Matthew 4: Showdown in the wilderness
There is so much to see in the records of Jesus'
temptation in the wilderness. One way of looking at them is to see
in all of them that Jesus rests in complete trust and dependence on his
Father's will. Milton's Satan says at one point that it's better to
reign in hell than serve in heaven. Jesus takes the opposite approach.
Despite
the fact that he must now be conscious of his capacity as Messiah and
the anointing of the Spirit to work miracles he won't feed himself and
so ease his crying need. His power is real, his hunger is real but so is
his Father's purpose for him at this time; a purpose made clear by the
fact that the Holy Spirit drove him into the wilderness (Mark 1:12).
Jesus, the Son of God, recapitulates the experience of Israel, the son
of God (Exodus 4:22-23) and is brought into the wilderness that he might
learn to depend wholly on his Father's will (see Deuteronomy 8:2-3 and
Hebrews 5:8-9 and note Isaiah 63:10-14 and Luke 4:1 with its imperfect
verb "led").
Israel's temptation in the wilderness
was real but since they were incapable of changing stones into bread
their temptation was of a different order than that of Christ's. Here's
someone who has creative power—who can feed thousands with bread that
isn't there until he wills it to be there—and even in his extreme need
won't exercise it because his Father wills him to be in extreme need. He
will not exercise even God-given power contrary to what he perceives to
be his Holy Father's will.
Yes, but if (since) he
is God's Son should he not claim executive privilege, the world-spirit
wants to know. In refusing life-giving bread at that point Jesus insists
that he wants life only on his Father's terms; he will live only if the
Father says so and not by bread alone (Matthew 4:4).
To
the powerless temptation is real and agonizing but it is no less real
to those with power; those who can rationalize their way to ease and out
of suffering; those who can rationalize with words such as Satan used,
"Surely if…" Powerlessness can corrupt—of course! Bitterness, despair,
resentment, envy and violence are its fruit but power corrupts and we
need no lessons on how it shows itself. What Jesus refused to do for
himself he did for thousands of others and in doing it for them in his
personal ministry here he was telling the entire human race that one day
there will be a new heaven and earth and the curse will have been
entirely removed.
As Matthew 4 has it the second
temptation is for Jesus to fling himself from the pinnacle of the
temple. The boundless trust that's seen in refusing to ease his hunger
now becomes the very thing that is the source of temptation. Here's a
critical temptation for those who have deep faith in God—force God's
hand. Do it because you trust him!
Again,
the Son of God treads the ground where Israel, the son of God, trod and
while in both cases the temptation deals with faith in God, in Israel's
case the issue was a lack of it and Jesus' case it was the profound
presence of it. "Is God with us or not?" the people peevishly demanded
to know— the people God had just rescued from centuries of slavery
(Exodus 17:1-7; Deuteronomy 6:16). The source of their trial was their
lack of trust in God and Jesus' trial was that because he trusted so
implicitly that Satan urged him to exercise that faith by forcing God's
hand. "Throw yourself into the arms of God's protecting angels," is the
satanic thought, "and prove your faith and make God respond marvellously
to match a person of your calibre. Faith like yours must put God to the
test!" Here Jesus makes it clear that using your trust to put God to
the test, to force his hand to keep us from "harm" or "failure" is every
bit as unworthy as not trusting him—it is, in truth, an even more
subtle form of distrust. He would not turn his trust in God into a test
of God—he would have none of it! Here indeed T.S Eliot's lines are seen
well illustrated.
The last temptation is the greatest treason:
To do the right deed for the wrong reason.
To do the right deed for the wrong reason.
While
I'm sure that is true perhaps I need to nuance it more carefully than
that. "If you're truly the Son of God not only should you not be going
hungry, you have the right to know that God is with you and here in this
wilderness, can you be sure of that? The wilderness speaks its blunt
message and it looks like God is not with you so it's hardly
unreasonable if you put him to the test."
And in
the third temptation, we have the Son and heir of all things on his way
to glory and dominion, to the fulfillment of God's promises. How will he
gain it? What he is shown is the kingdoms of the world! Isn't that what
he wants—universal dominion? Here it is for the taking if only he will
go the way of the world to get them. But if he would take them from some
hand other than his Father's (see Psalm 2:7-8), that's all they
would be—kingdoms "of the world". Another empire like Rome's! But he
later told Pilate, "My kingdom is not of this world!" For him there
could only be "a new heaven and a new earth." The only dominion he
wanted—and if he couldn't get it he would have none at all—was the
dominion his Father had promised him and it was by becoming obedient
even to death on a Roman cross that he would gain a name above every
name—Lord!
"If I live," he said, "it's because the Father says so!"
"I will not corrupt my faith and make a test of my Father," he said.
"Better to serve my Father than reign with you," he said
No wonder Christians glory in Jesus! No wonder they call themselves Christians! Who else is worthy?
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.