I was out the door more quickly next time. Of course… I should have realised… We had someone down our street whose hobby was restoring old motor cycles. And here he was - putting one of them to the test. It still seemed lacking in power and needing further adjustments.
I have read that, when the Union Pacific Railroad was being constructed in the USA, an elaborate trestle bridge was built across a large canyon in the West. Wanting to test the bridge, the builder loaded a train with enough extra cars and equipment to double its normal payload. The train was then driven to the middle of the bridge, where it stayed an entire day. One worker asked, "Are you trying to see if we can break this bridge?"
"No," the builder replied, "I'm trying to prove that the bridge won't break."
In the Greek New Testament, the same word is used for "testing" and "temptation". We become conscious of this when we read the Lord's Prayer in the Good News Bible - "Do not bring us to hard testing" (Mt. 6.13), rather than the old familiar "Lead us not into temptation" of the King James Version.
Peter writes about this in 1 Peter 1.6-8 - "In this [salvation] you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed."
God may test us in the sense of proving us. But he never tempts us to do evil. James makes it clear that we must remain faithful in trials. If we are tempted to evil in such trials, we must understand that the temptation doesn't come from God, "for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone" (James 1.13).
In the midst of "hard testing", then, our need is to be "delivered from the evil one" - that's also in the Lord's Prayer. (There are good grounds for translating the original Greek this way instead of "deliver us from evil".)
The common course of temptation is spelt out well by James - "each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death" (1.14-15).
In Hebrews 2.17-18 we read that Jesus "had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted."
And in Hebrews 4.15-16, "we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."
Now that is very comforting, but, we may be inclined to say, Was Jesus really tempted? After all, as the Son of God, didn't he just sail through life without feeling the real pull to do anything contrary to the Father's will - as we do?
We think of Luke 4 (and Matthew 4) as giving the accounts of "the temptation of Jesus" - as if it was the only time Jesus was tempted. Yet today's reading ends with the words, "When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time" (v. 13).
Jesus had fasted for forty days and was extremely hungry. A number of writers believe that during this time Jesus may have been reflecting on the forty years the Israelites had wandered in the wilderness - fed by the mysterious manna that miraculously appeared on the ground. All of his responses to the tempter come from Deuteronomy chapters 6 to 8.
Jesus was extremely hungry and there was no manna on the ground to satisfy him. Come on, Jesus. Use your powers as the Son of God to feed yourself!
Moses had been reminding the people how God was caring for them - "He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord" (Dt. 8.3). That's it! For Jesus, the Word made flesh, the key to life was his constant dependence on the Father and his Word.
Jesus was about to begin his ministry. He had come to bring in the Kingdom of God. At this stage he had no disciples, no following at all. Much of his time during those forty days must have been given to reflection on his mission - bringing in the Kingdom of God. Come on, Jesus. The kingdoms of the world are mine right now. I'll give them to you - if you will only worship me!
Again Jesus recalled Moses preparing the people for the time when they would finally possess the land and achieve some glory and dominion. Moses had said, "Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name" (Dt. 6.13). The kingdoms of this world will "become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever" - so we read in Rev. 11.15. That can only come about in complete submission to the Lord himself.
In a sense Jesus must have been "walking through" his short few years of ministry. Later he indicated on several occasions his awareness that this would mean harsh rejection and cruel death. In the garden of Gethsemane we hear him praying that his task might be accomplished without the cup of suffering (Lk. 22.42). Come on, Jesus. Do it this way. Jump off the highest point of the temple. You will have faced the danger of death, but God has promised to protect you.
But to be acclaimed by the people without going to the cross would question whether God was in the plan at all. That was similar to the situation of Deuteronomy 6.16 - "Do not test the Lord your God as you did at Massah." Massah was the place where the Israelites complained and put the Lord to the test when they asked, "Is the Lord among us or not?" (Ex. 17.7). Jesus was confident that God was with him and that the Father's plan and timing were perfect. He didn't fall for the temptation.
These were real temptations for Jesus. As we reflect on the route by which the temptations came to him, we can understand better our own temptations.
The first temptation came through the route of a basic human desire - in this case, hunger. Very often temptation comes to us through basic human desires - food, clothing, shelter, sex… - desires that are part of how God has made us, desires that are intended for good but can be used for evil.
The second played on personal ambition, the desire to achieve. It has been said that if we aim at nothing we will attain nothing. In itself, setting goals for ourselves can be good and positive. Tragically, they often become a substitute for our need to live in submission to God. They draw us away from him.
The third was tricky - it looked like a call to trust the Father, but proved to be a temptation to act independently of the Father's will. We want to be autonomous. If we are to have God, we want him running around serving us, rather than the other way around.
Two of the temptations related to proving his identity as the Son of God. For us too there comes the temptation to prove our identity. Yet it is only by faith in Christ that we reach our true identity as children of our heavenly Father. Our failure to live trusting him is in fact a denial of who we are in him.
Jesus, the one who was tempted without committing sin, understands our human frame, understands what we go through when we are tempted. He is able to help us when we are tempted.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it" (1 Cor. 10.12-13).
The old hymn said, "Yield not to temptation, for yielding is sin." How can we face temptation and not fall into sin? Here are a few important principles:
So pray. Trust. And whenever you fall into sin, confess it, admit it - and live in the knowledge of his forgiveness. Hear his Word and deed. Obey. Keep close to God, and, like Jesus, you will be able to say, "Away from me, Satan!" (Mt. 4.10).
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