Matthew 4:1-11

 

•      Similar rabbinic stories of wilderness temptation should caution us about pressing for an objective, blow-by-blow report of an actual event.  The story does, however, function to tell us something about Jesus’ divine Sonship.  As one commentator has said, “it is, in effect, a theological meditation on the baptismal narrative.”[1]

•      This story of testing has at least two parallels in the Hebrew Scriptures besides the Genesis 3 account.  First, this story is similar to the story in Genesis 22 where Abraham is commanded to sacrifice his only son.  However, in the story about Jesus, he is both Abraham and Isaac; he is both gift and giver. 

•      Second story:  Israel’s testing in the wilderness.  The number forty occurs in both stories; the wilderness is the place of testing in both; Jesus’ responses to the temptations are drawn from Deuteronomy and correspond to three tests Israel had earlier faced and failed.  Further, Israel is called “Son” by God (Hos. 1:1 and Dt. 8:5).
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[1] Interpretation Commentary: Matthew, Douglas R.A.Hare, commentator (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993), page 23.

•      Theodore of Mopsuestia—“Adam’s temptation was reversed in Jesus’ temptation.”

•      Try framing the temptations —“ ‘Why don’t you turn the stones to bread?’ That is reasonable.  He is hungry . . . starved to death . . . ‘After all, you never worked a miracle; you better try one out here in the desert.  You might get embarrassed when you are in front of a crowd.  Give it a little try.  Jump off the pinnacle of the Temple.  The scripture says God will protect you; you won’t be hurt’ . . . ‘You know if I did that, it would make a lot of people believe.  What is wrong with doing something that will get people to believe?’ ”[2]

•      Prayer of a Nigerian Christian

God in heaven, you have helped my life to grow like a tree.  Now something has happened.  Satan, like a bird, has carried in one twig of his own choosing after another.  Before I knew it, he had built a dwelling place and was living in it.  Tonight, my Father, I am throwing out both the bird and the nest.[3]

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[2] Fred Craddock, Cherry Log Sermons  (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 2001), pp. 16-17.

[3] Oxford Book of Prayer, George Appleton, editor (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), page 107.

•      Begin with the lighter kinds of temptations that people sometimes associate with Lent.

•      Go deeper – suggest heavier ones: the temptation to cheat on income tax reporting or on exams or alcohol, etc.

•      Shift to the text—the deeper temptations are what comes out of Matthew 4

•      Recall the temptations of Christ as being quite logical and reasonable things to do

Blur the sense of easy identification of temptation—all of the devil’s temptations are helpful, reasonable and basically good:  Real temptation is when you don’t know right from wrong:  It’s asking, “What is God’s will?”  And then doing it, no matter what.