The Lutheran Hour
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"Sinful Shortcuts"
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Text: Matthew 4:1-11
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Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed. Buying us back from sin, death, and the devil was a costly process, a painful process for God’s innocent Son. So that we might be saved, Jesus Christ was sacrificed; so we might be forgiven, He was declared guilty; so we might live, He was murdered. There were no shortcuts to this blood-bought gift which God holds out to you today. Dear Lord, grant this Gift be received by us all. Amen.
My brother Tom is a brilliant man with numerous inventions to his credit. More than that, he is a good man, a man of integrity, an individual whom I both respect and admire. Even though he is just jam-packed with excellent qualities, he is not immune from playing an occasional practical joke on his big brother. Years ago we sent our daughter, Kirsten, on her first solo plane trip. From the moment that plane took off until the time it was supposed to land, we did what parents do: we tried to keep calm and not worry. We did a pretty good job of not worrying… that is until the time for the plane’s touching down came and went. Fifteen minutes, a half hour, longer. Finally the phone rang and I answered.
Yes, it was Kirsten. But she was crying, sobbing as she explained how she had missed getting off the plane and was now in some remote, backwoods location. As I panicked, her mother took the phone and tried to get all the details. That’s when Kirsten started to laugh. She was with my brother who had, according to his promise, picked her up at O’Hare Airport in Chicago. He had suggested the phone call would be a fun prank to pull on her parents. Although I never saw the humor, my brother still laughs when he remembers his little practical joke. My friends, know I’m not a vengeful man, and I really do try to live as a Christian, but I will, someday, get even with him for Kirsten’s prank call.
Of course, the anxiety we had on that occasion came and went very quickly. Not so with my brother’s other little bit of deviltry. It was Christmas and I, like most pastors, had been very busy. It wasn’t until Christmas Eve that I found time to put together a toy which my brother had sent to our son, Kurt. According to the box, the toy was a scale-model military jet. Every rivet, every bolt, every nut and decal were exactly where they were supposed to be. The amount of minutia on the toy jet was amazing. “Kurt’s going to love this”, I said to myself as I tried to translate the Japanese directions for assembling the thing. Using the picture on the box I identified and snapped together more than 70 parts.
Eventually, and by that I mean after more than 1 hour, the job was done and I looked with pride upon the toy plane. It was only then that I realized I had forgotten to put on the decals. I was amazed when I found out there wasn’t one page or two pages or even three or four pages of the sticky decorations. No, there were five solid pages of the things… over 400 decals which had to be placed all over the plane’s exterior.
Two-and-a-half hours later I wasn’t close to being done. That’s when I started thinking about taking a short cut. That’s when I started putting the decals where I thought they should go… not where the directions said they should be. Another half-hour crawled by, and I still was placing those decals. That’s when I came up with my next shortcut. I took the rest of the decals and threw them into the fireplace. That last shortcut might not have been the adult thing to do and it certainly wasn’t the environmentally responsible way to proceed, but I am still warmed by the memory of the fire turning those decals into a bit of ashes. It was one of my life’s sinful shortcuts.
Sinful shortcuts. Now you should know there’s nothing wrong with trying to find the most efficient and effective way of doing something. To come up with a suitable and sensible shortcut to life’s challenges is one of the reasons God has given us brains. But today I’m talking about those shortcuts which make us willing participants to Satan’s suggestions toward sinfulness. You don’t have to read very far in the Bible before you come upon the first time Satan encouraged a sinful shortcut. Look at Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
When Satan slid up to them and planted a seed which said, “God is conning you; He’s keeping you down; He’s holding back and not letting you reach your full potential,” they foolishly believed him. It didn’t take too long before they figured, “Yeah, we want to be just as smart and just as strong as our Creator.” What’s more, they figured that the fruit of the forbidden tree might just be the key to making them as wise and strong as God was. When they plucked the fruit and ate, history recorded humankind’s susceptibility to sinful shortcuts.
Read the pages of Scripture and you will be hard-pressed to find someone who managed not to take a sinful shortcut. Cain didn’t want to take the time to straighten himself out before God; instead he took a sinful shortcut and removed his brother from the competition. The older Abraham got, the more he wanted a son. So strong became that desire that he took a sinful shortcut, fathering a child by a slave and not his wife. Jacob took a sinful shortcut and stole his brother’s birthright; Joseph’s brothers took a sinful shortcut when they sold their brother into slavery rather than trying to get along with him. Sinful shortcuts. Over the millennia, suggesting sinful shortcuts to humanity has been one of Satan’s most successful ploys.
