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November 26, 2023 |
| The 3rd Temptation of Jesus | ||
There are a lot of bad teachings in the Christian church. In this study we'll look at a bad exposition of the 3rd Temptation of Jesus. As far as I know, this bad understanding is shared by all denominations.
Perhaps more importantly, we'll look at how this teaching came about and what that says about the state of the church.
The story is well known to everyone. Satan tempts Jesus in three ways, without success, and then goes away until later. We'll look at the verses from Luke, though the verses from the Matthew account are virtually identical
And he brought him to Jerusalem and he stood him on the pinnacle of the temple and he said to him, "If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down from here. 10 For it is written: 'He will command his Angels concerning you that they will protect you,' 11 'And they will carry you upon their arms, lest you should strike your foot on a stone.'" 12 But Yeshua answered and he said to him, "It has been said, 'You shall not tempt the lord Yahweh your God.'" (Luke 4:9-12)
The problem comes in determining what Satan is trying to get Jesus to do. As in the other temptations, he is trying to get Jesus to do something that will separate him from God the Father.
In the mainstream view, Satan is trying to get Jesus to show-off, in an attempt to convince the world that he is God and to follow him. The thinking seems to be that this temptation is directed at the sense-of-self of Jesus, which is true. We commonly call this ego. The thinking continues that this display of ego would offend God, and it would.
The problem is that the verses don't support that idea, in any way.
It can't be seen in the verses that Satan quotes
He will command his Angels concerning you that they will protect you
And they will carry you upon their arms, lest you should strike your foot on a stone
Both of those verses are prophecies about protection of the Messiah. They present the idea that God will not allow anything to happen to Jesus that would hinder the delivery of his message. We see the prophecy fulfilled when Jesus' own townspeople try to throw him off a cliff. There isn't a hint of a reference to showing-off in these.
Nothing else that Satan says refers to showing-off either. If that was the temptation you would expect Satan to say something about people being present, about Jesus waving his hands and shouting to get their attention first, or about Jesus being able to take that opportunity to impress the people who might see him - but he doesn't.
In the other two temptations, Satan clearly explains what he wants Jesus to do. With the temptation with bread, Satan wants Jesus to turn a stone into bread. With the temptation with the easy path to ruling the world, Satan wants Jesus to worship him. In this case Satan only says "cast yourself down from here."
So, it's really hard to see how Satan is tempting Jesus to show-off.
Jesus' response is also not about showing-off.
It has been said, 'You shall not tempt the lord Yahweh your God'
Again you would expect Jesus to say something different if he believed Satan was trying to tempt him into a showy display that would offend God. With the temptation with bread, Jesus refers to bread. With the temptation with the easy path to ruling the world by worshiping Satan, Jesus responds about worship. In this case though, there isn't even a hint of a reference to showing-off.
Because the verses do not support this idea of showing-off, we have to say that there is eisegesis going on here. This also means there is a correct understanding.
Just as he did with Eve, Satan directs these temptations of Jesus in the three areas where mankind are weak.
For everything that is in the world: the desire of the body and the lust of the eyes and the pride of temporal life, these are not from the Father but these are from the world. (1 John 2:16)
The phrase "pride of temporal life" or just "pride of life" in some translations, is far from clear. It is probably an idiom of the time because they also had trouble describing what that is. We understand bodies and what bodies want. We sort of understand minds and that minds like to reason things out. We do not understand that thing within us that is that sense of our place or who we are. We use the word "ego" but that is hardly descriptive. If we try to describe it, the description is unsatisfactory, something like "the sense of who you are in life, what you are in life, and what you have in life, relative to other people."
So, John's warning is about glorying in this sense of self. Expressed in ego terms it would be an egotist.
These are the same areas where Eve was tempted.
When the woman saw that the tree was good for food (tasty calories), and that it was a delight to the eyes (pretty color, shape, touch, and smell), and that the tree was desirable to make one wise (knowledge like God), … (Genesis 3:6)
There is a difference. With Eve there was one combined temptation. With Jesus there were three separate temptations. The reason seems self-evident. Satan was only going to get one shot at Eve. If he failed, she would know that he is a deceiver and would never trust anything else he said.
Jesus, having the body of a man, has these same three areas, body, mind, and ego where weakness can be found.
To find the correct understanding of this temptation, we need to find the key in the text. It comes from Jesus' response and is the phrase "tempt God". Whoever came up with this showing-off idea didn't understand what it means to tempt God.
The world's view of temptation is different from God's. That shouldn't come as a surprise but it should surprise that the world's view is found all over the church. To the world, the person who is tempted into doing wrong is the one who failed. The one who tempted him is just a source of bad advice. If it seems like the advice was intentionally bad then that person is mean or not trustworthy.
