Lost in the Wilderness – Part III

Luke 4:3-12

What did it look like when Jesus was being tempted by the Devil? It is hard to picture. Every single human being knows what it is to be tempted, an experience as much a part of human life as breathing. Somehow with Jesus, though, we have a hard time picturing it, as if his temptations were a whole different category. Another New Testament writer has said he was tempted in every way, just as we are, though we have a hard time believing that, too.

Only Luke and Matthew record any specifics about the temptations Jesus faces on this occasion. For whatever reason, the two writers vary the order a bit. Otherwise, the stories are basically the same. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been tempted to jump off of the highest point on the temple or to worship the Devil so that I could gain control of the whole world. And I don’t ever remember even thinking I could turn stones into bread, no matter how hungry I was.

Yet basically, these temptations are the same as we encounter every day. The specifics may be unique – after all, each of us is one of a kind in our mix of personality and abilities and interests. But in our very core, we humans, Jesus included, all have very similar desires. Maslow, with his famous “hierarchy of needs,” has demonstrated how our most basic desires are universal, with the physiological (such as hunger) being the most fundamental.

There is the Devil suggesting to Jesus that he satisfy his craving for food – a natural reaction after not eating for so many days – by turning the readily available stones into bread. After all, the Devil says, “Aren’t you the Son of God?” He paints it as “if you are”. This is how the old Tempter talks. He never comes outright and says what God says or says what really is; he merely couches matters in intimation or suggestion or question. So it is with the very first recorded temptation, the one in the Garden of Eden, when the Serpent asked Eve, “Did God really say…?”

We often think of the Devil as some omniscient (all-knowing) creature. Whatever is to be said by theologians about the title “Son of God”, the Devil is only repeating what has just been verbalized within the past few weeks when a Voice calls out from heaven, “You are my son…” The Devil does not have a security clearance on information – he is only expressing what has already been broadcast.

When that Voice from heaven said, “You are my son,” those were words of confirmation and affirmation, stated to create a deep sense of assurance in the very human heart of Jesus as he began his active ministry and faced the wilderness temptations. Now those very words of warmth and strength are being flung back into the face of Jesus as words that will taunt and torment in their questioning. Two of the three temptations follow this pattern, “If you are the Son of God…”

The Devil is far from creative. He is, after all a creature, not the Creator. In tempting, he comes up with nothing new. He only takes what is good and beautiful and twists it. He turns the very words of God into a mockery. The Tempter is not even saying it is not true. He only raises the questions and then draws conclusions that sound plausible, but which miss the mark. So it is said that you are God’s son. If that is so, then take advantage of that reality to meet your most basic needs.

God’s words of assurance that He will provide become words of struggle that maybe, just maybe, God will provide as you treat your God-given abilities for self-preserving ends. What was said by God to make us secure now turn to make us increasingly insecure. Until we remind ourselves again what God has said.