1st Sunday in Lent

Sermon for the 1st Sunday in Lent

February 26, 2023

Matthew 4:1-11, Genesis 2:1-4, Psalm 132, Romans 5:12-19

Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

-Matthew 4:1

C.S. Lewis, famous for the Narnia stories, also wrote other notable works. Among them is an introduction to the Christian faith called Mere Christianity. Before it was a book, it was a series of lectures broadcast by the BBC during the Second World War. If you have not read Mere Christianity, I highly recommend it. It still rings true, even eighty years on. One of the points Lewis makes is that if you choose to follow Christ you must go in for the full treatment. Half measures won’t do. We can’t allow him to be Lord of only certain aspects of our lives, but of every part of us  (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity: A revised and amplified edition, with a new introduction of the three books Broadcast Talks, Christian Behaviour, and Beyond Personality. [San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 2001], 198).

The end goal of this treatment is to restore in us the image of God which that crafty serpent in the primordial garden convinced our archetypal ancestors to abdicate (Genesis 3:1-7). That tragic decision ushers in the devilish reign of shame, fear, and death into what God had pronounced as very good, but is now subject to a dark power who must be beaten down underfoot (The Book of Common Prayer, 152). Enter our champion, David-like against a Goliath. If Jesus expects us to take on the full treatment in order for the image of God to be fully restored in us, it means he must go in for the full human treatment in order to be the Savior who is the source of our restoration. He does just that, he embraces the fullness of the human condition, including our capacity to be lured away by what the Great Litany calls, “the crafts and assaults of the devil” (The Book of Common Prayer, 148).

As David was armed only with three smooth stones, so Jesus meets his mighty foe armed with three memorized scriptures he has hidden in his heart (Ps. 119:11). Jesus will not make bread for himself, but will be our Bread of heaven. Jesus will not perform a deadly stunt to display his power over death, but will, on Good Friday, display the divine power of love in his embrace of death. Jesus will not bow to the evil one in order to be handed a vassal kingship of the earth, but will stand at each and every door and knock, awaiting the invitation to enter in and bestow the free gift he offers. Frustrated, the devil retreats, to fight again another day.

What a gift it is that Jesus went in for the full treatment, becoming a real human being. He knows what it’s like to live our life. He can say, “I know what you’re going through.” The Letter to the Hebrews tells us that he understands our weakness because he has been tested in every way as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). Jesus went in for the full treatment. How can we not respond in thankfulness by going in for his full treatment, the full restoration of the image of God in us?

In Mere Christianity, C.S Lewis said this is what awaits if we let Christ in.

“He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us. . .
a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through
with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine,
a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly
(though, of course, on a smaller scale)
His own boundless power and delight and goodness”
(C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 206).

Let him in. Let him be Lord of every aspect of life. He will be your hiding place. The devil will leave you. Angels will come and wait on you.

Matthew Rowe+
Emmanuel Episcopal Church
San Angelo, Texas