"TWO KINDS OF FOOD"
Matthew 4:1-4
March 23, 2003

Lenten Sermon Series
The Seven First Words of Jesus

David W. Hull, Pastor
First Baptist Church
Huntsville, Alabama

Jesus walked from the water of baptism into the wilderness of temptation. He left the fellowship of the crowds by the Jordan River and entered the solitude of a dry desert. Our Lord exchanged the affirming words spoken by his Heavenly Father for the tempting words uttered by Satan. This journey from the water into the wilderness teaches us something about Jesus' ministry and our mission.

I. THE STRUGGLE

Jesus entered the wilderness to develop a plan for ministry. At his baptism God declared, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." (Matt. 3:17) But how does one act as the Son of God? No person had ever lived out this title on the earth before. Therefore Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to spend time in solitude, meditation, fasting, and prayer in order to develop a vision for ministry. While in the desert, Jesus struggled with the formulation of this ministry plan. It is not easy to chart the course for a direction that will change the world. What began in the arid desert came to its climax in a lush garden. The same struggles which tormented Jesus in the wilderness were very real in the Garden of Gethsemane. Just as he began his ministry with the challenge of developing a course of action, on this final night of his life he struggled with the temptations about maintaining his plan. Last week I drew parallels between the baptism of Jesus and his death on the cross. This week, consider the similarities between the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness and the struggle in Gethsemane. Let these comparisons draw us into the spirit of Lent as we reflect upon the suffering of our Lord.

What was the struggle all about? There are various ways of interpreting this first temptation of Jesus. Let me offer one explanation. At the most basic level, Jesus was struggling with a battle of wills. On the one side there is a human will and on the other side the divine will. It is a natural struggle for Christ that these wills be in tension since he was both human and divine. The human will represents our desire to have what we want and what we need. This includes the basic necessities of life such as physical or material needs. It may also include our desire for success, popularity, prominence, and on and on. The human will is not in and of itself evil. It is simply the innate desire to have what is good for me. True, the human will can be perverted into greed, pride, prejudice or a variety of evils. At its most basic expression, however, the human will is not morally good or bad. It is merely the desire to obtain what I want and need in life. By divine will I mean the desire of God for our lives. In other words, God's will is what God wants for us.

In the desert Jesus struggled with these two wills. Satan tempted him to make some food which would feed his human will. His basic need to exist and live would be nourished by bread. The response of Jesus reminded Satan that we cannot live "on bread alone." This means that there must be more than just the human will. We must experience the will of God.

Notice something very interesting about this temptation. The devil did not tempt Jesus with something that was bad. After all, there is nothing wrong with making food to eat. On other occasions Jesus performed miracles that enabled him to produce food. (John 6:1-14) In the Lord's Prayer he instructed us to pray for our "daily bread." In Matthew 25, he challenged all Christians to make sure that we feed those who are hungry. In light of Jesus' concern for hungry people, what was so bad about Satan's temptation?

Jesus was tempted to do something good at the expense of doing the best. By choosing to do something good we can sometimes limit our opportunities for achieving something that is far greater. I do not know about you, but these temptations are the hardest for me. The temptations to horrible evils like murder, theft, and blasphemy are easy for me to withstand. My greatest struggle comes when I am tempted to say yes to something that is good, but which prohibits me from doing something that would be better. Don't you find that your greatest struggles come in the same fashion? Our involvement with family, church, work, and community all create good options for our energy and involvement. The difficult choices come when we must say no to one invitation in order to accept an alternative that is far better.

Some of you may have read a best-selling book in the field of business. It is called Good to Great by Jim Collins. The author and a team of researchers study companies that have moved from being good companies to being great companies in order to learn the secret of their successes. Listen to the opening lines of the book:

Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great. We don't have great schools, principally because we have good schools. We don't have a great government, principally because we have good government. Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life. The vast majority of companies never become great precisely because the vast majority become quite good - and that is their main problem.

I once heard a pastor tell of the time that a leading church member called him on the phone to share some terrible news. The church member related to his pastor that his son had just been arrested and was in jail. This came as a shock to the member, who was a pillar of both church and community. He was serving as Chairman of the United Way campaign, Sunday School director in his church, and was involved in numerous other leadership positions throughout the community. When he visited his son in jail he asked, "Son, what happened? Why did you do this?" The boy replied, "Dad, I never have been close to you. You were always so busy with the School Board that you never had time to help me with my homework. You were out raising money for the Boy Scouts so that you never took me camping. You never did anything bad - just too much good!" If we are honest, these same words could convict many of us.

Can you feel the struggle that Jesus endured in the desert? He was faced with two kinds of food. One kind would feed his human will and would satisfy his own personal wants and desires. Remember, there was nothing at all wrong with these desires or with this food. However, Jesus also knew that God willed a greater calling for him. In the desert and in the Garden of Gethsemane we see a man struggling with this battle of wills. We have fought those same battles as we struggle with the tension between our wills and the will of God. How do we keep from settling for something good at the expense of what is best? How can we ever win this battle of wills? Perhaps we can learn from the decision made by our Lord.