Israel's journey through the wilderness is where we see the best example of tempting and the most complaints by God About the tempting. These even carry into the New Testament.
Do not test the LORD your God as you tested Him at Massah. (Deuteronomy 6:16)
Do not harden your hearts to anger him, like the rebellious, and as the day of temptation in the wilderness 9 when your fathers tempted me and they proved and saw my works 40 years. (Hebrews 3:8-9)
The word "Massah" means temptation so we know these verses are talking about the same event.
The words "test", "tempted" and "proved" have the same root meaning. You will see different ones used in different English translations.
From God's perspective, the one who tries to tempt is a sinner.
The Israelites in the wilderness were not able to trust God's promise to care for them. They constantly tested God's promise by demanding that God do things for them. Despite the miracles that God performed in their very eyes, they were never convinced God was in their corner. It was a display of their total lack of faith in God.
In fact what they were trying to do was what they had done with the Egyptian god's - manipulate them. The reasons you sacrificed something to an Egyptian god were either to get the god to do something good for you or to stop doing something bad to you. They were trying to control God as they had done with the Gods of Egypt.
No one ever trusted an Egyptian god, so God's promise to them had no value. When God makes a promise, however, he expects people to accept it, he is not a man that his promise should change or fail. The promise does not need to be tested to prove that it is real. What God wants instead is faith in him.
So, we now have a definition for tempting God. It is a faithless effort to make God prove that his promise is real. More generally, it is trying to manipulate God.
Satan begins this temptation with the words "If you are the Son of God." He used these words in the first temptation as well. They express a doubt about who Jesus is, though the purpose is different in the first temptation. This time they are the focus of the temptation. Who are you? Are you sure you are the Messiah of these prophesies?
As mentioned above, this temptation is focused on the Jesus' sense of self or ego. There can be more flaws in an ego than egotism, though. Satan is checking to see if Jesus is really confident about who he is. Jesus was born like other people, raised as a human child, ate food as humans do, peed and pooed as humans do. Is he really certain that he is the Messiah, God's only son?
Satan wants to evoke a doubt in Jesus that will cause him to jump off the building, thereby testing God's promise of protection. He wants Jesus to think, "This way I can know that I am the Messiah".
There is more to this temptation. Is Jesus overconfident about who he is and anxious to prove it? Either way, Satan wants him to test God's promise by jumping off the building.
Jesus' response is priceless, "It has been said, You shall not tempt the lord." There are multiple meanings in it:
Looking at all three temptations in light of this one, we have to ask if Jesus laid a trap for Satan. In the first two temptations, Jesus says "it is written" when he knows he is the author and not just any man who would quote from scripture. Is it this quoting that makes Satan think he may see a weakness in Jesus' faith about his sense of who he is. I don't think we can say for sure about that but it is interesting.
We now have an understanding of the third temptation that doesn't require eisegesis. Everything that is needed to understand the temptation is in the verses.
All that Satan needs to do is have Jesus:
Both of those elements are in his temptation.
It probably started with some influential person with poor comprehension. It seems likely that the showing-off teaching developed out of not understanding what it means to tempt God. Given that lack, the individual looked for other ways that this could be an ego-focused test. With egotism in his thinking, all he could come up with was showing-off.
No one with comparable influence was able to counter the teaching and it hung around. Because of the influence of it's inventor, it got into the seminaries and other Bible institutions. The seminaries taught the future pastors, who taught the people in the pews, some of whom would grow up to become pastors. They arrived at their seminaries already knowing the "right" answer and the cycle was locked in.
We need to ask some questions about how this obviously eisegesis-based, false teaching cannot now be removed from Christianity. From a bigger picture view, this is not the only case where simply comprehending what Jesus said provides a different understanding than the widely accepted understanding. Likewise these cannot be removed.
It isn't as though this is a major doctrinal issue that affects the souls of millions. But it does point out a problem, one that may also be causing major doctrinal issues - tradition. Once a teaching becomes established in the church, it becomes a tradition that cannot be changed. Many influential people would be shamed if it was.
The situation now with these teachings is that anyone who teaches the correct understanding is treated badly. The "correct" view is so obviously correct because everyone believes it.
Where was the Holy Spirit when these bad teachings were working their way into the churches? Why is it that the bad teaching isn't noticed by anyone and removed. The only credible answer is that many people in Christianity are not led by the Spirit. That is a sad statement.
The problems in the church that lead to this teaching entering and becoming embedded in the church are: