First Sunday in Lent – Year C
Sermon Notes from the Church’s Ministry Among Jewish People
RCL Readings – Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16; Romans 10:8b-13; Luke 4:1-13
ACNA Readings – Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Psalm 91; Romans 10:4-13; Luke 4:1-13
Seasonal Introduction. The earliest recorded reference to the practice of Lent, initiated by the fast of Ash Wednesday, came on the heels of the Council of Nicea, in about 325 AD. However, fasting prior to Easter was already established and practiced in the 1st and 2nd centuries. Jesus does not say “If you fast” but “when you fast” just as He said “when you pray”. There is an assumption that a disciple will humble themself and turn to God. At Gethsemane, Jesus told Simon Peter to “watch and pray that you might not enter into temptation.”
From the beginning of Jesus’ journey to the cross He fasted and prayed. Jesus continued to pray, not only for Himself but for His disciples and even us. If we are called to journey to the cross then we too should follow in our Master’s pattern as we turn to God. We must be ready to die with Him. However, that which dies perishable will rise imperishable as we will be raised to life with our master.
Common Theme. In times of trial and in times of temptation we must diminish ourselves and bow before the God who gave us food and breath. “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.”
Hebraic Context. “A text out of context is a pretext for a prooftext” has become a common saying to describe a misuse of Scripture. Put more simply, words taken out of context often lead the reader to false or inappropriate conclusions. For instance, “I can do all things” and “Where two or three are gathered together” are taken out of their immediate context almost every week at many churches around the world. I’ve never heard “where two or three are gathered together” used in its immediate context except in a straight exegetical teaching of Matthew 18:15-16—which was promptly forgotten within the hour, when it was once more taken out of context.
Satan used Scripture on several occasions to twist the truth. For instance, when tempting Jesus, Satan quoted from Psalm 91, “He will command his angels concerning you to guard you, on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.” Because Satan quoted a single line from a text in order to tempt Jesus, it can be assumed that he must have been taking the passage out of context and that doing so will lead to bad theology. But Satan only did so after Jesus twice quoted Scripture. Jesus’ first quotation from Deuteronomy 8:3 makes it seem like the context should be about not eating. And yet, Deuteronomy 8:3 is very much about eating manna by the miraculous provision of God. Meanwhile, Satan quoting from Psalm 91 seems like it could, potentially, be in context. Why was Jesus correct and Satan wrong in their use of Scripture?
We sometimes forget that the Scriptures aren’t composed in quick, inspiring soundbites but are part of a larger narrative and story—the Bible wasn’t even divided into chapters and verses in the time of Jesus. And yet, many Scriptures would be committed to memory and scholars (and families) would often recognize the beginning of a phrase or discourse without the whole thing being read. If I stood up in church and said, “For God so loved the world” most people would know the rest of the verse (although, unfortunately, fewer would know the context). In the 1st Century the Bible wasn’t owned by every family. Most people would never read the Scriptures themselves, instead the scrolls would be read aloud in public where everyone could hear the spoken word of God.
This communal study was the very safeguard against misinterpretation. Jewish sages would cite a single verse as a “prooftext” not to strip it of its meaning but to evoke the broader themes and doctrines woven throughout the Scriptures. Consider how, in 1 Corinthians 9, Paul quotes Deuteronomy 25:4—a passage originally concerned with animal husbandry—to suggest a principle of fair compensation for ministry. Similarly, while the author of Hebrews and even Matthew draw upon isolated verses of the Psalms to proclaim theological truths, their intent was always to summon to mind the full narrative of God’s promise and provision.
The temptation narrative in Luke further illustrates this principle. When Satan quotes from Psalm 91—“He will command his angels concerning you”—he deliberately severs the verse from its fuller context. Yet Jesus, who had earlier drawn from Deuteronomy 8:3 to highlight God’s miraculous provision of manna, responds not with a contest of isolated words but by embodying the dependence on God that those words were meant to evoke. His example reveals that true understanding comes from appreciating Scripture as a unified testament—a reminder that just as the Israelites remembered God’s daily provision in the wilderness, we too must lean on God today.
Additionally, no Scripture can be antithetical to another. Satan, having just tempted Jesus twice and been rebuked by a single verse (or passage) of Scripture twice, used the Scripture to tempt Jesus once more. Jesus pointed out the flaw in Satan’s use of Scripture by quoting from Deuteronomy 6:16, whose context was making God jealous through idolatry. This context clearly didn’t directly rebuke Satan’s use of Scripture. Instead it rebuked the original intent of Satan (to go after another god, namely Satan himself) by connecting to Jesus’ second response against Satan when Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy 6:13, (which perfectly fit the context to rebuke Satan.)
