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Have you ever noticed that almost every mountaintop experience
in life is followed by a valley experience? You graduate from
school with the great expectation of making your mark in the
world, but you find out that the world doesn't exactly welcome
you with open arms. You get married with the full expectation
that your new spouse will relieve your loneliness and solve your
problems, but you find out you are still you. Life's high moments
are often followed by low times -- depression and bewilderment.
If we knew our Bible a little better, these experiences would
not surprise us because this happened to Jesus, too. He had gone
to John the Baptist who immersed him in the Jordan River and
baptized him into a way of life which was to change the world.
The heavens opened and Jesus saw the form of a dove descend upon
him and heard the voice of God say, You are my son; I am well
pleased in you. What a grand and high moment! But looked what
happened next: Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the
Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert where for 40 days
he was tempted by the devil. This was a fall from the emotional
mountain peaks to the valley of despondency. Jesus left John and
the others by the Jordan and went off by himself into the desert
to hammer out in his own mind his identity. He sought solitude to
find his method of being who the voice at the baptism had
proclaimed him to be. How does a man act when he is God's Son?
So Jesus began to fast. Fasting is doing without something
normal for the sake of something more important. He did without
food because he was seeking something greater than bread. The
struggle lasted for 40 days. Now the number 40

in the Bible is not just a digit. It is a symbol that something
important was happening. The rains fell on Noah for 40 days. The
nation of Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. Elijah
stayed on the mountain with God for 40 days. Luke is saying here
that something important was happening with Jesus. This was the
time he was finding his mission in God's eyes, and deciding on
his course of action.
That's when these three temptations came to him. You might
think of temptations as a gravitational field. The further you
are from it the less hold it has on you, while the closer you are
to it, the stronger pull it has. Jesus was in this strong field
of gravitational pull. Something important was happening to him.
He was in a genuine battle for his spiritual life. We sometimes
wonder if his temptations were real. Yes! They were real! This
was no sham battle, but a war of wits and wills about the destiny
of the one God appointed as Savior. William James, a well-known
philosopher and psychologist, once thought about his life and he
wrote: "If this life be not a real fight, in which something is
eternally gained for the universe by success, it is no better
than a game of private theatricals from which we may withdraw at
will. But it feels like a real fight."
Yes, life is a fight, and Jesus was in it. He found himself
being tempted -- pulled -- by good. That's right -- good. You
see, every course offered to him was not bad in itself. The
tempter never suggested that he do anything overtly immoral or
unscrupulous. The actions suggested were good. But that's the
problem. They were good, but for Jesus, not the best. He was
tempted by good. And so can we. During this Lenten season let us
consider these temptations to see how they affect our lives.

I. Some Temptations Are To Satisfy
Natural Needs With Unnatural Choices
At the end of Jesus' fast he was hungry. There's an
understatement for you. You will notice that the temptations

come as simple suggestions. That's what temptations are --
suggestions. No one can make us yield. We have to do that
ourselves. And what did the devil suggest? The tempter simply
suggested that Jesus make some of those little rocks that looked
like loaves of bread into real loaves. What could be the harm in
that?
Jesus was in the desert coming to grips with the kind of
Messiah he was to be. He was settling in his own mind what he
needed to do and how he needed to go about his work. The concept
became clearer to him as the days dragged on. He was to be a
Messiah who pointed to the deeper hunger in people, a hunger
beyond bread and wine, a hunger for God. And that is the point of
danger in the first temptation: concentrate on the physical
necessities; focus on bread; feed the people; be a welfare
reformer. These are good things, important things. You have been
asked to contribute money so we could do a little to help hungry
people. We care about the poor, and this is right and good. Had
he allowed himself to be drawn into it, Jesus could have been a
marvelous provider of basic human needs. He could have given
bread and drawn great crowds to himself. But Jesus came to win
people, not to bribe them.
Missionaries realized long ago that they could go into a poor
country and draw hordes of people by giving away rice. But what
they got for their effort was rice Christians. When the food ran
out, the people disappeared. Missionaries thus go into places
without a strong witness for Christ and preach the good news of
salvation first.
People can be blinded by the physical aspects of life. I used
to work with a fellow named Bob. He was a nice guy, powerful of
body, but weak of mind. Every day after work he would stop at a
liquor store and buy a case of beer. When he got home he and his
wife would sit in the backyard and kill the case. That for him
was life -- a cool shade tree and a cool brew. He had no interest
whatever in any talk about Christ and eternal life. There are
millions of people just like him.
Jesus could have gone into the bread distribution business had
he wanted to. It was a necessary job, and it was a

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temptation. But look at his answer: It is written: Man does not
live by bread alone. There is a deeper hunger in people, a hunger
that a cool beer under the shade tree won't ultimately satisfy; a
hunger that weekends in the Bahamas can't fill; a thirst that new
cars and nice houses and great neighbors just will not quench.
The issue for Jesus was, "Who will be the ultimate focus in my
life -- people or God?" He chose God. And do you know what
happened? By choosing God, Jesus was set free to serve people.
This temptation and Jesus' answer is not a wholesale
condemnation of things. God is not against the bread or houses or
cars. He is against a view of life that ignored the spiritual
dimension and act as if God does not exist. "We do not live by
bread alone," but by a deep awareness that God permeates all of
life and that we never get away from him. Bread is good and
necessary, but it molds and sours and must be replaced. Life
cannot be built on a crust or counted by the loaf. Jesus resisted
temptation, but the battle was far from over.

