seemed to be stronger and have more powerful armies, the temptation was to start worshipping those gods instead. But that was always a mistake, because it was to forget who had the ultimate authority!

Satan’s temptation to Jesus was similar. Satan claims to have the ultimate authority in the world. There is some truth in that. The Bible often talks of Satan as being ‘Prince of this world,’ because people tend to listen to him rather than God. Yet, still the ultimate truth is that the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. Satan’s seeming rule is only a temporary aberration. One day he will be totally destroyed and defeated.

In Jesus’s ministry, he would be critical of those who seemed to have all the authority and power. This when the people in power had just had John the Baptist arrested, then beheaded for telling the authorities they should obey God! The temptation must have been strong not to stand out against the human authorities, to accept their rule as being more important than gods. Indeed, as Jesus went to the cross, it seemed that this earthly power, with Satan behind it seemed to be victorious as Jesus died a brutal and humiliating execution mocked by all around.

Yet, Jesus refused to bow to any human or Satanic authority. Rather he kept worshipping God and doing his will. The result was God proved that his kingdom was a greater kingdom by raising Jesus from the dead and seating him at his right hand! From then on repentance and faith in Jesus has been preached in all nations and he has followers everywhere.

Jesus has ultimate authority not by worshipping Satan, but by worshipping God alone.

• In our world this is an encouragement to us. When we see tyrants who seem to have absolute power wielding it in horrendous ways – Putin is the most obvious example at the moment. We can know that their power is only temporary. God has the ultimate authority.

But the question is are we willing to worship God alone or do we bow to the pressures and forces around us. Do we seek to fit in with one cultural opinion or other in our world, bowing to the prevailing views or do we constantly seek to test all views and opinions against God’s will, worshipping him alone.

Trust God don’t Test Him

In the last temptation, Satan tries to use Scripture to push Jesus into doing something wrong.

He takes Jesus to the high point of the temple and suggests that he throw himself down, because God has promised he will rescue him with angels. The quote comes from Psalm 91 that we read earlier.

Jesus’s response is to quote again from Deuteronomy.

Let me give you the full verse again:

“Do not test the LORD your God as you did at Massah.” (Deteronomy 6:16).

Once again there is a story behind all this. Israel have just come out of Egypt and gone into the wilderness. They have seen God do amazing things in sending plagues on the Egyptians, leading them through the Red Sea and destroying the pursuing Egyptian army.

Now, however, they are in the desert and there is not much water. They start complaining to Moses. They wonder what God is up to. Has he just led them out to die? Is he really with them?

Of course he is – and proves it by telling Moses to strike a rock. The result is water comes from the rock and they have plenty to drink.

The problem is that they were demanding proof that God was able and willing to support and look after them – even after all he had done.

The devil is seeking to get Jesus to want God to prove his trustworthiness to him by performing an amazing miracle. Yet, such a desire to test God in this way, shows a lack of trust in God’s care and provision.

When Jesus went to the cross, he would have to trust that God would bring him out the other side of death. That he would be resurrected. There was no way to test that before hand!

• For us too, there will be times in life, maybe especially when things are tough, when it feels like God is not there. We may start thinking God needs to prove himself to us, for us to continue. Insisting that God shows us an amazing answer to prayer.

But who are we to test God. Such an action is a failure of trust, the antithesis of faith. We need to learn to trust that God will see us through even in the most difficult and challenging of times. That he will not let us down.

Only that kind of non-testing faith will really see us through, as it saw Jesus through.

Resisting Temptation

So can you also learn to resist temptation? We need to learn the lessons from the Bible. Not just punchy memory verses, but the lessons of God’s relationship with his people. The story of the Bible.

When we do that like Jesus, we see the importance of keeping God as number one in our lives.

Learning to listen and follow his word more than our natural bodily desires.

Seeking to keep him as our worship and focus and not any ideologies, cultures or rulers of this world.

Trusting him without feeling we need to make him pass a test. Rather trusting that he is with us and will be with us even through the toughest of times.

That is what Jesus did and that is what Jesus calls us to seek to do as well, with his help.