II. THE DECISION

Jesus chose to be the Bread and not the baker. We read about his decision in the sixth chapter of John. After he had fed the five thousand, Jesus informed the people that his mission in life was not simply to provide food. Instead, he came as the Bread of Life which will provide eternal nourishment for us. This decision was not made based on his own human will, but was a result of submitting to the will of God. In John 6:38 we read, "For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me." Again in the Garden of Gethsemane, we hear Jesus submitting to the will of God in the midst of his struggle. His human will caused him to cry out, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me." However, his final submission to the will of God allowed him to say, "Yet not as I will, but as you will." (Matthew 26:39) This submission to the will of God was clearly demonstrated by Jesus as he struggled with Satan in the wilderness. Jesus was instructing the tempter that our ultimate allegiance is not to our own will, but our lives are to be determined by "every word that comes from the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:4) The beauty of Jesus' ministry comes from his willingness to submit himself to the will of God. This allowed him to be the Bread of life and it provided strength for him to endure even the cross.

The message of Jesus' temptation by Satan was that we should never place our total energies and interest in our own human will. As important as food and physical necessities are, of greater importance is the desire of God for our lives. In Jesus we see a model of total submission to the will of God.

This idea is not extremely well received in our day. Submission is hardly a popular word in our culture. Instead the theme song for many is "I Did It My Way." To think of submitting to anyone strikes a raw nerve in the hearts of most Americans. In spite of the majority sentiment of the day, hear me clearly. Submission to the will of God is a good thing.

Perhaps an often-told story will help to illustrate what I mean. One night a ship was sailing in the darkness when some lights became visible straight ahead. A message was received by the ship from the distance instructing the ship to "Steer two degrees north." The captain of the ship did not want to alter his course so he sent back a message, "You steer two degrees to the south. This is the captain speaking." The message came back with a firm reply, "You steer two degrees to the north. This is Ensign Third-class Jones." You can imagine how this insulted the superior officer, who responded with the words, "You steer two degrees to the south. I am a battleship." The reply came back without hesitation. "You steer two degrees to the north. I am a lighthouse." Sometimes submission is a very good thing!

God's will serves as a lighthouse of protection and illumination in a world filled with darkness. To ignore this will is foolishness. To submit your life to "every word that comes from the mouth of God" represents great wisdom. Human will is always going to be a part of life. It should be. But it is not the only thing. As Jesus reminded Satan, "One does not live by bread alone." Yes, we do live by bread but there is more. That more is the will of God which requires our ultimate submission and commitment.

II. THE MISSION

Jesus set the course for his ministry in the wilderness. In doing so, he gave direction for our mission as a church. America is over-whelmed with a desire to feed the human will. We are bombarded with messages that ask us to take care of our own needs and fulfill our own desires. In the midst of this prevalent mindset the church is called to proclaim a higher calling. After all, we do not live by bread alone. There needs to be more.

The preacher, Ernest Campbell, tells a story about a woman who went to a pet store to purchase a parrot to keep her company. She took this bird home, but returned the next day with a complaint, "That parrot hasn't said a word yet!" "Does it have a mirror?" asked the storekeeper. "Parrots like to be able to look at themselves in the mirror." So she bought a mirror and took it to her pet. The next day she was back declaring that the bird still wasn't speaking. "What about a ladder?" the storekeeper asked. "Parrots enjoy walking up and down a ladder." So she bought a ladder and returned home. The next day she was back with the same old story. There was still no conversation from her bird. "Does the parrot have a swing? Birds enjoy relaxing on a swing." So she bought a swing and went home. Finally she returned to the store to announce that the bird had died. "I am terribly sorry to hear that," said the storekeeper. "Did the bird ever say anything before it died?" "Yes," said the lady. "It said, 'Don't they sell any food down there'?"

Isn't this a parable on life in America today? We have plenty of mirrors to focus on our vanity and self-pride. Ladders are everywhere as we frantically fight to climb to success. Swings abound as we do our best to swing into new forms of pleasure. Yet through it all, we are spiritually starving as a country. Our problem is that we are feeding the human will and missing out on the Bread of Life. We have chosen something that is good at the expense of what is best. Just as in Gethsemane Peter, James, and John fed their human will by choosing something good - sleep - at the expense of what was best - an opportunity for fellowship with their Lord during his crucial hour. There is nothing wrong with sleep. It is important for our bodies. It feeds the human will. However, there is a time to say no to the food for the human will in order to say yes to the will of God.

Therefore our mission as a church is to eat of the broken Bread of Life. During this season of Lent we survey the wondrous cross and consider the redeeming love of our Lord and Savior. However, this Bread which is broken for us is never to be horded for our own consumption only. Missions is when we break the bread for others to partake. Missions is when we learn table manners and share this eternal food of life. We do so with an attitude of submission. Submission to the will of God turns us into servants for the cause of God's kingdom. It is impossible for us to be servants without first being submissive. Jesus demonstrated this. Although he had all power granted to him, he submitted himself to the will of God, became a servant, and gave his life for you and me. He literally "became known in the breaking of bread", even as his body was broken on the cross.

In a land filled with people who only understand one kind of food our mission requires that we tell the good news of the Bread of Life. As we pray, worship, give our offerings, or participate in our own local mission work, we are submitting to the will of God. As we do so, we find joy, strength, and peace.

We have a choice of two kinds of foods. One feeds the human will. The other feeds the will of God. We need both in order to live. The danger comes when we only feed on one kind of food. What will you be having for dinner?