Lent 1
Genesis 22:1–18
James 1:12–18
Mark 1:9–15
O Lord Jesus Christ, You lead Your ancient people through the wilderness and brought them to the Promised Land. Guide the people of Your church that following our Savior we might walk through the wilderness of this world toward the world that is to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end.
Christ Jesus Defeats Our Temptation and Saves Us by His Faithfulness
In faith and the fear of God, Abraham prepared to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac. At the Word of the Lord, he “took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son.” And “when they came to the place of which God had told him,” Abraham bound Isaac “and laid him on the altar” (Gen. 22:6, 9). Then God stayed Abraham’s hand and provided “for himself the lamb for a burnt offering” (Gen. 22:8). That Lamb is God’s own beloved Son, Jesus, in whom “all the nations of the earth” are blessed (Gen. 22:18). As the Substitute for all the sons of men, Jesus is driven by the Spirit “into the wilderness” to be “tempted by Satan” (Mark 1:12–13), in order to endure and defeat all temptation. We are tempted by our own desire, which conceives and “gives birth to sin” (James 1:14–15). But this blessed Man, Christ Jesus, remained “steadfast under trial,” and He has received “the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him” (James 1:12). His faithfulness, His victory and His life are now given to us by His grace in the Gospel.
Our Triune God
Rev. Dr. Daniel J Brege
“…the Spirit [was] descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:10,11)
The doctrine of the Holy Trinity should be regularly expounded—or at least pointed out. Consider three reasons for this. First, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity permeates both the Old and New Testaments, the basis of all preaching. Second, in our Lord’s Great Commission, as recorded by Saint Matthew, the very Name by which we are blessed in the foundational Sacrament of Holy Baptism is the Name uniquely identifying the Holy Trinity. Are we not enjoined then to teach the meaning of the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit? Third, as we unitedly confess the “catholic” (universally believed) faith, we cannot merely recite the three Creeds—they must be explained! In the Athanasian Creed we confess with all Christians: “Whoever desires to be saved must, above all, hold the catholic faith…And the catholic faith is this, that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance.” We cannot properly confess what has not been explained to us.
There is much rich theology and application surrounding the Baptism of our Lord, certainly not the least of which is the clear presentation of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. In this account no one can confuse one person of the Trinity with another. The Son is in the Jordan River; the Spirit descends upon Him in the form of a dove; the Father speaks from heaven. They are separate, distinct persons.
Most every student of Scripture will readily identify the Father in the account of Christ’s baptism to be God. However some deny full deity to the Son of God. Yet, how can the Son of God redeem mankind if He is not God [e.g. Is 43:11]? And when the Father identifies Jesus at His baptism as His Beloved Son, even the Jews of Jesus’ day understood this to mean that Jesus is God. They said of Jesus that they were ready to execute Him because He was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God [Jn 5:18]. Jesus is clearly equal to the Father with respect to His divinity, less than the Father with respect to His humanity [Ath. Creed, 31]. And what about the Holy Spirit? He is God’s Spirit, proceeding from the Father and the Son, and yet His is not a mere emanation. He is a distinct person—identified as such at Christ’s baptism. He uniquely creates sanctification and life, things that only God can accomplish.
At His baptism, the man Jesus is obviously at the center of the Father’s and the Spirit’s attention, for it is in and through the incarnate Son of God that salvation is to be wrought. Even as the Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, brooded over the water at the world’s creation, so now He broods over the waters at Christ’s Baptism to give life to fallen mankind through the Christ. The Son of God, who is identified as God’s Word, is the One through whom the Father is calling forth a new world, even as through the Word everything was made at the beginning. As there was chaos and darkness at the beginning, so once again the Holy Trinity will call light out of darkness and bring order from chaos. Now the darkness is identified with the evil and fallenness of mankind, and the chaos is the disorder caused by Adam’s fall. The beloved Son of God, conceived in the womb of Mary by the Holy Spirit, is now following His Father’s will—heading to the cross and empty tomb so He can, by redeeming this creation, make all things new.
