Temptation

Passage: Matthew 4:1-11

The book Son, by Lois Lowry, tells the story of a young woman driven to great lengths to find the child separated from her at birth.  At a pivotal point in her journey the woman's way is blocked by a character called "Trademaster".  He will let her proceed only after she has made an exchange with him.  He asks for her youth, which she gives willingly because she believes it's the only way to get what she wants.  Trademaster upholds his part of the bargain, delivering the woman to the village where her son is being raised.  But she arrives as an old woman, her life spent in the exchange.  The reunion she envisioned is impossible. 

The temptation of Jesus appears in three of the four gospels.  It’s an episode that is essential to our theology of Jesus – a God who identifies with our weakness because he has experienced it.  But it also captures something profound about the costly trades we make with the Tempter.  Our lives are driven by objectives that in the moment seem all-consuming, but are fleeting in the long run.  And our worst compromises are usually made for things that can’t live up to the ultimate value we’ve afforded them.  God continually asks us to sacrifice immediate gratification – to give up something we have easily in hand – trusting that he will give us what we need on his terms.  The basis on which God can make this demand is twofold.  First, he’s God, and he is perfectly able to make good his commitment to us.  Second, when given the option of an immediate result, God himself chooses to achieve his long-term results through means that are costly in the short term.  Jesus chooses hunger and obscurity and physical pain.  But in the end he achieves glory – not just for himself, but for all of us.  The only way to share his glory is to share his suffering.  To say no to temptation now, trusting that in his own time God will give us everything our hearts desire.