Temptation of Jesus 3

In the third temptation Jesus in his imagination saw himself on the pinnacle of the Temple where Solomon's Porch and the Royal Porch met. There was a sheer drop of 450 feet down into the Kedron Valley below. This was the temptation to give the people sensations. "No," said Jesus, "you must not make senseless experiments with the power of God" Deuteronomy 6:16. Jesus saw quite clearly that if he produced sensations he could be a nine days' wonder: but he also saw that sensationalism would never last.

The hard way of service and of suffering leads to the cross, but after the cross to the crown.

One hymn writer, Frederick Booth Tucker, put this plight that many a Christian faces in this way:-

They bid me choose and easier path

And choose a lighter cross;

They bid me mingle Heaven’s gold

A little with earth’s dross.

And later in the hymn continues:-

They say the fighting is too hard,

Me strength of small avail,

When foes beset and friends are fled

My faith must surely fail.

It can be argued from this third temptation that Satan is not tempting Jesus to sin, but rather offering differing options of how to be a Messiah/King. For us, the temptation can be to choose a watered down option of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. In a hard hitting way, Dietrich Bonhoeffer challenges such thinking as Cheap Grace; “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”

I am grateful for another hymn writer, Washington Gladden, who expresses the overpowering patience of Christ that enables us to face temptation front on is available to us.

O Master, let me walk with thee 

In lowly paths of service free; 

Tell me thy secret, help me bear 

The strain of toil, the fret of care. 

Help me the slow of heart to move 

By some clear, winning word of love; 

Teach me the wayward feet to stay, 

And guide them in the homeward way. 

Teach me thy patience; still with thee 

In closer, dearer company, 

In work that keeps faith sweet and strong, 

In trust that triumphs over wrong. 

In hope that sends a shining ray 

Far down the future's broadening way, 

In peace that only thou canst give,

With thee, O Master, let me live. Amen