Going through the Test

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”

5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.”

8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”

9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written: 

“‘He will command his angels concerning you

to guard you carefully;

11      they will lift you up in their hands,

so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” 

12 Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

 

13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time. (Luke 4:1-13, NIV)

 

 

REFLECTIONS:

I saw an advertisement the other day for a particular car. The makers were very proud of the fact that this car had been put through all kinds of tests to see what would happen to it under the most extreme conditions. The car had come through with flying colors.

 

That's what you do with a car. But we don't often think about it happening to you and me. And yet that's what this passage is all about. It's about Jesus going through the test, and coming through with flying colors. And since it's a test we have all failed, it's worth pondering, prayerfully, what Jesus was actually achieving and how it can help us, this Lenten season and throughout our lives.

 

What was it like, being Jesus? That's a huge and difficult question, but Luke wants us at least to try imagining the scene as though it was happening to ourselves.

 

First, he was very hungry; but he had learned self-control over his own body.

 

Second, he knew (because he'd just been told at his baptism) that he was indeed the one whom God was calling to be Messiah, King of Israel and the whole world; but there was a right way and a wrong way of becoming what God wanted him to be.

 

Third, he knew he had to bring God's people on side with what he was called to do; but again, there would be a right and a wrong way of doing that.

 

To say “this can't have been easy” is a huge understatement. There is a sense in this story of deep wrestling, a heart-searching, a personal struggle with the powerful tool of bodily appetites, ambition and prestige. Most of us know only a little of that struggle, because we tend to give up and give in, early on in the process. Jesus went all the way through the tests and still didn't break.

 

That is part of the point for us now. This is the start of Jesus’ own story, pointing already to the cross where he will hang in humiliation, powerless, his body tortured to destruction. But Luke encourages us to hear its echoes in our own story.

 

 

POINT OF PONDER:

Stand there beside Jesus as he faces those tests. Use your imagination to envision the struggle he endured. Try to imagine what it must've been like to hear the tempter's words as he was so hungry, so tired, so drained. Then watch as he finds strength in the Lord, gathers himself, and stands firm in the face of temptation.

What tasks are you facing right now? How are the whispering voices trying to lure you off course, into doing the right thing in the wrong way, or the wrong thing altogether? Where will you look in the Scriptures to find help and strength?

 

 

PRAYER:

Lord, give me the strength not to give up. Empower me to reach for your word, to remember what you are calling me to be and to do and, with your help, to persevere through whatever tests may come my way.

 

 

WHO AM I?

I am Tres Sansom, and I'd like to encourage you to watch a short, quirky video about Jesus’ time of testing in the wilderness. It's made up of 40 images drawn by a British illustrator named Simon Smith. I think it's a moving depiction of all that Jesus endured.