Optimize Humanity
Jesus Is Tested in the Wilderness
4 LUKE
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted[a] by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’[b]”
5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.”
8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’[c]”
9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully;
11 they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’12 Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”
13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
I love the way this chapter begins. Christ was full of the Holy Spirit. The animating force of the Godhead, the Holy, (set apart) one-of-a-kind Spirit, the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Jesus has just been introduced to the. expectantly waiting. people, as the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, confirmed by God as God’s beloved Son and baptized by John in the muddy Jordan River. to fulfill the scriptures.
At the height of Jesus’ introduction into ministry, he is led into a barren, wild place to be tempted by the fallen archangel, Lucifer, who tried to exalt himself above God and who tempted the first humans to sin and death. The first humans abdicated their authority over the earth. And now this rebellious angel is assigned to tempt, test, and prove the Beloved Son of God.
Jesus is led by the same Spirit that animated the Word of God and spoke light into darkness at the beginning. The Holy Spirit leads Jesus to submit to the proving process in an uncultivated, uncivilized, barren place, while fasting. Wow! What a contrast to the Genesis account. In the Beginning, the Creator, the Progenator, God is with the Word and the Word is with God and is God, and the Spirit, Creator and Word work in concert to fill the world with everything needed to sustain the good life. God forms the first earthling,Adam, from the earth, from dirt. And God breathes God’s Spirit into Adam, and Adam becomes a living soul, with a mind, a will, and emotions. Adam is made in the image and likeness of God. God builds the second earthling from the first’s DNA, and Eve is the mirror image of Adam, equal in strength and power. Amen!
God sets the earthlings over the abundant, flourishing creation, tasking them with tending, replenishing, and having dominion over all God has made. There was one caveat: “Don’t consume evil. Don’t get twisted. Don’t take in the twist on what I have created and called good.” God, who alone is wholly good, in whom dwells no evil, no twistedness, knowing that evil existed, wanted humanity to experience only good!
The twisted one, divided and conquered, tempting the earthlings to eat what had been forbidden. The earthlings entered into the twisted. The twist on tending became “work, work until you die”. Fruitfulness. multiplication, replishing the earth was corrupted by pain. And, the side-by-side, mirror-image, equal in power and strength, male-female relationship was corrupted. No longer was the relationship characterized by power-sharing, but now the equalized male-female relationship was characterized by male toxic male dominance.
Thus twisted, humanity is exiled from paradise and doomed to death. Paradise is lost, the curse is levied. And the divine-human and the human-human relationships was damaged, with the hope of restoration resting in God’s promise that, “the seed of the woman will crush the serpent’s head, the prophecy of the virgin birth.
What follows is worldwide corruption with evil, worldwide destruction, save a remnant of humanity, enslavement, liberation, covenant relationship, wilderness pilgrimage, the establishment of a kingdom, exile, restoration, temple worship, and rebellion, with intermittent prophetic calls to return to God, followed by 700 years of heavenly silence.
John the Baptist, comes on the scene in the spirit of Elijah, preaching repentance, baptizing the people for the remission of sin, a voice crying in the wilderness prepare the way, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Then Jesus, born in the City of David, in a manger, who (like Moses) has been hidden from destruction by the potentate pharaoh-figure of the times, after thirty years, is revealed to an expectant people, as the Savior, the long-awaited Messiah, God’s Anointed, the Christ.
And, like the first earthlings, the New Earthling, the Second Adam, born of a woman and the Spirit of the Living God, human and divine. must pass the test of temptation by Satan and prove that indeed, he is the new prototype for all humanity. The devil, having no creative power, tries the same temptation on Jesus that was launched on humanity in the beginning.
The devil too heard the voice from heaven at the baptism, announcing that Jesus was the offspring of the Creator-Progenetor, God. So, like at the beginning, Satan tests this new human by questioning the veracity of God’s words regarding deriving sustenance. “If you are the Son of God”, echoes, “Did God say, If you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you would die.” The devil casts doubt in the human mind about the veracity of God’s word and plants a seed of doubt around God’s good intentions toward humanity.
But the ultimate human embodiment of the Word of God and the one who embodies fully God’s good intentions toward humanity fully answers Satan. Jesus answers, not with doubt and rebellion, but with the Word of God. Human existence is not sustained by edible consumption, but rather by the Word of God. Human aspiration, dominion, and authority come from worship of God. Human destiny, purpose, and legacy will not be thwarted by premature death, but rather redeemed and sealed for eternity by a timely, ordained death on a cross, the propitiation for universal sin, and the triumphal resurrection and rebirth into eternal life.
Friends, as the Spirit leads us into Lent, may we lean into the victory that Christ had over Satan in the wilderness. Let us study the scriptures. Feed on and find our sustenance in and dependence on the Word of God. Let the Word nourish and fortify us. In this Lenten season, may we return to the efficacy of the Word and the Holy Spirit to fortify us against Satan’s attempt at little murders of our souls, the souls of others, and the killing of our individual, familial, and human destiny and purpose. And, may we fully worship the Lord our God and serve God with all our heart, mind, and strength, Readied, prepared to follow Jesus in doing good and loving ourselves and our neighbors, walking the earth anew, as the Imago Dei, refreshed, the reborn, who restore the earth to good!
Prayer
Dear God, as we enter Lent, guided and fortified by your Spirit, help us follow Christ’s example, triumphing over temptation to experience anew your truth, your goodness, your power, and grace toward us personally and for all humanity. In the wilderness, may we be proven, disciples of your Christ, born again by the Spirit, shedding again our corrupted, twisted minds, wills, and emotions, ministered to by the Spirit and angels, readied to go about bringing your kingdom in our assigned spheres of the earth, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” through us. Amen!