Love Came Through

Tune your ear—can you hear a breath of heaven? God’s perfect love, perfect joy, perfect delight for his Son.

Listen to the Father—he is watching his Son be baptized, obediently fulfilling all righteousness. The Father cannot contain his joyful, delighting love of his Son and a voice rips the heavens open, “This is my Beloved Son! With him I am well pleased!” (see Mat. 3:17). A momentous occasion—for thousands of years since Adam and Eve the ears of humankind had longed to hear that divine commendation. That unequivocal, clear, certain, absolute, unquestionable, and rock-solid approval. The bursting of the Father’s heart with delight. And here on this God-Man, finally. The hopes that had waited, growing for thousands of years, finally burst. The stars must have danced, the deep cold hearts of the mountains must have trembled, the angels watching must have gasped. Finally? Finally? A second Adam? A Son worthy of his Father’s complete joy and favor?

Our hope--for in one who was completely worthy, our representative, we too could find love. But, but--

Just like Adam, there was a test. Would the Perfect One stand? The Spirit led Jesus out in the wilderness. The tempter came, that same wily serpent. Just like Israel, Jesus was in the wilderness, but for forty days instead of forty years. He too was tempted to rely on food other than the Word of God alone (Deut. 8:3).  There are strong parallels between Adam and Eve, God’s first creation, and their temptation and Jesus’ temptation. (1) There are strong parallels between Israel’s (also called God’s firstborn son, Exo. 4:22; Hos. 11:1) wilderness and Jesus’ wilderness. (2) The same enemy was at work. The same God was questioned—was he good? Would he provide? The same issue was at stake—sonship and obedience. Adam failed as the obedient son of God. Israel failed as the obedient son of God. Satan tries the true Son of God.

Jesus. Hot desert sun beating down. Sweat rolling down, and giving a brief relief to parched lips. Sun and hunger caused the world to swirl with sudden movements. Satan comes in his beauty and splendor to this humble, tired, and sweaty man. Jesus stands up, and sways as his stomach sends aches of pain. “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread” (Mat. 4:3). Bread. Food. Relief. Now. The Accuser probably continued crooning, “You remember your mother’s bread? Freshly baked pitas with golden olive oil? Mmm, smell it. Taste the warm bread just melting in your mouth. Just think about it. What harm is it to take care of yourself? You have to hike out of this wilderness. You need strength. Will God keep you going? Look at you! You can barely stand up! Will God come through? Do you know when this will end?”

Yet, from between Jesus’ lips, perhaps blistered by the sun and heat, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” And I get cranky and snap if I’m just a little late for lunch.

Then, with how-details that we want to know not shared, the Father-of-Lies and the humble Carpenter were on the highest point of the temple. The temple—the place of protection. The place where one could run for shelter (2 Sam. 22:7; 1 Kgs. 1:50-51; 1 Kgs. 2:28; Psa. 84:3). “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. You know suffering is ahead of you. (3) Ask God to deliver you, carry you, and send angels to protect you. Would a good Father really allow his Son to suffer? Isn’t this what he promised—protection? So ask of it, now. Now.” In other words, don’t choose suffering, hardship, obedience. Oh! what fears crop up in light of those words “suffering” and “hardship.” What next? Can I stand up under it? Jesus faced that.

Then, “Are you the Son of God? Then where is your power? Your glory? Your kingdom? Didn’t you come to bring in the kingdom? That is your right, isn’t it? Just worship me. Then all this will be yours. Yours. Your name will be great. And think of all the good you could do. You’d be a good king, right? Now. Ask for power now.”

But my Jesus! He stood faithful! Think of yourself in the keenest moments of temptation, when that lure just calls. When you know your husband deserves a smart remark in return. When the finances are so tight that fear chokes and you just want to fudge a bit on the taxes. When that alcohol or drug is calling and your soul aches and you can’t escape. When you’ve tried time and time again so why bother trying and that bag of Oreos is just crying out that it is the Balm of Gilead? Whatever your moment, Jesus withstood far greater. Not to undermine yours. But it was a real temptation. Jesus suffered.

Take a moment and think of your own temptations. How was Jesus tempted in the same way? How is he with you in your temptations? How does that give you confidence?

Knowing the end of the story, it is also easy to miss what was at stake. Adam failed. Israel failed. The last hope for the entire world, for billions of souls past and present. For God’s kingdom on earth. The mystified angels must have been on the edge of their seats, chewing their nails, in agony. What? How? Their beings must have groaned for this loved one down there facing the blast of the enemy. How could his frail humanity stand up? And their beings must have groaned in fearful hope, would their holy God’s name whom they love above life finally be exalted?

Jesus won.

The Son of God in hungry flesh, tempted as we are, chose danger and hardship and suffering. He chose his Father. He chose his identity as Beloved. He chose trust. Each one of those temptations was his right as the Messiah—but he surrendered his rights. All for love. All from trust in his Father. He was so sure of his Father that he could let all else go.

Heaven must have resounded. I wonder if even the sand beneath Jesus’ feat breathed a sigh of relief in a cool freshness—their Creator won. Angels who had probably been vying, petitioning the Father to go down and attend him, finally got their sweet permission to do so. I dare not tread on too holy ground, but I wonder if the Father just beamed.

You and I? Does this touch us? So Jesus passed. We applaud him. But do we feel left out? Defeated? A wistful yearning to be a part of that victory, that congratulations, that affirmation of belovedness? This has everything to do with us. As we will unpack later, our redemption, our hope for present and ultimate victory, our hope for obedience, and our belovedness all rest on Christ. And in this moment when all could have fallen through, Christ came through with his eyes fixed on the Father in love, with his heart in tune with the Father, in the Spirit. And he came through in love for you.

Do you see how this connects to you? How does that give you hope?

Spend some time praising Jesus for his victory won on your behalf.

NOTES

(1) See Russell D. Moore, Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2011).

(2) All of the Scripture quotations come from Dt. 6-8 where Moses is reminding the Israelites of the lessons they have learned from their forty years in the wilderness. They lessons they should have learned include to not to depend on bread alone but on God (Dt. 8:3), to not put God to the test (Dt. 6:16), and to worship God alone (Dt. 6:13). Jesus stands firm as the new and true Israel, the true Son of God through whom God’s redemptive purposes will come to fruition. R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2007). Jesus’ temptation was a replay of the Garden of Eden and Israel's stay in the wilderness. In all three of the Garden, wilderness, and Jesus’ temptation, doubt, food, animals, and being driven into the wilderness was present. Nicholas Batzig, “Jesus: True Israel of the First Gospel,” in Feeding on Christ, December 16, 2010, accessed January 30, 2017 from http://feedingonchrist.com/jesus-true-israel-of-the-first-gospel/

(3) I’m not sure Satan knew all the details of the cross since he is not omniscient, but many scholars point to the fact that the temptations all seem to offer another way to accomplish his mission other than suffering.