Temptations pull at me. I struggle with the empty self. It is very easy to desire a new car to replace our 2010. It often feel discontent about my car. But that car continues to get me around. It is super difficult to know when the right time is to pull the plug and get a new vehicle. I don’t know the answer to that. What I do know is that that car regularly reminds me of my struggle with contentment.
When we are tempted it is not exactly like what Jesus encountered, because Satan doesn’t actually walk up to us. I’m talking about the story in Luke 4. Though Satan might not manifest himself to us, the temptation we experience is still very real temptation. The emptiness within us can be powerful. We can want to fill that emptiness with food, sex, clothing, videos, money, experiences, or addictive substances.
That’s exactly what Satan was hoping to attack in Jesus. Jesus’ human side. Look at the first temptation in Luke 4, verse 3, “The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.’”
We know Jesus was hungry. You know how you feel when you skip a couple meals. In reading accounts of people who have been shipwrecked, for example, and they have to survive in the wild, they talk about extreme hunger. They fantasize about eating shoe leather. Anything. The hunger is deep. But Jesus has been fasting for 40 days!
Jesus is faced with a powerful temptation to use his supernatural abilities and not just live in his humanity, depending on God. But he chooses to counter the temptation with truth. Jesus was content with God alone, content to serve the mission God had given him, and no temptation was going to sway him. Dependent on the Spirit, he pulls out the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, to resist temptation. Look at verse 4, “Jesus answered, ‘It is written: “Man shall not live on bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”’” What a great verse about the power of the word of God!
Jesus who was the Word, knew the word of God, and he employed it to his advantage. He is quoting Deuteronomy 8, verse 3. He slashes the temptation with the truth of God’s word.
Satan keeps trying. Look at verses 5-7, “The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, ‘I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.’”
Satan powerfully directs this next temptation at a different kind of hunger Jesus felt. The hunger for position and power. Jesus knows he has ultimate power, and he can easily put Satan in his place. But those temptations are strong. They latch on to our empty selves and attempt to deceive us into believing we need power, that we need others to know we have that power, and that we can do a better job than those currently in power, and we deserve to be in power.
Jesus again pulls out the Sword of the Spirit and destroys this second temptation with the truth of the Word of God. He says, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’” That’s another verse from Deuteronomy.
Jesus knew the Word!
Guess what? So does the Devil. What the Devil does next is genius. Look at verses 9-11.
“The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. ‘If you are the Son of God,’ he said, ‘throw yourself down from here. For it is written: “He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”’”
Now the devil says, “Ok, you want to use the Sword of the Spirit? Two can play at that game.” It’s a sword fight! And the Devil whips out Psalm 91.
The Devil is prodding Jesus’ humanity, trying to poke at the empty self that all the rest of us humans have. In this third temptation he attacks our innate human desire for legitimacy. “Are you who you say you are, Jesus? Or are you a fraud?” We want to be respected, known as legit, as substantive, as smart or funny or capable or responsible. For most of us, the empty self tells us we are never good enough, never going to match up.
But Jesus isn’t like the rest of us. He has no empty self. He knows who he is. He understands his mission. He knows his mission might not be easy. He knows he will never complete his mission by accepting Satan’s offer to complete the mission with ease.
Jesus counters Satan’s blow with more Scripture in verse 12: “Jesus answered, ‘It is said: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test”.’”
You know what I love about this answer? It’s almost as if Jesus is saying, “Okay Lucifer, you know that Scriptures, I’ll grant you that. But I’m going to take you down with one book of the Bible. All I need is one.” Jesus in all three of his Scripture quotations has not left the book of Deuteronomy.
Jesus, the Word of God, was passionately committed to study the Word of God in the Scriptures. By studying them, he understood what they meant, what their context was, and the heart behind them. Jesus defeats temptation with the truth of the Scriptures. Have you given yourself to a passionate commitment to know the Word of God?
Photo by Jonathan Kemper on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 