Temptation

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written: `Man does not live on bread alone.' "

The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours." Jesus answered, "It is written: `Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.' "

The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down from here. For it is written: `He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.' " Jesus answered, "It says: `Do not put the Lord your God to the test.' "

When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time (Luke 4:1-13).

Just before the events related in the verses, Jesus had come to John to be baptized in the Jordan River. Up until this point, Jesus had been growing into a mature man at home with His mother, foster father, and His half-brothers and sisters. Now at the age of 30, Jesus had reached the point in life where His countrymen would consider Him a true adult, a man who had lived enough life to have an opinion worth listening to. Now it was time for Jesus to begin His public ministry, and His baptism with the Holy Spirit set this ministry into motion.

But before Jesus would gather disciples around Himself and begin teaching and performing miracles, there was one last thing which He needed to do; Jesus had to ready Himself for His work by confronting His enemy, the devil. And Satan did not disappoint our Lord—He came and tried his hardest to trick Jesus into committing a sin, an act that would displease His heavenly Father. Satan’s reason was simple: if he could get Jesus to do just one thing wrong, Jesus would no longer be perfect—He would become a sinner like us, and as a sinner Jesus would not be able to offer a perfect life to God in place of our sin-filled lives. If Satan could get Jesus to sin even once, salvation for all mankind would be lost.

But did you realize that these three temptations are basically the same temptations that Satan uses against us as well? Hebrews 4:15 says this about Jesus: we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin. The temptations that Satan brought to our Lord are the same temptations that he dangles before us every day; so it is important that we understand just what they entail.

In the first temptation Satan says, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread." Luke says that Jesus was hungry, because as part of His meditation He had gone without food for 40 days. Eating food can be a pleasure, and Jesus had avoided any pleasure that could distract Him even momentarily from His devotion to God and the work that His Father was giving Him to do. So Satan suggests to Jesus that our Lord use His divine power to transform a stone into a loaf of bread to eat.

How is this a temptation? Jesus’ answer tells us. Jesus quotes Deuteronomy Chapter 8 verse 3: `man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.’ Jesus makes the point that human existence is about more than the wants and needs of the body; for a human being to be truly alive, the soul needs a relationship with God just as much as the body needs food to eat. To focus on the physical more than the spiritual is to invite eternal death, not just physical death.

Satan was tempting Jesus to shift His focus from trust in God to His own needs of the moment. Jesus knew that His heavenly Father loved Him; the Father had said so out loud just 40 days ago at the Jordan River. Would the Father who loved Jesus allow Him to come to harm through starvation before His ministry had even begun? Of course not—Jesus had no doubts that God the Father would take care of His every need. To go ahead and make bread on His own initiative would demonstrate a lack of trust in the Father—and failing to trust in God’s caring love is a sin.

Basically, this is the temptation of impatience. When we become impatient, we demonstrate a lack of trust in God to give us just what we need, just when we need it. When we become impatient, it is always for earthly things—a new toy, a new car, a new house, a new job, a new relationship. When we become impatient, the focus of our attention is pulled away from God to the things of this world—things of the body, not of the soul. When we become impatient, we try to set our own goals, our own timelines. Everything in our lives takes a backseat to our impatience—even God.

But Jesus does not want us to be impatient; Jesus wants us instead to trust in Him. Jesus said, do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well (Luke 12:29-31). James adds, Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near (James 5:7-8). When we act out of impatience, it is as if we are saying that God isn’t doing a good enough job for us, so we will take matters into our own hands—"play god", in a sense. It is important that we try to resist the temptation to be our own "god", because when we do this, we break the first commandment "You shall have no other Gods." Psalm 27 tells us what God expects of us: Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.

In the second temptation Satan says, if you worship me, it will all be yours. The reason that Jesus came into the world was to save humanity from sin. We are all born selfish; it is not in human nature to treat others as more important than ourselves. We might love one or two people enough to sacrifice everything for them, but we certainly wouldn’t give up everything for a total stranger, or, even worse, a person who hates us. But that is the kind of love that God expects from each of us—a love that puts the needs of the billions of people of the world ahead of our own. And because we do not love like this, we are condemned by God as cold and unloving.

But Jesus is the one who does love perfectly. He is the one who came to sacrifice His life as Son of God and Son of Man, so that the uncountable multitudes of history could be offered forgiveness for their selfishness—He is the one who put the needs of every man, woman and child before His own. But to be able to offer us that mercy, Jesus had to suffer as no one has ever suffered—suffer God’s holy wrath at the selfishness of all those men, women and children. This suffering would be so intense that in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Son of God sweated actual drops of blood just thinking about it.

