(Mark 14:32-42)
Oscar Wilde was famous for witticisms that were simultaneously so light as to appear frivolous and yet carried a hidden depth that made them rather darker than they appeared on the surface. His reported last words were: “Either this wallpaper goes or I do.” Another such remark, which has made it to T-shirts around the world, is: “I can resist anything except temptation.” It is a statement that could just as well serve the gleeful pretense of a spoiled brat as the anguished confession of an addict. In both scenarios, though, there is an undercurrent that suggests that, somehow, the very fact of temptation begins to relieve me of responsibility for my actions: “How could I be expected to do anything else? The temptation was just too much!”
But when we consider God, it’s not just that He can’t resist temptation – by his superior willpower – it’s that He isn’t even tempted in the first place. But before we go any further, we should be clear by what we mean by “temptation.” The idea that springs to mind when we hear the word, at least if the ads I see on TV are to be believed, are probably along the lines of ice cream, beer, or sex: a powerful desire for something pleasurable but forbidden. For the observant reader of the Bible, though, temptation is a much broader and more complex concept. It is not simply about the seductive allurements of pleasure but encompasses a whole range of testing of faith and character. The people of Israel, confronted with reports of terrifying enemies living in the promised land, were the subjects of a temptation every bit as much as Joseph was when he was enticed by Potiphar’s wife.
The fact that temptation can arise from all sorts of circumstances was something recognized by the writer of Proverbs, who prayed:
8[G]ive me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.
9 Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God (Proverbs 30:8-9).
These words acknowledge that both having money and not having money can bring temptation. They are two sides of the same coin (no pun intended). Wealth tempts me to self-reliance: why do I need God when I have all this money? Poverty likewise tempts me to ignore God and rely on myself – this time, by stealing. What’s striking is that the writer’s understanding of himself in relation to temptation is rather like Oscar Wilde’s: he knows he is prone to give in. So, he prays that he will not be led into temptation in the first place.
You may have noticed that Jesus taught His disciples – and by extension us – to pray for just the same thing: to be given daily bread and to be kept from temptation. It’s sobering to think of ourselves as so potentially helpless in the face of temptation that our best hope is to avoid it. There’s no suggestion here that temptation relieves us of responsibility for our choices. There is, though, a recognition that we are frail and therefore do better, if we can, to avoid temptation then try to resist it.
As we consider the topic of temptation, I would like to look briefly at the first temptation. We know the story: God has placed Adam and Eve in a garden of all earthly delights. Every food-bearing tree or plant in existence – some of which we have yet to discover – is theirs for the taking – except for one tree in the middle of the garden; they must not eat from that tree, or they will die.
Enter the wily serpent who invites Eve to doubt God’s generosity: “Did God really say, ‘you must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” Although the answer to that question should have been a straight “no,” Eve’s actual answer shows that she bought into the idea a little bit. She adds to God’s restriction in her retelling of it by saying, “you must not touch it,” which God hadn’t said. From there on in, it’s all downhill. The serpent then plants doubt in their minds as to whether or not they will surely die.
Bear in mind what has happened in the story so far. The universe has come into being, and taken on a certain shape, all by means of God’s word. He spoke and it happened. There is only one word that has not yet come to pass, and it’s the word about death if they eat the fruit. So, this is the decisive moment: will they believe God’s word or believe the speculative serpent who suggests that God’s word is not so powerful as all that? That suggestion that God’s word might not be fulfilled is no mere quibble over language choice. It casts doubt on God’s unique status as creator, his “Godness” if you like. What’s more, in suggesting that God is concerned for Himself and not His creatures, the serpent calls into question God’s goodness as well.
So, all temptation has its roots in doubting either God’s goodness or His “Godness” (and frequently, both). In light of this, it begins to become clear why God cannot be tempted. It might help to think of it like this: To God, anything that is contrary to His inherent goodness is disgusting. After all, what motivation could God have to treat something else as more supreme than Himself? We are tempted when we doubt God’s “Godness” and put other things in His place. Do we really think that God might doubt Himself? Similarly, what good thing does God lack that he might be tempted to seek by illegitimate means? For God to be tempted by evil He would have to reject His own existence. For that reason, we should be able to agree that God can no more cease to be good than He can cease to be.
Perhaps you can see how that helps us, too. Knowing that God cannot be tempted is another way of saying that he is always an alternatively good. And, given that many of our own temptations have their roots in doubting God’s goodness, thinking about God’s relationship to temptation might be a real help with that.
