First Sunday in Lent – Matthew 4:1-11

Holy Scripture shows us two Adams. We hear the first Adam in the Old Testament reading. We hear another Adam every Sunday in the Holy Gospel reading. Saint Paul in First Corinthians calls our Lord Jesus the last Adam…the second man. The last Adam was similar to the first Adam insofar as the last Adam was a true Man compared to the first Adam. There’s a great difference, though, between Adam of Genesis and Adam of the Gospels. The first Adam succumbed to temptation before Satan. The last Adam, Jesus Christ, overcame temptation for us when tempted by Satan.

Both Adam and Jesus were tempted to doubt God’s Word and wisdom. Satan said to the woman, Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden? If you are the Son of God….

Both were tempted to disobey God’s will. You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, He will command his angels concerning you, and On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.

Both were tempted to step out of their station in life in which they were placed according to God’s counsel. The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate. All these [kingdoms of the world] I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.

Adam was tempted in the Garden of Eden, in Paradise. Christ was tempted in the wilderness. Adam had everything provided for him by a gracious God. Christ fasted forty days and forty nights. Adam was a created being. Christ is the Lord of creation. Adam was tempted once. Christ was tempted three times. Adam fell. Christ holds fast.

The first created human being had every opportunity to hold fast to the Word given to Him by His creator. He could have stepped into the conversation between the serpent and Eve. He could have put an end to the matter by saying to Eve as our Lord does to the devil, it is written. Adam says nothing. He eats the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He voluntarily disobeyed with gross regard God’s Word and God’s will. As children of Adam, we are sinners and have become children of wrath.

Christ holds fast. He is victorious in voluntary obedience with faithful observance of the will of His Father and constant use of the divine Word. Three times He counters Satan with it is written. Three times He does not yield to temptation. Three times Jesus responds to Satan’s temptations with Holy Scripture, direct quotes from the book of Deuteronomy.

The first created human being must suffer the consequences of the fall into sin. Adam and Eve are pushed out of the Garden and has, as far as he has become a sinner, become similar to the devil, who has made the beginning of sinning. They must now fend for themselves. Adam will have to work by the sweat of his brow for food. Eve will bear children in pain. Adam and Eve will struggle for who is the head of the family. Yet God does not wipe them out from the face of the earth. In His mercy He providentially cares for them. We see this when He makes garments of skins for Adam and Eve before He expels them from Eden. Even in His wrath over sin, God still loves and cares for His creation.

Christ holds fast. The devil has nothing left to say or to do after three failed attempts. The angels of God come to Christ and serve Him as their Creator and Lord. The devil knows Jesus is the Son of God. He chooses not to believe it and treats Him as if He is just another fallen sinful human being. Maybe, just maybe, the same tactics that caused Adam and countless other sinners after him to fall will work on this one, even though Satan knows they won’t work. His hatred for our heavenly Father is white-hot. Nothing will stop the devil in trying to thwart the promise made in the Garden that day.

That promise, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel, will be fulfilled in Jesus. This promise is often called the protoevangelium, or “first gospel”. Christians often falsely believe there is no Gospel but only Law in the Old Testament. The words of the Lord God to the serpent in Genesis 3:15 prove otherwise. The Offspring of the woman shall bruise Satan’s head at the cost of the bruising of His heel. Here is where the Lord God promises to send His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to destroy the power of sin, death, and the devil. Here is where what happens to Satan not only in the wilderness, but also at Calvary, is first proclaimed. Here is where Christ first holds fast for Adam, for Eve, for you, and for me.

Those three words, Christ holds fast, are truth and life this Lententide and every season of the church year. Jesus holds the field forever. Jesus does not falter. Jesus does not call a time out to think it over. Jesus presses on to Jerusalem. Jesus willingly suffers what we deserve for our sake. Jesus gives us the spoils of His victory over Satan: forgiveness of sins, salvation, a good conscience, holiness, righteousness, peace with God our Father, and the future hope of a triumphant parade out of the grave and into everlasting life, taunting the devil and death all the way. At the head of that parade is Jesus, the first-born from the dead.

If you look closely at that parade on Judgment Day, perhaps you’ll see two people known to all Christians walking right behind Jesus into Paradise: Adam and Eve. Christ holds fast for them, too. His Father says so in Genesis chapter three. He says so for us today, too. The curse of sin is paid in full with Jesus’ blood and righteousness. Adam and Eve believed it and they were saved. You and I believe it and we, with them, are saved, for Christ holds fast.

