“Then was Jesus led
up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil” Mt. 4:1
The temptation of Jesus in the final preparation for his
public ministry has for us important and beautiful lessons. Jesus’ temptation here says something to us
about who He was. When we think of Jesus
as both God and man, there is a confusion that arises in our minds. How is that possible? How could God possibly become a man, and how
could a man possibly be divine? The two
do not ‘fit’ in our perspective. Our
experience of human personality is so limited and narrow, we have difficulty
getting our minds around it. We can only
think of a “half-man, half-God” person, and we have trouble with that.
But the Bible says something quite interesting here about
this - that Jesus was led by the Spirit (Mark says “the Spirit drove Him”) into
the wilderness “to be tempted of the devil”. It suggests for us the truth that Jesus is
walking as a man, identifying with us in our spiritual struggle, facing our
temptations, and that the Spirit is leading him to do that very thing. Jesus was sinless, so in that respect he was
not like a man. We might be led to think
that disqualifies him from truly sharing our human nature. But clearly he WAS tempted as a man. Sin is
no part of our human nature – it is rather a corruption or perversion of it. In contrast, temptation to sin IS a part of
our God-given makeup, as made in his image.
(Remember the garden?). So Jesus
DID partake of our human nature, emptying himself (Phil. 2) to become like us,
and so he was tempted “like as we are”.
The temptation of Jesus was not with barefaced “evil”, but
with “good things”, with the seeking of inferior forms of good, seeking good by
easier paths than the cross, of taking shortcuts to accomplish “good”
things. Rather than go hungry, he should
use his powers toward meeting his own needs.
Rather than patiently walking in obedience to his Father’s will, he
could put God to the test – “How will he react if I jump?” Rather than go to
the cross in the battle for souls of the world, he could just bow down to Satan
and have it all so easily. He came to set up a spiritual kingdom, a
kingdom “not of this world”. But Satan
tested him – right here at the outset of his work - toward a worldly approach,
toward one that appealed to human nature and worldly values. These same temptations are the ones that
plague us: to choose the easy way, to walk by worldly principles, to take the
shortcuts to worldly power and freedom. Jesus could not give in. He was beginning to build his church by a
life and death given to the will of the Father.
The temptation of Jesus was the opening up of his public
ministry. He could speak to men with
authority about the issues of the soul and the conscience and the reign of God
[kingdom of God], because he knew both sides.
He knew the redemption initiated by the Holy Father – indeed he was [is] the redemption – and he also
knew the limitation, the weakness, the discouragement, the temptation, the sadness
and sorrow of men/women. And he
resisted, endured, obeyed, triumphed, honored God! Not just in the Judean wilderness for 40
days. But during all of his self-emptied
life, all of his opposition, all of his growth, all of his learning, all of his
self-discipline, all of his focused surrender, even unto death – He endured, He
overcame, He redeemed, He birthed a new creation, He honored the Holy Father, even
to the death of the cross!
It was not so much the joining of two natures in Christ –
half God and half man. That is too
difficult for most of us to reconcile.
But rather think of the holy love of God displayed in this way, with the
Son emptying himself, humbling himself to become like his brethren, taking a
place in human form at the right point in history. Then through his walking in the world, facing
temptation, teaching, trials, obedience, suffering, culminating in his death,
so as to accomplish the divine scheme of redemption, and to realize again his
own deity (“the glory that I had with thee before the world began”), to reunite
himself with his own divinity, in a grand tribute of honor to the Holiness of
the Father.
In this view of things, the Eternal Son - the lamb slain
before the foundation of the world - renounced his own divinity, withdrew from
certain divine privileges and knowledge, consented to take the form of a man, walked
in humility beginning as a peasant and a servant, facing temptation (the most
real of our temptations – to take our own way rather than God’s), hardship,
poverty, rejection, persecution and even the death on the cross. On this path he retraced as a man the steps
to his divinity, living in homage to the Holiness from which he came, reuniting
himself with his Father who rejoiced to raise him up again, having seen the
travail of his soul and been satisfied (Is. 53).
But what is all that to you and me? How does his life and death – his humility
and his majesty, the action of his humanity turned again to meet the action of
his own deity – meet the need of my conscience, my guilt and failure? I can only watch with gaping mouth and foggy
eyes. I cannot hope to accomplish the
same. I cannot draw near to it. He faced my temptations and he overcame; I
faced them and gave in to them so many times.
But from the haze of that very bright cloud rises the
message of the gospel, ringing through the pages of the Book. Ringing through ages of time. By
faith! By faith in Christ as the Son of God I can be joined with him! By faith I can die with him and I can dwell
in Him! By faith I can surrender to him,
and let my will be conformed to His will!
By faith I can know the love of the Father and the Son… and they will
come and make their abode with me! Larry Walker,
June 2013
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