Journey Through Matthew: The Temptations
Feb 11 in General
Matthew, like Mark and Luke, has Jesus go into the desert (the wilderness) following his baptism. All three of them say that Jesus was tempted but only Matthew and Luke go into any details.
There are three temptations. Making stones to bread, jumping from the Temple to attract attention, acquiring all the kingdoms of the world. It is too easy to get distracted by these temptations and make comparisons with our lives.
Read the story by following this link
We are tempted by food, recognition, and wealth and so was Jesus. The temptations can be seen as a parallel with our lives, Jesus was tempted by the same things as us.
Matthew draws us into the story and gives quite a vivid account of the way in which the devil encounters Jesus. He is encouraging us to see Jesus as faithful to the word of God, and it is this faith which Jesus demonstrates in his responses.
The temptations all focus around the word ‘you’, ‘If you are the Son of God…’, ‘all these I will give you…’. The devil in the story is trying to get Jesus to see the world from his own perspective, and Jesus refuses, he doesn’t speak about himself at all. In all his replies Jesus puts God first.
And what does Matthew want us to think about ourselves?
- How do we deal with the challenges of life?
- Do we go with the easy way or the quick reward?
- Or do we reflect on the word that God has given us?
Basically, at every step of our lives of faith we are challenged to choose whether to put ourselves or God first.
There are, of course, many ways of putting God before ourselves – it is choosing one of them that this story is encouraging us to do.
An Extra Bit
Have a look at Luke chapter 3 and compare the two versions of the story – what do you notice?