Temptation of Jesus
Matthew 4 opens Jesus’ ministry proper. What is the first thing Jesus encounters? Satan.
Jesus encounters Satan when His flesh is weakened from fasting. But Jesus encounters Satan when His spirit is
strengthened by His fasting. What is the
lesson here? For spiritual people, the
spirit is stronger than the flesh. We
may not always live it out because of our sinful nature. But it is still nonetheless true.
Satan’s temptation is very thorough. It begins with an assault of the
physical. That is where most of us
regular human beings are actually quite weak.
Satan goes to Jesus, knows that He is hungry, knows that Jesus has the
power to turn the stones into bread, and he tries to get Jesus to comply. It is a physical temptation pure and simple. It is an attack on the humanity of Jesus.
Jesus resists.
Satan then tries to attack Jesus’ divinity {as well as His spirituality}.
Satan knows that God has a plan for Jesus. Satan also knows that God’s plan is coming
out of His absolute will. This means
that God will see His Son crucified upon the cross. So Satan asks Jesus to throw Himself off of
the temple to try and force God’s hand at work.
Satan even employs God’s own word as a tool. Satan is attempting to pit God against
Himself.
Jesus resists.
The third temptation is an attack upon Jesus’ ego. Here is another area where human beings
fall. Our emotional and psychological
side does not like to be challenged.
Satan tells Jesus that if He would just bow to him then Satan would give
Him dominion over the world.
Jesus resists.
This is such a neat passage because it shows how Satan will attack
us on all fronts. Satan will even use
God’s Word to pit us against the Father.
Yet, we can resist Him. When we
focus on worshiping God alone, the temptations of Satan will flee our presence.
The Kingdom of God is at Hand
Jesus heads to Capernaum.
There He takes up residence while He begins His ministry. In doing this, Jesus fulfills more
scripture. The people of Naphtali and
Zebulun (Region of the Sea of Galilee) have seen a great light. Jesus has come and dwelled among them. It would start with them.
What is interesting is that Jesus brings light to a people sitting
in darkness. This can be taken on two
levels, and I think it should be taken on two levels. First, I believe this passage is talking
about the nature of sin. The people were
caught up in their sinfulness, as we all are.
They were dwelling in sin when they saw the light of Christ entering
into their life. This is an incredible
depiction of the human condition.
However, I think there is a more geographic side to this
phrase. The Sea of Galilee was a mixed
land. It had places of very dense
Gentile population. The Gentiles were
darkness to the Jews – separated from God.
Living in Galilee would be far different than living in the vicinity of
Jerusalem. Quite literally, we see Jesus
begin His ministry by going to a region that is both Jew and Gentile. This is an incredible depiction of the true
mission of Jesus. He will save those in
the world who will receive Him, Jew and Gentile alike.
The First Four
As Jesus goes about His life in the vicinity of Galilee, He finds
four fishermen – a pair of brothers. His
call is simple. Jesus looks to them and
says, “Come, follow me.” It is a simple
invitation. Yet it is an incredibly deep
invitation. It is an invitation that
speaks to both the simplicity of ministry (following someone else who is in
charge) as well as the complexity of ministry (submitting to a spiritual
mentor). Jesus calls us to Him. He asks us to trust Him, but in trusting Him
we must submit to Him. In submitting to
Him, we are given the freedom to let Him be responsible for being in charge.
Jesus also says, “I will make you fishers for men.” Jesus looks to the disciples and tells them
of their value. Jesus isn’t going to ask
them to forget their past life and adopt something completely new. Rather, Jesus is asking the disciples to take
their skills and their personality and apply them in a new direction. Rather than fish for fish, they will find
ways to “catch” human beings. Humbling
ourselves to the beckoning of Jesus does not have to mean that we throw ourselves
away. Christ redeems us so that He can
use us.
Crowds
I used to love the crowds as a kid. I used to think it would have been neat to
just be among the crowds when Jesus healed a sick person. As I’ve matured and studied the scriptures,
however, I find that I don’t like the crowds all that much anymore. Thousands of people heard Jesus preach. Thousands more saw Jesus perform miracle
after miracle. Yet who followed Him but
a handful of disciples, a few named women, and maybe a few dozen unnamed
followers.
That being said, Jesus still had compassion on the crowds. He still taught the crowds in an attempt to
draw out a disciple or two whenever possible.
He still had mercy on the sick and the lame. Jesus did not let their lack of faith hinder
the fact that God’s power is on display.
Neither should we.
<><
No comments:
Post a Comment