In our worship we usually begin and conclude with a Trinitarian invocation and benediction. When the pastor absolves, he invokes this sacred name. We also stand when a hymn concludes with a doxological stanza praising the Holy Trinity. We do such things in worship to repeatedly direct all honor to the true God—the only source of creation, salvation and sanctification. We also do it because we are identified with and linked to the unfathomable blessings of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit—because we each have been baptized into that sacred Name.
LENT 1 • GENESIS 22:1–18
by Victor Raj Concordia Seminary, St. Louis
A Test Case
Preliminary Considerations
Historically, the theme for the first Sunday in Lent is the “Temptation of the Lord.” The appointed Gospel lesson for the day, Mark 1:9–15, unlike the other Synoptic parallels, encapsulates Jesus’s temptation in one participial clause, “being tempted by Satan,” in the desert among wild animals and with angels attending him.
On the other hand, the Epistle reading, James 1:12–18, alerts us to the truth that the tempter is actually the devil. Temptations have their bearing on the evil desires that result in sin. Sin does not appeal to God. God by his very nature is holy and shows no interest in tempting anyone. Nevertheless, satanic forces come from the outside and drag us away from the Lord’s desire for us, causing to birth in us sin. No human being is exempt from such ongoing tests in their lives. Thus James wrote, “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life.”
The verse of the day is the exhortation to outfit ourselves with the whole armor of God with a view to taking our stand against the devil’s schemes. In the introit, the Most High promises those who have found shelter in his shadow security and protection from the tempter. The Gradual is an encouragement to fix our eyes on Jesus who has himself overcome satanic and vile schemes, as he is the author of our faith as well as the one who perfects it.
Reflections on Genesis 22:1–18
Abraham’s entire life had been a journey of faith. Trials were his constant companion on the voyage. This patriarch of faith was counting on God’s promises to sustain him throughout his pilgrimage. At God’s call, Abraham left behind his life in Mesopotamia and set out toward an unknown land. Throughout that expedition, he had nothing but the word of God to anchor his life. More than once his faith was tested through the refiner’s fire.
The biblical accounts list many blessings that God promised Abraham, matched perhaps by no other person on earth. It included, for him and his future generations, ownership of a land as far as the eye could see. God promised to make his name great. A word from Abraham’s mouth would become a word of blessing to numerous others. In Abraham, God would bless all peoples on earth. Such a blessing would flow from him to all the families of the earth through his son that God would give him through his wife Sarah.
God’s promises notwithstanding, his own old age and Sarah’s prolonged barrenness, cast strong shadows of doubt in Abraham’s mind. In their weak moments, Sarah would convince Abraham that not she, but Hagar their Egyptian slave woman would bear the child God pledged to them. Nevertheless, God would have no ancillary scheme for what he announced. One hundred-year-old Abraham was to become the father of many nations through his son born of Sarah’s womb. God had no plan B for saving the world from sin and its consequence, death.
To be sure, God would make Hagar’s son into a great nation (Gen 21:13, 18) and let them possess lands of their own. Before Abraham’s only son would be born, in Sarah’s eyes Hagar and her son appear to be potential threats to Abraham’s inheritance. The unique blessing God pronounced in Abraham for the whole world would come through Isaac. Doubtless, the very birth of Isaac, Abraham’s and Sarah’s son of great expectation was a great miracle. Isaac prefigured God’s inimitable promise that in his Son, God would pour out his unique blessing on all nations (Gal 3:16). God vindicated Abraham as he persevered in faith in God through the various times of testing.
Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. Through this out-of-the-ordinary testing, God had for Abraham and for the whole world a precise purpose which, as in the birth of Isaac, necessitated an unswerving faith. In the Lord’s presence, Abraham’s response “Here I am, Lord!” was a demonstration of the obedience that comes from faith. The author of Hebrews lauds Abraham’s faith as having substance. He was in the very act of offering up his son (τὸν ἀγαπητόν ὅν ἠγάπησας Genesis 22:1, 12, LXX; μονογενῆς Hebrews 11:17) on whom rested the formation of a whole nation. According to Hebrews, Abraham ‘reasoned’ that God could raise the dead. In fact, God did give Abraham his only son back as he was shown a scapegoat to take Isaac’s place on the sacrificial altar. John the Baptist confessed that God’s υἱὸς μονογενῆς (one-of-a-kind Son[ 1]) is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world (Jn 1:29).