Jesus’ half-brother James says this in his letter: 16Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. 17Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. God doesn’t lie and he doesn’t change. His relationship to his people is not subject to seasons or changes in the weather. He is wonderfully constant, and constantly good. James says, since he has brought you to new life, it isn’t probationary. God is not in the business of seeing how hard he can push you to see whether you fail. For that reason, we don’t need to view temptation with the same grim determinism as Oscar Wilde did. Temptation does not have the irresistible power of God behind it nor is it a sign that God is out to get you. Knowing that God is unstintingly for his people is a great help in resisting temptation because temptation relies in one way or another on the lie that he is not. “God loves me, and going his way is the path of blessing” is a great thing to say to yourself when your circumstances, whether they play on your desires or your fears, entice you to believe otherwise. In what situation might you need to remember that?
This brings up questions about our relationship to God and His relationship to us as it did in last Sunday’s message. After all, when it comes to human experience, especially the experience of temptation, since God cannot be tempted, we would naturally expect Him to be at a loss. How could He possibly understand? And it is here that we find a huge surprise in the life of Jesus, placed prominently in the gospel narratives of Jesus’ life.
The writer to the Hebrews makes much of the significance of Jesus’ temptations as being on our behalf. In Hebrews 2, the writer tells us that “because Jesus himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” And in Hebrews 4 we’re assured that Jesus is able to “feel sympathy for our weaknesses” because He “has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet he did not sin.” Reflect on that for a moment – Jesus can empathize with us when we are tempted, because He too has been tempted. Let it sink in that the Son of God, who by nature can never be tempted, actually understands our temptations from the inside.
At this point, if you feel that all like Oscar Wilde, you might be thinking: “Yes, but Jesus doesn’t really understand because he never gave in.” But that response actually misses the strength of what the writer to the Hebrews is saying. He wants us to understand that Jesus’s experience of temptation was in fact more complete than ours, because he never gave in.
Consider it this way. Suppose we eventually get back to those lovely spring days we had in early March, and you decide that it would be a good idea to set out on a 70-mile bike ride. Now if you are like me, this is, in many ways, an act of utter stupidity. But for the sake of the illustration let’s suppose you did. Along about 20 miles or so, you begin to question the wisdom of this act. By about 35 miles, your body has decided that utter stupidity was an understatement. The temptation to quit and admit to whomever you beg for a ride that you are a fool, would be almost unbearable. How could you possibly go on? Perhaps you begin to go slightly loopy – talking to your legs – at which point they actually respond by pointing out that a treadmill at home would be a great alternative. In the end, solely by the grace of God, you somehow make it home.
Would you have known more about the temptation to quit if you had given up? No! You would have known more about giving in to it. But the full power of the temptation could only be experienced by carrying on. You have to endure it all the way to the end to really understand everything it has to throw at you. Notice that Jesus “suffered when he was tempted.” Jesus faced the full might of temptation’s power by resisting it. In that sense, he knows more about temptation than Oscar Wilde or, for that matter, any of us.
And what was the temptation that Jesus faced? In Matthew 4: 1-11, we’re shown that Jesus’ experience was typical of the temptation faced by God’s people in the Old Testament. Out in the wilderness, Jesus was confronted by the devil, who tried the same tactic that worked both with Adam in the garden of Eden, and the children of Israel in the desert in route to the Promised Land. Satan tried to tempt Jesus to disobedience using food. Jesus, though, recognized what was really at stake. He answers the devil, “It is written: ‘man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
And having succeeded where Adam failed, Jesus was pressed into as yet untested depths of temptation. We don’t have time to go into depth on this, but I would like to draw your attention to one thing that helps to make sense of how Jesus “suffered when he was tempted” and how, ultimately, he can help people like us.
The climax of the temptation is the offer of all worldly power. This is a power that we know Jesus was concerned with. Indeed, He has since received it. Paul writes, in Philippians, “God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledged that Jesus Christ is Lord.”
The temptation here is not so much what is on offer as the route Jesus is invited to take. Satan’s offer is of a quick and painless route to glory. The God-ordained journey before Jesus, though, was a different sort.
The passage from Philippians which I just quoted begins with the word “therefore.” The verses before it give the reason for Jesus’ exaltation: [Jesus], being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!
On the high mountain with Satan, Jesus was offered a Kingdom without a cross. Thankfully, He chose the cross. In the end, Jesus is able to help us not just as an example, or someone who can empathize, but as a savior. He resisted temptation all the way to the end, so that he could put right what we as a human race have put wrong. Jesus faced up to the worst possible temptation in order to remake a world that was otherwise irreparably broken by sin. Jesus endured to the very end by fixing his eyes on the goal of eternity with us. As the author of Hebrews says, “for the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
So, when you’re tempted, and you know you’re being tempted – whether that’s in something big, like abandoning your faith, or comparatively small, like “accidentally” leaving something off your tax return – here’s what you can do. First you can pray, knowing that God really does understand what you’re going through. You can remember that Jesus knows exactly how much more it might hurt if you resist. But most of all, you can recognize that when faced with much more painful temptation than anything you or I have ever experienced, Jesus chose to go through the pain to get to you. Whatever reward temptation may offer, a God who loves you like that is worth infinitely more.
