How Did Jesus Deal With Temptation? Some Thoughts
by on Sep 8th, 2010 at 12:20 am
This past June, I was given the opportunity to preach at my home church, and I spoke on Satan’s tempting of Jesus at the early stages of His public ministry. My sermon was really the culmination of a long period of study and reflection on this passage, and I thought that you would find some of it useful.
We all face temptation, and the more aware we are of the seasons of temptation, as well as the nature of temptation, the sooner we will recognize our situation and seek the provision of God to rightly resist or flee temptation.
For the next several Wednesdays, I am going to break down this account and look at the ways in which Jesus was tempted, His responses, and how He has equipped us with the ability to resist Satan, but I will warn you that willpower will not be one of those tools.
Though I will primarily work from Luke’s account of this occasion in Jesus’ earthly ministry, I will give you the links to the other accounts as well so you can read them and gain in your familiarity with what took place (Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13).
Thought #1 - Satan’s Timing is Important
Satan tempted Jesus when He was in at least two conditions: He was alone and physically vulnerable. The Wilderness is a wild and desolate place inhabited only by those in hiding. In a place like that, Jesus would endure 40 days of isolation. The Wilderness is also an intensely inhospitable physical environment. He didn’t have a beautiful and lush landscape to enjoy. He would have been scorched by the mid-day sun and chilled by the ruthlessly cold nights. Misery might love company, but try enduring it alone!
Jesus was also hungry, which seems reasonable when one goes 40 days and nights without food. His body would have been exhausted, He would feel lethargic, and intense hunger would drive any human to do unreasonable things to achieve its satisfaction. A man with that level of hunger would be reduced to his most base of instincts, which is a vital point to remember when we look at Jesus’ responses.
Jesus’ condition was more severe than the scenarios we encounter when under temptation. Few, if any, of us will face such intense loneliness or hunger, but Satan usually doesn’t need to wait so long for us to be drawn into temptation. We’re so weak that a little bit of isolation or physical vulnerability and we’re toast.
Being alone and physically weary is a dangerous condition for Christian men. Isolation provides space for us to think that we can act without others noticing or being affected by our decisions. Physical weariness, either in the form of exhaustion, prolonged stress, busyness, or pain shortens our patience with others and causes us to long for a release of the pressure or at least a momentary diversion from constant strain or responsibility. We’re then tempted to give in to a number of desires: anger, lust, gluttony, mindless spending, or suspension of responsibilities to chase after personal wants.
To be fair, Jesus was led into isolation and physical exhaustion by the Holy Spirit, so we cannot fault Him for getting into that situation. We also might not always be able to avoid moments or temporary seasons of loneliness or physical weakness, but we would be wise to notice that Satan tempted Jesus when He was at His weakest as a full human (one of those moments where full God submitted to the limits of full manhood). Why would we expect temptation to be different for us?
If you find yourself in either or both of these conditions, the time would be ripe for you to see if you can get out of that scenario or at least acknowledge to God that you are in need of His strength, even when you do not yet feel the pangs of temptation draw you into illegitimate desires or the perversion of an initially legitimate desire.
Next Wednesday, we’ll look at the nature of Jesus’ temptation, but try reading the accounts from Matthew, Mark, and Luke and see if you can understand what would make these offers and challenges of Satan so tempting for Jesus. How did He address them (hint: the answer is not “He memorized Scripture”)?