Dealing With Distraction & Temptation
Keeping The Right Focus
In Matthew 4 and Luke 4, Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert, to be tested.
This wasn't the only time Jesus was tempted, but this experience, I think, helped to shape his sense of mission. It certainly has much to teach us about dealing with distractions and compromises.
Before he could begin his ministry Jesus had to answer an important question: what kind of Messiah will you be, Jesus? What kind of kingdom will you raise up?
Often, when we are on the verge of a new role or a greater effectiveness, the spirit leads us into a season of insecurity where we wrestle with ourselves and with our destiny. If we pass the test, we emerge with a greater sense of clarity, authority, purpose and urgency. (Jesus certainly did - see Luke 4:14.)
Satan offered Jesus three distinct possibilities; three potential shortcuts into his true destiny.
Of course, some people today, while reluctant to believe in a personal God, are even more opposed to the idea of a personal devil.
Yet, given the evidence of the last century alone, we should perhaps have less problem believing in the devil than in God. It's not hard when you think about the evil perpetrated by Hitler, Stalin, Chairman Mao and Pol Pot, to see the hand of a malevolent being whose sole motivation is the destruction of everything that God holds dear.
Even in this new century, it's not that hard to believe in a personal devil when you consider that two million children every year abducted by human traffickers and three million are living with HIV/AIDS.
Jesus certainly believed in a personal devil, and spent most of his ministry undoing devil's work. The remainder of Jesus' ministry was shaped by his refusal to give in to the temptations on offer here in the wilderness.
The first offer related to bread. 'Jesus ate nothing during those [40] days,' writes Matthew, 'and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread."'
Now, there are two things we need to know about temptation. The first is that Satan will always focus his efforts on our weakest point at that moment. The second is that the temptation isn't tempting unless there's some level of truth in it.
Satan was not tempting Jesus to do something He could not do; there would be no point. For a temptation to have any power, it must be based in some sort of truth; but it is distorted truth.
Jesus must have known that he had the power to turn the stones into bread; otherwise this would be no temptation at all. On at least two occasions Jesus fed multitudes by multiplying bread in a supernatural way.
If you could miraculously create bread from bread, why shouldn't he be able to make bread from something else, even stones?
Not only was Jesus presented with an opportunity to quell his own hunger pangs. This was a chance to set up feeding programmes that would change the world. In fact, you might say that Jesus truly could have 'made poverty history'.
As a man of such extraordinary compassion, Jesus must have been sorely tempted at this point.
This was also an opportunity to win favour with the multitudes, to establish himself as a caring King. Roman Caesars were inclined to win the favour of their citizenry with free food and entertainment - hence the saying 'bread and circuses'.
Were Jesus to turn stones into bread, he'd surely be seen as far greater than Caesar. This new king, people would say, doesn't just distribute bread, he creates it from stones. And in this part of the world, there was never any shortage of stones!
Temptation will often seem like a totally justifiable way of achieving the purposes of God in our lives.
Yet Jesus response was unequivocal: 'It is written: "Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word (revelation) that comes from the mouth of God."'
Jesus knew that the truth he was about to announce to the world would be to the soul what bread is to the body. The revelation Jesus brought would keep us alive, spiritually.
And this bread more important than physical bread - because our body dies, but our spirit lives on.
He also recognised that his kingdom, as real as any Caesar's (or moreso), had to be born first in human hearts. His kingdom would bring an inner transformation before it brought an outward change.
You can't get into this kingdom until it gets into you.
What Jesus offered was food for the soul; and what he offered was not for the crowd but for the individual. The revelation Jesus brought was more important even than something as basic as bread. How much more important, then, is it than superficial luxuries?
Throughout Jesus' ministry, he never appeared to carry money on his person. He would ask others to give him a coin, to make his point about 'rendering to God what is God's.' When he was asked about the temple tax, he told his disciples they should look in the mouth of a fish for the money!
Yes, taught a lot using money metaphors, but he was always to pointing to higher principles. He never taught about how to make money, store money or make money work for you.
That's not to say that these things are unimportant. We all must live in the real world and wisdom with money is honouring to God.
Yet Jesus made clear that his gospel was and is aspirational but not acquisitional. It is not hyper-culture - a ramped up extension of what we already have, with Jesus tacked on the end. It is counter-culture - a positive challenge to what we are and have, calling us to something higher.
Today, people are realising again that man does not live by bread alone. Even among non-religious people, there's a drive to live more frugally - not just in response to the credit crunch or ecological issues, but out of a sense that an easy life is not necessarily a meaningful life.
If we care to look, the wilderness temptation experience of Jesus has much to tell us about where his priorities lay - and where ours should also.
Copyright Mal Fletcher 2008. Not to be reproduced without written permission. To reproduce this article, please contact: office@nextwaveonline.com
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