The simple process he uses is almost always the same. First the prince of darkness figures out a person’s heartfelt desire and then he suggests a sinful way of obtaining that desire. Simply stated, the devil offers a bad way to get a good thing. Adam and Eve wanted to be like God; that was a good thing. Eating the forbidden fruit to accomplish that goal was a bad thing. In doing so they established a pattern all of us have followed.
Think back. What is the first time you can remember taking a sinful shortcut? Was it when some other child had a toy you wanted? Maybe you fell victim to a sinful shortcut when you thought your brother or sister were getting more attention from your parents than you were. How did you handle that? Did you talk to your parents or did you try to act in a commendable way which would get their notice and praise? Probably not. Most of us did something stupid or sinful or both which forced our parents to pay attention to us.
Think back. How many times have you fallen victim to a sinful shortcut? Did you want good grades? The sinful shortcut said, “Cheating is easier than studying.” Did you want friends? The sinful shortcut encouraged you to put somebody down so you could look good. How many people haven’t taken a sinful shortcut and said what another person wanted to hear so they could get what they wanted from the relationship? Do you want to pay less in taxes? The sinful shortcut says, “Lie.” Is your marriage not as fulfilling as you hoped? The sinful shortcut says, “Cheat.” Is your boss not treating you fairly; is he passing you up for promotions? The sinful shortcut way of getting ahead says, “Walk over the body of anybody who gets in your way.” Time doesn’t permit me to keep adding on to the list… but I hope you understand: Satan has been incredibly successful in suggesting we take sinful shortcuts.
Indeed, he has been so successful he even tried offering a few sinful shortcuts to Jesus. You probably know the work which brought Jesus to earth. If not, let me quickly explain. After humanity had sinned and disobeyed God, we were condemned to temporal and eternal death. Big sinners, little sinners, experienced sinners, as well as novices were all condemned to die. Such a terrible ending was terrifying to us and unacceptable to God. That is why, since He knew we couldn’t save ourselves, He offered His Son to take our place. To take To take our place is why Jesus was born, It was decreed that He would take our place under the law and live a perfect life, a life without slips or stumbles into sin, Even more, the heavenly Father had destined Jesus’ life to end on a cross where He would die paying the final price which our disobedience had deserved, In between His birth and death Jesus would be hated, rejected, despised, misunderstood, and lied about. From start to finish, Jesus’ life was one which any reasonable person might try to escape,
Knowing Jesus was fully aware of what lay before Him, Satan decided to place some
options, some sinful shortcuts in His path, Now the devil is no fool. He figured, under
normal circumstances, Jesus, being God’s perfect Son, would probably refuse any
obvious or blatant temptation, “Still”, Satan reasoned, “under the right circumstances, Jesus just might want to take a shortcut rather than suffering and dying for ungrateful, unappreciative humanity.” Satan further figured his golden opportunity had come when Jesus was in the wilderness. Having fasted and prayed for 40 days, the Savior’s body was weakened and hungry. That was the time Satan picked to present to the Savior his sinful shortcuts.Slyly Satan suggested, “Look Jesus, I know what You’re doing. You’re trying to save these humans. It’s a good cause, a noble cause, one which must please Your Father. But, did it ever occur to You that starving to death in this wilderness is not going to help You or these, these sinners? Tell You what Jesus, and I’m saying this in Your best interests, why not forget this fast and turn these stones to bread? Nobody’s here. You don’t have to tell anybody You listened to me; I won’t say anything. Who’s to know You’ve listened to the devil?” Jesus declined saying, “Following God is more important to a right-living man than is bread.”
Well, Satan knew He had been rebuffed, but Jesus’ refusal had been, at least in his estimation, pretty mild. That’s why Satan next took Jesus to the top of the temple. There, while the faithful from all over the world came to worship the Lord, Satan said something like, “Jesus, will You look at all those little people down there. Those are the sinners You’ve come to save. You, not the lambs being sacrificed, are to be the final offering to redeem them. Now, I’m not even going to try and talk You out of all that. .. but I’m wondering … isn’t Your ultimate goal to get people to believe on You? If that’s the case, here’s what I’m suggesting. You jump off here and trust Your Father’s angels to gently float You to the ground. All these people will be impressed. They’ll believe on You and You can entirely avoid the whipping and the beating and the cross. Sounds like a good idea to me; what do You think?” Since I can’t see into Jesus’ heart I don’t know how tempting those words would have been. I do know what Jesus said, “Look, we both know My life has to be given in Substitution for theirs, so don’t tempt me with avoiding the cross… and don’t tempt me into jumping. You don’t test God that way.”
