Introduction

Life. What is it? How does it come about? What is its purpose? These are some questions that have caused many people many a headache! Some people have tried to answer these by making models of what life should be. For example, a man called Vitruvius, an architect, made a system where he measured the body of a man and made some rules from his findings. One “rule” was that “The length of a man's outspread arms is equal to his height.” Another is “From the roots of the hair to the bottom of the chin is the tenth of a man's height.”  Unfortunately, this model does not work very well today due to the changes the human body has gone through. So this cannot be the answer to what life is.

Scientists have a simple test to assess if something has life. They use the acronym MRS GREN, which stands for: Movement, Respiration, Sensitivity, Growth, Reproduction, Excretion, and Nutrition.

Modern civilisation seems to have a fascination with finding extra-terrestrial life. Indeed some claim to have either seen or encountered such life forms here on earth.

So far, we still haven’t had answers to these questions from science or art or other areas of study.

Except, that is, from the life of Jesus.
I would like to talk about a test, which might not have occurred to you before. This test is not designed to find life on other planets. Rather it is designed to test for truly human life on earth. Moreover, it tells us what truly human life should look like when we see it.

Before we look at the test, it is necessary to talk about the nature of Jesus.

When evangelicals talk about Jesus, the phrase “fully God, fully Man” is bound to come up at some point. This is a technical way of saying that Jesus was both God (divine) and a human being (Man).  However, if we talk to non-Christians or those Christians who don’t know this terminology, we will often find that people stress one or the other sides of Jesus. In my experience, people tend to stress the God side of Jesus and forget his human side.

If we look at the biblical writer’s picture of Jesus, they mainly show Jesus as a man. In the letter to the Hebrews, this is written about Jesus “…we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin” (Heb 4:15). All of this shows us that it is wrong to stress the God side of Jesus and forget his human side. More than this, as the passage said, because of Jesus’ humanity he can identify with our struggles and human difficulties.

So, what does this tell us about the passage in Matthew that we read?

Well, one question that follows from reading passages like this is “How did Jesus do that?” or in technical terms “Was it Jesus’ divine nature or his human nature which allowed him to do that?”
If Jesus used his God powers to pass the testing of Satan, how can we be expected to do the same?
The answer is clear – Jesus did not pass the testing by using his divine abilities but relied on his human abilities. This means that at some level, we have similar abilities as Jesus to pass testing in this world.

The next question that follows is “Why did Satan test Jesus?”

Although the tests are different in kind, they all have one goal – to make Jesus disobey God. This is the central point in this story and, perhaps, the central point in the life of Jesus. This needs to be explained further. If we look back to the beginning of everything, the Serpent tempted Adam and Eve to disobey God and they failed the test. Because of this, God chose another method of showing Himself to creation – this was to be through the people of Israel. He made a covenant with them a promise to be with them at all times. Part of the agreement was that Israel would obey some rules. However, as we know, they disobeyed them on many occasions. This is where Jesus comes in. Before the creation of the universe, God had planed for Jesus to be this perfect presence of God in the world.

This brings us to the events we read about in Matthews Gospel.  Let’s look in detail at the events and how Jesus is shown to be what Adam and Israel had failed to be.

Main Points

The first thing to notice in this account is the use of the word “tempt.” The original Greek word has the meaning of “test” rather than “tempt.” So, when Matthew says “…Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matt 4;1), he is saying that Jesus was to undergo testing rather than tempting. The Jews used to say “The Holy One, Blessed by His Name, does not elevate a man to dignity till He has first tried and searched him; and if he stands in temptation then he raises him to dignity” This sums up well what this passage tries to tell us – for Jesus to continue his ministry and fulfil his purpose on earth, he must be tested and searched.

Before the first test, Matthew gives us some important information – he says that Jesus had fasted for 40 days and nights. There are two things to be taken from this. Firstly, it shows us that Jesus would have been very hungry! Secondly, it may be pointing to Israel’s experience in the wilderness – they were there for forty years.

So, what is the first test? Let’s read the account again.

4:2 He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.
4:3 The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”
4:4 But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

On the surface, there doesn’t appear to be anything wrong with Satan’s suggestion. The act of creating food is not in itself wrong. Indeed, later on in the gospel Jesus does just that (Matt 14:15-21, 15:32-38 – the feeding of the 4000 & 5000). So what was the test about? Jesus’ response included a quote from Deuteronomy 8:3 “He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” This explains the test – Jesus saw his hunger as a lesson in obedience to God.

If he decided to end the test using his powers, he would be disobeying God and would not learn the lesson.

How does Jesus’ action here compare to that of Israel?