Deuteronomy 26:1-11. Deuteronomy is one long sermon given by Moses to the people of Israel before they enter the promised land (without him). As one ought when teaching, Moses returns to the same subject several times to cement an idea in the ears and minds of his listeners. Deuteronomy 26 echoes Deuteronomy 6-11 and 12, along with Genesis, Exodus, and even Leviticus. God is about to bring Israel into a land flowing with milk and honey. It is not their land: they weren’t the ones who built the houses and they weren’t the ones who planted the crops. But God is giving it to them as an inheritance.
In response, they are to stay humble and give back to God the first fruits of their harvest. And so the context of Deuteronomy 8, which Jesus quotes only half a sentence from, is that, when the people dwell in the inheritance God gave them, “Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments and His rules and His statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten are are full…then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God.” In Biblical tradition, events of the past are remembered as if they had occurred with each successive generation. This land that provided crops was not planted by them and the houses they lived in were built by others—others who had been vomited out of the land because of their own iniquity.
Deuteronomy 26:5 is quoted at every Passover, “A wandering Aramean was my father…then we cried to the LORD, the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice.” Moses commanded the Israelites to make this statement when they presented their firstfruit offerings. While Pesach (Passover) is about God’s salvation by bringing Israel out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, it also is a spring festival. Simply by sitting in a specific calendar date, Pesach was always celebrated around the time of the barley harvest—the firstfruit of grain—which is another kind of salvation God provides year-by-year.
We live by the provision of God, for He is gracious and constantly giving to us. God is a God of life, and that life is abundant. And if God is a God who gives, it is only right that we give back to Him and worship Him. In giving back to God there should be an incredible moment (and lifetime) of thanksgiving and rejoicing over all that He has given us and, through us, others. For our gifts, like the first fruits which were given to the Levites and priests to eat or the hospitality of inviting the homeless into our home as with the stranger, come from God to begin with.
Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16. In the opening verse, God is addressed in archaic, or even foreign, language. The terms עֶלְיוֹן (elyôn) and שַׁדַּי (šhaday) are largely used in two places. Job, well known for its archaic language, commonly uses the term Shaddai. It is also used in the time of the patriarchs and as late as Naomi, in the book of Ruth. This is particularly interesting as the term Shaddai (Shaddayin) was used to speak of the gods in a manuscript dated to the 9th-8th centuries in trans-Jordan. Some scholars also place the events of Job in trans-Jordan. If David is the author, as the Septuagint suggests, he would have been familiar with the archaic use from his great-great grandmother. He uses the term in Psalm 68:14 as well.
Elyon, עֶלְיוֹן, is also unusual in that it was largely used in the story of Melchizedek, a priest of El Elyon, and the Psalms. This has led some scholars to assume that both these terms were for Canaanite gods. However, in Genesis, it was God Himself who proclaimed that He was El Shaddai. He wasn’t a god of the canaanites but the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Psalm 91:1 uses it to declare the protective nature of God, which is appropriate as שד (shad, breast) is connected to a mother’s comforting and feeding of young children.
The first thing the psalmist does is connect doctrine with action. The author goes back in time to his distant forefathers and great-great-grandmother and brings the same God who was with them into his own world as he immediately, and poetically, connects it to two more familiar names of God in Psalm 91:2 in traditional Hebraic poetry. The opening double lines of poetry convey the rest we can find in this eternal, but present God but then the author declares that he personally will trust in God.
Those that decide to call out will find themselves under the care and protection of the Living God. This does not mean that those who have faith in God will never encounter troubles. The psalmist describes various disasters and destructions that could occur at any time. Being a believer in Jesus does not provide automatic divine protection against all harm and danger whether physical, spiritual, or emotional. As history attests, myriads of faithful followers of Jesus have fallen victim to plagues, disasters, wars, and persecutions. The psalm describes the confidence that the believer can have through all of the dangers and challenges there are in the world. Faith in Jesus does not spare you from the time of trouble, rather faith helps you get through such times.
Satan quoted Psalm 91:11-12 when he was tempting Jesus in the wilderness (and the temple). Surely it would have been an amazing sight to see angels come down and rescue Jesus had he stepped off the Temple Mount and a testimony to the many who beheld it. But Jesus responded to Satan by going back to the intent of Psalm, which was dependence on God when trials do come. The psalm does not encourage us to put ourselves in harm's way unnecessarily, looking for angelic intervention. The Psalm encourages us to know that there is safety and security of our relationship with God even through difficulties.
