Luke 4:1-13 English Standard Version (ESV)
The Temptation of Jesus
1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” 5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” 7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” 10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” 11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
The Forty days of Lent are based on this “Temptation” and Jesus’s retreat to the wilderness and his encounter with the Devil.
I struggle with this passage on a couple fronts – front one is the “woo-woo” aspect of it where the Devil shows up with a LITERAL Power Point presentation to Jesus. Front two is the Devil himself
as I struggle with the whole anthropomorphic Devil (snake, forked tail, pitch fork, that creepy kid from “The Omen”) just like I struggle with the whole anthropomorphic God (Old Guy in Clouds, Santa for Grown-Ups, The
Ultimate Switch Puller, Morgan Freeman for you youth, George Burns for us old fogies).
Part of the problem with this temptation is that we’re observing Jesus instead of relating to Jesus. If we take the story on face value, Jesus has just had this baptismal moment of the dove descending
on him and God talking and he’s run off to be by himself and the Devil shows up and says: “Yo, dude, CHECK IT OUT! With your skill set and my brains, we could rule this place.”
How many times in our lives has the devil shown up and talked to you? How many times has the devil knocked on your door with the best kick-ass encyclopedia set ever and said: “THIS COULD ALL BE YOURS!”
If you’re like me, that hasn’t happened. Oh, sure, I’ve been tempted to do wrong, I think we all have, but it hasn’t manifested itself with a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other. At least it hasn’t
for me, and I can’t speak for you.
The other thing I love about this scripture is that it sounds like the Devil is literally dragging Jesus to the next location: “And
the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world” and “And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple” – I just imagine Jesus like a petulant child following the Devil who’s
like: “C’mon, climb up on the pinnacle!” “I don’t wanna…” “I want to show you this view! It’s great.” “Fine.” I mean, really, if the Devil were taking you around for a tour would you really put
yourself on the pinnacle of a temple?
Taking this all at face value, I again view it from a distance with all the devil, pinnacle, and power-point things just kind of cluttering my understanding of it.
I’m sure a priest, certainly couldn’t have been my own feeble brain, had an explanation though: Jesus is at a crossroads in his life. He has basically had a “come to himself” moment and needs to
decide: “Am I going to follow this path which leads to evil, death and possible resurrection?” (I don’t know if Jesus was truly buying into the fact that he’d be brought back three days later – I mean, he asks
his dad to take the cup away when it was all about to go down…) Or was he going to just go back and make some bookshelves and possibly a nice buffet? Was he going to live a life that he wanted? Or was he going to chuck
all that and step out into the unknown?
Having had a “bill paying job” for 30+ years, I know what it’s like to just sort of accept my lot in life and not take any unnecessary risks – even if my job doesn’t feed my soul. The outcome
of not taking risks has spawned two amazing children and a loving relationship and a beautiful house. If we are ever at crossroads in life – as we are many times do we choose the “easy way” or the “hard way?” Do
we take the road less traveled? Do we trot out any more clichés that will fit on Internet Memes?
My brother once wanted to play professional soccer and had invitations in hand to try out. My father was about to try out for the Rochester Redwings but walked away to his ministry. My son was told by
someone he respected that if he “went to Hollywood he’d make it for sure” but he’s gotten married to a wonderful gal. I dreamed of winning the Academy Award and writing the best scripts ever.
If you take out the Devil and Temptations and smorgasbord of power and control being offered up and just simply look at it as Jesus making a truly hard decision about where he sees himself and what he feels he has to do – I think we can all relate.
Or, at least, I can relate.
No comments:
Post a Comment