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| The Temptations of Christ, 12th century mosaic at St Mark's Basilica, Venice |
Matthew 4:1-11
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.
It's the first Sunday of Lent and by now your fight to abstain from meat on Fridays and give up whatever additional goodies (or baddies) you have chosen has been put to the test several times over. It is a time when many feel a kinship with Jesus and his temptations in the wilderness as one of the biggest enticements to sin surrounds food. Or maybe you are a Christian who doesn't participate in Lent. I didn't practice a Lenten fast until I was in my latter twenties. Being raised as Baptist in the Deep South I always thought it was more of a Catholic thing. Like many I thought that Catholics had their traditions and we had our Scripture quoting. Of course this is a false paradigm. Their are many other Christian groups besides Catholics, including many Protestant denominations (and even a few Baptists) who practice a fast for Lent. The real distinction on Lent is not a Protestant/Catholic one but rather between traditional Christianity and simplified Christianity... in other words one group tries to keep up the spiritual practices of their Christian historical forefathers while the others try and reduce Christianity to its essentials first century form (as much as possible). Upon close inspection one will find that their are elements of simplification in the traditional method and tradition in the simplified method. Case in point: Many in the simplified approach may use an altar call, an invention of the 1800's, to invite people to become Christians and/or members of the local church. These two methods don't have to be mutually exclusive. Which brings up back to today's scripture of Matthew 4:1-11. It has something for everyone: fasting and scripture quoting. It is a testament to the value of spiritual discipline and biblical literacy being tied together in the life of any believer. Specifically these two are shown as tools Jesus used to fight the three types of temptations we encounter. These are highlighted in 1 John 2:16 as 1) the lust of the flesh 2) the lust of the eyes and 3) the pride of life.
Act 1: The lust of the flesh
Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”
Jesus was hungry. Jesus needed food. Doesn't seem like there's any sin in that right? Well it depends on the particular situation. Most sins of the flesh are like this. They deal with our physical bodies and its needs and/or strong desires. Food, sex, sleep, entertainment, etc.: all of these things are not sin in themselves. They can be good things or even great things but in the wrong context they can be sinful and/or destructive things. Jesus wasn't a gluten-free type of guy. Bread would normally have been great for Jesus. His flesh longed for it. He would later share it at the last supper as a symbol of his body and sacrifice on the cross, but at this particular moment in this particular context it would have been disobeying God. Jesus responds to Satan with a Deuteronomy 8:3. He basically stated that being a child of God sometimes means saying no to what your body demands if it is saying yes to what God's word demands. Our life isn't sustained by food but by the Lord. the giver of life.
Act 2: The pride of life
Satan responds to Jesus' use of Scripture as a defense by contorting Scripture himself. He tempts Jesus by misusing Psalms 91:11-12. This can be seen as the temptation to commit suicide but it seems more like the temptation to abuse his authority as the Son of God for his own good. Remember Christ came not to flaunt his power but rather to give up his power: to become powerless to gain us back through the sacrifice of his own life. To throw himself off of the temple to show that the angels would protect him would just be taking pride in his own power... and Jesus displayed constant humility in his earthly ministry. Jesus' response to this temptation also displays his reverence for biblical literacy and comprehension. It is not only important to know the Bible, but it is paramount to understand it. Jesus responds to the temptation by quoting Deuteronomy 6:16. Scripture must be reasoned with other Scripture: it is the whole counsel of God that gives wisdom. There are many atrocities that have been committed in the name of the Christian God and with a certain scripture as a pretext, however, when they are held up to the light of Christ they lose all biblical validity.
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| Temptation_of_Christ, Eric Armusik |
Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”
Here is where I reveal myself as more of a hack than an expert. This final temptation seems like it could go into the pride of life category as well as the lust of the eyes category. There are actually a few of them that could fit multiple categories. Temptation and Sin can be hard to categorize...it can even be harder to detect. Everything that Satan showed Christ (all of the kingdoms of the world) would be his eventually. I mean, doesn't Philippians 2:10-11 say that every knee shall bow and tongue confess to Christ? Christ didn't even have to worship Satan to get this, he's just have to be patient. Hence he rebuked the Devil and quoted Deuteronomy 6:13. Or maybe I'm not understanding it fully. Not only is the worship of Satan to get worldly kingdoms wrong but the desire to have the kingdoms of the world and their systems is wrong. Remember, Christ had a kingdom, but it was not of this world. It was not one that his disciples would have to physically fight men to establish and it was not one that they would have to quarrel amongst each other to have dominion in. The Kingdom of God is within our hearts when our hearts are within the Love of God.
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| Jesus Ministered to by Angels, James Tissot |
Though Christ was fully God, he was also fully human. He dealt with temptation just as we do jet remained sinless. It is because of this that Hebrews 4:15-16 states that Christ is our sympathetic high priest. One that is willing to give us mercy and grace in our hour of need. That is the point of Lent to understand the weakness of the mortal flesh and our reliance on the power of the Almighty God. Lent keeps things in perspective: we wear ashes on our forehead to symbolize that we came from dust and we shall return to dust... only the spirit remains. It is the things of the spirit that we must invest in. But this post isn't to sell you on Lent. Maybe you object on biblical grounds to making an outward show of fasting. The objective of this post is to remind you of the Truth behind the practice that it is trying to convey. The biblical truth. The truth of Jesus' 40 day temptation and victory over sin. His latter confrontation with the cross and victory over your sin. His understanding, mercy and freedom from your spiritual conflicts. Fasting and meditating on Scripture help fight temptation. And when the situational temptation leaves it will reveal that God remains there ministering to you.
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