Romans 10:8b-13. “The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.” Paul turns to Deuteronomy 30 where loving God is directly connected to obedience. “If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in His ways, and by keeping His commandments and His statutes and His rules…” It is impossible to love God without being obedient and it is impossible to be obedient without loving Him.
Many Jewish scholars in the 2nd Temple period understood the same thing that Jesus spoke regarding the mouth and the heart, “Out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” Megillah 16b.3, in the Talmud, makes the same connection and here Paul will speak of both confessing and belief coming from the heart and the mouth.
As Moses points out, loving God with all your heart, soul, and might is “not too hard for you, neither is it far off.” The Messiah is the natural conclusion of the Law, for Jesus is Lord—Jesus is God. The same Lord who can bestow His riches on all who call on Him. The same Lord who saves. If He is God, then we ought to love Him with all our heart, soul, and might (and walk in His way). This is the Torah and the Prophets.
And the Torah and the Prophets never exclude someone who believes in God based on ethnicity. From the beginning, Gentiles who turned to God (from the many Egyptians who joined Israel in the Exodus to Rahab and Ruth to Ebed-Melech) were saved and given great riches as they joined with Israel in worship. Isaiah 56:3 is a command from God “Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, ‘The LORD will surely separate me from His people.’” Truly, “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Luke 4:1-13. After Jesus is baptized by John, God declares that Jesus is His beloved Son. But before Jesus enters into his ministry at thirty, the Holy Spirit leads Him into the wilderness. While God is present anywhere, certain things still happen in certain places. For instance, God often meets people on a mountain. Holy men of faith and even Jesus, the son of God, go up on a mountain to pray. But another place that God brought His heroes was to the wilderness.
The wilderness is dangerous. It is a place of scarcity and dependence. It is also, traditionally, a place of the devil. On Yom Kippur, when the scapegoat was sent out into the wilderness, it was sent to Azazel. Demons were said to be bound by God in the desert and the wild animals, spoken of in Mark, were often associated with demons. And yet God spoke to His people in these dangerous places. As they were humbled in their scarcity and dependence He met with them.
But Luke does point out the devil is also there, opposing Jesus. We know very little about Jesus’ childhood, but it is after God makes the declaration about Jesus that Satan comes to oppose Him—the devil and his angels are not omniscient but they do quickly learn who Jesus is, as recorded in the gospels. Satan would surely have seen Jesus on the thrones, spoken of in Daniel, when he came to present himself before the LORD. But now, the God of the universe was a little lower than the angels. He had become a man. And so Satan, who wanted to be equal or greater than God, comes to this man and tempts Him.
The first temptation is pretty innocuous. Turn these stones into bread. We know the traditional blessing said before meals, “Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.” God is the one who brings forth bread from the earth—bread even from stones. Jesus will later say this blessing before using a few loaves of bread to feed thousands of people (twice). Jesus was hungry and it would not have been sinful to turn the stones into bread nor to eat the bread. But Jesus was taken into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit where He was fasting for a reason.
Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 8:3, which, in context, is precisely about being given manna to eat because the people were hungry. The hunger that the Israelites felt was “that He might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.” This hunger was about becoming dependent on God. Without the things that He provides we would always go hungry. In Genesis 1, God spoke and the world came into existence. Being found as a man, Jesus humbled Himself and followed the leading of the Holy Spirit into the wilderness where He fasted, despite His human, physical hunger. Rather than looking after Himself, Jesus remained dependent on the Holy Spirit and the Father.
We are often tempted to take care of ourselves first, “I need to pay rent, therefore I can’t help you.” “I can’t take my time from my day to serve, I have to take care of number one—me.” There is a king on the throne and, ultimately, we are completely dependent on Him and He should also be our first priority. And God did provide enough bread (manna) for the Israelites each and every day for forty years without fail.
Satan, the father of lies, proceeds to tempt Jesus with a lie. He said that all authority and glory of the kingdoms of the world had been delivered to him. Yes, there is a king, but that king is me—worship me and I’ll give you authority. Jesus spoke of Satan as being a “ruler of this world” three times in John 12:31, 14:30, and 16:11. Paul spoke of the “god of this world” blinding the minds of unbelievers. Satan has a certain amount of power, but nowhere in Scripture does it state that authority was given to Satan. We should remember that not every word spoken in Scripture is truth that we should live by. Here, it accurately records a lie of Satan.
What is also recorded in Scripture is that “And to [the Son of Man] was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and His kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.” Jesus could respond in many different ways. He could quote Daniel 7 and lift Himself up. Instead, He goes back to Deuteronomy 6 and the way that leads to life, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.”
