All three synoptic gospels… Matthew, Mark, and Luke… record the temptation account of Jesus Christ. Why John does not, we are not told. Perhaps it was due to John’s emphasis upon the deity, the Godhood of Jesus, that John excludes it. We are told that “God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man.” And while John certainly affirms the humanity of Jesus as well as His deity, the other three gospels make more of Christ’s humanity than does John. All three accounts of Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us that Jesus Christ, shortly following His public baptism by John, His second-cousin and forerunner, that the Spirit of God led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Why in the world would He do that? Is that any way to treat a fellow member of the thrice holy alliance of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Or one member, the Holy Spirit, to be leading another member, the Son of God, into a wretched place like a God-forsaken barren wilderness for the specific purpose of His being tempted by the arch-enemy of man and God, none other than Satan himself? Christ, the personification of holiness, subjected to very personification of evil? How could this be? Aren’t the Members of the Triune Godhead supposed to be friends? The Spirit leading the Son into a hostile environment to be subject to the machinations of the very most evil of evil? Sounds more like treachery or betrayal than friendship or anything close to comradery. What’s this all about? And where was God, the Father? What was He doing while this forty day and forty night horrendous event was taking place?
The Father was on the receiving end of the prayers that were offered to Him by His Son while undergoing the temptations. But what was the point of all this? Was it really necessary? What did it prove? It proved a lot, and, yes, it was absolutely necessary. Why? Because Jesus of Nazareth had just been baptized by John and introduced to Israel as her long-awaited Messiah. Read about it in Matthew 3, Mark 1, and Luke 3. Israel had been waiting for their promised Messiah for four thousand years, and, now, along comes a carpenter from Nazareth, in Galilee of all places, who has claimed to be the fulfillment of God’s promise. Is He up to the task? John said He was the Messiah, the long-awaited Deliverer, the Consolation of Israel. Well, He would have to be One far more qualified and far more pure than anyone else… one in possession of impeccable moral credentials to qualify as Israel’s Messiah and Savior of the World. That was the purpose of the temptation. For Christ to emerge from the severest tests possible, administered by the most evil foe in existence, with all His holiness and purity intact. In His stellar performance of steadfastness in the face of supernatural temptation by the master expert of temptation, Christ maintained His credentials. His impeccability was vindicated.
CC-07-08
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