Matthew 4:1-11
February 21, 1999
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco.
Introduction
During every stage of our lives, our actions and attitudes are curtailed by a certain number of what we might call, “necessary no’s.”
If you have toddlers at home, you might say to them:
“No, you can’t run into the street for your ball.”
“No, you can’t eat your little dessert in your TV dinner plate before you eat your peas.” Our son, Greg used to always spit out his green peas so we had to fool him by putting some peaches or pears on the tip of the spoon and the peas behind the sweet fruits. It works!
“No, you can’t touch the stove because it’s hot.”
“No, you can’t have ice cream for breakfast even though it’s like milk.”
When our children grew older, the “no’s” got a little less pervasive, but no less persuasive.
“No,” we would say to our eight year old, “you are not old enough to ride your bike into town by yourself.”
“No,” we say to our 13 year old, “you cannot stay out at the mall until it closes and then ride home with friends you might meet there.”
“No,” we said to Lauren in high school, when she and her friends wanted to spend a weekend on the New Jersey shore without any adults or parents present.
“No,” we break it to our college-bound kids, we cannot afford to buy you a car and pay for your tuition, adding to, “Get a job this summer!”
We drum these necessary no’s into our kids’ heads while we still have them at home, hoping and praying that all our lectures and lessons will miraculously sink in. If we have done our jobs successfully, we want to believe that we have implanted enough of these little “guilt bombs of no’s” so that whenever their lives are confronted with a potentially dangerous and dubious ethical situation, they will know how to behave.
For the most part, I think Joy and I have implanted enough of these “guilt bombs of no’s” in Greg and Lauren. It’s comforting to begin to see that they are sharing similar values and convictions that we have. Now when we are not at home when they call, they give us the same speech that we used to give them! Many of our “no’s” are now their “no’s” too.
Jesus for the most part didn’t say “no” in many situations. When the big rowdy crowds were pushing to get closer to Jesus and among them were also children, Jesus didn’t say “no” and sent them away. Instead, he simply hauled them up on his lap and made them the whole point of his message.
Women of all types were encroaching to learn from Jesus just like the men in those days were seeking for meaning in life. Instead of telling women like Mary to return to their assigned work—preparing meals, caring for the needs of their families and homes—Jesus encouraged the women to listen in and learn. Instead of rejecting the embarrassing and unusual attentions of women like the one who poured perfume over his head, Jesus praised her for her unhampered compassion.
Jesus couldn’t say “no” to invitations to sit down for dinner discussions and fellowship with outcasts like tax collectors, Samaritans, and prostitutes.
Saying “No” to Satan
Our scripture for this morning tells about the time after Jesus’ baptism when God said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” Jesus’ decision to obey his Father’s will need to be tested. Jesus will need to confront Satan to accomplish this task. While Jesus didn’t say “no” to his followers, he said, “No” to Satan. In the New Testament, Satan is a figure representing the power of evil, all that opposes the will of God. We should not allow ourselves to be distracted with a Halloween version of Satan, but rather Satan personifies all adversaries of God, all those who obstruct and resist what God intends for human life.
1. No to Bread Alone
Jesus’ time of testing begins with a challenge to his identity. Satan said, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” This little word, “if” is designed to create self-doubt in Jesus’ self-understanding that he is the Son of God. While Jesus was famished after fasting for 40 days and 40 nights, Satan tried to persuade Jesus to think only about himself—too small of a miracle to perform!
As Messiah, Jesus is called to a ministry of great size. Satan wanted him to forget all the needs in the world and only think about himself. As the Son of God, Jesus is called to minister to the whole of humanity—as vast as the heavens and as deep as the ocean. Satan was giving Jesus this small teacup to fill up with his miracles. Jesus said that bread or rice is important to survive, but as disciples we don’t just live for this only thing. Jesus says, “No” to Satan and said, “One does not live by bread alone.” The faithful don’t live by one word, one need, one issue, one position, one conviction, and they don’t live exclusively for themselves. They live, as Jesus reminded Satan, by “every word that comes from the mouth of the God.”
