Monday, November 8, 2010

The Meaning of Jesus' Temptation

This morning I read in Luke 4 about the temptation of Jesus. A few things stuck out to me that I thought I'd pass along:

1. Jesus is very clearly being portrayed as the 'New Israel'. Israel was tempted in the wilderness by the Evil One and failed miserably because of their fallen, human nature (Exodus 34, Deut. 9). Jesus is the New and Greater Israel.
2. All of the temptations that come at Jesus are in some way tied to his identity. The first temptation begins with the phrase, "If you are the Son of God..." Satan is tempting Jesus to miraculously satisfy his hunger because he has the right to as the Son of God, instead of living on every word of God. The second temptation is for Jesus to take his proper inheritance, the nations, now, before he goes to the cross. The final temptation strikes at Jesus' identity as the Son of God by tempting him to put God to the test.
3. All of our temptations are analogous to Christ's temptations. They in one way or another question our identity and tempt us to disobey the first command: Have no other gods but God.
4. Our hope for fighting temptation is the same as Jesus'. We must set our minds and hearts upon the truth of who we are according to the Bible. For example: when I am tempted to be anxious, my hope is setting my heart upon the fact that my Savior is risen and that he promises that he will keep me in his love forever.

2 comments:

coheninjapan said...

Is there a temptation to just be a man? Just a pure escapist option. I don't know if you ever watched 'The Last Temptation of Christ', but that was the part I loved...the Devil shows him a vision of a simple married life...appeals to the human part...the perception I always get with Jesus never seems to focus on the man...but this easily could be selection bias...

Aaron Hart said...

Thanks Matt!