Smoodock's Blog

So, we begin Matthew’s first book of his testimony about Jesus with Jesus’ temptation, and there are many questions that could be asked about what all this means, as that pertains to offering the Kingdom of God to the Jewish people. For example, how could God (in the flesh, Jesus; John 1:1, 14) be tempted at all (cp. James 1:13). What if Jesus yielded to temptation, and was it possible for him to fail? If it was possible for him to fail, how could he keep us from failing? If it wasn’t possible for him to fail, what value was there in his being tempted? Who tempted Jesus, and where did these temptations take place and when?

Mark says Jesus was tempted by Satan immediately after his baptism, and the temptations lasted forty days (Mark 1:12-13). Matthew simply has Jesus’ temptations begin “Then…” vis-à-vis sometime after his baptism, and he was tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1). Luke simply tells us that Jesus returned (to where?) from the Jordan and was tempted forty days in the wilderness by the devil (Luke 4:1-2). Remembering that Jesus’ public ministry began in earnest, after John was put in prison (Matthew 4:12; Mark 1:14), we need to understand that this didn’t occur until after Jesus’ first Passover in his public ministry (John 2:13; cp. 3:22-24), which occurred some months (as many as nine months) after his baptism (John 1:29-34).

The Gospel of John doesn’t have Jesus begin his public ministry after 40 days of temptation. Instead, Jesus already had disciples by the time of his first Passover (John 2:13, 17), which didn’t occur until after Jesus had turned water into wine (John 2:1-12). Therefore, John’s miracle of changing water into wine stands in parallel to Jesus 40 days of temptation mentioned in the Synoptics. Thus, there seems to be a relationship between the two events in that Jesus’ baptism occurred immediately prior to both of them. So, how are they related, and what does it all mean?

Furthermore, according to the Synoptics, Jesus’ temptations lasted forty days (Matthew 4:12; Mark 1:14), but he was already in Galilee and in the town of Cana three days after his baptism (John 2:1). The timeline is understood from the day of Jesus’ baptism, when John pointed him out to his disciples (John 1:29-34). On the first day after his baptism, John once again pointed Jesus out to two of his disciples, who immediately began following Jesus (John 1:35-37). After the three spent the night together, the second day after his baptism, Jesus entered Galilee (John 1:43). On the third day after his baptism, we find Jesus in the town of Cana in Galilee (John 2:1). So, how does John’s three days relate to the Synoptics’ forty days, and how does the Synoptics’ wilderness relate to John’s Cana of Galilee?

It wouldn’t be good for us to ignore these difficulties in the text, because such things are used by skeptics to show the Gospel narratives are not good examples of evidence to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, because they contradict one another, and this is only one of the many difficult passages that are used to mock or testify against our faith. Are there answers for these things, or is scripture contradictory and worthless, like any other writing of men that doesn’t quite fulfill its claims?

Most important of all, if we are going to understand these difficulties and how they relate to one another, we need to read the scriptures, as Jesus commands us to understand them, namely that “Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35), vis-à-vis we must not read the text in a manner that causes the text to contradict itself in other passages. Therefore, this is where we must begin, if we are to truly understand the word of God, because he is not a man that he should lie (Numbers 23:19). Believe this, and then figure out the difficult passages in a manner that enlightens our hearts without contradicting logic.

We can understand the relationship of Jesus’ immediate entrance into the wilderness to be tempted (the Synoptics) with John having Jesus immediately returning to Galilee by concluding the wilderness is a metaphor for the desert. In other words, just as a desert is without water, so Jesus walked among and preached to people in whom there was no understanding of spiritual matters, vis-à-vis they lacked the water of the Spirit of God (Isaiah 44:3; cp. John 1:33; 3:5). So, Jesus was driven by the Spirit into a wilderness of people (cp. Ezekiel 20:35). Therefore, if the Synoptics’ wilderness actually refers to people lacking spiritual understanding, then John’s Cana of Galilee won’t contradict the word of God in the Synoptics. Furthermore, if we can understand that John’s three days is the beginning of the Synoptics’ forty days, neither would this contradict the scriptures.

Could Jesus, God in the flesh (John 1:1, 14) be tempted? Yes, he could, in the sense of being provoked by unbelievers (cp. Numbers 14:22-23). In other words, Jesus offered the Kingdom of God to folks who were unable to appreciate it. It was they who tempted him to become the false messiah of their traditions, and they slandered him when he would not. But, could Jesus have failed and yielded to their demands? No, he couldn’t fail, because he was God in the flesh. Therefore, we can trust him to strengthen us and keep us from failing and compromising our walk with him. However, if he couldn’t fail, what value, was his temptation? It was of similar value that we place upon a bridge that we test for strength. We don’t expect it to fail; the test is to prove it is strong. Jesus’ temptations prove his strength and ability to help us. Therefore, we can trust him.