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A salesman was waiting in an office to submit his company’s bid. When the person he was to submit the bid to stepped out for a few minutes, the salesman noticed a competitor’s bid on the desk, but the amount was covered by a drink can. As no one was around, he decided to take a quick look to see if he needed to adjust his company’s bid. What he didn’t know was he was being tested. There was no bottom on the can and it was full of BBs, which went everywhere when he lifted the can.
This morning continues the series of messages titled What Did Jesus Do? The message title is Passing the Test, which is different from what I had originally titled this message, and the Scripture text comes from the passage about the temptations of Jesus. Follow along as I read from Matthew 4:1-11 –
1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.
6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.
9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”
11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
Temptation is generally thought of as an enticement into sin and wrongdoing, which it is. In this passage, however, the word for temptation carries more of the idea of a test, which is different from that of wrongdoing. There is, if this is the right way to put it, more subtlety to a test. There is a subtlety because temptation – especially the testing type of temptation – often contains an element of truth. Just a little bit of truth, but enough to make us think, you know, that makes sense. So let’s take a look at the three tests that Jesus faced, and how those tests apply to us.
Test #1 – Turning Stones Into Bread – Keep Everything in the Right Place.
If you have studied psychology, you are probably familiar with Abraham Maslow and his Hierarchy of Needs, as shown in the chart below –
Maslow believed people have needs that can be placed in a pyramid, with the more important needs placed higher up on the pyramid. At the bottom are the basic needs of life – food, water, and the other needs of our physical bodies. As you travel up the pyramid, the needs are less tangible, but increasingly important. While the pyramid doesn’t specifically use the words spiritual needsand the needs of our souls, they would be placed at the top of that pyramid. We engage in all sorts of activities in our lives, which is fine, but the test is will we rearrange the pyramid, reversing the order of our most important needs?
When Jesus is tempted to turn the stones into bread, it is easy to wonder, what’s wrong with that? If he was hungry, and he could turn the stones into bread, why not do so? On the surface it makes a great deal of sense, doesn’t it? Why shouldn’t Jesus do something to take care of his hunger? What could possibly be wrong with providing some bread for himself? Didn’t God miraculously provide for the Hebrew people while they wandered in the wilderness? Wouldn’t he be better prepared for his ministry after having some physical sustenance? There is nothing wrong with being hunger or wanting to satisfy our hunger, is there?
First, I need to say this – Jesus never used his power to benefit himself. Jesus did, however, use his power to benefit others. Jesus would not use his power to feed himself, but he used it to feed the hungry (the feeding of the 4,000 – (Matthew 15:32-39 and Mark 8:1-9; and the feeding of the 5,000 – Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:31-44; Luke 9:12-17; John 6:1-14), and on multiple occasions healed the sick.
The key in this test, I think, is in the meaning of the word fast. The word fastmeans to demonstrate a firm and unshakeable commitment. To hold fastto something, is what we say. When Jesus began his fast it wasn’t just to avoid eating for the sake of avoiding eating; Jesus was fasting and was committed to that fast because he was about to begin his public ministry and he was demonstrating an absolute, unshakeable commitment to that ministry. Nothing was going to come between Jesus and his mission. It wasn’t that Jesus shouldn’t have eaten; no, it was Jesus demonstrating his absolute commitment to his mission, as that is what mattered most to Jesus, and he was going to keep everything in its proper place.
Here is where the lesson is for us – do not forsake the spiritual component of life or forsake the mission God has given us in life. Don’t flip the pyramid. We live in such a demanding time, where the daily grind of making a living and providing for our family overwhelms us to the point that we can forget there is a spiritual side of life that must be nourished and nurtured.
Will our lives be defined by the physical, the temporal, and the daily list of urgencies that pop up on our radar screen every day? Will life be only about putting bread on the table, enjoying some entertainment, and accumulating a pile of stuff, or will there be a spiritual component and will we hold fastto the spiritual? We are more than just stomachs that have to be filled and bodies that have to be clothed; we are spiritual beings with a calling to remember that life is about far more than just visible and temporal matters.
Test #2 – Leaping From the Temple – Do We Trust God?
This is a really good example of how adding an element of truth to a test can make that test seem very logical and sensible. Here, it gets really interesting because Satan quotes Scripture – he will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone(Psalm 91:12). Here’s one lesson we can learn from this test – just because someone quotes the Bible doesn’t mean they are applying the Bible correctly or that they are to be trusted. The Bible is used incorrectly quite often, and too many people have used it and applied it in ways that have been harmful to others. The Bible has, for instance, been used to justify slavery.
Here is the test put to Jesus – are you sure you can trust God? Don’t you think you ought to put him to the test? He says you can trust him, but don’t you think you should make him prove he is trustworthy? Before you really get started on your mission, don’t you want to make sure you’re doing the right thing? Like the previous test, Jesus swats this one away quickly and definitively.
The question that speaks to us in this test is this – is faith enough? After all, don’t people want proof? Don’t people need proof? Imagine the people it would win over, if Jesus jumped from the pinnacle of the temple and a rush of angels appeared to bear him up. Imagine the people that would flock to follow him! Wouldn’t that be easier? Wouldn’t that be a more effective of bringing people of faith? What would be wrong with reaching people in such a way?
