ALIVE: Chapter 117 Led into Temptation

After the 40 days of prayer and fasting in the wilderness Jesus was famished. Before He could return to civilization and a hearty meal, He encountered an invisible dark and diabolical visitor. It’s just like Satan to try to wreck the most powerful 40 day period since the Great Flood. 

Yet, it is not so surprising that after 40 days of fasting and communing with His Father that the tempter appeared, but rather what is surprising is that the scoundrel left Him alone during the 40 days. So strong must have been the power of the Presence of the Holy Trinity in that wilderness, that like a fly in the center of a tornado there was no chance at all that the demon voice could be heard. But after 40 days, like when the rains had ceased battering the Ark, and here, after the Father returned to His throne above the heavens, the serpent of old arrived at a kind of Eden to repeat its mischievous deed. It worked before. 

Again, it began with food. The devil figured that a hungry man who hadn’t even eaten a crust of bread for forty days would easily conflate eating with power as Eve had. 

Jesus was ready. The angels stepped back. 

“Do you want some company?” heard Jesus.

“Say what you have come to say.” He replied to the bodiless voice. 

Directing His attention to the stones at His feet, the voice said, “If you are the Son of God, command those stones to become loaves of bread.” 

Jesus looked down at the five smooth round stones at his feet. He did not reply right away, while He pushed the stones around with his sandaled feet. They reminded Him of the five smooth stones from the wadi that the boy David put in his shepherd’s bag and with sling in hand went to slay the giant Goliath who threatened to enslave the people of Israel again. With the blood of David coursing through His veins, Jesus heard an echo of the young shepherd’s faithful words, “You come to me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.”

Breaking the silence, eyes fixed on the stones at his feet, Jesus answered the voice, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’

Jesus beat the voice at its own game by associating the power of food to satisfy the body, with the power of God’s word, by which light broke through and overcame darkness. It was at that moment that Jesus understood as never before what it meant to be the embodied Word of God. With that Jesus realized how simple it was to ignore the pathetic power of hunger and of Satan.

Jesus was ready. His hunger translated in His Body as lightness and then freedom. Instead of being weaker, He felt stronger.  

Undaunted by this failure, the voice tried again, “Come with me, I want to show You something.” 

For the first time, and without any effort on His part but with sheer will He was able, like an Angel to leave His body in the wilderness and with His soul, the essence of His being, Jesus allowed the devil to grab Him by the arm and pull Him through the air. They landed on the pinnacle of the temple. He looked down at the City of Jerusalem below in awe. Jesus trembled as He had never done such a thing before since He became human. He looked around at the bustling streets, the vendors, the women and children. He saw life in its full bloom. Breaking His contemplation, the evil voice said, “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, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” 

Hearing that, Jesus chuckled to Himself at the foolishness of the devil’s command, thinking that if He flew all the way from the wilderness to the top of the temple, how could He be harmed by jumping off the pinnacle? But Jesus, also knowing that the devil saw Him in His humanity, was trying to appeal to human vanity, a characteristic He didn’t possess. For when He condescended to leave the throne room of God to enter a vulnerable human form, and not a king but a vagabond so to speak, it was impossible for vanity to appeal to Him at all. 

Instead of mocking the voice or arrogantly pointing out its obvious foolishness, Jesus played along and simply employed the power of Scripture, the dynamic words of the Father and Creator God saying, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Shrewdly Jesus shamed the devil’s dare by answering it with Obedience. 

Unstopped by the second loss, the foolish tempter tried once more. He grabbed Jesus by the soul and took Him higher up, to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and said to Him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 

Again Jesus had to chuckle to Himself as if the two-time loser could tempt Him with all the kingdoms of the world, that the King of kings would someday already own in as much as any King can own his kingdom.  But again, in the humility that characterized the incarnation, Jesus simply replied that He had had enough of the foolishness and said, “Away with you, Satan!” And then calling again on the power of Scripture added,“for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only Him.’” Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came to comfort Him. 

“Good job! I’m sure the Father was very proud of You there!” exclaimed several angels in unison.

Jesus heard the angels congratulate Him in His heart and smiled. It wasn’t so much the foolish appeals that the devil tried to tempt Him with, but rather the intensity of the flights and leaving His body, and overcoming nature in such a dramatic way that shocked Jesus and was the reason the angels had to come and minister to him. After thirty years on earth, the disembodied experience startled Him. 

“ Yes, I am human” He thought to console Himself. “And I know that no ordinary human could do what I have just done. But I remember that when Adam was created, he was given dominion over nature. So it is right that I could do that and more. I will have to learn how to economize the powers the Father gave to Adam, and now to Me. After all, I am the restoration of man.” 

“You really showed IT! Are you okay?” asked the littlest Angel. 

“Of course. What a fool. But, frankly I’d like to take a nap before we head back down. Is that okay?” replied Jesus forgetting His hunger completely. 

The littlest Angel replied, “Yes, You should rest. You aren’t used to that flying anymore. Take a nap. I’ll wake you when it’s time to go down and start your new job.” replied the Angel with a big smile. 

“Ahhh” replied Jesus pensively. “My new job.” And He took a deep breath of thin clean mountain air, and exhaled. “My new job.” Then He laid down on the ground and closed His eyes. Soon He fell into a deep restorative sleep.