Amy C Walters

The Temptation of Jesus – Luke 4:1-13

In Luke 3, Jesus is baptized in front of a crowd at the Jordan River in an epic scene confirming God’s pleasure in him. But instead of launching his public ministry right then and there, Jesus follows the Holy Spirit’s lead into the wilderness and spends some vital time alone with God.

We have come to a big transition in the Book of Luke. Up to this point, we have heard about John, his birth, and the start of his ministry. We’ve heard about Jesus, the predictions of his birth and who he would be. We’ve seen him as a boy at the temple. And now we have come to Jesus in his adulthood, ready to start his ministry. So, this is a big moment.

In between the previous story and this one, in the middle of Luke 3, there’s a brief section about Jesus being baptized. The Holy Spirit descends on Jesus like a dove and the voice of God the Father speaks from heaven saying, “This is my Son in whom I am well pleased.” This is an incredible moment where we see all three persons of the Trinity there. ‘

This would make for a great launch to Jesus’ ministry. We know there’s a crowd at the Jordan River with John, a crowd of people who have said, “Yes, we repent, and we are looking forward to the Messiah.” And this crowd has witnessed these signs from heaven. 

Anyone looking to start a new ministry or business or career would jump at the opportunity for such a big, public display. They would have an instant following! 

But that’s not what Jesus does. Instead of taking all those people and saying, “Come on, let’s go save the world!” Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit and returns from the Jordan and goes into the desert.

Now, desert here does not necessarily refer to a sandy place. Don’t just picture sand dunes in your mind. It’s a desolate place. Other Scripture translations might say the wilderness–it’s a place away from people.

Why does Jesus go there? I used to assume that  the devil lured him there as part of his tricks, as part of his attempts to trip Jesus up, that the devil had tricked Jesus into going into the desert so that he could be tempted there.

Instead, the story tells us that “Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit, and he returns from the Jordan and is led by the Spirit in the wilderness.” The Holy Spirit plays a critical role in what’s happening here. 

Also, the Holy Spirit doesn’t just lead Jesus to the edge of the wilderness, drop him off and say, “See you in 40 days. Good luck out there!” This is not a survivalist reality TV show where Jesus is trying to prove himself out in the desert, trying to make it and survive for 40 days and crawl out on the other side.

No, this is the Holy Spirit intentionally taking Jesus there and being with him in the desert that whole time. This is a beautiful time of communion, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

Jesus doesn’t start off his ministry by rallying the crowds, by getting a big following. He starts it with time alone with God.

Sometimes we can be so familiar with this story that we lose the surprise that we would have if we came across this story for the first time. So let’s say we’re watching a movie, and the hero of the movie, the main character, is suddenly told, “Look, you have three years to save humanity, and if you don’t complete it in three years, humanity is going to be destroyed!” 

What’s the next scene of that movie? It’s the hero frantically working, trying to pull everything together to get the world saved in time. So little time, so much to do. He’s gathering experts around him, building this team. They’re in the war room, firing off ideas to each other. There are computers everywhere with people frantically typing things. They’re all wearing headsets and talking to people on the other side of the world. There is no time to stop and rest. That’s in the Hollywood version.

In the version that Jesus writes, he starts off his three years of ministry leading to the salvation of humanity by 40 days in solitude with God. You see, our key truth for today is that time with God is life giving.

We know this, right? We know this somewhere in the back of our minds, that it’s important to spend time with God. We try to do our quiet times, our devotionals and that kind of thing.

And yet, when life gets busy–and these days, it feels like it is always busy–that time with God is the first thing to go. It’s easily written off our calendars, crowded out by all the other things that need to happen.

I get it. I lived for 10 years in that place, pushing my time with God aside because there were too many other things to do.

And then I read an article that talked about how, as a busy mom, sometimes it’s hard to get time to just sit down and eat a hot meal. But we still find time to eat. We still, even if we’re on the run, grab food as we go because we know that we need food to keep going. And if we have time to sit down and eat a well-balanced meal, then that’s awesome. If we don’t, we still find a way to eat.

Why don’t we have the same commitment to time with God? Yes, we might not be able to set up some ideal picture of a quiet time. But we can do something. 

I was so convicted by that because, yes, I wouldn’t miss a meal, but I had gone for ten years without a consistent time, just me and God. And if it was important for Jesus to spend that time with God, even with the vitally important task of rescuing humanity on his shoulders, then I have time for it.

This is one of those truths that we know about, and yet we find such a hard time doing.

You know, in this story, the first temptation that the devil lobs at Jesus is to turn a stone into bread. Jesus is hungry. He hasn’t eaten during those 40 days. And this story just casually says he was hungry.

So Satan tempts Jesus, “If you are the son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” And Jesus’ response is, “It is written, man does not live on bread alone.” 

Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy, and that verse in Deuteronomy goes on to say, “Man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Deut 8:3). 

God’s Word is life. Time with God is life.

Do we believe it enough to arrange our schedules around it?