II. Some Temptations Are To Gratify
Good Ends With Bad Means.
The devil failed to get Jesus to give in to the temptation to
make stones into bread, or in this case, make bread more
important than God. But the powers of darkness are relentless so
a second temptation came to Jesus. He saw in his mind's eyes the
kingdoms of the world. He saw Rome with its regal splendor, Egypt
with its elegant might, Babylon with its beautiful riches. They
could so easily belong to Jesus if he would only tip his hat to
evil. This temptation was an appeal to Jesus' ambition, and that
is what made it seem good. After all, did he not come to win
people? Would that task not be easier if he had power and
authority?
The devil knew that Jesus' goal was to draw people back to
God, so that the tempter tried to get Jesus to take a shortcut

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to that goal. That was the problem. There is nothing necessarily
wrong with power and authority. Someone has to be in control. But
where would that authority come from? Could a good goal -- to
call people to God -- be accomplished by bad means? Jesus could
have had all the power he wanted to accomplish his goals. But
what kind of power could demand allegiance? What type of
authority could make people follow? If a person with a knife at
his throat were to follow God would that count?
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Jesus
could have been the most powerful man on earth had he chosen to
be so. But he would have failed in the very thing he wanted,
namely, to win the hearts of men and women. He came to win
people, not to force them. Jesus would not use people for his own
glorification. Don't you hate to be used by people? I don't want
to be somebody's project or someone's case. I want to be treated
like a person with dignity and worth. I want to be accepted for
whom I am. I want to love God because he loves me. What kind of
God would he be if he held a dagger to my throat and asked, "Now,
don't you want to follow me?"
The devil wanted to give Jesus power -- pure raw power -- and
thought he could corrupt him with it. "Force them to follow you,"
he hissed. And Jesus was drawn by that gravitational pull because
he wanted to succeed. But look what he answered: It is written:
"Worship the Lord your God and serve him only." Ah, there was
power! It was the power of absolute allegiance. This was faith
that is trust in God that asks for no proof. Jesus did not ask
God to up the ante. He was content to use the right means for the
right end, even if it meant bypassing the shortcut to success.
Years after this event, the apostle Paul looked back on Jesus'
life and proclaimed something about him that would have surprised
the devil. In Philippians 2:9-11 Paul said about Jesus, Therefore
God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, in heaven and on earth and

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under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Jesus did not have to grasp
at straws or clutch for power. He had it all along. It was
different from what most people would have thought, but he had
it.
He was tempted to gratify an ambition, but he resisted. Even
so, the devil was not ready to give up. A third temptation came.

III. Some Temptations Are To Exploit A
Close Relationship With A Shallow Acquaintance.
This was the most subtle of the temptations. The devil even
quotes scripture in this one. If you are the Son of God throw
yourself down from here. Then he quotes from Psalm 91: 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. This was a temptation for Jesus to exploit
his relationship with God. "Make a spectacle of yourself," the
devil said. "Create a circus. Gather the crowds and leap off the
150-foot tower to the ground below. If you are truly God's Son,
you won't get hurt. God will come rescue you. Go ahead. You'll
see. You'll impress everyone and they will follow you."
He was teasing and goading Jesus. "How will they ever know who
you are? This is your chance! Go ahead. Show them." But the
problem was that his basic argument was all wrong. Yes, Jesus was
God's Son, but no spectacular circus act would win the people. He
had come to win the people with love, not trick them with stunts.
The temptation was to use his status as the unique son of God and
force God into action by jumping off the temple. That is like
snake handling in church today.
How did Jesus answer? Do not put the Lord your God to the
test. There would be no exploitation of his relationship to God.
There would be no compromise. Rome allowed for

all types of religions to flourish in its kingdom, but it fought
Christianity from the beginning. Why? Because the Christians
would not compromise. They would not bow to Caesar. Doesn't that
say something to us?
Jesus realized that he could not try to force God to protect
him because God might have had other ideas. There is more to life
than safety and comfort. Now that is hard for us to realize. But
Jesus came to give his life, not to protect it. His goal was not
the applause of the crowds but the single-minded devotion to the
will of his Father. The shadow of the cross fell across Jesus'
path from his earliest days. The cross was the symbol of shame,
rejection, hatred. He took that cross as his way of saying he
would not compromise with evil. He calls us to carry our crosses
for him, too.
Do not put the Lord your God to the test. Do not try to force
God into doing what you want rather than what he wills. This is
an awesome rebuke of the powers of darkness. It still is.
Jesus went into the desert after the high moment of his
baptism. He found himself being pulled in a number of directions.
He was tempted to use his powers to satisfy his need. He was
tempted to take shortcuts to gratify his ambition. He was tempted
to use his unique status with God to exploit that relationship.
Had he yielded to any of those temptations he would have been
pulled off course. He would have been like the deer hound that
started out chasing a buck. A fox crossed the path and the hound
began trailing the fox. After a while, a rabbit crossed the path
and the hound chased the rabbit. In time a mouse crossed the
trail and the hound followed the mouse to its burrow. He had
begun trailing a buck and ended up watching a mouse hole.
Jesus would have none of that. So he won, for the time being,
because verse 12 says the devil left him until an opportune time.
Opportunity may knock only once, but temptation rings forever.
Let us beware.

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