As a church community, we can fall into such a temptation when we measure the effectiveness of the church according to how quickly it responds to our personal ideas and needs, our demands to be fed. We can see this when a person doesn’t have it her way, she sabotages it for everybody. We find in this temptation that each of us becomes the only legitimate judge to what’s good or bad.
The good news about this first temptation of Jesus’ is that he remains obedient to the God who speaks many words, and not just one; who feeds the hungry in the world and not just
ourselves, or even the famished Messiah himself. Jesus is hungry, very hungry, but he will not allow Satan to restrict his diet, or ours. We are given every word of God; we can trust every promise of the gospel to nourish and sustain us. Jesus resisted the temptation to make the gospel too small; and by doing so, he embodies, for all of humanity and for every hunger in creation, the whole Word of God, which gives life.
By saying “no” to Satan to turn stones into bread just for himself, Jesus said “yes” to become the Bread of Life in the world.
2. No to Testing God
When Satan failed to tempt Jesus to change stones into loaves of bread, he cleverly tried to use Jesus’ own words to tempt him a second time. Satan said, “So, you want to quote Scripture to me to say that you trust every word that comes from the mouth of God? Well, I can quote Scriptures too. He took Jesus to Jerusalem and placed him at the highest point on top of the temple and said, “Son of God, throw yourself down and as the Scripture said, God’s angels will bear you up (Psalm 91).” “Jump off the temple and see if God’s word is trustworthy.”
Satan has a pretty good argument here. If Jesus, as the Son of God, lives by every word that comes out of God’s mouth, then why doesn’t he demonstrate that confidence by taking a deep breath, bending his knees, and jump into the arms of the angels? Surely, the bystanders below will be amazed and let out a chorus of applause.
But Jesus said to Satan that such testing of God comes not from trust, but from the lack of it. When we need to test God’s promises to see if they really work, it is a sure sign of our doubting faith. It implies that we like to be in God’s position of knowing when, how, and where God is supposed to fulfill his promises. If God doesn’t perform in just the prescribed way we planned it to happen, either God is a liar or there is no God. When we put God to the test, we dramatically reverse the relationship we have with God. We are in charge, and God is treated as our servant.
Have you ever tested God? Sometimes we may have found ourselves, saying, “God, if you do this for me, I will become more active at church.” Or, “Since you are such a great and powerful God, why do you allow bad things to happen to good people?” When we put God to a test, we actually tell more about our own lack of faith in God’s promises for the world.
There was a young man who was desperately seeking God. He sought out a wise old man who lived in a nearby apartment and posed the question: “Old man, how can I see God?” The old man who obviously knew God at a depth few of us experience, pondered the question for a very long time. At last he responded quietly: “Young man, I am not sure that I can help you—for you see, I have a very different problem. I cannot NOT see him.”
For the old man, there is no need for a test of God’s existence. God is God from the very beginning.
When we trust God with our lives, we say “no” to our human need to control everything in our way. We grow to understand that in God’s plan for the world, he has our interests in mind and we don’t have to worry about it. Jesus, the Son of God, said “no” to Satan to test God’s promises. In saying “no,” to Satan, Jesus said “yes” to his Father to lead in his life for divine purposes in the world.
3. No to the Kingdoms of the World
Satan wouldn’t take a “no” answer from Jesus. Satan must be a slow learner. So for a third time, Satan tempted Jesus by taking him high up on a mountain and said that “all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor” would be Jesus’ if he would fall down and worship him.
The easier answer for Jesus would have been “yes” to this last temptation. What an expedient opportunity to win the loyalty and allegiance of the whole world by simply worshipping Satan?
But Jesus will become Lord of all the kingdoms of the world, not by falling before Satan, but by being nailed upon a cross. Jesus’ kingship will not come swiftly, but it will be hard and messy. It will involve teaching slow-learning disciples the secrets of the kingdom. Jesus will touch the broken and diseased skin of lepers. He will face the opposition of religious leaders and make the front pages of the tabloids. Jesus will have one of his own disciples turn him in and all the rest of them act like they never saw him in their lives. It will mean that he will be arrested like any common criminal, spit upon and mocked, and finally being cruelly executed on a cross.
