From the Mountain to the Desert
This is the sermon I preached this morning at Grace Lutheran Church, Petersburg, WV. The gospel text is Matthew 4:1-11 . Chronologically, things are a bit out of order in our lectionary. In January we celebrated the Baptism of Our Lord. Last week it was the Transfiguration of Our Lord. This week we go back before the transfiguration to a time immediately following Jesus’ baptism. Last week we were on the mountaintop and this week we are with Jesus in the wilderness of temptation. Into that desolate place, “Jesus was led by the Spirit … to be tempted by the devil” (v. 1). If we want to know what today’s gospel is about, it’s all summed up in the first verse, then fleshed out in the following verses. Do any of you remember the comedian Flip Wilson? His character, Geraldine Jones had an excuse for everything she did wrong. She would say, “The devil made me do it.” In this encounter between Jesus and the devil, the devil’s even quoting scripture. Certainly tha