THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT
That
title is a line from an old comedian routine performed by comedian Flip
Wilson…people would laugh at this, in part, because the truth is often spoken
in jest. The “tempter”…Satan is real…and the struggle is real. At times, as people
read Luke 4 they will ask, “Was Jesus able to not give in to Satan because his
is God…because of His Divinity that we spoke of yesterday?” The answer is no,
that is not the point of Luke 4…the point of Luke 4 is that Jesus in his
humanity faced Satan. Michael Wilcox in his commentary on Luke writes this:
“(E)ach
of Jesus’ answers to the devil is a quote from the Book of Deuteronomy. (cf. 8:3; 6:13; 6:16)…it is the law given
by God for man to live by. The
answers of Jesus are in effect as follows. “You suggest that feeding my body
may take precedence over obeying my God. But God has told men—men—that they shall not live by
bread alone; therefore I shall not do so. You offer
me universal power, at the price of worshipping you. But God has told men that they are not to worship
any but him; therefore I shall not worship you. You
propose that I should test his promises to suit my own convenience. But he has
told men that they are not to
test him in this way; therefore I shall not do so.”
Jesus
is deliberately emptying himself of his power…he could call down angel if he
wanted to (cf. Mt. 26:53)…yet he is
putting himself in the position of mankind, under the authority of the Law of
God…and he is, and will be, obedient, even unto death. He is the Second Adam.
I
want to share a few more thoughts about how sometimes we struggle with
accepting this text, but let’s read it through first.
And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and
was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during
those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If
you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread
alone.’” 5 And the devil took him up
and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time,6 and
said to him, “To you I will give all this
authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to
me, and I give it to whom I will. 7 If you, then, will worship
me, it will all be yours.” 8 And Jesus answered him, “It is written,
“‘You shall worship the Lord
your God,
and him only shall you serve.’”
and him only shall you serve.’”
9 And he took him to Jerusalem
and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw
yourself down from here, 10 for it is written,
“‘He will command his angels
concerning you,
to guard you,’
to guard you,’
11 and
“‘On their hands they will
bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
12 And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the
test.’” 13 And when the devil had ended every
temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.
14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit
to Galilee, and a report about him went out
through all the surrounding country. 15 And he taught in their
synagogues, being glorified by all.
I have had people not be pleased
with the point made above…that Jesus overcame these temptations as a human.
When I sit, listening and chatting about the text, I learn something. Their
struggle is because they do not like to fail. In some ways that is a good
trait. Yet taken too far it can be deadly. Taken too far it can drive a person
to drive themselves to pursue perfection…and when the fail…to try again…and
when they fail…well you get the idea. Sooner or later it can all come crashing
down in any number of ways...disillusionment, cynicism, or worse.
The solution of course is not to
give up trying to always do you best…but to accept that you cannot be perfect
and to accept Jesus as the Savior—a savior that died on the Cross for you…like
I said, some folks seem to recoil at receiving that much help…they even say…I
never asked him to do that for me…and you know what…they are right…none of us
asked him to do that for us…but he did because he loves us.
He loves us…what would you do for
someone you love. He is not holding his Cross over our head…his Cross is simply
saying that as you try and do your best, remember it is not about perfection,
it is about not missing out on the best relationship you can ever have…a
relationship with God.
So don’t trade it away for all
those temptations…but if you do…remember He is the way back…each and every day.
Two questions. First, on Sunday the sermon I heard suggested that 40 days was not a literal time frame but more a figure of speech merely indicating a long period of time. This is the first time I have ever heard such a thought, and I personally never had any reason to doubt the accuracy of the number of days. So was it 40 days or not? It was implied that the exact number of days was irrelevant, and I have always thought otherwise.
ReplyDeleteMy second question concerns the idea of temptation itself. To be tempted means a person is attracted or enticed by something or someone. The reading never gives me the impression that Jesus even considers any of the temptations, rather that He simply outright declines what the devil offers. It doesn't seem to me that it is a temptation unless you give contemplation to the possibility of what is being offered. So with that mindset, which perhaps is a wrong thought process, I then question whether Jesus was actually "tempted" or not. This passage is usually titled "The temptation of Christ", perhaps a better title would be "The attempted temptation by the devil". So was Christ really tempted?
Thank you.
Thanks for your questions, sorry it has taken me awhile to respond, I wanted to give some thought to them.
DeleteHere is my thoughts regarding the 40 days…the question about Temptation I am going to post as a full blog on this coming Sunday. It is really a good question, and it gets us into a way to engage ourselves and God…and actually ties into the Burning Bush which is what I am preaching on this coming Sunday…so thank you…now onto the “40.”
First, regards the sermon you heard, I am not sure what the point of suggesting it was not Forty Days. Perhaps the thought is that a human being could not survive. Regardless, the Bible loves numbers and there are some special numbers…I blogged about Numbers in the Bible here… http://casdean.blogspot.com/2013/12/day-355-numbers-numbers-revelation-has.html
As I look back on that blog posting, I realize I did not speak about the number 40. The number forty in one of those special Bible numbers. Moses was forty days alone with the Divine Presence on Horeb. Elijah fasted forty days in the wilderness before the vision and the voice came to him. Forty years was the period, too, of the wanderings of the chosen people.
In each of those instances, the time period seems to indicate a sense of completeness…the temptation of Jesus in other words was not a partial temptation, but a complete one. Others have noted that the number 40 is used with periods of trial, testing, even probation. The 40 years in the wilderness was a probationary period that was also a full preparation of the people for their entrance into the Promise Land, etc.
The point might be, what will it take for me to become fully or completely prepared, or reformed, or…well you know…
Thank you for your answer, and I look forward to reading your insight regarding temptation. To sum up what you're saying about the forty days is that the exact number is not what is necessarily important to focus on, rather what the concept behind the number represents of fulfillment. At least I hope that I am understanding correctly. Again thank you for your time.
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ReplyDeleteI was slightly shocked by this versions reading of Luke 4:4 since it differs from the King James Version - the KJV version reads: "And Jesus answered him *, saying , It is written , That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God." I was amazed that they would drop the last part - I understand that some Greek texts may omit it where others do not but I think when one reads the scripture in the old testament that Our Lord was quoting from, it's much more clear and powerful - Deuteronomy 8:3
ReplyDelete"He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD."
If Our Lord responded to the temptation that Satan tried to put in front of him with quoting Scripture, how important must it be for us to be able to quickly bring back to our minds memorized scripture verses.
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ReplyDeleteCouple of replies...to the first couple questions, let me think about this a bit and reply later in the week.
ReplyDeleteRegards Scripture memorization...and this part here...the Deut 8:3 is so much more vivid...that the Word comes from God's very mouth.