January 18, 2015: Tempted in the Wilderness

Matthew 4:1-17

Then the Spirit led Jesus up into the wilderness so that the devil might tempt him. ² After Jesus had fasted for forty days and forty nights, he was starving. ³ The tempter came to him and said, “Since you are God’s Son, command these stones to become bread.”

⁴ Jesus replied, “It’s written, People won’t live only by bread, but by every word spoken by God.”

⁵ After that the devil brought him into the holy city and stood him at the highest point of the temple. He said to him, ⁶ “Since you are God’s Son, throw yourself down; for it is written, I will command my angels concerning you, and they will take you up in their hands so that you won’t hit your foot on a stone.”

⁷ Jesus replied, “Again it’s written, Don’t test the Lord your God.”

⁸ Then the devil brought him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. ⁹ He said, “I’ll give you all these if you bow down and worship me.”

¹⁰ Jesus responded, “Go away, Satan, because it’s written, You will worship the Lord your God and serve only him.” ¹¹ The devil left him, and angels came and took care of him.

¹² Now when Jesus heard that John was arrested, he went to Galilee. ¹³ He left Nazareth and settled in Capernaum, which lies alongside the sea in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali. ¹⁴ This fulfilled what Isaiah the prophet said:

¹⁵ Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
        alongside the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles,
¹⁶     the people who lived in the dark have seen a great light,
        and a light has come upon those who lived in the region and in shadow of death.

¹⁷ From that time Jesus began to announce, “Change your hearts and lives! Here comes the kingdom of heaven!”

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When I was a kid I watched the Chicago Cubs on WGN in a quasi-religious way.  I had a little schedule with all of the game times and locations.  I’d tune in, yell at the TV, sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame with Harry Carey,” and jump up and down when they won (which never happened as often as I’d like).  My favorite player, hands down, was second baseman Ryne Sandberg. He won Gold Glove after Gold Glove, he could hit and he always had a good attitude.  After watching a game I’d go outside and bounce a ball off of the garage wall, attempting to imitate his back-handed catching method with a quick throw to first base.  I got pretty good at it…mostly. There were a few broken windows here and there.

These memories came to my mind as I read our Gospel lesson for this week. There are many ways to look at Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness: you could look at what Jesus is able to do and say, “Wow, glad he could do that because I never could.”  Or you could look at these verses and say “Wow, Jesus is showing us how we can face temptation and fight the devil in our own lives.” Both have advantages, and pitfalls.

Let’s start with the pitfalls.  Much like my attempted emulation of Ryne Sandberg, if I try to measure up to Jesus Christ the Son of God, I will only come away with discouragement and failure…broken windows if you will. That’s one problem, but there are dangers on the other side of things.  To just say "Well, Jesus does it for us and aren't we glad he does?" And leave it at that is okay, but will leave me a little less than excited. It could also lead me to think, “Hey it doesn't really matter what I do, it's all cool.” I might not think this consciously, but these sorts of thoughts have a way of boring into our subconscious and resurface as we live our lives.

What can we gain from this story about Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness?  Plenty! We actually can learn from Jesus’ here:

·        He turns to Scripture, which keeps him connected with his Father, in-line with his Father’s will. We can do the same. God has provided us with a wonderful gift in the Bible.  Having a few verses “on call” won’t go amiss at all!

·        He refuses to use his power, privilege and abilities for selfish gain. The first two temptations (creating food, being saved by God in times of trouble) are GOOD THINGS.  In fact, Jesus will make sure thousands of people are given bread in the wilderness in just eleven chapters.  The devil is working hard to convince Jesus to be selfish…the same can happen to us too.

·        Jesus is not afraid to tell Satan to get lost.  I believe that we have the same ability.  James tells us to “…resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7b) 

We also learn a few things about the devil:

·        He appears to Jesus only AFTER Jesus has gone forty days and forty nights without eating.  I bet he didn’t get much quality sleep either. The Tempter will wait for our low points too, before striking.

·        The devil appears to be very, VERY reasonable in his initial “recommendations.” What’s wrong with a little bread?  What would be so bad for Jesus to be saved if he fell from the Temple? It’s only later that the devil will try to get Jesus to serve him.  The devil is sneaky: we see it here.

·        The devil knows scripture too, and he can use it in a very savvy way.  I imagine that the devil knows the Bible much better than you or I do.  (I suppose he’s had much more time to learn it). 

So we’ve learned a few very useful things for our own life here.  Much like my time spent watching Ryne Sandberg field groundballs, these verses allow us to watch the master at work.  That’s a good thing!

But at the same time we can breathe a sigh of relief and say (quite literally) “Thank God for Jesus Christ!” Frankly I could not measure up to what Jesus has done. If I could there would be little need for him to have come into our world.  As Christians we follow Jesus, we love others as he has loved us and we sit up and listen when he is speaking…but in the end he’s the Savior, the Shepherd, the Pioneer and Perfecter (Hebrews 12 anyone?).