Temptation
Temptation
And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil.
Luke 4:1–2
The temptation of Jesus is one of many “strange” episodes in the life of Christ. Why should Jesus be tempted? Could Jesus sin? What would have happened if Jesus would have sinned? Let’s begin at the beginning.
The Setup
And Jesus, Full of the Holy Spirit…
Many people, when reading this, will think of Ephesians 5:18—
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit …
But these two passages are light-years apart grammatically. In Ephesians, Paul commands believers to be filled with the Word via the Spirit. The Ephesians passage contains a verb.
There is no verb in Luke here—this describes Jesus’ state and character. A much closer passage is found in Acts 13:10—
You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy…
To be full of something, like being the son of something, is to be identified with, or producing, or even consumed by. In this context, for Jesus to be “filled with the Spirit” is roughly parallel to being led by the Spirit. Jesus is so closely identified with the Spirit that he is depending on the Spirit to carry him through this temptation.
…being tempted by the devil…
When we think of temptation, we think of a specific moment when we are enticed to sin.
There are two things wrong with applying this understanding of temptation to the temptation of Jesus.
First, Satan’s temptation is constant throughout the forty days—and even continuing after—
And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. Luke 4:13
Second, temptation and testing are closely related in the Scriptures. Jesus is tempted to uncover his true character.
Is Jesus truly full of the Spirit? Will he follow the Spirit and move towards the goals the Father has set for his life, or will he follow his immediate desires? To uncover the depth of the character of Jesus, Satan presents him with three temptations or tests.
The First Test: Hunger
If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread. Luke 4:3
The if here is one of those cases where a single word or grammatical construction in English must express several ideas in Greek. The word if has three distinct meanings:
Since this is true, therefore …
If this is true, then …
Since this is not true, therefore …
If you are the Son of God is the first of these—since you are the Son of God… Satan is openly proclaiming Jesus the Son of God and then stating a conclusion:
Your hunger is an appropriate desire given to you by your Father—there is nothing wrong in fulfilling that natural desire
You are the Son of God and, therefore, you have control over the creation, including things like making these stones into bread
Given you have the power and desire, there is nothing wrong with fulfilling your desire
Satan is using the same tactic he used with Eve in the Garden—pitting an immediate desire against Jesus’ knowledge of his Father’s character and proposing fulfilling the immediate will have no impact on the long term.
Just because Jesus’ desire is natural or arising from within him—who would not be hungry after fasting for forty days—does not mean it is right to use his power over nature to fulfill that desire.
Like Jesus, and unlike Eve, we must learn to control our desires—or at least the fulfillment of our desires—within the bounds of God’s longer-term plan.
This temptation to do what we desire is often paired with a second kind of temptation: to do the right thing in the wrong way. Could Jesus make bread from stones? Presumably.
But the miracles of Jesus are different from what we commonly call magic. Jesus works with the creation rather than against it. You cannot plant a stone to make any kind of grain. You cannot grind a stone to make flour and bread.
This pattern of with and against is common enough in the life of Christ that we’ll dedicate an entire Dispatch to it—for now, though, keep this in the back of your mind.
The Second Test: Authority
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. Luke 4:6
Who gave Satan this authority? Although two possibilities have been considered throughout the ages, the Scriptures do not give us enough information to decide which is correct:
Satan was given this authority before he fell. This view is supported by Ezekiel 28.
Adam lost this authority to Satan in the fall.
Either way, neither Jesus nor Luke question Satan’s statement—they both take it as fact that Satan has this authority and “give it to whom he wills.”
As with the first temptation, is it wrong for Jesus to desire this authority? No—in fact, the Father gives Jesus this authority later, as described in Matthew 28:18 and again in Revelation.
The problem is for Jesus to take this offer means to fulfill his desires and destiny in the wrong way. If Jesus takes Satan’s offer, there will be no cross—but there will also be no redemption of creation, including mankind.
A right thing done the wrong way is still wrong.
Satan requires Jesus to worship him, rather than the Father, to accept this offer. Jesus responds to this offer by refusing to worship Satan:
You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. Luke 4:8
Jesus’ answer seems to be a quote from Deuteronomy 6:13, but the wording is slightly different—you shall fear rather than worship the Lord. Fear and worship are close enough in meaning that this could be a simple substitution, or Jesus is quoting some other tradition based on Deuteronomy 6:13.
The Third Test: Recognition
If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here. Luke 4:9
The third and final temptation Satan offers is for Jesus to be recognized as the Messiah right now. There is nothing wrong with Jesus desiring to be recognized for what he is—the Messiah.
Satan’s temptation seems grounded in a Rabbinical tradition that the Messiah would appear on the “top of the Temple” to announce his presence.
There are, in fact, many who argue they know the very place, even the very stone, where this temptation took place—but the Scriptures (probably intentionally) do not give us enough information to know these things. While speculation can be fun, it can also add to the Scriptures in unhelpful ways.
The problem is, again, God’s plan included Jesus’ rejection by the Jewish leadership, death at the hands of the Romans, and finally, resurrection. Jesus’ creation-wide acceptance will take place on his return and millennial reign.
Jesus’ answer here is that while God does promise to take care of all Israel (Psalm 91:11–12 applies to Israel rather than the Messiah alone), faithful individuals do not “test” God.
What does this mean?
The point of pagan religions—and magic—is to manipulate some spiritual being into doing what a human wills or desires. See, for instance, Balaam’s story in Numbers 22, where the King hires him to curse Israel. Rebekah comes close to this (or even goes over the line) in Genesis 25.
The point of Christianity is to know and trust God based on his character and promises. We should not do “stupid things” to “force God’s hand.” In this case, Satan’s offer would force God’s hand in protecting Jesus and in providing proof Jesus is the Messiah before the time is right and before Jesus’ mission has been accomplished.
Could Jesus Have Sinned?
Returning to one of the questions from the beginning of this Dispatch—could Jesus have sinned? The answer is no, he could not have.
But the answer is also that’s not the point of Satan’s temptation. The point of this entire narrative is to show the character and person of Jesus, not only to Satan but to the world (through the text of the Scriptures).
In this narrative, Jesus is like each one of us. We must depend on the Spirit to guide us in many situations, but we should notice that Jesus still quotes the Scriptures and makes decisions. Jesus’ example teaches us that depending on the Spirit does not mean stopping to think or decide. It means aligning our wills with the will of the Father in a deeply intimate way.