Temptation: What's THAT All About? Scene 1

Everyone has hang-ups, things about them that are kinda messed up. For me, I sometimes think that everything is about me. Vain, arrogant…ultimately: foolish. But when it comes to spiritual warfare, I’m not off the mark. Things that happened directly affect me, and are indirectly about me.

I’ve heard the story of the Temptation of Christ numerous times. . And my perception of the story changed a lot from when I was kid, to when I was an adult, to just 2 mornings ago in the shower. That’s right…sometimes thoughts come to me, when my mind should be on body wash and exfoliation.

For purposes of this blog, please take 45 seconds and read it again (Luke 4:1-13).

Thank you for your time.

Evolution of Thought

I. This is Dumb

When I was a kid, my thoughts regarding this scripture were more along the lines of: “Silly devil, Trix are for kids.” I thought everything that happened in the wilderness was ridiculous on the part of Satan because, umm…Jesus is God! When I was a kid, the whole fully God/fully Man thing didn’t mean a hill of beans to me. I was so focused on the “fully God” part that I spent my childhood wondering why Christ didn’t simply blast the devil with the lightning that I was certain He could just shoot out of His hand at will.

As I grew up I realized that God had subjected and submitted Himself to the bounds and limitations of human flesh. And so, my thoughts evolved to:

II. Oh!!! This is an Example

This is what I call the Hebrews 4:15 ideology. The Word became flesh so that It could get where I’m coming from. Duh! Jesus actually let himself be vulnerable (just by nature of being in the flesh) to the attack of Satan. This whole thing is an example of how to withstand the wiles of the wicked one. Jesus answered with scripture, we should respond with scripture. We have to be strong in the Word, it is our only weapon. All that is true, but (and this is part of my shower thought) this is an example of something else as well: how Satan operates:

Per that last verse (Luke 4:13), Satan seeks opportune times to tempt us:

1. When we’re alone – Jesus was by his lonesome in the wilderness.
2. When we’re in a weakened state – Jesus hadn’t eaten ANYTHING in 40 days

And Satan isn’t dumb at all! He’s quite clever. He will tempt you, and attempt to trick you, based on WHO YOU ARE. In this instance, Satan structured this temptation to get at what he figured would be Jesus' weak points based on the fact that He was both fully God and fully Man.

Appealing to the Reality of Jesus' Power

1. “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
   Satan couldn’t tempt ME with that one, because—tragically—I cannot turn stones into bread. I don’t have that power. But Jesus does! If Jesus is hungry, why wait? He could’ve turned those stones into bread tastier than the most awesome thing Panera has to offer, but He didn’t. Why?

Appealing to Anger and Pride

2. “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.” First off, per Psalms 24:1, this is a dirty lie. Jesus answers every temptation with scripture. Why didn’t He use this psalm? Because that's a Psalm of praise, and Jesus is all about humility. Satan was trying to provoke anger and pride by taking credit for Jesus' work (i.e. Creation).

Appealing to the Divinity of Christ

3. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” See how he tried to put Jesus on the spot? If you're the Son of God...jump! I won’t lie to you, up until 2 days ago in the shower I thought Satan was trying to trick Jesus into suicide. Genius!! But…it’s bigger than that. If I threw myself off of a cliff, I would die. If Jesus threw Himself off a cliff…what Satan said would happen would probably happen. But something else would happen as well. Something very terrible.

Remember what I said about everything being about me? In the shower, thinking about the whole attempted-trick-suicide thing, I realized, this is all about ME! Well, not just me, but rather us. It was about rendering Christ an:

III.“Ineffective Sacrifice”

Jesus is the perfect sacrifice for our sin, and Satan was pulling all those shenanigans in order to render it ineffective.

More on this in Temptation: Scene 2.

P.S. In case you didn't get my image at the top...that's Jesus at the cliff.