Satan gave Jesus a short-cut in avoiding the many miles of suffering. Why not cut out the suffering and painful parts and get right on to the victory? Just bow down and worship Satan, and Jesus could have had everything right on the spot.
As Christians today, we often seek for some easier and quicker way to travel life’s journey than the way of the cross. We all know what’s expected. What may be the minimum requirements. Whether it may be:
*good personal living
*attending church regularly
*giving and pledging weekly
*doing our jobs well
*and even praying and fasting one day during Lent
We would do anything that might substitute for the costly way of the cross. When we seek short-cuts to being Christian, Satan is smiling.
Whenever we bow down to that which is not God—to our family, or social standing, or personal success, or self-righteousness—hoping that this will fill our hearts, we succumb to this temptation. Whenever we attempt to soften the cost of discipleship and pretend that the work of Christ does not involve suffering, then we have fallen into this temptation.
Our Lord said a third resounding “no” to Satan and told him to go away. By saying “no” to bypassing the painful way to the cross, Jesus said “yes” to Calvary and showed us the road we must also travel.
Yes to Being Jesus’ Disciples
We live in a time that is often hard to say, “no.” We want everyone to be happy and included. We are always seeking for those “win/win” situations and avoiding “win/lose” ones. Wouldn’t it be grand to be able to always say “yes” to every question that is asked of us? We will no doubt become very popular. Joy would say that when it comes to Lauren, as her Daddy, I don’t know how to say, “no.” For me to instill responsibility in Lauren, I cannot afford to always say, “yes.” I need to also say some “necessary no’s” to her.
There are times when we need to say the “necessary no’s” in life. Jesus was able to say, “no” to Satan because he believed in God the Father for his life. Jesus denied satisfying his own hunger so that he can be the Bread of Life in the world. Jesus trusted God for his life’s directions and didn’t need to test whether God really exists. Jesus wouldn’t take the easy way out to become the ruler of all the kingdoms in the world, but chose the suffering and painful way of the cross. Jesus gave Satan “necessary no’s” so that he is obedient to God’s plan for forgiveness of our sins and redemption in the world.
How can we say “no” to the powers and principalities of this world? By saying “yes” to the ultimate power and authority of God. In fact, we can’t say the “necessary no’s” to life’s temptations without first affirming the “yes” in our lives that Jesus Christ is our Lord.
Jesus said “no” to Satan because he had already said “yes” to his Father. Jesus said, “no” to the words from Satan because he said “yes” to the authority of the Scriptures. When you ad I are ready to say “yes” to Jesus, then we are able to say the “necessary no’s” to all those worldly temptations that surely come our way.
When I was in college, it was during the Vietnam War. After praying and sharing about my beliefs about the purpose of war and what war did, I said, “No” to the military draft. I became a conscientious objector. Because I said, “Yes” to Christ that all persons are God’s children, I was able to say “No” to war and killings. My Christian faith on the preciousness of all life had shaped my beliefs that regardless of how horrible the enemies of the United States are, they are still and have always been God’s children.
Saying Necessary No’s
You say to your child, no, you cannot play in the street. That necessary no is only possible because you, as a loving parent, have already said yes to your commitment to safeguard the health of your child.
You say no to drugs because you have said yes to clean living.
You say no to revenge and capital punishment because you have said yes to forgiveness.
You say no to temptation because you have said yes to self-control.
You say no to racism because you have said yes to love.
You say no to exclusiveness and discrimination because you have said yes to God’s love for all his people with no exceptions.
I have said no to Lauren and Greg because I have said yes to being the most loving and caring father I can be.
We have said no to the need to judge each other’s faithfulness because we have said yes to Christ that we are all sinners in the eyes of God in need of his constant forgiveness and grace.
We have said no to abandoning our Chinatown mission with sisters and brothers from Asia who come everyday to America in search for a new life because we have said yes to God that we will preach the good news of Jesus Christ in San Francisco, California, and to the ends of the earth.
We have said no to life’s rewards because we have said yes to “Worship the Lord our God, and serve only him.” Amen.
Let us pray.
Dear Precious and Loving God, we pray that you are the ultimate authority in our lives so that we can say no to life’s rewards and say yes to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Continue to bless us with your everlasting love. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.