“Then was Jesus led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.”

(Matthew 4:1)

Is temptation a problem with you or are you one who finds life’s chief amusement yielding to temptation. Do you sometimes feel yourself pitted against forces too strong for you to handle alone and begin to wish for spiritual reinforcements to bolster your defenses before what you know to be the threatened treasure house of your life?

If we are acquainted with temptation, know its power, and want to find out how and where to get help, this passage from the gospel’s account is highly relevant for us.

First of all, it is patently apparent that Jesus knew temptation. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews assures us that “we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are.” The gospel gives a graphic account of Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness following His baptism. What a grim, desperate struggle it was.

But some people, while agreeing that here is evidence of the reality of Jesus’ temptation, assurance that the struggle was genuine, and not that of a mailed knight before toy arrows, nevertheless have insisted that the gospel record of Jesus’ temptation is so far from the sort of thing we mortals know in our temptations as to be incomparable to our plight.

Thus, Paul Sherer who was so impressed with the fact that Jesus’ temptations were all in the area of His Messianic consciousness, said that since not one of us thinks himself to be a Messiah, then the scriptural passage of Jesus’ temptation is irrelevant to our problems of temptation. Unless, of course, we are a Hitler or a Lenin or a Mao. Sherer goes so far as to say that if we have any place in this scripture it is not in the role of the tempted, but rather in the role of the tempter. For our greatest temptation as disciples of Christ in His church is to want to prostitute the mission of the church, which is the body of Christ, from its self-giving, and use it to serve our selfish purposes.  Though this is a pertinent spiritual insight and a needed one for us; for we are tempted to assume the role of the Tempter and prostitute the church’s role as the body of Christ, nevertheless, that is not the only relevance of the gospel account of Jesus’ temptation to our temptations.

Though none of us is called to be the Messiah, as was our Lord, each of us has, as He had, a divine vocation, a heavenly calling, and each of us is tempted to reject it, or to pervert it.

As Jesus’ first temptation was to turn stones into bread when He was hungry in order to minister to the physical needs He desperately felt, so we each one of us are tempted to use whatever power is given to us over material things for our own selfish satisfactions. Here is a temptation common to farmer, merchant, manufacturer, distributor, consumer, housewife, and all.

Feeling hunger does things to people.  It may make one greedy and gluttonous, vowing: “I was hungry once, and I swear I never will be hungry again if I have to steal or kill.” But on the other hand, to experience hunger, just once, can make one sensitive to, and sympathize with, the needs of others and make him vow in his heart of hearts, “So long as I live, I’ll never let a hungry man, woman, or child whom I can help suffer want.”

Then Jesus’ second temptation, to hurl Himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple that the angels might bear Him up from destruction before the wondering gaze of the crowd, what was this but the epitome of the temptation every one of us feels to take those personal talents entrusted to us and use them to create a spectacle and call attention to ourselves?

And the third temptation; to use foul means to accomplish good ends, we know what that is like too. The Tempter pointed Jesus in the direction of a universal messianic empire and claimed power to give effect to this dazzling prospect, on one condition, homage to Satan as Sovereign. It is a naive suggestion, but pointing to a most subtle form of temptation to which all ambitious, self-seeking people succumb, that of gaining power by compromise with evil. The danger is greatest where the end is the best.

Yes, as the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews says, “we have a savior who was tempted even as we are,” and what is most helpful for us to know from the gospel story of Jesus’ temptation; we are tempted much as He was.

A second thing is clear from this gospel record of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness: At the bottom of all our temptations lies not evil, but one of our most cherished possessions — our God-given freedom. To live as a human being is to be tried and tempted. St. Peter wrote to Christians passing through a fiery trial of temptation — “think not that this is a strange experience.”

At the opening of the Temptation story there stands this puzzling, seemingly contradictory sentence: “Then was Jesus led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil?” Pray what sort of theological double talk is this? The son of God being directed by the Spirit of God into a deserted place in order that the devil could tempt Him? Who is really the tempter here, God or the Devil?

Oh, the scripture is only being honest and realistic! The fact is that every moment for every one of us is crammed with possibilities of good and evil. Every moment of time is a crisis of temptation. Freedom to choose never departs. God is there and the devil is there and a third party — the free moral agent, a man or a woman, is there.

