This Sunday the lectionary invites us to ponder Luke 4:1-13. The English Standard Version supplies it with the heading “The Temptation of Jesus.” It supplies the same heading to parallel accounts at Matthew 4:1 and Mark 1:12. Other versions supply headings like “Jesus tested by the Devil[1].”
The account tells us that right after Jesus was baptized, the Spirit filled him and led him into the wilderness. He remained there for 40 days. He didn’t eat or drink. The devil urged him to do things contrary to God’s will. He didn’t give in. The devil left the scene.[2]
Why did God cause Jesus to be tested[3]? Why do Matthew, Mark and Luke include this event in the books they wrote about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus? What application, if any, is there for us today?
Recall that Jesus operated under a government which violated anyone who challenged its authority. Just like people in Malaya under the Japanese Occupation, as I pointed out in my column last week.[4] No one did anything without first asking “how will the government react?”
It was a bloody age. Herod the Great killed many infants after he was duped by the astrologers who found Jesus but didn’t tell him where.[5] Also, John Baptist was imprisoned, then beheaded, because he questioned “king” Herod Agrippa’s decision to marry his brother’s wife.
The “Christian” response, if we may call it that, to the infanticide committed by Herod the Great was to flee to Egypt, as directed by an angel.[6] Jesus’ response to the beheading of John was to leave the territory governed by Herod Agrippa and enter the territory governed by Philip.[7]
It was a bloody age. Rulers governed using displays of brutality. Forced military service, and beatings and killings, were common. Luke, in chapter 13, tells of the time Pilate killed a group of Galileans who had come to the Jerusalem Temple to offer sacrifices.
In such a bloody age, it was highly dangerous to undertake the work of establishing a kingdom governed by the laws of God. Laws which are rooted in the belief that nothing is more important than the flourishing of everyone, because everyone is a neighbour,[8] made in the image of God.
In such a bloody age, anyone called to expose and challenge the rulers of the day had to be “strengthened” in unmistakable ways. It’s like us, in our darkest moments, drawing strength from our baptism, the day on which we, symbolically, departed from darkness and entered into light.
But there’s another reason. A reason which is either missed or avoided by many readers and preachers. That reason is hidden in the word “wilderness,” the number “40,” and in the subject-matter of the temptations. Biblical literacy is required in order to decipher the clues.
What’s hidden in the word “wilderness”?
Matthew tells us that John Baptist fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, as “the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” We’re also told the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted. Why “wilderness”?
The answer is that the wilderness points back to the fall of the first Adam. Points back to the first testing of man by Satan. Points back to man failing the test. The first Adam was driven out from the soft garden, into the hard wilderness. Because, seduced by Satan, he rejected God’s rules.
What’s hidden in the number 40?
The answer is that the number 40 is highly symbolic to Jews. God, through great acts of power,[9] freed them from back-breaking slavery in Egypt. They began marching out, towards “the promised land.” God commanded them to evict those who were occupying the land.
God’s plan was for them to establish a society which put the neighbour first. But they rejected his call to first enter and possess the land. They rejected this political call. God punished them. He sent them to wander in the wilderness for 40 years, until everyone in that disobedient generation died. “40” signals accomplishing God’s purposes.[10]
Now we ask why the temptations involved bread, power, and trust.
Satan, knowing Jesus was hungry, urged him to turn a stone into bread – something so noble, something which could solve world hunger. But Jesus replied that he chose to abide by God’s wisdom, expressed in Deuteronomy 8:3 “Man shall not live by bread alone.”
Satan, knowing Jesus was aware that the way of the cross would be tough, offered him a bypass route to kingship. Satan offered Jesus kingship, in exchange for worship. Jesus replied that he would rather obey God’s command in Deuteronomy 6:13 “It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve …”
Satan, knowing people are attracted to exhibitionists, urged Jesus to jump from the highest point of the Temple, God’s dwelling place, for God would surely save him. Jesus replied that he would abide by God’s command in Deuteronomy 6:16 “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”
The Temptation highlights another very important fact about Jesus. He was fully man and fully God, as pointed out by the writer to the Hebrews. It’s because Jesus was tempted as man that he can serve us so effectively as High Priest. I don’t have the space here to unpack that.
Readers and preachers often draw three lessons from the passage. First, those who are filled with the Spirit can expect to be tempted. Second, always put God before self or others. Third, store the word in your hearts like Jesus did, for there is power in them to send Satan packing.
Those are good lessons. But what about Jesus being the new Israel who obeyed God and did what Israel failed to do? Which is to establish kingdoms in which justice abounds and everyone, whether Jew or Gentile, male or female, flourishes.[11] To this we may add, Jew or Arab.
What difference would it make if we choose to read the gospels as products of a bloody age, and so must be decoded by readers and preachers? Are we missing something in the Temptation of Jesus?
Peace be with you.
[1] The names “Satan” and “Devil” are interchangeable.
[2] And is left out of direct action till he enters Judas to betray Jesus.
[3] Or tempted.
[4] Listen to Jesus like those under the Japanese Occupation.
[5] I discussed this in my column Why didn’t Matthew hide the Astrologers?
[7] See Matthew 14:13; Mark 6:32; Luke 9:10.
[9] Ten plagues.
[10] “40” also recalls Moses on Mount Sinai, neither eating nor drinking, before receiving the 10 Commandments. And other events, e.g. 40 days of rain resulting in the great flood, 40 years Moses tended to flocks after fleeing Egypt, Elijah fleeing Jezebel and travelling for 40 days and nights, 40 days between Jesus’ resurrection and ascension.
[11] See Galatians 3:28.
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