Luke 4:1-13 The Temptation of Jesus
TSJ/WSG 17-02-13
Introduction
Story: Manfred, Freiherr von Richthofen was a famous German First World War fighter pilot.
He was better known as the Red Baron because he flew a distinctive a red Fokker aircraft.
He shot down more combat planes than any one else on either side in the first World war
His known kill tally was 80.
On 21st April 1918, he began chasing a Canadian plane - that was trying to escape the battle over the Mor-lan-court Ridge, near the river Somme.
As the Red Baron pursued his prey, he strayed behind Allied lines.
He dived too low into the enemy lines
And he also he missed a Canadian pilot (Arthur) “Roy” Brown coming up on his tail to help his comrade.
We will never know whether it was a shot from the ground - or a shot from Brown that killed Richthofen.
But what we do know is that the “Red Baron” came to his end because he made the mistake of pursuing that Allied ‘plane “too long, too far, and too low into enemy territory” (as one report so succinctly put it)
And many committed Christians have been shot down because they have followed temptation for too long, too far, and too low into enemy territory.
And as with Richthofen – they are then caught unawares and then have to deal with the conseqences.
Sin takes us
- further than we ever wanted to go,
- costs more than we were ever willing to pay, &
- hurts more than we ever dreamed it would.
Lent has started – a time when we remember Jesus’ 40 days in the desert, as he prepared for his public ministry
And Lent is a timely reminder of that we too have to learn how to handle temptations.
The book of Hebrews tells us that in Jesus we have a High Priest who is able to sympathise with our temptations.
That encourages me
Jesus was tempted – as our Gospel reading tells us - yet he did not sin.
Having fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, Jesus was on the edge of his mental and physical strength.
And he was vulnerable to sin.
Yet Jesus chose not to sin
And for me, Jesus’ three temptations mirror three major areas of Life where we are most vulnerable to fall.
1. The first of these is that we have our daily needs
In Jesus’ temptations – his particular daily need at this time was for food.
He’d been fasting for 40 days – probably only drinking a little water
He was hungry - He felt like having some food to eat
Jesus had committed himself to fast and pray.
He didn’t have to but he had.
Fasting and prayer was a time when Jesus gave himself exclusively to seek God.
So when the Devil comes along and tells him what to do, Jesus has a choice.
He can either listen to him or ignore him.
There was nothing wrong with eating bread - the conflict was simply this
“Who was Jesus going to listen to”
His Heavenly Father or the Devil?
Jesus had rights – he was entitled to his creature comforts like anyone else.
But Jesus gave up all these rights to fulfil the responsibilities that the call of His Heavenly Father brought.
He gave up his rights for the sake of preaching the Good News of the Kingdom of God.
There will be times when God calls us to give up our rights to the good things in life nfor the sake of the Kingdom.
And the Devil will sit on our shoulder and give us advice.
In fact he might even quote Scripture at us.
The question is : Who are we going to listen to?
And prayer is all about listening to God.
2 The second MAJOR AREAS of life, reflected in Jesus’ temptations, is our need to be valued.
But there is a fine line between a healthy self image or self esteem and an ego trip
Our need to be valued can so often become a lust for power – however we might want to disguise it.
It is something many of us crave for deep down.
We want to be in charge – in some form or other.
And the temptation comes to us to do this directly or by manipulation, rather than being invited by God to “come up higher”
We see people striving to better themselves to get to the top in business
We want the accolade of being recognised as being successful.
And here the devil was handing it to Jesus on a plate.
“You want to be the boss, Jesus?” the Devil says: “I can give it to you. Just bow down to me.”
But that wasn’t God the Father’s way.
He had sent Jesus to be the suffering servant who takes away the sins of the world through the Cross.
When I was thinking about my call to the ministry, I knew it would mean giving up my very good job in business
A verse of Scripture came to me
The Psalmist said:
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. Ps 84:10
Was I willing to have the same attitude as the Psalmist?
3. The last major area of life, reflected in Jesus’ temptations, is the need to be signifiant – to be someone great
Yet it leaves us vulnerable to the sin of self seeking.
We might dress this need up in a variety of manners
We want to leave the world a better place for our having been here
Many of us have dreamt about doing great things.
We might dream of
• earning lots of money like Bill Gates
• playing a violin like Yehudi Menuhin,
• painting like Pablo Picasso or
• influencing the affairs of nations like Pres. Obama.
Jesus, the Son of God, could have proclaimed his greatness by jumping off the Temple like superman.
And God would have sent his angels to protect him.
But that wasn’t the plan that God had for Jesus’ life – because it would have shortcut the Cross.
Imagine what an impact that would have had in the Jerusalem Post the following day!
But that wasn’t God’s way – it was the Devil’s way
4. Conclusion
So what can we learn from the temptations of Jesus?
4.1. The first point that I learn from this is that all human beings are open to temptation.
Not one of us is exempt.
Even Jesus wasn’t exempt, despite the fact he had a divine nature and well as a human one.
4.2. Secondly, temptation is NOT A SIN.
It is giving in to temptation that is the sin.
It is the sin of the second glance that brings about our downfall
4.3. Thirdly, we have a choice – and we can exercise that choice – just as Jesus did
We can say NO!
The important question that our Gospel reading leaves me with is this:
Am I going to listen to the voice of God – or give in to the soft sweet words of the Devil?
If we are going to respond to our heavenly Father’s call to preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God, we first need to know whose voice we are going to listen to.
Jesus showed us the way – he followed the voice of His heavenly Father rather than the voice of Satan
