Tuesday, 12 March Luke 4:1-13
Written by Dr Graham Leo. ©2019.
If you ever have the misfortune to watch one of Hollywood’s versions of the life of Christ, you can bet this story will be included. It’s great visual imagery. The Director will feature an emaciated Jesus, wandering around a stony desert, seeing mirages, with black birds of prey hovering in the background. The camera angles will be all askew, showing his disorientation. There will be a demonic presence with black, dancing figures, and talons or overpowering shadows. Haunting, chaotic music will fill your ears.
Great cinematographic potential, but 100% nonsense.
We are forced by our reading so far to treat this passage with the respect that Luke the scholar treated it. Luke has already demonstrated his chops as a scholar. Let’s not pretend that he has suddenly become a Hollywood director high on coke.
So we ask: Is there really such a thing as the devil?
Well, Jesus talked about the devil a lot. So did every New Testament writer. If you take the Bible at any level of accuracy or truthfulness – I'm not talking about inerrancy here – it’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that biblical teaching includes the following:
• A worldwide personal presence of evil, represented by hosts of lesser creatures (demons, evil spirits) who are led by a hierarchy of higher creatures, one in particular, commonly called Lucifer or ‘the Satan’ (i.e. ‘the Accuser’);
• A spiritual setting where the forces of evil have some degree of control over the earthly realm, despite God’s overarching control;
• The certain, final overthrow of evil by Jesus at the final judgement;
• The death of Jesus achieved a preliminary limitation of the powers of evil, in much the same way as the battle of Stalingrad signalled the eventual certain loss of the war by Germany, though there would still be a long period of fighting, and even occasional moments where people must have wondered if that victory had been as decisive as they’d hoped.
Of course, most of what popular culture believes about the devil – horns, cloven hoofs, dwelling in Hell – are drawn from literature or myth.
We might also ask: Can we human beings be tempted as Jesus was?
There is no shortage of commentary in scripture about the reality of temptation. Perhaps this passage summarises the broad areas of temptation common to humankind:
• Materialistic Consumption (v3): That is, assuming that all those things we consume, from ordinary food to wealth, riches, luxury items and so on, are all that there is – that there is no spiritual reality. That materialism (having stuff, things) is all that there is to having the good life. Jesus demonstrates that there is much, much more. Real estate and possessions do not make for a rich life.
• Power/Influence (vv5-7): That is, any position from which we can exert power over other human beings, or even circumstances and events. It includes political power, business or community influence, controlling power over another person, and also the various power games that people play in social interactions.
• Fame, Celebrity (vv9-11): That is, the kind of glitzy social pride that one gets from being known by others for some achievement. The quest for celebrity status is a very modern form of this. Social media platforms such as Facebook rely on desire for recognition, pride in numbers of ‘friends’ or ‘likes’. The passion for sharing ‘selfies’ is part of this temptation.
‘Celebrity pastors’ and ‘Worship leaders’ or even members of ‘worship teams’ need to be especially conscious of this temptation. Do a quick Google Image search on ‘worship leader’ and you will see what I mean.
An often-forgotten version of this area of temptation is what used to be called vainglory. I think this may be an almost-forgotten word, now. It refers to the kind of fame achieved by doing something foolhardy. Extreme sports, madcap attempts at achieving some pointless but dangerous goal, risky behaviours photographed and placed online, dangerous selfies…
We might also ask: How can we resist temptation? Is there something in this passage that may help us?
Jesus’ technique was to use scripture in his response to the devil. Each time he is tempted, he replies, “It is written…”. Clearly, Jesus knew his scripture. Perhaps this is our best defence, too, against temptation.
James advises us ‘to resist the devil, and he will flee from you’ (James 4:7). This implies that we have a responsibility in these matters. We are not helpless targets. The devil can be resisted; temptation can be overcome. There is a spiritual discipline that God expects us to develop, through practice and repetition, as with any other discipline.
Do we go to the gym, or exercising for fitness, but don't spend even half of that time in building spiritual fitness by reading and studying scripture? We are responsible for our spiritual fitness, as Jesus was. We can't expect God to help us out if we don't do our bit.
Simeon warned Mary and Joseph about antilogia, words that would be spoken against Jesus. Although we assume these would come from other human beings, perhaps the first antilogia came from the father of lies, the devil himself.
Luke’s description of this event in Jesus’ life has taught us that living in God’s kingdom requires:
• A commitment to higher spiritual values than mere materialistic consumption;
• People who are servant-hearted, not seekers after power and control;
• Doing the work of God in a gentle manner, not for self-promotion and big-noting of ourselves, not seeking celebrity status.
Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, I'm sorry for the many times I’ve given in to temptation. Thank you for reminding me of my need to read and study your Word. Help me today, to resist the temptation to do wrong in any way. Amen.
