Ep. 10: Temptation in wilderness
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MATTHEW 4:1-11, MARK 1:12-13, LUKE 4:1-13
As to what follows next there can be no greater contrast. And yet, what followed the Baptism was entirely necessary, as regarded the ministry of Jesus. He was eventually going to enter a world of sin and, for the Kingdom of heaven to be established, it was going to be necessary to defeat the representative, founder and holder of the opposite power, ‘the prince of this world’. The patriarchs had set the example. So had Moses and all the heroes of faith in Israel. Spiritual trials must precede spiritual elevation.
We can see parallels between Moses and Elijah. Firstly, we can see them marking the three stages in the history of the Covenant. Moses was its giver, Elijah its restorer, the Messiah its renewer and perfecter. But there’s a difference. Moses failed after his forty days’ fast when in indignation he cast the tablets of the Law from him; Elijah failed before his forty days’ fast; Jesus was attacked for forty days and endured the trial. Moses was angry against Israel; Elijah despaired of Israel; Jesus overcame for Israel. When Moses and Elijah failed, it was not only as individuals but as giving or restoring the Covenant. When Jesus conquered, it was not only as the perfect man but also as the Messiah. His temptation and victory have therefore a twofold aspect: the general human and the Messianic, and these two are closely connected.
We can now also draw the conclusion that, in whatever Jesus overcame, we can overcome. Each victory which he has gained secures its fruits for us who are his disciples. We walk in his footprints.
Picture this scene. He is in the wilderness. He is weary with the contest, faint with hunger, alone in that desolate place. His voice falls on no sympathetic ear, no voice reaches him but that of the tempter. Nothing is bracing or strengthening in this featureless, barren, stony wilderness, only the picture of desolation, hopelessness, despair. He must. He will absolutely submit to the will of God. But can this be the will of God? One word of power and the scene would be changed. Let him despair of all men, of everything – he can do it.
By his will, the Son of God, as the tempter suggests, can change the stones into bread. He can do miracles, but this would really have been to change the idea of Old Testament miracle into the pagan conception of magic, which was absolute power inherent in an individual, without moral purpose. The moral purpose here was absolute submission to the will of God. This was to be the watchword of his ministry on Earth. As our story unfolds, the moral purpose will remain central.
The Spirit had driven him into that wilderness. His circumstances were God-appointed and Jesus absolutely submitted to that will of God by continuing in his present circumstances. To have set himself free from what they implied would have been despair of God and rebellion. He does more than not succumb. He conquers. He emerges on the other side triumphant, with this expression of his assured conviction of the sufficiency of God.
They had all been overcome, these three temptations against submission to the will of God, yet all his life long there were echoes of them: of the first, in the suggestion of his brethren to show himself; of the second, in the popular attempt to make him a king; of the third in the question of Pilate: ‘Are You then a King?’
Edersheim provides a poetic epitaph to these events:
‘Foiled, defeated, the Enemy has spread his dark pinions towards that far-off world of his, and covered it with their shadow. The sun no longer glows with melting heat; the mists have gathered on the edge of the horizon and enwrapped the scene which has faded from view. And in the cool and shade that followed have the Angels come and ministered to his wants, both bodily and mental. He has refused to assert power; he has not yielded to despair; he would not fight and conquer alone in his own strength; and he has received power and refreshment, and heaven’s company unnumbered in their ministry of worship. He would not yield to Jewish dream; he did not pass from despair to presumption; and lo, after the contest, with no reward as its object, all is his. He would not have Satan’s vassals as his legions, and all heaven’s hosts are at his command. It had been victory; it is now shout of triumphant praise. He whom God had anointed by his Spirit had conquered by the Spirit; he whom heaven’s voice had proclaimed God’s beloved Son, in whom he was well pleased, had proved such and done his good pleasure.’
The enemy ‘departed from him’ – yet only ‘for a season.’ But this first contest and victory of Jesus decided all others to the last. By showing absolute obedience, absolute submission to the will of God, he provides us with a model and an example of the Kingdom of God.
This is an extract from the book, Jesus : Life and Times, available for £10 here (Finalist for Academic Book of the year at 2023 CRT awards)