Another rebuff. Well, you know what they say, “Third time is the charm.” Which is exactly why the devil took Jesus to a high mountain. There, in quick panorama, he showed the Savior all the kingdoms of the world. He showed Jesus power, glory, wealth. Then he began his pitch which went something like this: “Pretty impressive, isn’t it? Jesus, you were born into this world as a King. You ought to be. You’re smarter, stronger, and holier than all of them put together. Think of the changes You could make; the sins You could wipe out; the diseases you could conquer if You ruled the whole world. It would be awesome! Tell You what, let’s make a bargain. You drop to one knee and worship me and all of this is going to be Yours. And do I need to remind You, with my plan there is no bleeding, whipping, and dying. So, Jesus, what do You say?” Now, you and I would probably have said, “Yes! Anything other than that cross. Brother, devil, I’m on board. Let’s rock.” But Jesus is not us. He is far better than us. That’s why, that day in the wilderness, Jesus said, “no” to Satan’s sinful shortcuts.
Of course, that was not the last time Satan tried to tempt Jesus. He continued to show up; he continued to suggest how Jesus could do a good thing if He would only accept a shortcut or two. If you read the four Gospels, you can almost hear Satan’s whisperings. I think Satan was there when Jesus spoke with the Pharisees and Sadducees whose only common ground was found in discrediting, dishonoring, and disgracing the Christ. On those occasions I imagine Satan would have suggested Jesus would be accomplishing a good thing if He used His divine powers to vaporize these smug, self-centered snobs.
When Jesus went on trial before the Jewish Supreme Court, did the devil not say, “Defend Yourself, Jesus! You know the laws better than they do; You know these trials are illegal for a multitude of different reasons. Jesus, make a Defense because if You don’t, that cross is coming closer.” When He was before Pilate, did Satan not say something like, “Jesus, do You hear the crowd calling for Your crucifixion? I know You’ve got the power to do something about that. You’ve given speech to those who had none, now take speech away from those who are calling for Your death. Why should You die for this mob?”
When the Savior hung on the cross, did not Satan sneak past the guards and whisper: “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, look at Your mother. You’re breaking her heart. It doesn’t have to be this way, You know. Go ahead, get down off the cross.” When the unrepentant thief yelled at Him to free them all, didn’t the devil agree by saying: “You know, Jesus, that’s not such a bad idea. No, You don’t have to take this criminal down. He’d just go back to His old, murderous ways of life. But You, Jesus, You don’t deserve this. You’ve lived a perfect life. Heaven knows You’ve resisted every temptation I’ve thrown at You. You’ve been whipped, beaten, spit upon, lied about, betrayed, deserted. It’s enough. You’ve done enough. Jesus, look down the centuries. Do you see the millions, the billions who are going to hear about what happened here and they’re not going to care? They’re going to go on with their lives as if nothing of importance took place. They’re going to act as if You had never existed. Jesus, You’ve done more than anybody could ask or expect. Well, what do You say? I say, ‘Come down from that cross and do it now; DO IT NOW; DO IT NOW!!! You can live.'”
I pray you know what Jesus did that day, how He reacted to those sinful shortcuts. No, let me tell you. Jesus did what He did every day. Jesus turned Satan down. Turned Him down cold. Jesus turned the devil down and then He died. Yes, Jesus died to save you. He took no sinful shortcuts because He knew every one of those shortcuts left you dead and in hell. It was His commitment to saving you which kept Him on that cross. It was His desire to rescue you which had Him say a farewell to His mother, His family, His friends. It was so you, a sinner, a sinner who has taken many sinful shortcuts, might be forgiven and given life eternal that He died. It was so you could be sure, so you could believe that He had done all which was necessary to save you that He rose from the dead on the third day. Now a living Lord Jesus Christ, having conquered sin, death, and the devil’s sinful shortcuts, comes to you and says: “Repent, believe, be saved.”
You do believe that, don’t you?
