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Matthew 4:8-11 - Jesus’s Third Temptation
What’s the fastest route to my destination? How can we make this process more efficient? What’s the productivity hack I can leverage to do more in less time? Etc, etc.
In today’s world, we are obsessed with shortcuts.
But in our walk with Christ, this is a dangerous distraction from an uncomfortable but fundamental reality.
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On the summit of a very high mountain, with a panoramic view of “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory,” Satan presents Jesus with a fast-track offer to worldly power and dominion, but on one condition:
“All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”
Jesus is being offered a shortcut to achieving his messianic objectives.
With just one, simple act of idolatry, Jesus can receive kingly power and international glory without any humiliation or torment.
Without Calvary. Without the Cross.
In their commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, Curtis Mitch and Edward Sri remark that Jesus “could have vanquished the tempter with his divine might, but this was not his chosen approach.”
Instead, He “faced his trial in a human way, in full solidarity with humanity. He never ceased to be the Son of God, and yet he won the battle as a man.”
What are the practical implications for us?
First, He gives us an example to follow that we may also succeed. Every time the devil gave his suggestion, Jesus unsheathed the “sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph 6:17).
Jesus’s knowledge of Scripture and His commitment to live by its message aided Him in the fight.
We must be familiar with Scripture because it is a powerful weapon for the battles of the spiritual life.
Second, in our struggle against sin, He is able to help those who are being tested because He was tested through what He suffered (Heb 2:18).
We must turn to Jesus for grace and inner strength in times of need (Heb 4:16). As he was anointed with the Spirit (Mt 3:16) before facing his wilderness trial (4:1), we can share in His victory with the help of the same Spirit received in baptism (Acts 2:38).
Lastly, in a world obsessed with efficiency, the fundamental reality we often prefer to forget is that there are no shortcuts in the spiritual life.
No power without humility. No triumph without trial. No glory without Calvary.
Onward and upward,
Ted
A Book Worth Reading
What if the work of your hands could heal the fragmentation of your soul? In Shop Class as Soulcraft, Matthew Crawford - a philosopher turned motorcycle mechanic - argues that our culture’s drift toward screen-based, managerial labor has severed us from the tangible realities that give life coherence and meaning. Manual labor, he insists, is not a retreat from intellect but its fullest expression. Crawford’s vision is a call to return to the concrete world, where the act of making something well can once again make us whole.
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