Temptation - The Great Reenactment

           “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them…

“And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” (Genesis 1:26, 27, 31)

“In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan.” (Mark 1:9 – 13a).

In Genesis we see God creating man in His own image. In the Gospel we see the express and coeternal Incarnate image of God on earth to recreate man. In Genesis we see that God’s creation was very good. In the Gospel we hear the Father proclaiming His delight in the Son. In Genesis we see that the woman gives the fruit to her husband and sin and death enter our race; in the Gospel we see our Divine Husband taking the curse upon Himself, thus giving life to His Bride. That is, as in Genesis the bride was, in a sense, the conduit of sin and death, so the Husband is now the conduit of justification and eternal life. In Genesis we see the first creation coming up out of the waters, in the Gospel the New Creation rises from the Jordan River. In Genesis mankind is removed from the Garden with the Tree of Life, in the Gospel the Tree of Life comes to mankind.

And so in the Gospel we see the Great Reenactment of the Temptation in Genesis culminating in not one onslaught of temptation, but of forty days of temptation (Luke 4:2) culminating in three hyper-temptations.

Jesus is driven by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan for forty days – this after the Father’s affirmation and the descent of the Holy Spirit! While we are not shown the particular temptations of the forty days (save the last three), Luke gives us just a glimpse when he writes, “When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time,” (Luke 4:13 italics mine).

Considering the nature of the final three temptations, and considering what the Scriptures teach us about temptation, we are on safe ground to think that the nature of the temptations that Jesus encountered for forty days has to do with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin,” (Hebrews 4:15 NASB).

As we will consider in a future meditation, temptations often come after times of victory and growth. In the life of our Lord Jesus, He was impelled by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted; in one sense the season of temptation did not come to Him, He came into it. Also note that the culminating temptations came when Jesus was hungry, having fasted for forty days; we are probably on safe ground in thinking that His body was crying out for relief.

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:1 – 4 ESV).

In Genesis the serpent tells Eve that if she eats from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that she will be like God. Sadly she forgets that she and Adam are God’s children, made is His likeness and image – she denied who she already was in God.

In the Gospel the enemy again raises the issue of identity, this time by challenging the Son’s identity in the Father, “If you are the Son of God…” The enemy challenges the Son to vindicate His sonship by satisfying His hungry body that has been fasting for forty days, the enemy appeals to the desires of the flesh. However, the Son affirms His sonship not by gratifying His legitimate bodily needs, but by affirming that we are called to live according to “every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Yes, we need bread, but let us eat bread as we live in subjection to God’s Word, which is a higher bread, a more sustaining bread, the Bread of eternal life.

Suppose Eve had responded to the serpent as Jesus Christ responded to Satan? In the Garden the enemy called God’s Word into question. In the Wilderness the enemy misused God’s Word in an effort to appeal to the Son’s legitimate bodily needs.

When we are tempted, shall we reenact the scene in the Garden, reprising the roles of Adam and Eve? Or, shall we run to our Great Reenactor and hide ourselves in Him, allowing Him to live in us and through us, faithfully being the extension and outworking of His Incarnation?