During their time in the wilderness, Israel was provided with enough food for each day. God made only one rule to do with this food – no one was to store the food overnight. However, some people decided not to obey this rule, took some food, and kept it overnight. The result was that the food went off and made a bad smell. This tells us that Jesus, unlike Israel, obeyed God even when it meant he would be hungry.

Result: Jesus - 1, Satan - 0

Matt. 4:5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple,
Matt. 4:6 saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”
Matt. 4:7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

The second test is more devious than the first. In this test, Satan tries to make Jesus put God to the test. He realises from his first response that Jesus always conformed to Scripture. So to combat this defence, Satan misuses Scripture to lure Jesus into an unnecessary test of God’s protection. We can safely say that Satan’s use is wrong. If Jesus had done as Satan suggested, the situation would be false and made up. This is a wrong use. However, if Jesus had fallen by accident or by some other means, it would be a real situation. This is the type of situation that the Scripture verses deal with.

How often do we do the same thing to Scripture? People misquote references out of context and claim that the Bible teaches what they want it to teach. It is very easy to read into Scripture our situations and get back from it things that are not there.

This test was not very affective because Jesus has a complete understanding of Scripture. Satan’s attempt is like a child trying to teach a maths teacher that 1 +1 = 2 – Jesus knew more about Scripture than Satan and would never accept such interpretation.

So how does Jesus’ action here compare to that of Israel?

In his response to Satan, Jesus quotes the first part of Deuteronomy 6:16 “Do not put the Lord your God to the test…” The full quote is “Do not put the Lord your God to the test as you tested him at Massah.” The incident referred to here is in Exodus 17, when the Israelites demanded Moses to give them water. By doing this, they disobeyed God and put Him to the test. Jesus, unlike Israel, did not put God to the test but simply obeyed the rules.

Result: Jesus - 2, Satan – 0

Matt. 4:8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour;
Matt. 4:9 and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”
Matt. 4:10 Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’”

The final test is probably the most important one. Would Jesus, for selfish reasons, worship someone other than God? This is important because human beings are made to worship God, and He alone is worthy to be worshiped by creation. If Jesus worshiped someone else he would be disobeying God, and he would not be the perfect example of humanity that he was sent to be.

You might be wondering how Satan can promise the things he does. After all, the Bible says that God is the creator of all things and that all things belong to him. This is true. The reason Satan can promise these things is that at this point he had dominion in the earth. If we look at Luke’s account of this story, at this point he reports Satan saying …“To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. (Luke 4:6). Jesus had come in order to remove Satan from his temporary position of power. Therefore, the test itself is impotent and has no real persuasive power. Jesus had no desire to worship anyone else and so responded to Satan with the contempt he deserves.

So how does Jesus’ action here compare to that of Israel?

On many occasions throughout their history, Israel disobeyed this commandment of God. They are often found worshiping idols or foreign gods despite repeated warnings from God through His prophets. Jesus, unlike Israel, never disobeyed this command and delighted in worshiping God his Father.

Result: Jesus – 3, Satan – 0

The final result then is that Jesus passed his test without fault. This is shown by the last verse: “Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.” (Matt. 4:11). If you remember, the second test included angels protecting Jesus. Jesus did not abuse this privilege at the time because he knew it would be wrong to put God to the test. The fact that angels came and waited on Jesus after the testing shows that God approved of Jesus’ actions.

So, we have seen that Jesus passed all the tests put to him, unlike Israel. This means that Jesus was the new and perfect example of humanity from God.

How does all this affect us?

If we applied the same testing that Jesus underwent to our lives today, would we pass all three?

Ask yourself the following questions:

Test 1: “have I ever abused a gift that God has given me?” (e.g. money, talent, friends, family, etc.)

Test 2: “have I ever put God to the test?” (e.g. “If you love me/if you’re there, show me/give me/let me….”)

Test 3: “have I ever worshipped someone/something other than God?” (e.g. money, possessions, partner, etc.)

My guess is that most of us would fail at least one of these tests. If not one of these then we would fail another test.

This is exactly why we need Jesus as the perfect example of humanity. He shows us what it is to be perfectly obedient to God at all times. If we model our lives on Jesus’, we will be getting closer to the original plan of God for humanity.

Jesus’ obedience is shown ultimately in his willingness to die for the enemies of God. Because of one man’s obedience to God many years ago, we have hope for today. And because of that man’s obedience, “God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,”

So, Jesus passed the test for truly human life and displayed perfect humanity as well as perfect divinity.

Now it is time for us followers of the perfect man to become more like him. We must strive to change ourselves to become more like him. It is a hard journey, which will probably never end in our lifetime. But if we are obedient to God, we will receive the free gift of forgiveness.

Finally, take comfort in this. “…we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin” (Heb 4:15).

Amen.

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