Matthew 4: The temptation

This narrative underlines the biblical principle that God's calling must be tested. The Spirit, having empowered Jesus for his mission as God's Son (3:16-17), now is the one who leads him into the wilderness where his call must be tested (4:1, 3, 6). Matthew expressly informs us that the purpose of the Spirit's first leading of God's Son was that he might be tested! Like most of his heroic predecessors in biblical history (Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, Job), Jesus had to pass a period of testing before beginning his public ministry. Some of his predecessors almost snapped under pressure, restrained only by God's favor (for example, 1 Sam 25:13-34; 1 Kings 19:4; Jer 20:7-18), but our Lord Jesus provides the perfect model for triumphing in testing.

If God is calling and empowering you to do something for him (3:16-17), you can expect to be tested (compare comment on 6:13), and you can expect testing commensurate with the seriousness of your call. The devil may not show up in person or test you on the same supernatural level that he tested Jesus, but your hardships may seem unbearable apart from the grace of God. Nevertheless, testing is for our good: when biblical heroes had matured through the time of testing, they knew the depth of God's grace that had sustained them. The truly triumphant boast not in their success in the test but in God's empowerment, without which they could not have overcome. Jesus went into this testing only after the Father had empowered him in the Spirit (3:16).

Among contemporary charismatics (of whom I am one) I observe two prominent models for being "charismatic." One is to "claim" blessings on the basis of spiritual formulas, a method whose success God never guaranteed. Like the first-century false prophets who promised the pious Jerusalemites the deliverance they wanted to hear (as in Jos. War 6.285-87), our brothers and sisters who follow this method without the Spirit may encounter some uncomfortable surprises. (Matthew would also have balked at some charismatics' claim to be able to "send" angels-4:6; 26:53.) The other method is to sensitively follow the Spirit's leading to do what God has called us to do. When God has genuinely spoken and his servants act in obedience, he will accomplish his purposes-even if those purposes must lead us through the cross. For "who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it?" (Lam 3:37).

The devil offered Jesus the kingdom without the cross, a temptation that has never lost its appeal. Corrupted once it achieved political power and popularity, its members' motives no longer purified by persecution, the medieval church too often was marked by corruption and repression that we today repudiate; but we can face the same temptations. Upon facing this temptation, not Jesus' opponents but his own star disciple Peter echoes Satan's theology exactly: the messianic kingdom without the cross (Mt 16:22). Jesus thus pushes away Peter in disgust as he had Satan-even to the point of calling Peter Satan (16:23; compare 4:10). Jesus' mission involved the cross (26:54), and whether we like it or not, so does our mission (16:23-26).