March 1 2009    Reading:  Matthew 4.1-11

 Theme: The Testing of Jesus

While we were in North Holland a week or so ago, there was a report in the local newspaper about the testing of the great sea dyke that closes North Holland off from the North Sea. At various test points along the sea dyke a great machine is put in place. Two high steel walls are run from one side of the dyke to the other to make a channel. A great hydraulic ram is then put in place, which then creates huge waves. The wave is so huge and of such force that it rolls up one side of the dyke, right over the top and then down the other side. A stringent, powerful, awewome test of the strength of the dyke. Wave after wave,,, of up to 22,000 litres of water, as powerful as the most violent storms will bring. Already the early tests have shown the weakness of the sea dyke. The weakest point, surprisingly, is not the side facing the sea, but the back of the dyke - where the turbulence of the wave carves a channel out of the covering earth.

I think this is a good way of beginning to understand what are commonly known as the Temptations of Jesus. The gospel of Matthew tells us of this event which took place at the beginning of the ministry of Jesus. And it is interesting to note that Jesus Himself must have spoken of what happened at that point, to His disciples. For these words about this event could only have come from Christ Himself, and what He said then reveals to us something of His Holy life, and utter Holy dependence on the living God, His Father in heaven.

But first, the word Temptation. When we think of it, temptation is really no longer the correct word for what took place. Why not ? Well, in ordinary human life, temptation means this: something attractive comes before us, and within us, as human beings we respond. Like a bait on the end of a hook, either in our thoughts or in the opportunities before us, we reach out, take, grasp. There is a Police TV Series about to begin, set in the headquarters of the West Yorkshire Police in the 1970s. Now, in this fictional story there had been a point when the West Yorkshire Police, had been disciplined, well ordered, well run, well organised, but through one channel or another, opportunities begin to present themselves. These opportunities prove too strong a temptation for police headquarters. The criminal element in West Yorkshire offer huge inducements to the police to allow certain kinds of criminal activity - and the rewards from this are so great that the police force becomes deeply involved. That’s temptation, not on a personal scale, but on the scale of an organisation. Tempted, they are drawn in, corrupted.

But things are very different in the Gospel. For the declaration of the gospel is that Jesus is without sin, the Holy One. There is in Him no root of sin. Here is One who speaks perfect Holy truth, perfectly sinless and Holy. He lives and acts and speaks in perfect purity, in Holy truth. Praise be to His ineffable holiness, blessed indeed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.

So then, when we speak of this event, as Jesus’ ministry began - what is taking place is not temptation - Jesus is not being tempted or drawn in, in His sinlessness. There is nothing in Jesus that could be the point, the bridgehead to draw Him in. What then is this ? It is a testing, severe, prolonged, critical, of a quite unique kind. Unique to Jesus and who He is. And as perfectly Holy, the Lord Jesus is subject to testings of which we can understand little.

First let us look at each individual test and draw from this a lesson concerning Christ. For when Christ enters into these hours of severe testing, it is at the end of 40 days in the desert. Israel, long generations before, had sojourned in the desert for 40 years, because of their sinfulness, and lack of trust in God. They who were to be a light for the world in God’s purposes, the blessing to all the nations - failed.

The first testing: in a moment of great hunger, to use His own power, the power He knows He has, to make from the stones in front of Him, bread to eat, to fill Him, to take away His hunger. Jesus, you see, has reached that very point in the desert, where the Israelites had arrived generations before. At that point there was bitter complaint from the people, to Moses. They asked whether it wasn’t better to be slaves that die in the desert. Here, in other words, was the collapse of faith and trust in God. Where was God ? they asked. And Jesus ? look at Jesus.... in perfect unbroken dependence on God, the living God, Jesus answers Satan: human life does not depend on bread alone, but on every word that comes from God - Jesus knows that God will supply all His needs.

Second the Testing in the Temple. Satan suggest that Jesus leap from the pinnacle of the building...... for isn’t the promise of God this... that He, Jesus, will be upheld, protected from danger by the intervention of angels ? Now some interpreters have spoken of this as an epideictical miracle, that is a miracle of such power that the onlookers would be forced to acknowledge that Jesus was the Son of God...... to leap, and to descend the hundred and fifty or so feet without injury. However, no onlookers are spoken of here. The testing seems a far more subtle one, however. You see, if Jesus leaps from the Temple tower, and is protected in a wonderful way from injury and destruction, then all things are possible - a thousand possibilities open before Him - in all of them, His path would be protected - what had happened at the Temple would show Jesus to be invincible, since God will have demonstrated that Jesus has divine protection from all harm. Jesus can, therefore, attempt anything, if it goes wrong, God will intervene - for is not Jesus the Son of God ? Jesus can act first, and God will move to protect Him.

What does Jesus reply to this question of Satan - what is His Word ? It is written, do not put the Lord your God to the test. What does this mean ? This means that the way of Jesus is not to act first, knowing that God will protect Him, whatever happens. The way of Jesus and His kingdom is this: He will depend on God’s will, not His own. In communion with the living God, the Father, Jesus will seek God’s will, not His own, as the lowly servant. Jesus, the lowly servant spoken of generations before by the prophet Isaiah, who will wait upon God, to know His will. This is not to limit the opportunities that are before Jesus, no, much deeper than this. This means that the Lord walks in the power, in the movement of God’s purposes, in the full flow of God’s loving purpose from hour to hour. For the Father lead the Son, for the Son to delight the Father in His perfect agreement. A way of servanthood which will lead to the Cross !

Third: Satan shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. And all things are in place, the time is right, perhaps this is one of those moments in worldly power, ripe for a new leader. There is actually a space, a vacuum to be filled. That space waits for the man of the hour to fill it - to lead Israel to conquest and greatness. The kingdoms of the earth are ready... and many seem to sense this, for there is a mood, a searching, a seeking for the leader. So why not use the moment, grasp it, grasp power as the vehicle to achieve great things. Could not so very much more be done, by taking power over an empire, and then through laws, bring the peoples of the earth into the kingdom ? One of the deepest testings.... to influence, to power... But Jesus rejects this completely. And affirms His calling to the lowliness of servanthood, the life of suffering, the load of the Cross on His shoulders.

So what now ? Well, here in these testings of Jesus, His strength is probed, His dependence on God, the foundations of the kingdom. And Jesus stands at the end, beginning a life of serving and of utter dependence on God for all things, a waiting on God for what God wills. These are the hallmarks of the kingdom. In following Jesus we take upon ourselves the lowliness of serving, the load, burden of the Cross in following the blessed Saviour Jesus Christ.

AMEN.