Have
you ever heard the Devil’s Beatitudes?
Blessed are those who are too tired, too
busy, too distracted to spend an hour once aweek with their fellow Christians
in Church ~ they are my best workers.
Blessed are those who wait to be asked and expect to be thanked ~ I can use
them in my business. Blessed are those who are touchy. Soon they will stop going to church ~ verily,
they shall be my missionaries.
Blessed are those who sow gossip and trouble ~ they are my beloved children.
Blessed are those who have no time to pray ~ for they are MY prey.
Blessed are you who hear this and think it has everything to do with other people, and nothing to do with you. ~ I've got room for you at my inn.
Of
course when it comes to the devil we always think he has the power to make us
do stuff. We've been blaming him since the Garden of Eden.
Some
of you remember the comedian Flip Wilson who would tell a joke or story and end
with the punch-line “The devil made me do it!”
Some of you remember Dana Carvey,
another comedian, who had a character on “Saturday Night Live” named “the
Church Lady” who tossed about wild accusations ending with “Could it be, …Satan?”
Dwight
L. Moody once said, “I believe Satan to exist for two reasons: first, the Bible
says so; and second, I’ve done business with him.” He knows each of us.
Our
Gospel lesson introduces the devil to our Jesus story today. Just as our first
parents Adam and Eve, had a run in with the devil as serpent, Jesus encounters
the devil in the wilderness. The reason for the interaction is similar however
the outcome is different.
Jesus, full of
the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the
wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at
all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished.
The devil said
to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of
bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread
alone.’”
Then the devil
led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the
devil said to him, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for
it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you then,
will worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus answered him, “It is written,
‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’”
Then the devil
took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to
him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is
written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ and ‘On
their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against
a stone.’”Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the
test.”
When the devil
had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.
Gary
R. Collins, writing in the book “The Magnificent mind” said, “There is a battle
going on for the minds of the people. We do need to be alert to the devil’s
schemes and subtle teachings that masquerade as truth in our society. But the
way to resist such mental error is not with emotional diatribes. Instead there
needs to be a clear understanding of the Bible’s teaching about demonic error,
accompanied by a committed submission to the commands of scripture.”
I
don’t know if you’ve ever seen it this way before but the devil’s scorecard is
one win and one loss. God has balanced the negative influence of the devil in
the world with the Grace represented by Jesus’ birth, life, ministry, death,
and resurrection.
Jesus
in rejecting the devil’s urgings and advice, and quoting God’s word’s exactly
as given, remained outside the sinful nature of the rest of humanity. He became
the perfect sacrificial lamb, without blemish, who accepted and paid for the
sins of all.
Eve,
it should be noted, played into the devil’s game by manipulating and changing
God’s word during her time of temptation. Adam also bought into that
interaction as well and fell from his perfect relationship from his Creator.
Jesus,
when tempted by the devil, stands on God’s word in answering. God’s word
becomes his strength, shield, and safety net. God’s Will is done. That’s the
message we get from this passage. Satan has no power on his own – it must be
given to him.
It’s
amazing that evil has such a simple solution, isn’t it? If only we could use Jesus' simple and effective method without fear and stumbling. Evil has power only when we give it to him.
When
we comprehend the temptations to stray from God’s will that the presence of
evil and the influence of the devil poses we become afraid and think it’s an
impossible task. Yet we need to remember we have the tools to overcome it.
Did you know that the construction of the Golden Gate
Bridge was so risky that newspaper reporters called it “the Dance of Danger.”
Workers on top of the swaying catwalks and high towers,
sometimes hundreds of feet in the air, would be often blown loose from
handholds by powerful winds. Predictions were that for every $1 million spent,
one life would be lost. The construction ngineers on the bridge, however,
believed the risks could be lowered.
When construction began in 1932, numerous safety
measures were put into place and strictly enforced: mandatory use of hard hats
and prescription filtered eyeglasses, the implementation of a zero tolerance showboating
policy (cause for automatic firing), use of tie-off lines, and establishment of
an on-site hospital greatly reduced the casualty rate. After nearly four years
of construction and $20 million spent, only one worker had died.
The most effective safety device, without question, was
the use of a trapeze net.
This large net, costing $130,000, was draped sixty feet
below the roadbed under construction, extending ten feet to either side. This
net caught so many falling workers that the newspapers began running box scores
on the total number of lives saved. Workers saved by the net joined the
“Halfway to Hell Club.”
The most important impact of the net was that it freed
many of the workers from an often-paralyzing sense of fear, which helped them
work more productively.
The tools we have to overcome evil and its influence is
simple to know and use.
Billy
Graham wrote: “Whenever I am conscious of satan’s presence, I try to follow the
formula once offered by a little girl: ‘When satan knocks, I just send Christ
to the door.’”
Jesus
sent God’s Word to answer the devil when He was tempted, why can’t you and I
use the same method? Jesus is our safety net. Amen.
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