Smoodock's Blog

We need to keep in mind as we study the text, which unfolds the drama of Jesus’ temptations, that they must not be taken literally. Jesus was never tempted to transform a literal rock into a loaf of bread, nor was he literally taken to Jerusalem and placed on a wing of the Temple. Until he was taken in the Garden of Gethsemane, no one had the authority to **take** Jesus anywhere (cp. John 7:30; 8:20). The temptations of Jesus are all about power, and all about who controls that power. In Jesus’ first two temptations the devil or skeptic began by saying IF you are the Son of God, vis-à-vis if you are the Messiah…

In other words, the skeptic was minimizing Jesus’ claim, and implied he needed to be approved by higher authority. Nevertheless, Jesus didn’t respond to their objections in the way they had hoped, nor did he give place to their presumed authority to place him in office. Therefore, the devil/skeptic decided to start over, and place all the cards on the table. How would Jesus react to a bribe? What I find interesting in all this is that it seems the skeptics or slanderers, who challenged Jesus, have authority to make an agreement with Jesus, which the authorities in Jerusalem would consider binding (Mark 3:22; cp. Luke 5:17)!

Keeping in mind that we are reading Matthew’s testimony of the words and deeds of Jesus, which he recorded in the first book (one of five) in his Gospel narrative. We are reading about what occurred when Jesus first offered the Kingdom of God to a spiritually blind people. Therefore, in this context, the devil/slanderer once more **takes** (G3880) Jesus… Where could he take him? The fact that no mountain exists, where a person could view all the kingdoms of the world at the same time, should alert the reader that what he is reading isn’t literally true. Matthew is speaking metaphorically. What is presented to Jesus is done hypothetically.

The slanderer or false accuser assumed to place Jesus in the office of Messiah for argument’s sake. The devil/slanderer simply laid aside both tradition and scripture, where they found that had no common ground. What if we (the skeptics and those whom they represent at Jerusalem) accept you as Messiah? Will you “fall down and worship me (us),” vis-à-vis will you rule in our favor, if we support you? Because, we can give you all the glory that comes with holding the office of Messiah. We can make that possibility a reality, because we hold the strings that control the allegiance of the people (Matthew 4:8-9)!

At the end of the day, it will always be true that those who oppose Jesus will do so through one or more of three ways. First, tradition (Jewish or church tradition) will be used to deny the Gospel. In other words, the word of man will be more important than the word of God. Man gets to say what is good and what is evil, not God (cp. Genesis 2:16-17). Secondly, men will abuse the scriptures by adding to them or taking away from them in an effort to cause the word of God to morph into the word of man. That is, they’ll bend the scriptures to say what **they** want them to say, in an effort to be the movers and shakers in society, who get to say what is good and what is evil (Genesis 2:16-17). Make no mistake; it’s ALWAYS about power, and who gets to control the strings. Finally, if neither tradition nor putting God in a box works in their favor, they’ll try to **buy** the authority, vis-à-vis use a bribe to be empowered to say what is good and what is evil (Genesis 2:16-17).

Therefore, Jesus replied in the only way he could reply to such a demand: “Get behind me satan…” (Matthew 10:4), meaning, you are my adversary or enemy. You need to get behind me, not me behind you. Thus, all those, who will slander Jesus, or bear a false witness against the Gospel, are the enemies/satans (G4567) of Christ. For Jesus to take the bribe would have meant that he was their servant, fulfilling their will, instead of being the servant of God and performing his will. Worship God, and serve him alone, because only God preserves a man’s integrity. When a man surrenders his will/heart to another man, he also surrenders his integrity.

Thus, Matthew concludes this series of Jesus’ great temptations (Matthew 4:11). Jesus would be tempted throughout his public ministry, but herein is described how those temptations would materialize. Such is also the manner in which we are tempted. Whatever the temptation of man, it can be listed under one or more of these three categories of arguments.