Luke 4- Temptation

I used to read about Jesus being tempted and think, “Okay, seriously- he’s God. It couldn’t have been that hard to resist temptations, could it?” But the more I think about it, the more I realize that even though Jesus was indeed fully God, he was also fully human—and his full humanity would have made withstanding temptation just as difficult as it is for anyone else to withstand temptation. I think it's easy to forget that, just as temptation is real and powerful to us, it was also real and powerful to Jesus. I doubt that it was easy and simple for him to just say, “Nope, not gonna do it.” Resisting temptation can be a real struggle, and he knows that.

So what exactly was Jesus tempted to do? Luke 4 tells us about three specific temptations he faced; I imagine there were more temptations throughout his life. But here are the big three that we see in Luke.

First there was the temptation to prove himself as the son of God and to provide food for himself. He had been fasting in the desert for 40 days; of course he was probably pretty hungry by then. We don’t know what exactly went through Jesus’ mind, of course, but I imagine it could have been something like, “Man, I am really hungry. And I am the son of God; I could just turn those stones into bread for myself.” Let’s take it a step further—do you think perhaps he might also have thought of other people, past, present, and future, who were hungry? People who were literally starving to death? If you go on to read about the rest of his life, you will see that he really cared about people who were hungry—and he could have chosen right then to end hunger for everyone, forever. But he didn’t. He knew that bread alone would not give anyone the life God desired for them. Feeding hungry people would not atone for their sins, and feeding himself just to prove he was God did not fit with the humility he purposefully displayed throughout his life.

Then there was the temptation to take power of the world politically. Think about it—Jesus could have taken over the kingdoms of the world and ended all kinds of violence and oppression. But he didn’t, because his power was not meant to be political. Taking over the kingdoms of the world was not the goal; instructing his followers in how to live as citizens of God’s kingdom was. And he wasn’t about to worship anyone but God, no matter how tempting the political power may have been.

He was again tempted to prove himself as God, but this time by performing a spectacular public feat—jumping from the top of the temple and having his angels save him. He could have made a big spectacle and proved himself to be God’s son right there in front of everyone; that would get people to believe in him and he wouldn’t even have to worry about any physical harm or pain. But he didn’t. He wasn’t looking to put on a big public show in order to get people to believe him.

I wonder if his thought process went something like this: “I could prove myself as the son of God by doing something huge and public—then people would believe and I wouldn’t have to go through the pain and humiliation I know I’m going to face otherwise. And I could take power politically and do miraculous things for the good of everyone—I have the ability to end so much suffering, violence, oppression, poverty, and hunger.”

There is nothing wrong with ending hunger and oppression, and there is nothing wrong with believing in God—but this was not how God planned to go about it. No, his plan was even greater. He wasn’t just going to free people from their suffering in this life; God himself was going to take on their sins, sins that the people never possibly could have paid for themselves, and he was going to atone for them. Jesus read later on from Isaiah, telling the people that he was sent to “proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” He wasn’t just going to set them free physically; he was going to set them free spiritually. And not just in his hometown, not just in Israel, but everywhere. The people were pretty pleased with what he was saying until he got to the "not just Israel" part—then they ran him out of town and were planning to throw him off a cliff!

This passage left me asking two questions: How often do we take things that, in themselves are not sinful, to the point that for us they become sin because they take our eyes off the real goal of following God and his plans? And how often do we get upset when God’s plan isn’t what we were expecting, and want to "throw him off a cliff" in our lives? He probably has an even greater plan, but it may not look the way we expected it to look. We certainly want God to do good things—but he is going to do great things.