Jesus returned from the Jordan, filled with the Spirit. The Spirit took him off into the wilderness for forty days, to be tested by the devil. He ate nothing during that time, and at the end of it he was hungry.
'If you are God's son,' said the devil, 'tell this stone to become a loaf of bread.'
'It is written,' replied Jesus, '"It takes more than bread to keep you alive."'
The devil then took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
'I will give you authority over all of this,' said the devil,'and all the prestige that goes with it. It's been given to me, you see, and I give it to anyone I like. So it can all be yours...if you will just worship me.'
'It is written,' replied Jesus, '"The Lord your God is the one you must worship; he is the only one you must serve."'
Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and stood him on a pinnacle of the Temple.
'If you are God's son,' he said,'throw yourself down from here; it's written that "He will give his angels a command about you, to look after you"; and "They will carry you in their hands, so that you won't hit your foot against a stone."'
'It has been said,' Jesus replied, '"You mustn't put your God to the test."'
When the devil had finished each temptation, he left him until another opportunity.
Jesus suffered in all the ways we do. This was extremely difficult for him. We have this image in our minds that Jesus just had all the answers and just kind of blew through his ministry without really having to think too much, pray too much or suffer too much...it was easy for him, after all he's the son of God. The scriptures speak directly against this sort of thinking. To do so would be to rob Jesus of the fullness of his humanity and of his identity 'in Adam'. Jesus, as Israel's king was to embody Israel, only for him it was to succeed where Israel had failed, to be the one faithful Israelite and at the same time to do and say the things that only YHWY did and said. We see Jesus come through the waters of baptism and then led forth by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested. This is echoing the Exodus and Israel's coming out of slavery, through the Red Sea, forty years in the wilderness led by the pillar of fire, stumbling, testing God, tempted by all sorts of temples and their idols, desiring immediate gratification for the flesh. As a matter of fact all of Jesus' responses to the devil come from this period of Israel's history. Jesus will not only have the right words to speak he will have the right context and character to grasp onto them in his innermost being empowered by the Spirit that has come to rest upon Him, the Helper.
The devil is our adversary, but make no mistake he stands under God's authority. It is his desire and responsibility to sift us and when he does it is hell. Everything is rapid fire...accusations, fears, demons who don't want to give up any ground, evil is constantly in your ear..."if you are really a child of God..." fill in the blank. You see the sin and contrary spirits in everyone around you and worse you can't get away from yourself. When Jesus cleanses the temple it can be fierce battle. The devil's testing can be even more fierce. You don't just casually recite a couple verses...you hang on to His words as though your life depended on it. That is where Jesus is right now and this is spiritual warfare at it's most vivid...the prince of 'this world' and the King-to-be doing battle at the supra-personal level.
Here the devil appears not as a serpent but as a voice in Jesus' mind, taunting and prodding, echoing again the whispering lies in the garden only now in a wilderness. If he is to be Messiah, what kind of Messiah would he be, many have come and gone and been sifted out, shown to be nothing more than dust. These temptations make sense, they sound good, they almost fit the scriptures but they miss the character and nature of the servant who relies fully on God, the child who is faithful and righteous. The one by whose stripes we are to be healed. This is not about being true to the scriptures as much as it is about being true to the heart of God. The devil knows the scriptures, he has no heart.
First the devil tries to get Jesus to use His authority to do a cheap magic trick to feed his own immediate needs by turning a stone into bread, this echos the water from the rock and the manna from heaven. Jesus will eventually take bread and fish, that which God had already provided, and multiply God's blessing to feed many...here we see Jesus using his authority for its appropriate purpose unlike what the devil would have him use it for here.
Next the devil tries to lure Jesus into following his ways (worshiping) and serving his condemning and ultimately destructive purposes by promising him status and power. Jesus did not, however, come to be served but to serve and to serve God alone which is somehow directly linked to serving those around him ultimately to the point of death. Jesus would eventually make a public spectacle of the devil on the cross, tearing him apart and casting him down in the courts of the Most High and then Jesus would take his throne high above all kingdoms and authorities, having all authority on earth and in heaven given over to him by the Father.
Finally, the last temptation for Jesus was to put God himself to the test by intentionally putting his own life in jeopardy just to prove he was the son of God. Jesus will ultimately lay his life down in the pursuit of God's people as was His Father's will, but it is God himself who will vindicate him and Jesus knows and loves and fears His Father knowing that ultimately the scripture the devil quoted will be fulfilled in him, but not by manipulation and putting God to the test.
So how does this Messiah deliver his people from the tyranny of Rome and Herod and ultimately the devil himself? He starts by defeating the enemy on a personal level. Right here in the wilderness the stance has to be made and Jesus calls us to follow him just as the Word and the Pillar of Fire called to and led forth Israel...
Many came through the waters only to fall in the wilderness...perhaps they came along for the wrong reasons, perhaps the lack of instant gratification revealed a shallowness, maybe they felt freedom wasn't all it was cracked up to be...whatever the reason, like a refiners fire God allows us to be tested so that only the faithful and true, those who stand firmly in their trust and love of the Father and the King are saved...only those in whom rest His own Spirit, He can and will get us through...He's been there before and His grace is sufficient...it is our responsibility to keep the faith, to run the race, to fight the good fight.
So we too need to ask ourselves...What are we to do with the status that we have been given as children of God? Is it to be used so that our own needs met? Is it for power? To be seen and recognized as being something important? Is it for control over others? Is it to prove something about ourselves? Is it so we can feel certain emotions? Or perhaps so we don't have to feel certain emotions? These are the battles we must fight and decisions we need to wrestle with before we go out and begin colluding with the enemy thinking that we are going to be God's people...many have gone down that road and it is a wide road that leads to destruction. We need to be refined at the deepest most personal level...then we can get on with the mission we are all called to, to be a broken and poured out people for the world, a royal priesthood, the body of Christ...the victory implemented.
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