Jesus: tempted and triumphant

In His first 30 years on the planet, Jesus would have known the same sufferings as you or I: physical weakness and emotional sadness and grief. For example, there is good reason to believe that Joseph died at some point as he is not present during Christ's ministry and Jesus deliberately passes the care of His mother to John at the cross. Throughout all this time, He never once sinned. He lived as our representative, the perfect second Adam.

On the cusp of His public ministry, right after His baptism, Jesus was tempted by Satan. This scene in the gospels is in some ways a culmination of His entire lifetime of perfect obedience, as well as showing how at this crucial moment the spiritual attack upon Him intensified.

Jesus was 'led by the Spirit into the wilderness' and after fasting for forty days and forty nights, He was hungry. (Matt 4:1-2). The devil challenged Him: ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.’ (v3) Jesus refused to allow His identity to be defined by merely His actions or miracles. He was the Son of God even though He was hungry, and He didn't need to exert divine powers to prove it. He quoted Deuteronomy 8:3, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

The devil then challenged Jesus to throw Himself down off the highest point of the temple, because the Scripture said God would send His angels 'so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ But Jesus answered him, ‘It is also written: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” Finally, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. ‘All this I will give you,’ he said, ‘if you will bow down and worship me.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘Away from me, Satan! For it is written: “Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.” (v5-10)

Jesus was tempted by Satan to shortcut the suffering of the path God wanted Him to take. The devil wanted Jesus to use His divinity to cut out some of the discomfort of being human, and follow a path of fame and glory instead of the way of the cross, a life independent of His Father. He refused. Jesus valued obedience more than comfort. Do we?

The section reminds us of Israel's 40 years in the wilderness, where they constantly complained about the suffering they had to endure, forgetting their privileged status as God's chosen people, their terrible suffering in Egypt which God dramatically delivered them from, and the beautiful land that was promised to them. What about us? How do we suffer? Do we constantly complain, oblivious of all the blessings we have received, including every spiritual blessing in Christ? Do we forget that we've been delivered out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light? Do we forget our eternal, future inheritance - the inheritance of Christ?

Oswald Sanders in 'The Incomparable Christ' writes this: Jesus 'refused to employ His divine prerogatives to gratify His own natural desires... Jesus had indeed come to obtain all the world of power and glory, but He was to receive it in His Father's way and in His Father's time. And His Father's way included death on a cross. He perceived that Satan was offering Him the crown without the cross.'

How did Jesus beat Satan? His response was to quote the Word of God. He modelled for us how we should fight our enemy; He used no powers beyond our reach. And He returned triumphant, 'in the power of the Spirit' (Lk 4:1, 14); enriched, not impoverished, by the experience (Sanders). May this be our experience in every trial.