Tackling Tradition (Part 6): The Temptation Narratives

 Matthew 4:1–11 (ESV): Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written, 

  “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, 

but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” 

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, 

  “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ 

and 

  “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, 

lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ” 

7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall 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 glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, 

  “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God 

and him only shall you serve.’ ” 

11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. 

Luke 4:1–13 (ESV): And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’ ” 5 And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6 and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, 

  “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, 

and him only shall you serve.’ ” 

9 And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for it is written, 

  “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you, 

to guard you,’ 

11 and 

  “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, 

lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ” 

12 And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” 13 And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. 

If you’re like me, you probably grew up taught that the temptation narrative looks like this: Sometime after He was baptized, Yeshua wandered into the wilderness for 40 days & nights during which Satan literally spoke to Him, & He subsequently resisted temptation. 

That’s probably not what the original authors had in mind. I think they have something more expansive in mind. 

One clue is the usage of the phrase “40 days & 40 nights,” which looks a lot like figurative numbering drawn from Genesis, & Matthew is also one to employ Gematria from time to time (the genealogy narrative). 

The second clue is found in the ordering of the temptations. 

1 - Matthew’s order reflects the priorities placed on human needs within the ethical code in the Gospel.  The People needed to look up.  Their horizontal priorities (food, protection, & freedom of worship) were severely limited by the legalism, bigotry, & gluttony of the majority among the Sanhedrin, the gluttony of Herod & the Herodians, the anger & bigotry of the Zealots, & the shadow of the Abomination of Desolation 150 years prior now embodied by jackbooted Rome.  All of these are threats to liberty & justice for all according to the spirit & letter of the Law & Gospel.

2 - Luke’s Gospel is addressed to a different audience - primarily Jews.   Its order reflects a differing, yet still similar, set of circumstances. 

The first temptation strikes at the ordinary needs for life - food & water - & the toil & sorrow associated with obtaining them.  Satan tempts Yeshua to use His authority & power to do an end run around the life of an ordinary man of his socioeconomic status & position.  Instead, give in to the spirit of gluttony, &, if He is really who He says He is, astound the world with power & might like that of the pagan gods. Behave like Ceasar or a Roman procurator or Zeus or Apollo!  Pay attention to the content of Paul’s literature.  He’s very clear that gluttony & bigotry are driving vices in Greco-Roman society along with virtues like poverty, meekness, & humility relative to God’s answer to these vices. 

The second temptation speaks more directly to the polytheistic bent within Greco-Roman thought. It  takes place at the pinnacle of the temple, where Satan demands a miraculous sideshow of the sort found inside the Temple of Artemis or Aphrodite, & it hints at the sort of mockery a Gentile Christian might face in a pagan society organized around any number of temples which, in Judeo-Christian theology, were & are the architectural embodiment of parodies of the Truth. 

The pagan temples were full of idols, places of commerce, & dens of prostitution.  God’s temple in Jerusalem (and its annexes, the churches & synagogues) were/are to be free of idols, gluttonous commerce, & liberated from prostitution (especially cultic prostitution). 

The third temptation builds on the second.  If your God really is the Supreme Being & the overlord over the competition, then call down angels, messengers to protect You & the message, & spread the message itself.   It’s a challenge to the universality of the Law & Gospel, & a taunt for Christ (and His followers) to go to war with the pagan pantheon.  Its challenge answered first by a solemn warning not to put God Himself to the test.  It’s never a good idea to go to war with Almighty God.  It’s also answered by the Great Commission at the end of Matthew’s Gospel & the narrative within the Book of Acts itself. 

I don’t think that the authors intended to convey these two narratives as summaries of a literal 40 days & nights sojourn in which Satan himself spoke to Yeshua personally.  Rather, these two narratives are something like 2 very similar teaching modules that thematically summarize the content of their respective Gospels & are intended to be much wider in scope than we traditionally imagine. 

The reader/teacher can use the 3 temptations as topical or thematic headers or parts of a thematic &/or chronological outline of the contents of their respective Gospel narratives.  

For example, on posterboard, paper, or a dry erase/chalk board write the 3 temptations across the top of the board/poster/paper.  Then, working through their respective Gospels, compile an outline of the contents of these texts that informs us about both the work of the Opposition & the Lord’s prophetic response to the Opposition.  It ought to result in something like a thematic overview of human & demonic activity during the ministry of Christ that can also be used as a prophetic study aid relative to the Book of Acrs & any number of events in Church (& World) History. 

Thank you, yet again, for walking with me today. May God bless us all, each & every one; & “Go & sin no more.”