To serve, in Hebrew is תעבד (t’avod, serve him; λατρευσεις in Greek) which is a form of worship. However, Deuteronomy 6:13 doesn’t include προσκυνησεις (proskyneseis, worship) as Jesus does in Luke 4:8. Instead, Jesus does something quite common in the 1st century, he combines two different scriptures to double down on the point He wished to make. Προσκυνησεις (worship) is only used in five places in the Greek translation of the Scriptures: Exodus 20:5 and Deuteronomy 5:9, “You shall not bow down to [carved images] or serve them”; Exodus 23:24, “You shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them”; and Psalm 81:9, “There shall be no strange god among you; you shall not bow down to a foreign god.” The final time προσκυνησεις (worship) is used is in our Deuteronomy reading, “‘And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O LORD, have given me.’ And you shall set it down before the LORD your God and worship before the LORD your God.”
There is a king on the throne and, while Jesus could have claimed that He too sat on a throne by quoting Daniel 7:9, 13-14, Satan is no king or god to bow down to. In fact, there is only one we are called to serve and worship by loving Him with all our hearts, soul, and strength.
Finally, the devil tempted Jesus by quoting actual Scripture from Psalm 91. “He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” Jesus, later will turn to those arresting Him and declare, “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and He will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” How ridiculous that only moments earlier, the devil had been the one to claim to have authority. And how ironic that Satan chose Psalm 91:11-12 when the very next verse states, “You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.” Satan is both called a roaring lion and a serpent. A serpent whose head will be bruised by the offspring of Eve.
Jesus could easily respond by proving Himself as the one with all authority to Satan and those in Jerusalem by having the legions of heaven come to His aid (not that the one who walked on water and ascended into heaven would have needed it). He also could easily attack Satan by quoting the remainder of Psalm 91. Instead, as He had done with both of the previous temptations, Jesus humbles Himself before God.
Satan, seeing no more opportunity, leaves Jesus. Interestingly, it was on this same place on the corner of the Temple that several decades later Jesus’ brother would have been tempted to turn from God. James follows the example of Jesus and fully trusted in His Lord. He was martyred for that trust. No angels came to catch him and he was not rescued from the evil about to befall him. But his testimony as one who confessed with his mouth that Jesus is Lord and surely believed in His heart that God raised Him from the dead (having seen Jesus with his own eyes) is a testimony I wish to emulate.
Hebraic Perspective. This is the first Sunday in Lent. It starts with the example of Jesus. We are called to be His disciples. On the one hand, why would we need to set aside forty days of fasting and seven days of rejoicing in order to draw near to God? Surely we desire to dwell in Him at all times and in all places.
We aren’t simply performing a ritual. We are walking in obedience to God—seeking to walk in obedience to God. Deuteronomy gives us a great example of declaring all the things that belong to God. In Deuteronomy 26, even as the people brought in their taxes, they confessed that it was God that gave them the land on which their crops grew. It was God that made them a nation. It was God that saved them from Egypt. And they would obey God by feeding the Levite and the homeless with what He had given them. And if it is God’s then we should not hold onto it as our own nor be proud of the work that we have accomplished but, rather, give it back to God.
Confession is most commonly associated with sin. However, Romans 10 tells us that we should “confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord.” Confession (ομολογεω, homologeo, to have the “same word”) is a declaration we make that, ultimately, should reflect the truth of what God has done for us. Moses told the people of Israel that the entirety of the Torah should constantly be on their hearts and should be taught to their children at all times, “when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”
But we know that Jesus was led out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. He fasted, walked before God, and even when tempted, was fully dependent on God. As God incarnate, He still fasted and prayed at this specific time. Unfortunately, we so often forget to return all glory, honour, and thanks to God and, perhaps, this is why God gave us a calendar to follow, commands and statutes to follow. “And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him...” Jesus stood before the devil, a being that He created, and humbly confessed God and Him alone. He was tempted even as we are but He gave us an example by which we live. During this time of Lent, we can do no less than be humble and confess God and Him alone.
Endnotes
- Deuteronomy 6:10-15
- No author or historical setting is given to Psalm 91. The Greek Septuagint does attribute the Psalm to David but the Aramaic Targum does not.
- The Deir ‘Alla inscription, self-attributed to Balaam, son of Beor.
- ACNA includes Romans 10:3-8a
- Job 1:6
- Our first reading, Deuteronomy 26 is another example of the fact that everything we have comes from God.
- Revelation 13:5-7 is the closest to this idea we have in the Bible.
- Even in times of confession and mourning, God declared that the people should rejoice in Him during the days He had prescribed. Only during Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, was mourning and fasting practiced on Shabbat. Many Christians borrow this tradition and cease their fast on Sunday, choosing instead to rejoice in God.