Luke 4:1-13 (NRSV) First Sunday in Lent
The Temptation of Jesus
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. 3The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to
become a loaf of bread.’ 4Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “One does not live by bread
alone.” ’
5 Then the
devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the
world. 6And the
devil said to him, ‘To you I will give their glory and all this authority;
for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. 7If you, then, will worship me, it will
all be yours.’ 8Jesus answered him,
‘It is written,
“Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only him.” ’
9 Then 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 your God to the test.” ’ 13When the devil had finished every test,
he departed from him until an opportune time.
Luke records an interesting detail neglected by the other
evangelists - the fact that Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit. This is of great
significance for us today. Satan often increases his attack on people,
especially after they have drawn close to God in a special way. There are
countless examples of this in the Scriptures. When we are at a high point in
our spiritual lives, we must be particularly careful to be on our guard against
Satan and his devices.
It is also important to remember that the Holy Spirit
leads us not only beside quiet waters. As he led Jesus into the desert, the
Spirit might also lead us into difficult situations. God never causes anything
evil or bad to happen - he cannot - he is the source of everything that it
good. But evil and suffering exist because of human disobedience and Satan's
evil devices. When we find ourselves in difficult situations we need to first
make sure that we have not brought the problems upon ourselves because of our
sin. If we find no sin or unwise behaviour to repent of then we can know that
God will take us through the trial in the power of his Spirit and so we need to
be open to the Spirit's leading.
Let us examine the perfect example of Jesus.
We are not fundamentalists, but the existence of evil is
real. Caird provides (for me) a good explanation of the significance of
referring to the ‘Devil’. For many modern readers, the mention of the devil ‘…
invests the story with an air of unreality and even of superstition.’ The devil
is obviously a mythical figure, but myth must not be confused with legend or
fairy-tale. ‘Myth is a pictorial way of expressing truths which cannot be
expressed so readily or so forcefully in any other way …’ Caird suggests that
there are five (at least) truths that are safeguarded by belief in a devil: (i)
Evil is real and potent – there is a power that can get a grip on human life
and society; (ii) Evil is personal – there is often a choice to obey God or
dismiss him and his ways; (iii) Evil is distorted good – evil persists when the
good things of God become distorted (iv) Evil masquerades as good – often good
things for the wrong motives and at the wrong time and (v) Evil is the enemy.
The use of the Devil symbolizes all of this – a mythical character who
represents all this – and all this is real.
Jesus recognised this. We need therefore to learn from
Christ, our saviour and Lord, how best to deal with our common enemy.Notice that
the devil (or Satan) is subtle. Satan is very clever and knows exactly where
our weaknesses lie. Note how expertly he tried to trap Jesus. He knew that
Jesus had just heard those beautiful words “You are my beloved Son ...” and so
Satan tries to sow the seed of doubt by questioning Jesus with the words “If
you are the Son of God?” The first thing that Jesus needed to do was determine
whether this was the same voice that he had heard at his baptism or a different
voice. Satan seldom makes his presence obviously felt. In this instance, we can
presume that it was not absolutely obvious to our Lord whose voice it was and
so he had to put what was said to the test.
Notice also how the subtlety of Satan also extends to
tailor-making temptation for the person being tempted. Satan knew that Jesus
would not be tempted to do anything that was obviously immoral or antisocial
and so he tried to tempt Jesus to do good, virtuous and blessed things. All
temptation is to do what is attractive, but the most powerful is that which tempts
one to do what appears to be good.
Let us examine, then, the three temptations of Jesus. (i)
In verse 3 we read: ‘The devil said to Jesus, "If you are God's Son, tell
this stone to turn into bread."’
Imagine the struggle that this question posed for our
Lord. Was this his Father speaking to him? Did the Father intend him to provide
materially for the people? Was it not the Father's will that the starving
masses of the world be fed? Would it not be proper for the Messiah to devote
himself to meeting this most significant and real of all human needs? No person
can doubt that it is good to feed the hungry. Jesus therefore needed to find
out if this was the Father's will. This is one of Satan's favourite ploys, i.e.
to persuade people to take action - even the right action - but for the wrong
reason and at the wrong time. What Jesus did and what we all need to do is put
everything to the test.