Sexagesima – Luke 8:4-15

Saint Paul tells the church in Rome: I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. The gospel is no dead word, but a living, powerful means that works, multiplies, and preserves faith in Jesus Christ in the hearts of those who believe in Him. Many, unfortunately, do actually resist the Word and the saving power of the gospel is thwarted in them. Jesus shows us in the parable of the sower three examples of how we thwart the Word that is sown. He also shows us what happens when we get out of our own way as the seed of the Word falls on receptive hearts that bear fruit in hearing and believing the Word.

As the sower sowed his seed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. These are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. Hearers like these despise the Truth that is preached to them. Their hearts are so hard that nothing may grow there except contempt for Christ. These are hearts that bear no fruit.

Some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. These are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. See how quickly the seed of the Word initially opens up among them. They have what is sometimes called “monk’s fervor”. When someone who is interested in the monastic way of life first enters a monastery, they tend to be zealous and want to show they are ready for the life ahead of them. Over time, however, those with “monk’s fervor” wane in their zeal. They are tempted by the devil. They no longer love their first love.

So it is with hearts that do not allow the seed to take root. Temptation and persecution come their way. When the going gets tough, they run from hard times and seek other gods or another way of salvation. The seed quickly withers and bear no fruit.

Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. These are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. Some who begin to believe Jesus is Lord make a good start because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.

What often happens is that the Lord brings physical blessings to these hearts. Once these blessings, perhaps a random windfall of money or a sudden inheritance of property, begin to pile up, then over time you gain love of the world again. You forget the Giver of the gifts and instead worry about the gifts. You wonder how you can get more money, more property, more stocks, and more cares of the world. Maybe the seed will struggle together with the thorns, but ultimately the thorns will choke the fruit.

Why does Jesus give us these three examples of hearts that bear no fruit? Because that’s how it is when His Word is sown. So often we want to turn this parable into a farm report. What can I do to improve my soil? What can I do to the seed to make it bear fruit in harsh circumstances? Could I fix my planter to put the seed in the soil a little deeper or a little shallower? What about irrigation?

What Jesus is concerned about in this parable is the condition of your heart. 75 percent of those who hear the Word in our Lord’s parable do not bear fruit. It is not the fault of the sower, for he sows the seed. His sowing looks reckless to our eyes but he is not concerned about where it falls. He sows. He can’t stand in the middle of the field and yell, “GROW!’ I can’t come to your house on Sunday afternoon and yell “GROW!” after you hear the sermon. You would perhaps question the sanity of the farmer and the pastor who does so. No, it is not the sower’s fault that the seed bears no fruit.

Neither is it the fault of the seed. Jesus tells us the seed is the word of God. Isaiah says in today’s Old Testament reading, For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. The word wants to succeed because it is God’s Word and not your word, nor my word. What gets put in the way of that word hinders it from bearing fruit.

Jesus tells us exactly what gets in the way of that word. A hard heart that won’t receive anything from God. A rocky heart that quickly forgets its first love received from God. A thorny heart that cares more about here and now rather than the sweet by-and-by. A 75-percent failure rate as we look at it.

Jesus, though, finds what we see as a 25-percent success rate in the sowing of His Word as something in which to rejoice. The Word of God is living and active says the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews. The prophet Jeremiah says is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? It possesses power to change hard, rocky, and thorny ground into good ground…if only we would get out of our own way in order to let the Word do the work!

As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience. Receptive hearts willingly and joyfully absorb the Word and keep it, as Mary did when she pondered all the events of Jesus’s early life. Receptive hearts appropriate the healing treasures received in the Word. They attend to the preaching of His Word, as well as the eating and drinking of His Word in the Lord’s Supper.

Receptive hearts rooted and anchored in Christ Jesus bear fruit. They show the fruits of the Spirit among them: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

All these things happen with patience. Patience is the hard part. Alan Kreider writes in his book The Patient Ferment of the Early Church that the fall of Adam and Eve was marked by human impatience. Yet patience is the very nature of God. His purposes are unhurried and unstoppable. In Christ, patience is implanted in us and grows when and where God wills it. Patience is a distinctive sign of the Christian. The Old Adam in us wants everything right now. Maybe that’s why pastors tend to be impatient people. We want our hearers to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus, but it needs to happen yesterday and it may already be too late.

Jesus plays the long game. Jesus knows our walk with Him is a marathon, not a sprint. He sows the seed of His Word. He changes hearts into receptive soil. He brings the bearing of fruit a hundredfold among receptive soil. The Word of Christ, powered by the Holy Spirit, alone does the work of changing hearts into His image; an image of patient long-suffering that bears abundant fruit.