It is the glorious gift of freedom, the actuality of our free choice in each moment, which makes temptation possible, and God is there with His love and all His gracious influences like the sun’s warm, clean rays on a cloudless day bathing one in glory and inspiring one to choose the eternal, the pure, the selfless.  But there is also in every moment the Satan, the evil influences of the spiritual, and sin and selfishness and unbrotherliness and cruelty have entered, who are cheering on the evil impulses of each ones heart.

The evangelist writes that at the Holy Supper, “Satan entered into Judas.” Yes, just as God is ever looking for men and women to be His instruments, so is Satan. Each one of us can be the instrument of good or evil, of God or the devil. But it is also true that Satan could not have entered into Judas unless Judas had opened the door. There is no handle on the outside of the door of the human heart. It must be opened from within.

            To every man there openeth

            A high way and a low,

            And every man decideth

            The way his soul shall go.

                        (Wm. Barclay — Com. On Luke)

But there is more about us and our temptations in this story of Jesus’ Temptations — here is staked out clearly for us the area whence our best help comes when temptation presses. Each time the Tempter assaults our Lord’s high motives for His ministry to twist them to low, perverted ends, Jesus answers with a verse from scripture. All three are quotes from Deuteronomy, what appears to have been one of Jesus’ favorite books.

1. On the temptation to turn stones to bread:  [Insert Quote]
2. On the temptation to cast Himself down from the Temple and have God hold Him up:  [Insert Quote]
3. On the temptation to worship Satan: [Insert Quote]

This does not mean that all we have to do when the devil and his angels surround us, is to begin quoting scripture in rapid-fire order — like that young man whose grandfather taught him when tempted to lose his temper, always to say the books of the Bible in order from Genesis to Revelation before he replied.

Rather, the basic value of Jesus’ example to us is that when we feel the presence of unworthy influences and we are about to make important decisions, the crucial thing for us to do is to open our minds to eternal truth. Let the reason of the heavenly philosophy have its say in the clamorous debate. While the allurements of lust and the loud cries of selfish indulgence in personal luxuries, and the pandering of our souls in the flattery of those who would use us in their evil schemes are cunningly advancing their specious arguments, let us crack the door of our minds to the wisdom of the ages, let God’s truth have its say through the mouth of scripture.

But let it be pertinent. If the temptation is to take what is not our own, we need to hear not: “The Lord will provide,” but, “Thou shalt not steal.” If the trial of our soul is to advance self through maligning another, then heed, “Thou shalt not bear false witness,” and not, “The Lord helps them that help themselves.”

Our minds must become saturated with the truth of God as recorded in the scriptures as was Jesus’ or we shall never find the strength and wisdom to overcome the tempter in our hour of trial.

Bunyan’s Pilgrim wondered at the fire of God’s grace which burned so brightly on the hearth in the tavern by the road of man’s earthly journey. Pilgrim could see that the devil was pouring water on it, great buckets full one after the other and it seemed the fire would be put out completely and quickly, but still it burned. So Pilgrim marveled, until one took him by the hand and showed him how on the other side of the fire Christ stood all the while pouring on oil which caused the flames to leap up brightly. So, is it in your life and mine by God’s grace to us in Christ, as through His scriptures He pours into our lives the oil of His grace.

Finally, this story of Jesus’ temptation shows us not only where we can turn for help in our time of temptation, but how we can best offer ourselves for the assistance of those whom we love in their times of trial. St. Paul was sure our real struggle is spiritual and not physical. “We wrestle not against flesh and blood — neither are the weapons of our warfare carnal . . . We are up against the spiritual agents from the very headquarters of evil . . . We struggle to cast down imaginations and to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience to Christ.”

So, when for our friends we would enter the fight on their behalf, we go best on our knees. What exciting possibilities for spiritual adventures open before us. Just as we always pray before and during the time of a heavy surgical operation for one we hold dear, so we lift his name and his need on the arms of intercession when we know he is tempted, when a glorious opportunity, or a bitter loss, or a galling defeat, or a shining hour of decision is upon him.

What more crucial thing could we do? The issue is essentially spiritual. The battleground is his soul. He has reached a great divide in his life. For God or the devil he will decide. To darkness or life, for self or service, he will give his soul. And we? Why, we have the opportunity of committing our soul’s full battle strength on his behalf. Who knows, it may be our reinforcements which come just in the nick of time.