And so Satan offers Jesus an alternative: take the easy way out. Don’t go to Gethsemane; don’t go to trial; don’t go to the cross; don’t die. There is another alternative. Satan offers Jesus a devil’s bargain—simply worship Satan, and the devil will stop contesting with Jesus for each human soul. Of course, this offer is only fool’s gold—the moment that Jesus worships Satan instead of God, He breaks the First Commandment and joins humanity in being condemned to hell with Satan. But Jesus replies, `Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'

Basically, this temptation is the lure of taking the easy way out. Through this temptation, Satan suggests that the end justifies the means. It is the temptation that police officers constantly face—if I bend the law a little, I could catch more criminals; but in bending the law, do I become a criminal myself? The devil wants you to wrestle with questions like these: "To get into the college I want, should I cheat on a few tests so I can get a better GPA?" "Should I lie on an application so I can get a good-paying job to support my family?" "In order to get a person to marry me, how much of myself do I keep a secret while we are dating?"

But our Lord does care about how we conduct ourselves in the pursuit of our goals. Jesus said, If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching (John 14:23). James instructs us, submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7). And Jesus has shown us how to resist the devil; each time that He was tempted, our Lord Jesus turned to holy Scripture for His defense—the same holy Scripture that you and I have for use in our defense against temptation.

In the final temptation, Satan himself turns to holy Scripture; from Psalm 91 verse 11 he quotes, `He will command his angels concerning you to guard you…’ Here, Satan tries another aproach. In the first temptation, he wanted Jesus to act without thinking about God; in the second temptation, he wanted Jesus to devote Himself to a different god. Now Satan wants Jesus to abuse His relationship with God. Satan suggests that Jesus can win a lot of converts easily by a splashy display of divine power—jump from the pinnacle of the Temple itself, and let God miraculously save His life in front of the religious leadership and the pilgrims filling the courtyard. Such an act will win over the people who, in three years, will otherwise be demanding that Pilate crucify Him. And such a display would be okay with God, Satan says, since God has promised to protect the faithful.

But Jesus does not accept Satan’s misuse of Scripture. It is one thing to trust in God, it is another thing to presume on God. Jesus references Isaiah chapter 7 verse 12 when He says, do not put the Lord your God to the test.

The third temptation is to commit the sin of taking God for granted. This sin is one that is unique to Christians. As Christians, we know that Jesus suffered and died to make compensation for our sinfulness. As Christians, we know that as soon as we ask Jesus to forgive us, all our sins are instantly disregarded by God, giving us a new start. But it is easy to take this undeserved gift, this grace, for granted. How many Christians have partied hard on a Saturday night, with the thought that they can go to church in the morning and be forgiven for it? How many believers have made impulsive decisions, rationalizing to themselves that God will protect them from the consequences? How many people have neglected worshipping God or reading the Bible, thinking that they’ll get serious about religion when they get older? Dietrich Bonhoeffer called this attitude towards God’s mercy "cheap grace." C. Wayne Pruitt explains, "Cheap grace is grace that is used as an "insurance policy" to continue to repeatedly commit the same sins that you were saved from and mercifully forgiven for. The reason I used the words "insurance policy" [is] because…Jesus paid the price for our sins when He died and rose… and we are insured because He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. When you knowingly and willfully continue committing the same sin relying on your "insurance policy" you cheapen the gift of grace that God has blessed you with."

God’s mercy offered through Jesus is the best gift of all. It gives us release from guilt over our mistakes. It gives us confidence to approach our Lord in prayer and thanksgiving. It gives us hope that when death ends our lives, we will find ourselves in Jesus’ arms forever. But this gift did not come cheap—it cost Jesus the sufferings of hell for every person who has ever lived. It cost the Son of God His very life! It is indeed wonderful that our Lord did this for us. It is wonderful that He has returned from death to life so He can forgive us every day. But He still bears the marks of the crucifixion—in John chapter 20 we read, Now Thomas…one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it." A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." Our Lord still bears the marks of the punishment for our sins; we dare never take His love for us for granted.

Impatience with God. Taking the easy way out. Treating Jesus’ sacrifice as if it is something cheap. These are the best weapons that Satan has to bring against us. On our own, we don’t stand a chance against them. Thankfully, Jesus succeeded in resisting these temptations where we have failed. Thankfully, He forgives us for our failures. Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Resist him with the Word of God, because it is only through the Word of God that we are saved.