Temptation

If there is such a thing as beginner's luck, I think I have it.  I can remember times over the years growing up that I played a game for the first time or tried a new sport, and I did well at first.  I can remember other times, however, when my first chance to do something didn't go so well.  The first chance I got to preach when coming to New England was in The First Baptist Church in America.  I preached way too long, I was too academic in parts, and I embarrassed myself by talking about a topic that I'm sure the people didn't relate to. 

In his recent autobiography, Billy Graham tells about his first visit to the White House.  He had been invited by President Truman to a brief meeting at Noon on July 14th, 1950.  The invitation had been for him alone, but he brought along his three collegeagues.  They weren't sure what to wear, so they decided to wear what they had been wearing at their recent Bible conference.  He writes that he was "wearing what Time magazine would later describe as a 'pistachio-green' suit with rust-colored socks and a hand-painted tie."  The others were similarly attired.  They had seen a picture of the President in Florida wear white buck shoes, so they all went out and bought a pair.  Billy Graham describes how that people who saw them walking down the sidewalk together would have thought they were a barbershop quartet out for a stroll, and that the president, when he received them, seemed apprehensive as if he were receiving a traveling vaudeville team.

He goes on to relate how he dominated the conversation telling the president all about their successes in their evangelistic campaigns, and then how he confronted the president about his own faith in Jesus.  When Truman stood, signalling the end of their meeting, Billy asked if they could have prayer.  As he remembers it, the president responded with something like, "It can't do any harm."  When the team got outside with the reporters, Billy related to them everything he said and everything the president had said, unknowingly breaking all rules of white house etiquette.  The final act was when Billy agreed to have their pictures taken as if the team was having an impromptu prayer on the white house lawn.  The picture shows them kneeling down on one knee together.  Later, Billy discovered that he was persona non grata at the White House.  He did visit Truman many years later at his home and apologized profusely for his actions.

First impressions are important.  Even more important are first expressions.  They can set the tone for a person's life.  Jesus set the tone of his mission in life with several of his first experiences.

After his baptism, the gospels describe Jesus as entering a period of trial in the wilderness.  The Gospel of Mark mentions this experience in two brief sentences.  Building upon this, Matthew and Luke appear to have used a common source which narrated the three trials in which the devil tempted Jesus.

It began with a period of weakening as Jesus went without food for forty days and forty nights.  Clearly the gospel writers wish us to compare Jesus' life to that of the people of Israel.  Matthew has followed a pattern of prophetic fulfillments which parallel Jesus' birth to the early years of Israel:  they went down to Egypt, Jesus' went down to Egypt with his family; King Herod slew the baby boys in the region of Bethlethem just as Pharaoh had had the Hebrew boys killed in Egypt to forestall their population explosion; Moses gave the people the law from the mountain just as Jesus would preach his sermon on the mount; and Jesus was tested for forty days reminiscent of the testing of the Israelites in the wilderness for forty years.

The gospels make the understatement that after forty days, Jesus was hungry.  It is at this time that the character we encountered first in the book of Job once again enters upon the scene.  It is Satan, the adversary, that's what Mark calls him.  Both Matthew and Luke use the Greek term diabolos, the devil.

If we read this account in Matthew and then in Luke, we may not notice what becomes apparent when you look at them together.  The three temptations given in Matthew are in a different order in Luke:  the last two are switched around.  We can only guess at the reason why Matthew and Luke, not only here, but in other places, rearrange the events of Jesus' life as they tell his story.

Both Matthew and Luke start with the devil making his first challenge to Jesus.  He says, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread."  Jesus responds with a quotation from Moses' speech to the Israelites recalling their "manna" experience, "Man shall not live by bread alone."  And Matthew in his account completes the sentence, "but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."

Luke goes on to the test in which the devil takes Jesus and shows him all the kingdoms of the world in a pin-point of time.  The devil claims that the authority and honor over all the kingdoms is his to give, and that he will give it to Jesus now, before he has even begun to fulfill his mission, if he will just get on his knees and worship the devil.  Jesus does not argue the point, but once again rebufs the devil with the words of the Law, "You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve."

One more time, the devil takes Jesus to the highest point of the temple and says, if I may paraphrase, "If you are the Son of God, jump off, for the scripture you so love to quote says, "He will give his angels charge of you, to guard you" and "On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone."  Jesus countered the words of Satan with the simple quotation, "You shall not tempt the Lord your God."  Concluding the three temptations, the devil leaves Jesus, although Luke adds that it would be until another time.  Matthew then states along with Mark that angels came to Jesus and ministered to him.

Jesus had refused to take the easy way out and with one fell swoop establish his role of Lord of all.  He declined to turn stones to loaves of bread, but he would later miraculously feed thousands of people with his loaves and fishes.  He turned down the devil's offer to make him "king of kings," but through his death and resurrection, God would put all things under his control.  Jesus turned away from the devil's attempt to have him grandstand by taking a flying leap off the temple just so he could prove that he was invincible, but would by his crucifixion and burial demonstrate God's power when he would raise him from the dead.

The way Jesus handled these temptations can be instructive for us.  Temptation comes to us in many forms and in every aspect of life.  What we learn from Jesus, first of all, is that we shouldn't take the easy way out in our decisions, but should consider our long-term goals in life.

While I was working as a custodian/night watchman at a Christian publishing company, I happened one night to come across a guy who suddenly appeared in a section of the building where he really didn't belong.  It seemed suspicious, so I reported to my superior.  It turned out that this salesmen had been getting information about other sales accounts and taking credit for them.  He was forced to resign in disgrace.  He had tried to take the easy way out by getting ahead in the company by cheating and lying.

We also learn from Jesus' example that we shouldn't only think of how we can benefit personally from our actions, but we should keep in mind the needs of others in our family, our church, and our community.  On the television show 20/20 the other night, there was a story of a mother who had slapped her daughter several times.  The daughter brought charges against her mother, and the case ended up in court.  If the mother had admitted wrong and gone to counseling, the whole situation could have been avoided.  The women determined that there was more at stake than just her anonymity.  The case did go to court pitting daughter against mother, splitting the family, having the potential of setting precedent for parental rights versus child abuse.  Both groups that were interviewed, parents and teen-agers alike, agreed that a parent was within their rights to slap a child who defiantly slanders the parent after staying away from home all night and the next day.  Our choices in life can have an impact on others.  If we compromise our values for an immediate remedy to our problems, we are likely to find that others will suffer for it.

One other lesson we learn is that we shouldn't violate a principle for a promotion, a promotion of any kind, not just in our jobs.  Jesus repeatedly came back to the basic principles of the Jewish law rather than promote himself.  I can't help but think of the plague on our society, a common theme in TV shows and movies, of sleeping with someone to get ahead.  How many times could we avoid trouble by simply beginning our decision-making process with the words, "Thou shalt not."

We have been hearing on our local news yet another story of someone in a trusted position who takes advantage of the children entrusted into his care.  At some point, this young man said "yes" to his temptations and set the pattern, making it easier the next time to give in.

Billy Graham, on the other hand, determined early in his ministry to set up a system of accountability among the team members.  They set up rules of conduct that would prevent people from getting into situations that possibly could lead to temptation.  Billy Graham represents the best of Christian ministry, one untainted by any suggestion of wrongdoing.  We say together in the Lord's prayer, "Lead us not into temptation."  We ask God to keep us from the hour of trial.  When we do find ourselves in temptation, let us remember the example of Jesus and respond, "Thou shalt not..."