We cannot simply convince ourselves that it must be God's
will because what we feel motivated to do is good. How we put things to the
test is quite simple - what does not agree with Scripture does not come from
God. According to Scripture, people are higher than animals which live on the
level of physical needs. Humans must be concerned with many things beside just
our physical and material needs. Caird writes: 'To give priority to man's
physical needs is to strip him of his dignity and make him one with the beasts
that perish'. Nobody would deny that people need food - but food is not our
only or our deepest need. Fellowship with God growing out of obedience - even
if this might mean experiencing hunger - is the deepest need of all people.
Jesus therefore refused to be diverted to meeting peoples’ superficial needs in
place of their deepest needs. He also refused to abuse his power by meeting his
own personal needs by satisfying his hunger. Hence Jesus' reply in verse 4:
'"The Scriptures say, 'No one can live only on food'"'.
(ii) Verses 5-7 record Jesus' second temptation: The
devil led Jesus up to a high place and quickly showed him all the nations on
earth.. The devil said, "I will give all this power and glory to you. It
has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. Just worship me,
and you can have it all." In Psalm 2:8 we read: 'Ask me for the nations,
and every nation on earth will belong to you.'
All the nations of the earth in fact do belong to Christ
by right. Jesus knew this. The question that remained was how were they to
become his in reality? Just think of what Jesus could have achieved if he were
to have become an earthly political and military ruler. How simple would the
task of world-wide mission have been? Among the Jews, the Zealots actually
expected the Messiah to come as a conqueror who would lead them to victory in a
war of liberation. Miller points out how strong this temptation must have been
for our Lord. He reminds us that Jesus had grown up under Roman authority. Much
of what he had earned as a carpenter would have gone to pay unfair Roman taxes.
He had also experienced first-hand the havoc wrought by Rome to his people -
and he too must have longed for a time when his people would be set free from
oppression. But Jesus knew that His kingdom was meant to be of a different
kind. He had already, through his baptism, identified himself with sinners whom
he had come to save. He knew that the Father had called him to a lowly path,
not one of earthly glory. It meant a cross and not a crown. To look for earthly
sovereignty was to worship wickedness and Jesus decisively renounced that. He
could only receive power and authority from the Father. Satan's dominion over
this earth is for a limited period of time. Jesus took it from him - he did not
need to receive it from him - he had the power to take it from him - which he
did on the cross. Once again Jesus appealed to Scripture, i.e. Deuteronomy
6:13: We read in verse 8: Jesus answered, "The Scriptures say: 'Worship
the Lord your God and serve him only'."
(iii) Verses 9-12 tell us of the last temptation: Finally
the devil took Jesus to Jerusalem and had him stand on top of the temple. The
devil said, "If you are the God's Son, jump off. The Scriptures say: 'God
will tell his angels to take care of you. They will catch you in their arms,
and you will not hurt your feet on the stones'."
Jesus was tempted to perform a spectacular, but pointless
miracle. Satan misused Scripture to assure Jesus that he would be kept safe.
What Psalm 91 actually says is: 'If you love me and truly know who I am, I will
rescue you and keep you safe ...' Therefore, it is in the obedient service
which flows from loving fellowship with God that His promises are validated,
not at any time and under any circumstances and especially not to cause
sensation and draw attention to ourselves - which is what Satan was tempting
Jesus to do. And so Jesus responds in verse 12: '... Don't try to test the Lord
your God!' Once more Jesus did not chose the easy road to success through
sensationalism that would never last, rather he remained on the hard road of
service and suffering that would eventually lead to the cross - but afterwards
also to the crown of glory.
Our passage concludes with verse 13: “After the devil had
finished testing Jesus in every way possible, he left him for a while.”
