Who Will You Listen To?

The early church struggled with Jesus’ temptation. Mark includes one verse about it. Jesus is baptized, a voice from heaven declares: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him. That’s all Mark tells us; that’s all the first Gospel written includes. John, the last Gospel written, says nothing about it. Luke and Matthew tell the same story, except that the order of the temptations is flip-flopped. In Matthew, Jesus is tempted to turn stones into bread, to test God, and then to rule the world. In Luke, the order is turning stones into bread, ruling the world, and then testing God. I’m not sure that the order is significant except to point us to the truth of the account. They didn’t copy off of each other’s papers. They are telling the story as it was told to them. And any time a story is difficult to hear or understand and then is intentionally vague or left out, we know to lean in. Human nature is to skim over those kinds of things. So when some skim and others tell, it adds to our assurance that this happened. This happened, and the church didn’t know what to make of it, and it was awkward to tell about. So, what happened, and what does it mean for us?

As soon as Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit drove him into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights with no food. Remember 2 weeks ago as we studied God’s call of Samuel, we listened for the echoes in the story, the same patterns repeating to hear what God was saying to us? What echoes might we hear in this story? Water/wilderness/40/no food – Do you hear the story of God’s people Israel? They were freed from Egypt and crossed through the waters of the Red Sea, into the wilderness, where they wandered for 40 years. During that time, Moses led them. The first issue was that they didn’t have any food. They complained that they should have just stayed as slaves in Egypt – at least there they had pots of meat to eat. God provided manna and quail. Then they didn’t have water, so God provided water from a rock, and Moses called the place Massah (testing in Hebrew) and Meribah (quarreling) because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?” Moses goes up on Mt. Sinai twice for 40 days and the second time he didn’t eat any food or drink any water, and when he comes down, his face is so bright they can’t look at him because he has been in God’s presence. Hear the echoes? Through the water, into the wilderness, tested and formed, having been in God’s presence, and ready to lead.

At the end of the 40 days and 40 nights with no food, the tempter makes his move. It is when we are weak, when we are depleted, when we are spent, that temptation has its best chance with us. He was tempted in every way, as we are, and the tempter has 3 temptations to offer:

The first one is using our power or position for ourselves, for selfish gain, to satisfy our selfish wants.

“If you really are God’s Son,” says the tempter, “do a parlor trick and feed yourself; turn this rock into a nice warm yeast roll.” I doubt the tempter let it go at that. Scripture says Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, so if my experience bears that out, he also resisted “just one won’t hurt,” “it will taste soooo good,” “no one has to know,” “it won’t hurt anything,” “if you weren’t supposed to have it, it wouldn’t be this easy.”

Jesus answers with Scripture, Deuteronomy 8:3, Moses’ instructions to the Israelites as they prepared to go without him into the Promised Land, “Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. All this time, your clothes didn’t wear out and your feet didn’t swell in the heat during these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.”

Then the tempter takes Jesus to the top of the Temple in Jerusalem and quotes Scripture back to him to tempt him, from Psalm 91. The psalm says “Whoever dwells in the shelter of God, and affirms, “The LORD is my refuge,” will not be overtaken by disaster. God will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the cobra. “Because you love me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue you; I will protect you. You will call on me, and I will answer you.”

The tempter uses as his bait, Take a risk! Live a little! God’s got this. God won’t let you fall. God won’t let you fail. “God will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”

The tempter quotes Scripture – taking it out of context and twisting it for his own purposes. Any time Scripture is interpreted, one of the tests of interpretation is whether or not the interpretation is consistent with the overarching themes of Scripture. Is this how God relates with humanity? Is this how God teaches us to relate to God and one another? Because when it doesn’t, we are being tempted.

Jesus responds, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test’” from Moses’ explanation of the 1st law of the 10 commandments given to Moses to form and shape God’s people, Israel in the wilderness. “I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods before me.” “Listen and understand, you are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and mind and strength. Worship the Lord your God and serve only him. Do not put the LORD your God to the test as you did at Massah, when you were whining for water and Moses hit the rock and God brought water out of it.”

Finally, the tempter offers Jesus power – all the power in the world. If only, he will bow to temptation. If only he will worship the tempter rather than the creator. “All this could be yours, if only you would put me first,” he says. The world is your oyster! You are on the ladder to success – if only, you will put your job first for a while. You can make such a difference – if only, you compromise on this one principle. You will be so richly rewarded – if only, you turn your head just this time. You will soar to new heights – if only you will make this deal. Security can be attained – as long as oppression here is maintained. The sky’s the limit, as long as you pay no attention to the people you step on as you climb. All the power in the world – the tricky thing is that the tempter takes on many forms.

Jesus responds, “Away from me, Satan, literally the name means “to oppose” or “to act as adversary”! For it is written, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only!”

So, who will you listen to?

The one who says, “Aren’t you God’s kid, if you’re hungry, why don’t you do something about it?”

Or Jesus who answers, “It is what is in our hearts that we live on, not what is in our stomachs.”

The one who says, “If you are God’s kid, take the risk, throw yourself down. Scripture says he’ll send his angels to pick you up and keep you from getting hurt.”

Or Jesus who answers, “We live to serve God, not the other way around.”

The one who says, “Look at all the power and riches in the world, this is my domain, and it can all be yours in exchange for your worship.”

Or Jesus who answers, “Our devotion is to God. God not only comes first; we worship and serve no one and nothing else.”

Who will you listen to?