Doesn’t that make some sense? I mean, isn’t that a question that often confronts us – why doesn’t God make his existence and his presence more obvious? Wouldn’t this be a very dramatic way to prove God’s existence? You have most likely seen pictures of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. The Wailing Wall is what remains of Solomon’s Temple, which existed in the time of Jesus. The Wailing Wall is quite tall, and if you imagine the Temple on top of the wall, we are talking about quite a distance from the pinnacle of the Temple to the ground. Yes, it would be quite a dramatic display for Jesus to leap from the pinnacle and to see a band of angels swoop down to catch him. It’s making a big assumption, however, that people would find such a demonstration to be adequate to bring them to faith. I know it sounds as though it would be really convincing, but would it? In our technological age, a lot of people would assume it’s a trick. Yeah, I saw something like that at Disney World. But even in the time of Jesus, not everyone was convinced, even when they witnessed a miracle. In John chapter 11, for instance, when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, not everyone was convinced by that miracle, and does it get any more dramatic than raising the dead? Imagine what it would have been like to be there. Jesus cries out, Lazarus, come forth! (John 11:43). And Lazarus, four days dead, walks out of the tomb. And yet, amazingly, this is that point at which the religious leaders decided that Jesus must die. As tempting as it might be to desire dramatic proof of God’s existence and God’s power, it is not a guarantee that such a display would convince people of his existence or bring them to faith.
For us, we have to ask ourselves, can we trust God without an absolute display of his power? Will we trust God even when our prayers seem to go unanswered? Will we trust God after we have prayed tirelessly for someone who is seriously ill, and yet healing does not come? Will we trust God and hold to faith when we struggle to understand the presence of suffering and evil in the world? Will we trust God when our lives seem out of control and we don’t know what will happen?
Test #3 – Bow Down and Worship – Who Do We Worship?
The third temptation is one that has been with us since the beginning of time. It has inspired stories from the literary classic Faustus, where Doctor Faustus makes a deal with the devil in order to gain power, to Captain Jack Sparrow of Pirates of the Caribbean. It’s about a trade – a very bad trade.
Jesus is presented with a trade –I’ll give you the world, the devil tells Jesus, if you bow down and worship me. Right up front, I think we have to say one thing about this test – the kingdoms of the world were not Satan’s to give. Psalm 24:1 says, the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.
We must be very careful how we view and use power. Power is very tempting, and very dangerous. The currency of politics is power. The political view of power permeates every facet of society. If you want to get something done in our culture then you seek power to accomplish what you want. Jesus would face near constant temptation to use political power to accomplish his mission. Even his closest disciples carried the hope that he would usher in a new political age for the nation of Israel by becoming a political Messiah. When Jesus entered into Jerusalem, at the Triumphal Entry, many were hopeful he would declare himself a political messiah.
But the currency of God’s kingdom is not power, at least not in the coercive sense, as it exists in politics; it is love, which is a far great power. The gospel has political overtones, but there are many dangers when political power is used to advance the gospel. The gospel does not need political power in order to be advanced. In fact, I believe we run the risk of diminishing the gospel when we mix it improperly with politics.
If you read my final column in Friday’s Sentinel-News, I wrote about this idea. I would not say we should not be involved in the political process, but I would caution that mixing faith with a partisan point of view is quite dangerous, and in the end, it only diminishes the witness of the gospel. It becomes what is called an Esau trade(from the story of Jacob and Esau in Genesis 25:19-34). An Esau tradeis one that forsakes the long view of life for short term gain. Charles Colson, who went to prison for his role in the Watergate break-in back in the 70s and was converted while in prison, made quite an interesting comment. Colson said this – the early church had no political power, but had tremendous influence; the modern church has great political power, but very little influence. I think he is absolutely correct. The kingdom grows through the power of love, not the power of politics.
Jesus gives this warning in Matthew 16:26 –For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul? And what will a man give in exchange for his soul? What will a man give in exchange for his soul? What is the price tag on a soul?
The danger is that it is easy to sell our souls a little bit at a time. Life has a way of wearing us down and driving us into compromises where we are trading away our soul, one small piece at a time. What seems like a small temptation leads to a bad decision that leads to another bad decision and soon we find that piece by piece, we have given away our soul.
I used to enjoy putting together jigsaw puzzles. Everyone has their own system for how to assemble a jigsaw puzzle. Some start with the border; I would look for similar pieces, which gave me several disconnected sections. I would look at those sections and try to figure out how it all fit together. I think this is a metaphor for life. We see life in pieces, and those pieces often seem unconnected to us. We keep looking but we can’t figure out how the pieces fit together into some kind of whole. God, though, sees the whole picture. We must trust that while we cannot always see the big picture, God does, and he is always at work making connections and pulling our lives together.
Test come to us each day of life; some are small tests and some are large. How we respond to those tests, how we answer to those tests, will have a great impact on our faith. Let us pray that we will pass the test.
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