It’s said that the baptism of Jesus marks the beginning of His
ministry. Actually, His baptism marks the beginning of the end of His life. What
a difficult and confusing time that must have been to feel so amazingly “right,”
so connected to God, so completely aware of His identity as the Son and yet so
equally aware of His purpose: to obey and, in obeying, to be a sacrifice for
sin and so, be not. Hamlet had it easy, eh?
Jesus knows who He is but does not have to testify about who
He is because He has many witnesses who testify for Him, including Simeon,
Anna, the shepherds, the Magi, John the Baptist and God.
The witness statements
of God the Father (“You are my beloved Son”) and God the Spirit (“and the Holy
Spirit descended on Him in bodily form, like a dove”) are bookended by the
double witness statements of John the Baptist. When John was in the womb and
Mary, already pregnant, came to visit John’s mother (her cousin, Elizabeth), he
“leaped in the womb” when Elizabeth heard the sound of Mary’s voice. As an
adult, John testified again that he “saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a
dove, and it remained on Him.”
Fresh off these testimonials, full of the Spirit, Jesus –
like the Israelites from Egypt – heads out to the wilderness. Not to wander,
but to win what may have been the battle of His life. Left alone, hungry,
thirsty and probably not a little loopy from lack of food and rest, He is
dogged at every step of his pilgrimage by Satan.
Luke shares three temptations, but there were many, many
more. The three are a distillation of all the others and give a hint as to what
must have been a non-stop natter patter of negativity and almost-truth.
In the first, Satan tsks disdainfully at the dust on Jesus’
sandals, wets an ethereal handkerchief with a sizzling tongue and scrubs at a smudge on
Jesus’ cheek. Then, taking both of Jesus’ hands in his, he looks Him in the
eye, sighs, and says, “I just don’t understand why You – the Son of God – would
want to throw that all away, just to suffer. No one is going to understand or appreciate what it is you're doing, so why should you choose to suffer? What’s up with that? You don't have to give anything up. You don’t
have to be hungry. Eat! There’s nothing wrong with having a snack!”
Jesus, remembering how He never did like quail, responds
with a scriptural standard: “Spiritual food is much more important than
physical food.”
Satan, hardly daunted, neatly sidesteps, shakes his head in
pity, pats His hand and asks, “But why should You, of all people (the very Son
of God mind You) do without? Why don’t You let me help? Here, You can have
all this. All You have to do is ask nicely – talk nice to me for a change, won’t
You? – and I will be more than happy to help You out. I’m just that kind of
guy.”
Jesus, remembering just what kind of guy Satan is (a knife
collector), responds while standing atop a scriptural foundation stone: “Only
God is God. Only He is worthy of – worthwhile to – worship.”
Satan, realizing his error, takes a different tack. “Let’s
go out. Let’s get you cleaned up and hit the town – paint it red! (my favorite
color) – and have a ball. Screw ‘em. Who cares? You’re the Son of God, baby!
Take the day off – show everybody just how much they really need You and then they’ll really listen when You CRACK…THAT…WHIP!”
Jesus, remembering just how altruistic Satan really is when
it comes to negotiating labor contracts, responds – as always – from a refuge of
scripture: “God’s plan is bigger than Me. He wants to use Me, but He doesn’t
need Me. I am not the plan. I am the man of
the plan.”
Luke says Satan left until a more opportune time. “I’ll
pencil you in for Thursday next,” he promised Jesus, but he never showed. He
did, however, set a reminder for the end of Passover week in another three years’
time. He just didn’t realize Jesus was already fully booked.
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