Jesus Stepped In for Us and Dueled with the Devil

First Sunday in Lent

February 14, 2016

Matthew 4:1-11

Jesus Stepped In for Us and Dueled with the Devil

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Duels are no longer fashionable in polite society, so what we know about duels comes from books or movies. And they tell us that duels were fights to the death. That wasn't always the case.

The purpose of a duel wasn't to kill your enemy; it was to achieve satisfaction for your honor by showing that you weren't afraid to put your life on the line. A duel was a chance to put skin in the game, your skin in the game. (We think of duels as being obsolete and foolish, but imagine if the trolls on the Internet who can only insult the honor of others had to back up their wagging tongues with pistols at sunrise. I'd like to think that the threat of dueling would force most people to carefully consider their words and deeds.)

There were specific dueling rules that both sides were to observe. You could choose to fight to the death or you could agree to take one shot a piece at your enemy. If you missed, that was the end of the duel and satisfaction was achieved. If you were dueling with swords, you could agree that the duel was over when first blood was drawn. Another important rule was that each man would choose a second. A “second” was your wing man, your backup guy, and these two seconds would select a field of honor, which meant the place where you'd duel.

Christ dueled the Devil on a field of honor out in the wilderness. But as opposed to a traditional duel, Jesus didn't fight the Devil at sunrise, but after 40 days of not eating. Jesus was weak and hungry and tired. And now He had to duel the most vicious and cunning Enemy the world has ever known.

And it's a duel that Jesus didn't even have to fight. He could have stayed home and stayed at His Father's right hand. Out of His mercy and care, He chose to step in and fight for us as our Second.

Without Christ stepping in for us, a duel between the Devil and us alone is a rout. But with Jesus, He wins and so do we.

For us, Jesus dueled with the Devil for satisfaction. This wasn't a fight to the death; that would come later on the cross. No, this was a duel for satisfaction. Traditional duels were fought when one man offended another; here Christ is fighting to put right what we offended. In a way, Christ is fighting both the Devil and us. The Devil and we want to get our own way. We both want the easy way. Think about the temptations that the Devil laid before Jesus.

You're hungry. Make some bread.

You're lonely. Make Your Father prove His love by catching You.

You're facing the cross. Bow down to me, and I'll let You have the world without suffering and without death.

When we pray, “And lead us not into temptation,” we are asking our dear Father to lead us away from the Devil's easy lies and even from ourselves. We tempt ourselves with the easy way.

Politics is too confusing. And there all crooks anyway. So I haven't voted since 1984. (But I'll still complain about politicians, though.)

My marriage is too stressful. I'm not going to engage my spouse anymore. I'm just going to go along with whatever they say.

My job doesn't pay enough. I'm not going to do my best work until they pay me what I'm worth.

My pastor is too demanding. He asks me to stay for Bible study, but he's never talks about the stuff that I want to know about and besides I already know the Bible anyway. After all, I came to church, right? And if I wait until 11:30 all the restaurants will be very crowded.

Maybe this isn't you. But you do want to take the easy way out. This is just us being sinful. It's not surprising. But this is why Christ stepped in and dueled the Devil and continues to duel with the Devil for you.

In Christ's victory, He gained satisfaction for our honor. No, the Devil cannot go around gossiping about you and telling God that you are an offensive human being. Christ will not stand for it. He has won the duel. The Devil must be silent and go away. But he'll be back.

So Christ put His skin in the game and put His life on the line out in the wilderness. What usually happens to someone who doesn't eat for 40 days?

And then in the end, He did put His life on the cross, so that now when the Devil duels with us and tells us to take the easy way, we call upon our Second, our Savior, and He fights back with our voices using, not swords or pistols, but the Sword of the Spirit, His very Word.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:10-17)

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us,

so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God! Amen!

2 Corinthians 5:21