C. Jesus’ temptations (4:1–13)
C. Jesus’ temptations (4:1–13)
Jesus had just been baptized and now looked forward to the public ministry to which he had set his hand, but first he spent time in quiet reflection in the wilderness. The story is of great interest in that it cannot have come from anyone other than Jesus himself. Clearly he faced questions like: What sort of Messiah was he to be? Was he to use his powers for personal ends? Or for the establishing of a mighty empire that would rule the world in righteousness? Or for working spectacular, if pointless, miracles? He rejected all these for what they were, temptations of the devil. That they were temptations implies that Jesus knew that he had unusual powers. ‘It is no temptation to us to turn stones into bread or leap from a Temple pinnacle’ (Barclay). But Jesus was not bound by our limitations. He knew he had powers other men do not have and he had to decide how to use them. Matthew has the second and third temptations in the reverse order, a fact that has never been satisfactorily explained (the reasons suggested are all subjective).
1–2. Matthew and Mark tell us that Jesus was brought into the wilderness by the Spirit, but Luke alone says that he was full of the Holy Spirit. He also says that it was ‘in (rather than by) the Spirit’ that Jesus was led. Satan indeed tempted Jesus, but there was more to the story than that. The activity of the Spirit shows that it was in God’s plan that right at the outset Jesus should face up to the question of what kind of Messiah he was to be.
3–4. Satan began with Jesus’ hunger and went on to raise a doubt as to his divine Sonship. Jesus had just heard a voice from heaven calling him ‘Son’ (3:22). Satan suggests that he verify his Sonship by turning a stone into bread. The problem for Jesus was to know whether the voice he now heard came from the same source as the heavenly voice. His answer came from the Bible (Deut. 8:3). What does not agree with Scripture does not come from God. The essence of the temptation may have been to use miraculous powers to supply bread to the hungry, i.e. to become a social worker. But there were no hungry people with Jesus in the wilderness, so it is more likely that the temptation was to use his powers for the supply of his own (legitimate) personal needs. The words in which the temptation was rejected have a wide application. People must be concerned with many things besides bread (cf. John 4:34). We are not simply animals, living on the level of physical needs.
5–8. Luke does not say, as Matthew does, that the devil took Jesus to a high mountain to show him all the kingdoms of the world. He emphasizes not the place from which the vision came but the fact that the evil one brought before Jesus all the world’s pomp. He claimed it as his own (for Satan as ‘the ruler of this world’, cf. John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; Rev. 13:2), and promised to give it to Jesus if only he would worship him. This means that Jesus saw the possibility of setting up a kingdom that would be mightier far than that of the Romans. It is not difficult to see how such a vision might be regarded as a legitimate aim. It would mean government concerned only with the genuine welfare of the people and the way would be opened for much good. But it meant compromise. It meant using the world’s methods. It meant casting out devils by Beelzebub. For Jesus it meant turning his back on his calling. His kingdom was of a very different kind (John 18:36f.). He had already identified himself with the sinners he had come to save (3:21). That meant the lowly path, not that of earthly glory. It meant a cross, not a crown. To look for earthly sovereignty was to worship wickedness and Jesus decisively renounced it. Once again he appealed to the Bible (Deut. 6:13), pointing out that the worship of God is exclusive. None other than he is to be worshipped.
9–12. The third temptation is located in Jerusalem. Jesus is invited to throw himself from the pinnacle of the temple. The article shows that a definite pinnacle is in mind, but we cannot identify it with certainty (suggestions include the apex of the sanctuary, the top of Solomon’s portico and the top of the Royal portico). The temptation may have been to perform a spectacular, but pointless miracle in order to compel wonder and belief of a kind. But since nobody else is said to have been present the temptation may rather have been, as Jesus’ answer seems to indicate, that of presuming on God instead of trusting him humbly. Farrar draws attention to an important point when he cites Augustine’s comment that Satan can do no more than suggest: only the tempted person can perform the wrong act (throw yourself down). The evil one on this occasion quotes Scripture (Ps. 91:11f.) to assure Jesus that he would be safe enough. But this is a wrong use of the Bible. It is twisting a text to suit a purpose. Jesus rejects this temptation as he had the other two by appealing to the real meaning of the Bible (Deut. 6:16). It is not for a member of the human race to put God to the test, not even when the member in question is the Son of God incarnate.
On all three occasions Jesus countered the temptation by quoting from Deuteronomy and in fact from the restricted area between 6:13 and 8:3, chapters that refer to the wilderness experiences of Israel, the people of God. It may well be that Jesus had given a lot of thought to these passages as he reflected on the mission to which God was calling him. There were parallels in the experience of the ancient people of God to those in his own experience. He was one with the people of God.
13. Throughout these temptations no special resource is open to Jesus. He met temptation in the same way as we must, by using Scripture, and he won the victory. But his temptations were his own, those of the Son of God, not those typical of pious people. Luke rounds off the narrative with Satan decisively beaten. He had ‘finished tempting Jesus in every way’ (NEB), but Jesus had not yielded. This does not mean that from this point on Jesus was not subject to further temptation (‘The temptations are rejected, but the reader is warned that we have not seen the last of Satan’, Richardson, p. 19). Conzelmann maintains that Luke pictures Satan as absent during Jesus’ ministry, but this is not in accordance with the facts (cf. the work of Satan in 8:12; 10:18; 11:18; 13:16; 22:3, 31, and the references to temptation or to testing, which imply his activity, in 8:13; 11:4, 16; 22:28). The devil left him only ‘till a fresh occasion should present itself ’, as Rieu translates. There is no freedom from temptation in this life. There was not for Jesus and there is not for us.
4. Jesus in Galilee (4:14 – 9:50)
Luke proceeds to Jesus’ ministry in Galilee. Much of the material in this long section is shared by Matthew and Mark, but Luke gives it all his own stamp.