Physical, political and spiritual temptations come along every day, and we are challenged to resist them by focusing on the word of God and the nature of God. Like Jesus, we can always say no, a clear choice that reveals something very positive about us.
“No, I will not join your committee.” That is a difficult thing to say, isn’t it? Many of us are afraid to say no because we fear that our answer will be associated with negativity. If we decline the invitation to join, we assume that people will judge us as being unsupportive or difficult or selfish. The work of the committee may lead to good results, but the truth is that we have a more important project of our own. In such a case, it is right to say no.
“No is a moment of clear choice,” writes psychologist Judith Sills. Instead of communicating negativity, it announces “something affirmative about you.” When someone asks you to sign a petition and you say no, you are communicating that you have a different belief. When someone invites you to join their cause and you say no, you are taking a stand and sending the message, “I’m not comfortable, not in agreement, not on the bandwagon.” No makes your position clear: “This is who I am; this is what I value; this is what I will and will not do; this is how I will choose to act.”1
How Jesus chooses to act
In Luke’s story of the temptation, Jesus sends a clear message about the power of no. His responses to the devil are clear choices that say something overwhelmingly positive about him. The story begins right after the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River, when the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus in bodily form, like a dove. Then Jesus, “full of the Holy Spirit,” returns from the Jordan and is “led by the Spirit in the wilderness,” where for 40 days he is tested by the devil.
The first thing that the devil dangles before Jesus is bread, knowing full well that Jesus is famished after fasting for forty days. “If you are the Son of God,” says the devil, “command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” Jesus is really hungry; he has a physical need for bread, and he has the power to make a rock edible if he chooses to do so. But instead of filling his stomach, Jesus says, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’”
Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy, a passage that goes on to say, “one does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”2 There is more to life than the meeting of physical needs, according to Deuteronomy and Jesus; much more important is striving to live by the word of God. Since it is the devil who suggests that he satisfy his hunger with bread, Jesus must respond no. He is saying, “This is how I will choose to act.” He chooses to find his sustenance in the word of God, not in bread alone.
When need becomes a religion
A problem for us is that our culture teaches us to take our needs very seriously. Professor Tony Walter has written a book called Need: The New Religion, in which he points out that some psychologists believe that the self is a bundle of needs, and that personal growth comes from meeting these needs. For years, Christians took the opposite approach, believing that we sometimes needed to say no to our needs, in order to grow closer to Jesus. But now, the Christian church “has eagerly adopted the language of needs for itself,” says Walter. We “now hear that ‘Jesus will meet your every need,’ as though he were some kind of divine psychiatrist or divine detergent, as though God were there simply to service us.”3
Walter is on to something here. Since when is God to serve us? We are supposed to serve God. Since when is Jesus to meet our every need? We are called to give of ourselves to be more like Christ. When need becomes a religion, our relationship with God is turned upside down. Jesus could have chosen to satisfy his physical need by turning a stone into bread. He has the God-given power to do so. But instead, he essentially says, “My physical needs can wait. For now, I’m going to live on every word that comes from the mouth of God. This is how I will choose to act.” Jesus resists physical temptation by focusing on the word of God, and we can do the same.
What Jesus will do and will not do
When a focus on physical needs fails, the devil ups the ante by tossing out a political temptation. He shows Jesus all the “kingdoms of the world” and says to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”
This is a tough one. It really is. It is tough because if Jesus says yes, he can make the world a better place. Jesus can eradicate poverty and disease, eliminate warfare and extend his loving influence to every corner of the earth. He knows that world domination is a very real possibility, since Alexander the Great had achieved it just 300 years earlier, when he spread Greek thought to the edges of known civilization, Egypt to India.
The temptation to rule the world must be a strong one for Jesus. He is the age of Alexander at the height of his power, and the devil is offering him all of civilization. But Jesus says no. Once again, he returns to God’s word and quotes Deuteronomy, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” He is saying “This is what I will and will not do.” Worship the Lord, yes. Worship the devil, no.
Jesus resists this political temptation by focusing on the word of God. So can we. When we fall into the trap of thinking that the ends justify the means ... that compromise is necessary in order to get anywhere in life ... that it is okay to cut corners because everyone does it ... when we face any of these temptations, we need to remember what Jesus will and will not do. He shows us that all power and glory and authority mean nothing if they require us to stop worshiping and serving the Lord our God.
Who Jesus is, and what he values
Finally, the devil makes his last bid: He uses the word of God to try to seduce the Son of God. The devil takes Jesus to Jerusalem and places him “on the pinnacle of the temple” and says to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” After physical and political temptations, this is a spiritual temptation. The devil uses a portion of Psalm 91 to get Jesus to make a leap of faith and show the world that he is God’s only Son.4
The devil can be devilish, especially when he uses scripture to lure people away from God’s will. At this point, the deck seems to be stacked against Jesus, because the devil is pointing out that Jesus is God’s Son and that scripture promises protection. Correct on both counts. But Jesus is suspicious of anything that points away from God — even a mention of his special status and a good Bible quotation.
“Do not put the Lord your God to the test,” Jesus answers him, laying an even stronger hand on the table. His ace is another line from Deuteronomy that warns against asking God to prove himself.5 Jesus is saying, “This is who I am, and this is what I value.” Yes, I am the Son of God, and yes, I value allowing God to be God. Jesus knows his special status, but he also knows that God’s will is known only to God. No tests are allowed.
Jesus resists this spiritual temptation by focusing on the nature of God. So can we. We are tempted to think that a disease will be cured because we pray for it; that we will be successful because we live good lives; and that we will get justice because the wicked deserve to be punished. All seem to make perfect sense. But in the face of these temptations, we should never put God to the test. God will be God, and the Lord is not bound by our interpretations of scripture or our ideas about how God should act. God’s divine nature is beyond our human comprehension. “Those who love me, I will deliver,” says God in the psalms.6 The Lord promises to deliver us, but often in ways that are beyond our comprehension.
Luke says that when “the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.” It would have been nice if Jesus never again had to face temptation, but that was not to be the case. The same is true for us. Physical, political and spiritual temptations come along every day, and we are continually challenged to resist them by focusing on the word of God and the nature of God. Some trials will be tough, but through each temptation we can hold fast to the example of Jesus Christ. Like him, we can always say no, a clear choice that reveals something very positive about us.
1 Judith Sills, Ph.D., “The Power of No,” Psychology Today, November 5, 2013, www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/201311/the-power-no.
2 Deuteronomy 8:3.
3 Tony Walter, Need: The New Religion, quoted in Lay Reader’s Book Reviews, April 28, 2015, https://layreadersbookreviews.wordpress.com/2015/04/28/need-the-new-religion-formerly-entitled-all-you-love-is-need-tony-walter/.
4 Psalm 91:11-12.
5 Deuteronomy 6:16.
6 Psalm 91:14.
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