Surrendering or Overcoming Temptation?


Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.   
Matthew 4:1&11

Today its an important day for the church. We celebrate the 40th Friday of the Great Lent. Jesus fasted for forty days and at the end of the fast he was tempted by the devil. On the 40th day of the Great Lent which is always a Friday, the church commemorates the tempting of Jesus and his triumph over Satan. In the Gospel we see that after his baptism, Jesus was led up into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (St. Matthew 4: 1). So we who are baptized should not be surprised if we are also tempted like him.

In the 1970's comedian Flip Wilson made "The Devil made me do it" a catchphrase. As host of his own TV variety show, Flip Wilson created a recurring character named Geraldine. And every time her husband accused her of doing something wrong, whether it was buying a dress that was too expensive, or crashing the car into the side of the church, her excuse was always the same: "It wasn't me. The Devil made me do it."     

Before Jesus was tempted we see that Jesus spends forty days in fasting. Numbers have always had a symbolic meaning in the Bible. Israelites spend forty years in the wilderness. Symbolically it could mean that Jesus spent one day for each of the forty years his nation Israel had spent in the wilderness.

There is no doubt that wilderness is something none of us want to go through or be in. The conditions are stark, desolate and barren. Does wilderness have anything positive? The positive thing about wilderness is that it is never a boring place because there is always action in the wilderness.

Wilderness is always a battle scene. Here also we see it is a battle scene. There is a struggle and Jesus shows how we can overcome this. The whole of our life time is a wilderness journey as each day we too have to fight the battle with the Spirit and the Devil.

When we look at all the temptations Jesus faced and came out victorious, we see that it is the victory over “if and then conditions” that we usually fall prey too. Devil easily pulls us into wanting outcomes for our faith. All the three temptations – If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread (Mat. 4:3); If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down (Mat. 4:6) and All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.

I am sure most of us have said, “God if you get me out of this then I will believe you and trust you.” Jesus presents a life of faith that does not make faith conditional on happy outcomes.

We believe he (devil) has the power to "make" us do things. Or we imagine him as a little guy wearing a red suit, with a pitchfork, sitting on our left shoulder, whispering in our ear. And meanwhile, there's a little angel perched on our right shoulder, trying to counteract whatever temptation the devil is whispering to us. And in the cartoons, the devil usually wins.

Is that how temptation works? Is the devil really equally as powerful as God? Can he "make" us do anything we don't want to do? The short answer is no. Jesus made it clear that the One who is in us is greater than the one that is in the world (1 John 4:4).  The truth is, the devil doesn't have any power over us that we don't let him have.

Just after coming up from the waters of baptism, Jesus was taken into the wilderness of temptation. Why? Why would Christ, our Lord, our Savior, need to be tempted? The reason is that if Jesus is to be our King, He must first demonstrate to us His power over the ruler of this world. If Jesus is to be our Savior, He must at all points prove His purity through sinlessness.

The Spirit led Jesus to the place of temptation, but He was not the source of temptation. God was not surprised. God was not ambushed. This meeting was expected, necessary, and allowed. The nature of the word tempted helps us gain further insight into the necessity of this encounter. Tempted is often used in both Hebrew and Greek to mean “to test or to prove.” We could say that these tests were allowed to prove the purity of the One being tested. Through this process, Jesus could be proven as an acceptable sacrifice for the sins of mankind.

Three proven, persuasive, and highly effective strategies that had been used in times past would also be used here: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. With rapid fire succession the enemy of God would attack, tempting Jesus to serve self, to test God, and to worship the created rather than the Creator.

Dear Friends, we all fall prey to temptation each and every moment. Jesus victory over the temptation provides hope for us that if we too take hold of the Word of God and rely on the power of the Holy Spirit we too will be able to overcome any temptation and any wilderness that we are driven into. Clinging on to the Word is the answer to all our problems.

This Lenten Season and especially when we are fighting Covid 19 let us be assured There is hope! Let us take hold of the Word of God, rely on the power of the Holy Spirit of God, and follow the example of Jesus.

God Bless You .

Location: Mallappally, Kerala, India

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