Each of these temptations had attacked Jesus at a point
of strength - not weakness - his compassion, his commitment, his faith. Jesus was
able to rebut Satan by correctly using the Scriptures. Jesus placed himself,
therefore, under the authority of Scripture and therefore also the authority of
God. And the devil could therefore achieve nothing and so left him for the time
being. Jesus had won an initial victory, but these same temptations were to
recur throughout his ministry finally culminating in the mocking cry of Luke
23:37: "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself!"
Wilkinson reminds us that “ … at every
great moment of spiritual vision and exaltation there comes the inner struggle
of thinking out how it is to be achieved in practice, and lived out in daily
life …” By this time, the human Jesus must have known that he was in fact the
long-awaited Messiah and in some unique sense the Son of God, but this would
have raised the question: “What now? What must I do?”
We know that ’40 days’ is the Biblical
way of referring to an indefinite period of time – something similar to us
referring to ‘… for weeks …’ Simply put, Jesus spent ‘weeks’ exploring and
rejecting one way after another as he thought out the meaning of his life and
work and in the process, many tempting possibilities presented themselves to
him – but he needed to resist them.
Later Jesus must have discussed the
process with his disciples saying something like – “It was as though the devil
was trying to get me to …” and used a form of parable to both make sense of it
all for himself and to his followers. This is a powerful method because when we
are trying to express something so deep and significant in our lives, ordinary
cognitive language just does not always work – we need something more symbolic
and allegorical if we are going to do justice to making sense of it all.
Wilkinson makes an important further
observation: “… the more we meditate on them the more depths and unexpected
glints of meaning they reveal to us …” One of the reasons why I often enjoy looking
at different translations, is that they too often provide a different shade of
meaning and can lead us on to different and interesting paths.
Jesus would have been tempted to meet
the physical and economic needs of the people. The Jews were desperately poor
at the time and it is difficult to listen to any good news if one is
financially oppressed and burdened. But we also know that having wealth does
not solve things. Just last evening I read of the suicide of a Lottery winner.
But it does not alter the fact that financial worries are serious and I was
saddened to hear of an old lady who took out a store card only to find that her
pension was not enough to meet the payments and also contemplated suicide. It
must have been hard for Jesus not to take this route.
Jesus would have been tempted to be a
political Messiah as this is, after all, what his people wanted almost more
than anything else and he would have known as well as anyone, the difficult
life lived under Roman oppression.
Many of my students still say that if
they could experience a miracle they too would believe, so Jesus, wanting to
give people real life, full life, life that comes from faith, would have been
tempted to do the spectacular. (This was also part of the myth of the expected
Messiah). But this would not have been true and in the end, when difficulties
were to arise – as they always do because we live in a fallen world – this
faith would dissolve. We know that even
Jesus had to face this reality as the passage ends with: “13And when the devil had ended all the
temptation, he departed from him for a season.” The same basic temptations
would have remained with Jesus throughout his ministry and including the cry of
taunt when he was on the Cross: “Save yourself!”
Wilkinson challenges us to be
progressive in our thinking and theology stating: “If we are doing no more than
thinking the thoughts of our grandfathers, there is something wrong with us as
Christians.” We must not be like the Pharisees whose minds were closed to new
thoughts. Many rejected Jesus because he was re-interpreting what was
considered to be traditional orthodox wisdom. This should be a warning to us.
How are we tempted? Are we tempted to
put our faith in money and material goods; political power and to do the sensational?
I still far prey to these from time to time – especially the money issue – with
two mortgages, school fees etc., etc., and Trish’s job coming to an end soon. I
know I need to follow Paul’s injunction in Romans 12 to undergo a renewal of my
mind.
Blessings to all this Lent.
References:
Barclay, W, Daily Study Bible: St Luke
Caird, G B, Saint Luke (Pelican)
Miller, D G, Layman’s Bible Commentary: St Luke
Wilkinson, W, Good News in Luke