A number of years ago the FBI went into an Oklahoma town to investigate the work of a tremendous marksman. They wanted to find him for two reasons: first, they wanted to ask him to quit taking pot shots at posts and signs; second they wanted to ask him to train them in marksmanship. They wanted him to share how he could hit dead center on every target. When they found the man, he told them: he shot first and drew the target around his bullet hole. The man had adopted a sinful shortcut. Don’t you. Salvation is offered only through faith in the Savior Who gave Himself to save you. Believe it and be saved. To that end, if we can help; please, call us at The Lutheran Hour. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers)
March 13, 2011
Topic:Will We Recognize Friends and Family in Heaven?Announcer: And now, questions from listeners. I’m Mark Eischer, here with our Speaker Emeritus, Pastor Ken Klaus.
Klaus: Hi, Mark. And it is about time we remind folks that they can send their questions to us…. because this part of the broadcast is really their part.
Announcer: All right. Well, if you have a question about God, faith, or some other spiritual concern, call us at our toll-free number: 1-800-876-9880 or email Pastor Klaus at ken.klaus@lhm.org. Which brings us now to our topic for today.
Klaus: Fire away!
Announcer: Actually, it’s a topic we’ve discussed, I think, on at least one previous occasion. But it seems to be one of those issues that bother people.
Klaus: A perennial. So, what’s the background?
Announcer: Our listener tells us that her mother died last year. They had a wonderful relationship. In many ways, they were the best of friends. They talked often on the phone, they enjoyed each other’s company. And it’s not as if our listener now has been left all alone since her mother’s passing. She tells us she has a wonderful husband, two great children, and many friends at work and at church.
Ken: What else?
Mark: She writes: “I know mother went to heaven. She had an absolutely unshakable faith in Jesus as her Savior. As she went through her battle with cancer, her faith grew even stronger. It’s a credit to her and to my father that I, my sister, and two brothers, are all still faithful in church.”
Klaus: I can’t think of a more beautiful epitaph for parents than that last line.
Announcer: At the funeral, she told her pastor she was looking forward to seeing her mother once again in heaven and that’s when he said, ‘Yes, but you will not know her, because the Bible says, in heaven we are like the angels.’ And that statement has been bothering our listener ever since.
Klaus: OK. I want to handle this gently and I need to think about how to pick my words. You see, it is never the job of “The Lutheran Hour” to contradict a minister or any clergyman–wait, let me change that. It’s not our job to contradict any pastor or clergyman who’s following Scripture.
Announcer: But is this pastor not following Scripture?
Klaus: Well, the quote he gave was from Mark 12:25. That’s the passage where Jesus was talking with the Sadducees.
Mark: They were a political and religious group of that time who didn’t believe in the resurrection.
Ken: Actually, they didn’t believe in a lot of things! Here, they were trying to trick Jesus with a question about a woman who had had several husbands during her lifetime. They wanted to know: in heaven, whose wife is she going to be?
Announcer: And Jesus didn’t take the bait?
Klaus: No, He told them, “you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven.”
Announcer: So, was the pastor wrong in what he said?
Klaus: Well, Jesus is talking here more about the marriage relationship and not whether we would recognize our loved ones. He didn’t say she wouldn’t recognize all those former husbands-she just wouldn’t be married to any of them.
Mark: Jesus also doesn’t say that we will be angels, but that we’ll be like them, in that angels don’t marry.
Ken: Yeah, I would say this: when Jesus told the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, those two knew each other. When Jesus was transfigured, by the Holy Spirit’s power the disciples recognized that it was Moses and Elijah there on the mountain with Him. When Jesus rose from the dead, He had a glorified body, but the disciples still recognized Him, as did Mary and the others.
Announcer: Can you think of any other passages?
Klaus: Well, the Lord talks about our names being written in the Book of Life. That’s us, as the individuals we are. Jesus told the thief on the cross that he would be with Him that day in paradise. Not all thieves, not the other thief who was crucified with them, but this particular thief. .
Announcer: So, was her pastor then wrong in the way he interpreted this passage?
Klaus: If you’re asking whether I can cite a passage in Scripture which says, “In heaven we become interchangeable, nameless, faceless beings, devoid of personality,” I find no such passage that says that. On the other hand, I do find passages that indicate this lady will know and be known by her mother in heaven when they are reunited in the joys of heaven-a joy made possible through the salvation Christ won for each of us.
Announcer: Thank you, Pastor Klaus. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music selection for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“I Walk in Danger All the Way” arranged by Henry Gerike. Used by permission.
“Jesus, Lead Thou On” (public domain) “Go to Dark Gethsemane” arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
“As Rebels, Lord, Who Foolishly Have Wandered” by Stephen Starke & Jeffrey Blersch.
From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House) Used by
permission.