Testing 1, 2, 3,

Luke 4: 1-2, 9-13

1Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 2where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished.

9Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,

11and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”

12Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘Do not put the LORD you God to the test.’” 13When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until and opportune time.

This is the Word of the LORD

Thanks be to God

Judges 6:12-18, 36-40

12The angel of the LORD appeared to [Gideon] and said to him, “The LORD is with you, you mighty warrior.” 13Gideon answered him, “But sir, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our ancestors recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has cast us off, and given us into the hand of Midian.”

14Then the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and deliver ISrael from the hand of Midian; I hereby commission you.” 15He responded, “But sir, how can I deliver Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” 16The LORD said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike down the Midianites, every one of them.” 17Then he said to him, “If now I have found favor with you, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. 18Do not depart from here until I come to you, and bring out my present, and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay until you return.”

36Then Gideon said to God, “In order to see whether you will deliver Israel by my hand, as you have said, 37I am going to lay a fleece of wool on the threshing room floor; if there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will deliver Israel by my hand, as you have said. 38And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. 39Then Gideon said to God, “Do not let your anger burn against me, let me speak one more time; let me, please, make trial with the fleece just once more; let it by dry only on the fleece, and on all the ground let there be dew.” 40And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew.

This is the Word of the LORD

Thanks be to God.

Test, test, testing...

One, two, three Sundays in Lent. One, two, three Sundays in our series on the book of Judges. One, two, three Sundays with Luke’s account of the temptation of Jesus.

Some sermon series take shape because I’m excited to delve in to the subject matter over the course of several weeks. Other sermon series are a way for me to force myself to get to know a subject better, to go from the broad survey to the intimate understanding that can only come with living with a book over a period of time.

Judges is one of the latter. As I read through the book trying to pick passages to highlight on this preaching and lecture tour during the season of Lent, I was totally stumped. The Bible is the story of God’s relationship with God’s people and this part of the story is characterized by God’s people inviting punishment after punishment upon themselves. Not a lot of good news in this book.

Test, test, testing...

When we read scripture through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we can see new things. One, two, three temptations of Jesus: one does not live by bread alone, Worship the Lord your God and serve only him, and do not put the Lord your God to the test; match up closely with three of the stories at the beginning of Judges. Deborah the prophetess brings the Word of God which sustains us more fully than bread alone. The earliest chapters of Judges show the pattern of abandoning the LORD and worshipping and serving other Gods.

Then we get to Gideon, who puts the Lord his God to the test. One, two, three weeks with Judges and one, two, three weeks with the temptation of Jesus, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Three weeks, and Gideon comes up with three tests of the Lord his God. “Do not depart from here until....” “If there is dew on the fleece alone....” and “Let it be dry only on the fleece...,” Gideon is testing the Lord his God.

In just a chapter or so Gideon will lead his people into idolatry and ruin, so when he goes and does things that Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, says we shouldn’t do, I’m going to take Jesus as the example we’re supposed to follow. Gideon is not an ideal, he’s a faithless twerp who uses his cleverness to mask his cowardice. One commentator, Daniel Block, described the test of the fleece this way:

“Despite being clear about the will of God, being empowered by the Spirit of God, and being confirmed as a divinely chosen leader by the overwhelming response of his countrymen to his own summons to battle, he uses every means available to try and get out of the mission to which he has been called.”

For a hero of the faith, Gideon sure isn’t very heroic.

And yet, there are days...

Test, test, testing, 1, 2, 3,

There are days when I cannot see the blessings all around me, even though they’re there. There are days when I cannot focus on strength, because I’m irretrievably distracted by weakness. There are days when Gideon speaks for me, “But sir, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all the wonderful deeds that our ancestors recounted to us?” There are days...

Perhaps you have days too, days when you struggle with self worth. Perhaps there are days when you do not trust that you are not qualified for the work to which God calls us. Perhaps there are days when, even when you know what you ought to do, you just don’t have it in you to do it. There are days...

There are days when faith is too hard to trust, but cynicism seems reliable as ever. There are days when the hope of the gospel seems out of reach, but a worldly despair is easily at hand. There are days when loving my neighbor is work for which I am ill-equipped, but I have everything required to judge them.

Testing, 1, 2, 3...

There are days when the example of Christ is too high a bar for me to even see, much less clear. There are days when Gideon’s reluctant and faithless service is the realistic goal. There are days when the best news is that God is working through me even when I am entirely unworthy.

Gideon is an unheroic hero of the faith, but his existence still points us to good news. He’s a sympathetic character with whom we can all identify. When the angel of the LORD appears to him and says “The LORD is with you, you mighty warrior,” it seems more like a joke than an affirmation. Gideon requires proof before he will serve. So often we also require substance before we can hope. We require evidence before we can see. Our title “beloved child of the covenant” sounds like an empty platitude rather than a ferocious claim of love. It’s a great deal easier for us to see Gideons in our midst than apostles...

Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3...

God still works through Gideon. God chooses Gideon not because he is qualified or because he is uniquely positioned to do good in the world. God chooses Gideon for reasons that are entirely God’s own. Gideons qualifications, positions, abilities, experience, certificates of merit, and participation trophies are entirely irrelevant. If God even required a strong faith, Gideon would not have been chosen. Gideon hears God’s command, see’s God’s blessings, and his response is testing, 1, 2, 3, times before he acts on what God has set in motion. Yet God remains faithful to the people, even though “[God] is obviously more interesting in preserving [God’s] people than they are in preserving themselves.” God continues to use Gideon, the faithless twerp who uses cleverness to mask his cowardice, despite his many failings.

Testing, 1, 2, 3...

Jesus tells us “It is said, ‘Do not put the LORD you God to the test.’” Gideon shows us that even if our faith is so weak that we have to test God constantly, God still works through us. Jesus was tempted in every way that we are, and remained sinless. We face our temptations already stained by sin in everything we do, but that won’t stop the God who loves the world from working through us nonetheless.

After all, Jesus didn’t come for the righteous, he came for the sinners. Jesus didn’t come for the healthy, he came for the sick. Jesus didn’t come for the faithful, he came for the faithless. Jesus came for Gideon, and he came for us.

As redeemed by the Lord, as children of the covenant, as fellow heirs with Christ, God is intervening in the world through us. God is using you to change the world, whether you like it or not.

There’s not a call to action in this sermon. There’s not a “change your hearts and lives” call to repentance. There’s not a “go and do likewise” charge. The LORD had already commission Gideon before he even started testing. The LORD likewise has already commissioned each of us from before the foundation of the world. Your qualifications, positions, abilities, experience, certificates of merit, and participation trophies are entirely irrelevant. God is doing ministry through us no matter what.

Jesus is holding us, unworthy and faithless servants that we often are, near to the heart of God no matter what.

That’s good news. Amen.