The Temptation of Jesus

Matthew 4.1-11

The Temptation of Jesus

4Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ²He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. ³The tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’ ⁴But he answered, ‘It is written,
“One does not live by bread alone,
   but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” ’

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, ⁶saying to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written,
“He will command his angels concerning you”,
   and “On their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” ’
⁷Jesus said to him, ‘Again it is written, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” ’

8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour; ⁹and he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.’ ¹⁰Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! for it is written,
“Worship the Lord your God,
   and serve only him.” ’
¹¹Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

Luke records an interesting detail neglected by the other evangelists - the fact that Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit. 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 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. By this time, the human Jesus must have known that he was in fact that there was something special about him and that, in some unique sense, he was the Son of God, but this would have raised the question: “What now? What must I do?”

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 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.

Notice that the devil often also referred to as 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 was it 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, but for the wrong motive and at the wrong time. 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."’

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 recently 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 so she also contemplated suicide. It must have been hard for Jesus not to take this route.

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: ⁴But he answered, ‘It is written, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” ’ 

 (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.' 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.

All the nations of the earth in fact do belong to Christ by right. 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 7: ‘⁷Jesus said to him, ‘Again it is written, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” ’ 

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 10: '... 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.

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!"

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 fall prey to these from time to time – especially the money issue – with two mortgages, school fees etc., etc., I know I need to follow Paul’s injunction in Romans 12 to undergo a renewal of my mind.