The devil saves the best for last in his plan to tempt Jesus. He takes him to a very high mountain and shows him the glories of the nation of Israel, and in a vision shows him all the kingdoms of the world, both present and future. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” But Jesus rebukes the devil and again resorts to the Scripture for his strength and defense: “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” When Jesus had met his last and greatest temptation in the wilderness, the devil left him and the angels came and ministered to him.
You have to remember the nature of who Jesus is, and his potential power in the world. We are not tempted with being a world ruler because none of us have that potential, and besides, we have trouble enough running our home, or our business, without trying to run the world. But the temptation to power always has great allurement for those who know that potential is within their reach. We have to go no further than our recent experiences with the struggle for power in Jerusalem and other parts of the Middle East today. Not to mention a whole host of other power struggles going on all over the globe. Men with the potential for being key figures among the power brokers of the world, have caused incalculable suffering as they have tried to live out their ambitions. But the same scenario can be played out in a home, an office, a church, a business, local councils and governments. It is tremendously tempting for those who see power within their grasp, no matter how small the realm, to want to grab for that power. There are those who will stop at nothing until they are in control. There are even those who in a very real sense bow down to the devil and use any form of evil to achieve their ends.
It is possible to be tempted with the desire to control the world out of the best of motives. It is tempting for some Christians who believe they can change the world through political power. We desperately need good moral leadership in government, but it would not make the United States a Christian nation even if every one of our leaders was a genuine Christian, nor would it bring in the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God cannot be forced on a nation, or an individual, from the outside, it comes only from the work of God on the inside. It does not come through the passage of laws or court decisions, it comes as a result of the transforming work of the Spirit of God. Laws are necessary for the protection and preservation of society, but the laws themselves do not change anyone. They sometimes control those who need controlling, but they do not affect the inner life of those individuals. Jesus said, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). The Kingdom of God comes about through prayer more than it does picketing. The problem is that we do not believe enough in the power of prayer.
I heard a true story about a small town with a church and a local bar located next door. The bar decided to have nude dancing, so the pastor and people of the church decided to have an all night prayer meeting. During the prayer meeting some of those present fervently asked that the Lord would burn down the bar next door. Astonishingly, a few days later the bar burned to the ground due to an electrical short in the wiring. The owner of the bar went to court and sued the church for their role in the bar’s destruction. But the pastor and members denied any responsibility. The judge made the adroit observation that it seemed unusual to have before him a bar owner who believed in the power of prayer and a church which did not.
Let’s look at this temptation of Jesus piece by piece. First, the Bible says that the devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world. There is no mountain in the world high enough to see all the kingdoms of the world, even in Jesus’ day, but a high mountain was an appropriate place for the devil to give him visions of all the kingdoms of the world, both present and future. I like to think the United States was included in that vision, as well as other modern governments. The splendor of high-tech, wealthy and powerful kingdoms was a tremendous contrast to the squalid kingdoms of the middle east in that day. The appeal was to have a hand in directing the events of all these kingdoms for the best possible reasons, ruling the world for the greatest benefit and blessing of humanity, easing human suffering, giving moral direction, squelching international conflicts and despotic rulers. The temptation was very real and very difficult to turn down. What a difference he could make! His policies would make the world so much better. And there would be no one to oppose him; no conflicts, no suffering, no cross, because he would be in control. His life would not just affect a few people, it would affect all people, present and future. But as Jesus said to Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36).
The other thing we notice is that the devil only shows Jesus the splendor of the kingdoms of the world. He does not show him their sinfulness, their rebellion or their degraded nature which would make this dream of changing the world by ruling the world an impossibility. He showed him only the splendor of the world—the glitter, the technology, the wealth, the power and the possibilities. He was quick to show their beauty, but failed to show their ugliness.
The thing about being on a mountain is that you are far enough away not to be able to see what is going on up close. There is nothing more beautiful than to be off the coast of New York and see the skyline of New York City. It looks beautiful, modern and clean. But get off the boat and go to the Bedford Stiveson area or Harlem and see the squalor, violence, crime and degraded condition of human life there, and it looks altogether different. That is always how the devil tempts us. He tempts us with the beauty and allurement of what he is enticing us with, but he conveniently fails to show us the flip side of what he is presenting. He presents power, but fails to show how it leads to poverty of soul. He offers sensuality, but fails to show the spiritual sickness that accompanies it. He entices people with wealth, but keeps them from seeing the ugliness of greed. He shows how he will meet our desires, but he hides how he will degrade and addict us in the process. He holds pleasure before us and hides the sorrow. And so we find that a bow to the devil results in a cower; his freedom brings bondage, and his pleasure brings pain.
Satan was offering to meet Jesus’ real needs and wants. Jesus needed bread, and wanted to feed the world as well, so he tempted him to turn the stones into bread. Jesus needed to demonstrate that he was the Son of God, and legitimately wanted the world to believe in him, so he tempted him to jump from the high temple wall. Jesus was already the rightful ruler of the world. After all, the Scriptures said of him, “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession” (Psalm 2:8). His rightful desire was to be the ruler of the world, as he will one day be, for only he had the pure motives to do it right and benefit the most people. He wanted to spare humanity so much. These were legitimate goals, but the devil enticed him to meet those goals in illegitimate ways. He tempted him to do it the devil’s way: take away people’s freedom and force them to follow him. Overpower them Jesus! Throw down everyone who opposes you! Show them who’s boss! If you can’t win them by love, rule them by force.
The devil always operates this way. He appeals to your legitimate needs, and tempts us to meet them in illegitimate ways. He shows you how these are important and necessary in your life. He tells you that you should be happy, secure and blessed. He shows how there is nothing wrong with the things you need and want, but he tempts you to meet those needs in illegitimate ways, pushing you to do something immediate without waiting on God to meet those needs for you. He tries to get you to meet those needs without the difficulty and patience it takes to get them met God’s way. He rushes you and tells you what you are missing by waiting on God’s timing. He makes you feel deprived and tells you to forget all the nonsense about society’s taboos. He tells you how right the wrong thing he is suggesting is.
But Jesus’ response is swift and pointed. He strongly rebukes the devil for even suggesting that he usurp power in this way. Interestingly, it is the only temptation in which Jesus expresses emotion. Perhaps because it is the temptation that gets closest to his heart.
What other time do you remember Jesus saying, “Get behind me, Satan”? It was when Jesus had been explaining to the disciples that he would have to suffer and die. The Bible relates the story in this way: “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ‘Never, Lord!’ he said. ‘This shall never happen to you!’ Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.’” (Matthew 16:21-23).
What was happening here? Why did Jesus react so strongly? Because the devil was tempting Jesus through Peter with the same temptation he enticed him with in the wilderness. In both places the devil was saying, “Worship me. Do it my way. Don’t suffer. Your death is so unnecessary. You can have the love of the world rather than experience its hostility. Do God’s will, but do it my way — the easy way. Serve me. You can have the same thing; you are only getting it in a different way. Sidestep the cross. Detour around the difficulties. Escape the rejection. Live, don’t die. And rule the world the way you want it ruled. It is so much better this way. What good can you do if the world hates you? How are you going to impact the world if you die young? You can have the world at your feet if you serve me because I am the prince of this present world. It’s the way things are here.”
But Jesus resisted this temptation. He knew there was only one way to accomplish God’s will, and that was God’s way. In the first set of temptations the devil used the Word of God to try and confuse him, but now, as he speaks through Peter; he uses the words of a friend—a familiar and trusted companion. That is what sometimes happens to us — the devil uses a trusted friend or loved one to speak to us — sometimes without understanding what they are saying and how it will affect us. But Jesus recognized the seducing suggestion and knew its source. Jesus knew that just because something made sense did not make it right. He knew that the easy way was not always the best way.
Jesus said, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” He would say later: “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other” (Matthew 6:24).
You can’t do the Lord’s work the devil’s way. You cannot want to do the will of God, but choose to accomplish in a way that is not pleasing to him. You cannot choose pleasure over pain, ease over struggle. Don’t be seduced into doing something good by a method other than the one God has prescribed. Don’t try to meet legitimate needs in an illegitimate way. Maybe you do need money. Perhaps your need for love is genuine. Maybe you have experienced an injustice. Just don’t try to make those things go right by doing something wrong, because when you do, you are in the truest sense worshiping the devil and trusting in his ways. You cannot serve two masters.
The Bible says, “Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.” He has resisted turning stones to bread, but now he is fed by the angels. He refused to leap from the temple in the hope of having the angels catch him, but now he is in their arms as they care for him and minister to his needs. He has refused to take a shortcut to being the world’s king, and now he is given the strength and courage to be the world’s Savior. It appeared that he was all alone during his time of temptation, when in reality all of heaven was standing by and came to his side when it was over. The intense sense of loneliness gave way to the reality of heaven’s presence and empowerment. And we see that the presence and power of Satan was the illusion, while the hidden Kingdom of God was the reality. What appeared to be so real and important and pressing was actually nothing.
The world is not always what it is cracked up to be. The world’s idea of power is false and fading. And sometimes there are surprising prophets who remind us of that fact. I do not watch late night television, but read about The Tonight Show with Jay Leno a while back. Leno was interviewing Howard Stern, American radio’s leading bad boy. The program became more and more crude until even Leno, who is no stranger to tawdry humor, was showing some discomfort. Stern made the assertion that his new book is “the fastest-selling book in the history of books.” To prove his argument he held up a Bible and said, “The Gideon Company is now putting my book in the place of Bibles in hotels.” But at that point Leno took the Bible from his hand and said, “Howard, something horrible is going to happen to you.... This book will strike you down as you go down the road. It will go through the windshield and pierce your heart.” Leno continued to hold up the Bible and said, “I am sounding like an evangelist now, but I predict that’s what will happen — suddenly, all that is in this book is making perfect sense to me.”
I wondered, as I read about what happened, how many Christians would have taken a stand like Leno took that night. We can become so enculturated that we begin to believe more in the power of the world than we believe in the power of the Word. We face the temptation to give up and give in when we possess the only true Power in existence. Sometimes obeying God seems to be out of the question, but we fail to realize that the power of God was available to us. The Bible says, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1 Corinthians 10: 13). It says, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).
Jesus knew that power does not come through force. You cannot force someone to love you or follow you. Force fails, but the Spirit prevails. The Soviets tried to rule by force. They closed the churches and for forty years the churches could not so much as ring their bells. But the Spirit of God began to move... silently, imperceptibly. In Czechoslovakia the people began to gather in the streets, and on November 27, 1989 churches all over the land began to ring their bells as if swayed by the moving Spirit of God. The atheistic Soviet empire was toppled. Truth triumphed, and in front of one of the small churches someone put up this sign: “The Lamb wins!” Not the bear, but the Lamb of God whose power is the power of the humility and trust. The Bible says, “‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty” (Zechariah 4:6).
Rodney J. Buchanan
March 27, 2011
Amity United Methodist Church
rodbuchanan2000@yahoo.com
