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Throughout our
culture, the idea of the Devil has taken many forms. Is Satan the weird furry
red thing at the end of Insidious? Is
he the weird gender-neutral albino from Passion
of the Christ? Or, is he embodied in rap music, such as Naughty by Nature’s
classic “Hip Hop Hooray,” that I may or may not be listening to right now? The
Devil can be totally mysterious, and because of that, he can also be
terrifying. This week, the Delta Chi Bible Study looks to find out who this
Satan guy is—through the Great Deceiver’s interactions with our main man Jesus
Christ. That is right, Jesus and Satan once squared off in the desert and completely threw down. As always, let’s
look at this with our pal Louis CK.
First off, watch the
clip!
Alright—what does
that have to do with the Devil? First thing we talked about at Delta Chi is
what exactly we picture the Devil to be. What does he look like? Is he an angel
or a serpent or some kind of superhuman? The reality is, Satan can take many
forms (with our guy Louis CK, he just happens to be embodied in a little
shit-kindergartner). And while we may not really see him in a tangible form
these days—sorry, horror movies—he does work through something called
temptation. Let’s look to our passage for a picture of what this looks like.
This is out of Mark, but you could also call this Jesus/Satan Royal Smackdown Celebrity Rumble (because, seriously,
the Bible would be so much cooler if you sprinkled it with some WWE-inspired
chapter titles).
Matthew
4
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be
tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty
days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The
tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these
stones to become bread.”
4 Jesus
answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every
word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
5 Then the devil took
him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If
you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“‘He will command his
angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
7 Jesus answered
him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
8 Again, the devil took
him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and
their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he
said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
10 Jesus said to
him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your
God, and serve him only.’”
11 Then the devil left
him, and angels came and attended him.
There it is—one of
the ultimate battles of good and evil in the history of the world, as told in
the bible. That is some real talk going on between Jesus and the Devil, but on
the surface, it seems like a bunch of cryptic Da Vinci Code-type talk—just a bunch of guys spouting off rules and
codes and trying to outwit each other one after the other.
Well essentially,
that is exactly what is happening. Satan is trying to take Scripture out of
context and use those passages against Jesus, but Jesus is able to reject each
and every one. Let’s break this down.
The First Temptation—Physical Needs
Satan first asks
Jesus to turn the nearby stones into bread. Remember that the J-Man has been
fasting for 40 days at this point (world record for longest fast? 43 days—this is
some serious stuff going down), so this temptation would be a serious test of
willpower. To us, the choice seems easy—Jesus can do whatever he wants, so why
not just have some bread and kick it for a while? However, Jesus is smarter
than this, and rather than giving in to his hunger and appeasing the Devil, he
simply comments that man does not live on bread alone, but rather, finds
satisfaction in his relationship with God. Solid counter. Notice how he barely
even acknowledges the temptation.
The Second Temptation—Love
Then, the Devil takes Jesus up to the highest
place in all of Jerusalem. He asks Jesus to throw himself off, because God’s
angels are guaranteed to catch him. He will prove his relationship with God in
this way. Again, it seems like it would make sense for Jesus to just do the miracle. BAM—I am the Son of God.
Boom, roasted. Again, however, he does not. Instead, Jesus turns to Scripture
and explains that God has commanded us not to put Him to the test. His response
is again characterized by a total disregard for what the Devil is asking. There
is no consideration or hesitation at all—Jesus just will not do it.
The Third Temptation—Power
Finally, the Devil asks one simple thing:
for Jesus to bow down and worship him. In return, Jesus will be made ruler of
everything he can see. Jesus pays this the least attention of all, denouncing
Satan and declaring that he will worship only the Father. The Devil disappears
and Jesus chills with the angels for a while.
What remains consistent? A couple things.
For one, Jesus never performs the miracles. He uses Scripture to counter the
Devil’s use of Scripture (which we will talk about in a minute), and never
gives in. We will see that this is the perfect model of how we should respond
to Satan as well (Jesus Christ’s Keys to the Game, if you will).
The other thing that remains consistent is
the Devil’s sheer incomprehension for who he is dealing with. The Scripture he
quotes is horribly out of context (the angels he refers to in the second
temptation can be seen as highly metaphorical in the Psalm they are taken from—that
passage itself actually talks about how God will protect us and shelter us in
all situations, not about how he is going to send an army of angels for us to
use whenever we want), and his understanding of Jesus is something narrow and
limited. You see, the Devil tempts Jesus with things that would typically work
on someone human. Food—we need that. Love—we crave that. Power—we demand that.
The thing is, since Jesus is just as much God as he is man, these things do not
have the same implications for him that they do for us.
In a way, though, this should be
encouraging. If we have Jesus on our side—the Devil literally has no idea how
to defeat us! He does not understand the power that Christ has! That is
amazing! Of course, this does not mean we have a Get Out Of Jail Free card for
every time the Devil tries to deceive us. In fact, we still have a lot of work
to do.
Thank goodness for this passage, because Jesus has given us his Keys to the Game. Now,
from a Christian perspective, it is well-known that the Devil works in the
world. He tempts us with all sorts of things—terrible food, unsatisfying
relationships, porn—essentially, a lot of things that turn us toward ourselves
and away from God. The Devil wants us to put ourselves before God—bottom line.
He tried to do this with Jesus in the desert. He tried to tempt Jesus with all
of these worldly things so that Jesus would break his fast and come into
conflict with God.
Here is how Jesus won, or rather, here are
the Jesus Christ Keys to the Game:
1. Know yourself. Jesus acknowledges his human side,
which might be why the Devil thought he could sway Him with worldly things.
However, Jesus also is confident with his place in God’s Kingdom (his kingdom, really). He understands
what it means to be the Son of God, and with that knowledge, he is able to
outwit the Devil using Scripture. He can lean on his knowledge of Himself.
2. Know the Devil. Jesus knows how the Devil works, and
this is predominantly seen in the final temptation. The Devil offers Christ the
world, but in actuality, there is nothing the Devil can offer that Jesus does
not have already. In fact, the Devil has no power to give anything. All Satan
can do is tempt us—he cannot create evil people or evil action, he can only
urge us to consider those actions. And, since Jesus knows how to counter these
temptations, he can renounce the Devil completely. Pretty badass, in all
honesty.
3. Lean on your homies. What does Jesus do at the end of the
passage? He surrounds himself with angels—people who can support him and be
with him. In our own lives, we can do similar things with our friends and our
family, and in settings like Delta Chi, our fraternity brothers. We need fellowships
around us who can support our relationship with God and serve as scaffolding on
our climb to heaven. Even Jesus, in his hour of need, turned to his friends. We
saw it at the Last Supper with his disciples, and we see it in his time with
the angels here.
So this week, think about how you respond to
temptation, and think about how you use Christ’s Keys to the Game. Remember
that the Devil is real, but that God is undefeated against him. Jesus wins
every time when it comes to Jesus/Stan
Royal Smackdown Celebrity Rumble, so even though it does not make for great
drama, it does make for some incredible lessons.
Peace.
