The Temptation Of Jesus
THE TEMPTATION OF JESUS
LUKE 4:1-13
Do we aim to know our Bible, so that we can use it when the devil attacks us?
Behind the palms, cypress and jacaranda of the town of Jericho, a mile back from the arid mound which covers the remains of a dozen ancient fortresses on the old, historic site, stands a harsh, bare mountain on the edge of the Judaean wilderness. This is the traditional place of Christ’s temptation.
How was he to conduct his ministry? As the wonder-worker, able to feed a hungry multitude and turn the stones to bread? The host will follow those who feed them, as he himself once said (John 6:26). Was he to seek the path of worldly influence and power in wider spheres than the little land? And as he wrestled with this thought perhaps he saw what he had often seen from the high uplifted edge of hills where Nazareth stood. The vast level floor of Esdraelon lies beneath. It was a highway of all nations. Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Greek and Roman had marched that way. Alive and vivid in his memory was the vision of the “kingdoms of the world,” seen again “in a moment of time.” Palestine was small, obscure, trampled by the vast empires.
And then Jerusalem. Should he stand aloft on the temple top, and shatter all the scorn and incredulity of men by demonstrating his faith in Scripture, and his own Messiahship? The storm raged through him, for he was “tempted in all ways as we are,” and it is only those who do not yield who know the ultimate impact of the testing.
Matthew changes the order of the trials. And how true it is that temptation is repetitive, varied, resourceful. A mind is behind temptation, organizing the attack, in open confrontation or in ambush, varying the assault, probing for the weak places, returning, switching the attacking thrust now here, now there …. And for long weeks it continued as he threw back the invasion, and answered with Scripture each twisted argument. We are safe when we can so reply.
Notes Hebrews 4:15 suggests that this was not the only temptation. The temptation in the wilderness was an assault on Jesus as Messiah rather than as Man. 4:5-8: the repudiation of the Jewish idea of the Messiah is involved here. 4:10: Psalm 91:11-12 was regarded as addressed to the Messiah.