Momentous is Abraham’s walk with Isaac to the sacrificial altar, he himself having in hand the fire and the knife and his only son carrying the wood for the burnt offering. The son’s query to his father, “But where is the lamb?” receives the reliable response, “God himself will provide the lamb” (22:14). As well as the father’s cautiously optimistic response to the son in verse 8, read in the original MT and the LXX as “The Lord will see (to it).” This reading is purposeful here especially during the season of Lent when the eyes of faith focus more on God’s most faithful Son. Just as it was for Abraham and Isaac, no eye has ever seen, no ear has ever heard, no mind has ever conceived what God has prepared for those who love him (1 Cor 2: 9). This is significant particularly because it is here, for the first time in the biblical account that a narrative is given in the substitutionary sense of one life becoming the ransom for another. Great Abraham’s Greater Son, God’s one-of a-kind Son, has become for all a one-of-a- kind sacrifice.
Verse 8 is a graphic portrayal of Abraham’s obedient submission to God’s testing. A noticeable silence follows the narrator’s comment, “And the two of them walked on together.” Neither Isaac nor Abraham speaks as they walk or after they reach their destination. [God speaks!] While Wenham calls this vulnerable moment one of ‘oppressive silence,’[2] Speiser has identified it as ‘perhaps the most poignant and eloquent silence in all literature.’[3] Here lay hidden the mystery of God’s provision for mankind, and the miraculous way of God leading his people from doubt to confidence, from unfaith to faith. God has the final word, hidden though it may be from us even as we walk with him. His words endure through our testing, into the future, as they were first spoken to our fathers in the faith (Gen 12:1–3 cf. 22:15–18).
The tempter spoke to Jesus and tempted him, supporting his arguments even from Scripture. Jesus’s words silenced the devil in each instance and caused him to leave, but Jesus went on serving, preaching and teaching. The Word of God is the weapon in our warfare of faith: A word of defense as well as a word of assurance.
Endnotes
[1] Andreas J. Köstenberger, John (Grand Rapids, Baker Academic, 2004).
[2] Gordon J. Wenham, Word Biblical Commentary, Vol. 1: Genesis 1-15 (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1987), 163.
[3] E.A. Speiser, Genesis: Introduction, Translation, and Notes (The Anchor Bible, Vol. 1) (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1963), 165.
The first commandment is so critical. To follow it, we must fear, love, and trust in God above all things, which includes our own self.
MORE INFORMATION DOES NOT EQUAL BEING MORE INFORMED
In this age of "information overload," everyone seems to think we are more informed nowadays, what with 24-hour news, social media, and real time communication. However, what we are missing is perhaps just how CONTROLLED that information now is. The news is much more biased, and computer algorithms are swayed, such that, the information each of us receives is only that which someone else has decided we should receive.
For instance, when you do a "google" search, the results you see are based on algorithms set by you own personal internet usage. What you see is based on your own biases. Not everyone has the same search results show up. Not everyone sees the same advertisements, or the same posts, or the same "news." You could say we are actually being manipulated by our own habits. That's a scary thought, and it's being played out right in front of us all on a daily basis!
Adam's temptation was to doubt the Father's promises and to become his own "God." He was tempted to question, "did God say?" and was promised, "you shall not die...for God know that in the day you eat of it you will be...like God..."
Sources:
The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition. Copyright © 2010 by Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software
ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Schnorr Von Carolsfeld woodcuts, ‘Satan tempts Jesus’© WELS permission granted for personal and congregational use
LCMS Lectionary notes © 2018
Lutheran Service Book © 2006 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis
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