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February 21, 2010
“Temptation”
Luke 4: 1-13
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Have you ever been tempted by Satan in person? Have you ever seen Satan face to face. I don’t think I have, but Martin Luther said he had, and the he threw his ink well at Satan. In this passage we are told that Jesus was tempted by the devil. It seems that Jesus knew that these temptations were coming directly from Satan.
Satan had to tempt Jesus in person because, although Jesus was tempted so he could be more like us, in some ways Jesus is fundamentally different from us. We have corrupted human natures. We are fallen creatures. Jesus is neither a creature nor is he fallen. His humanity was not corrupted by sin and or sinfulness as is ours.
Most if not all of our temptations come from within us, from our corrupt human nature. Now if you believe that there is a devil or Satan, then you probably would concede that your temptations come from him subtly working in your sinful nature.
But from this passage it appears that Jesus met Satan either in person or in a vision. Because of Jesus’ sinless human nature, his temptations could not come from within him but they had to come from outside or beyond his Human nature.
The gospel informs us that Jesus had just come from the Jordan River where he had been baptized by John the Baptist. He was now ready to begin his earthly ministry. He was filled with the Holy Spirit. But that Spirit of God first led him into the wilderness to be starved for 40 days and to be tempted by satan. The bible makes it clear that God does not tempt anyone, but God does take us to places where we will be tempted by our own sinfulness or the sinfulness of others or maybe even Satan.
These Temptations of Jesus were targeted specifically to the divine and sinless Jesus. That may be why it is difficult for us to understand the specifics of them.
The first temptation was for Jesus to use his divine power to turn stones into bread and to end his starvation. Jesus had not eaten for 40 days and in that wilderness there were stones that looked a lot like the small, flat, circular loaves of bread that were common in that time and place. Because we are not Jesus, it is difficult for us to determine exactly why it would have been sinful for Jesus to use his power to do this. We have been taught that we are to use our powers and abilities to feed ourselves rather than to depend on God or others to feed us.
In the second temptation listed by Luke, Jesus is offered a deal to take charge of all the kingdoms of the world if he would bow down and worship Satan. Now we do understand how sinful it would be to worship Satan, but we do not understand how this could be a temptation for Jesus.
In the third temptation Jesus was bidden to jump from the corner of the temple porch roof into the valley 450 feet below. Satan used a scripture verse from Psalms to assure Jesus that God would send angels to keep his Messiah from injuring himself in such a manner. This would cause people to immediately recognize Jesus as the messiah and would make his ministry easier, or so Satan wanted Jesus to think.
But the truth was that God evidently planned for Jesus to be recognized as the Messiah in a gradual way. He did some miracles here and there and made some Messianic claims here and there, but when certain people began to proclaim him as the messiah, Jesus told them to be quiet. He was about 2 years into his 3 year ministry before he even asked his Apostles who they thought he was.
So, while it might not be easy to determine why these temptations were so tempting to Jesus, it might also be unnecessary. I don’t think we need to understand the temptations, we just need to understand how Jesus withstood his temptations. And that is clear. He quoted Scripture. Now I don’t think we need to memorize and quote scripture to resist temptation, but I do think we need to know God’s desires for us that are revealed in the Scriptures. If you want to resist temptations, if you want to live the kind of life God wants you to live, you have to know what God wants and that is revealed in his Holy word, the bible.
Jesus’ answer to the first temptation was a phrase found in Deuteronomy 8:3 “One does not live by bread alone.” If understood properly, this concept will enable us to withstand a lot of temptations. Many of us are tempted to gratify our desires for earthly goodies and pleasures immediately. The commercials and advertisements try to get us to think that our well-being is tied up in purchasing just one thing. If we enjoy just this one pleasure our life will have value.
But Christians need to remember that our lives already have value. We are not only created in God’s image, we are also citizens of his Eternal kingdom. The pleasures and possessions of this world do not add value to our lives, we are already of great value, we are a part of God’s kingdom, we were purchased for that kingdom by the death of God’s son. We do not live by bread alone, we live by the power of God and it is our duty to please Him. For Jesus to have turned the stones into bread would have somehow displeased the father.
It is interesting to note that Luke did not finish Jesus’ quotation of the last half of Deuteronomy 8:3 The text that starts where Jesus started and finishes the verse reads “Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord”. Jesus understood that it was more important for his well-being to obey God than it was to eat, even when he was starving. Now usually the two are not mutually exclusive, but in this case they were. Do you understand how God wants us and you to behave and do you understand how important it is that we do behave in the ways God has commanded?
Jesus answered the second temptation by quoting Deut. 6: 13 “Worship the Lord your God and serve only Him.” Now few of us have ever worshipped other gods or even been tempted to do so, but how about serving other god’s or beings? How about serving the devil? I would be willing to guess that most of us have done the devil’s bidding on occasion. The choices we are given are often not clearly good or evil. Sometimes our options are limited to less evil. And sometimes it seems OK to do something shady or outright wrong to accomplish a good and honorable goal.
Jesus understood that he and we are to serve only God. We are not to have mixed motives or evil routes to a good goal. We all know who we Worship, but I wonder if we all remember who we are supposed to be serving. We are to be serving God, not ourselves and not tainted groups of people.
In the third temptation Satan quoted Scripture to tempt Jesus. He quoted a portion of one of the Psalms. The devil and liars and evil-doers can sometimes disguise their evil deeds in scripture verses and as serving righteous causes. That is helpful to remember.
Jesus responded by quoting Deut. 6: 16 “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” It means do not force God’s hand. Don’t put him or yourself in a situation where you will be forcing God to act. In the original text in Deut. there is a mention of Massah. That was the name given to the place in the wilderness where the Jews rebelled against Moses and God because God had not yet given them water from the rock.
It had been God’s plan to give them water from the rock and thus show his ability to take care of them. But they grumbled and complained rather than waiting on the Lord and their bad attitude overshadowed and detracted from the miracle of the water from the rock. We are not to force God to do things according to our plan or our timetable, we are to wait for God’s perfect plan and his perfect time.
Now you may have noticed that Jesus found all of his answers to these temptations in 2 chapters of Deuteronomy. There may be a reason for that. Deuteronomy was one of the first books of the bible taught to Jewish boys in the synagogue and in the home. In using these verses, Jesus was quoting some of the first lessons he learned from Scriptures. This might remind us how important it is to teach our young ones truths from the bible in our Sunday School, our Church and in our homes.
Now I would like to be able to tell you that Jesus so thoroughly defeated Satan in these temptations that Satan left him forever and never tempted him again. But that is not what the bible says. Verse 13 tells us: “When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.” Until his death and resurrection Jesus was tempted. And as long as we live on earth we will be tempted from time to time. Someone recently sent me an e-mail that said “Opportunity may knock only once, but temptation will bang on your back door forever.” Well, in our case not forever, but for the rest of this life. So be ready. Read your Scriptures to know what God expects of you and depend on Him for guidance and help.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at February 21, 2010 03:21 PM