03/05 - Led into Temptation

Led into Temptation

 Matthew 4:1-11

           

The Season of Lent HAS to begin with the Temptation

  > The great point of Hebrews 4:15 - " This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin." (NLT)

  > It significantly effected Jesus; just look at the Lord's prayer:

    * "Lead us not into temptation"

    * "Give us our daily bread"

    * "Thy Kingdom come on earth"

  > Jesus was the only one who could have shared this story

 

Where is the evil or the harm in these requests?

  > Stone to bread = feeding of 5,000; Physical safety = Resurrection; Authority now = Authority after the Resurrection

  > Malcolm Muggeridge - What should the messiah look like?

    * People's messiah?

    * Torah messiah

    * Kingly messiah?

    * Certainly NOT the Suffering messiah!

 

Satan was tempting Him with a quick, non-suffering way to achieve the aims of the incarnation, the crown without the cross, to be human without the bad parts, to be the superhero rather than the Messiah

  > Isn't that often temptation's way, offering us the shortcut to security or pleasure that are in themselves good, but can be grasped in the hurtful, destructive way?

  > But looking over your own history, don't you sometimes wish God had been the conquering superhero, rather than the gentle Father?  Why does God seem to sit on His hands?

    * Yet would we not find, like Elijah, that the Lord was not in the Wind, the Earthquake, or the Fire, but in the Still, Small Voice?

    * Satan was tempting Jesus to do things his way, the way that forces obedience rather than the way that encourages Love

  > "Yet what was offered Thee? There are three powers, three powers alone, able to conquer and to hold captive for ever the conscience of these impotent rebels [humans] for their happiness; those forces are miracle, mystery and authority. Thou hast rejected all three and hast set the example for doing so." - Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

  > Satan's power is external and coercive; God's is internal and persuasive

  > Phillip Yancey, in The Jesus I Never Knew, "Only Love can summon the response of Love"  Yes. Coercive power would only compel fear...

 

Jesus chose...

  > God's kingdom, God's will, God's methods that promote love rather than compel fear

  > The path of self-sacrifice, the hard but GOOD path, the path that leads us to grace