“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”
But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said 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, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”
Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”
Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.”
Matthew 4:1-11
We like our ideas to be simple, don’t we? Black and white is easier than shades of grey. We like the news to be about good guys vs bad guys, not bad guys vs worse guys. We like our Instagram Stories to be mostly pictures, not text. And then there’s that design principle called KISS – Keep It Simple, Stupid.
But the problem is most things aren’t actually simple. People aren’t simple. And sometimes packaging complicated things to look simple is not truthful or helpful. Christians often like to do this — the Bible is all about this, or being a Christian means doing that. We like to talk about a Jesus who’s nice and cuddly, always ready to forgive, a nice teacher, meek and mild, basically Santa Claus but skinny and not just available during Christmas.
But that’s just the Jesus we’ve made up in our heads. The Jesus of the Bible, the real Jesus, is different: he is called the Lion and the Lamb, the Son of God but also Son of Man; he is meek and lowly in heart, but he is also the conquering King who will judge the world one day. And if we want to see him clearly, much less follow him, we need to see the real Jesus, the 3D Jesus, the complicated Jesus – not the 2D, cartoon character Jesus from our imagination.
This passage is a great help: here is Jesus the Son of God, Jesus the God Man, led out into the desert and tempted by Satan. Just before this passage, Jesus had been baptised, and God himself had said that Jesus is his beloved Son. And what happened immediately to this beloved Son of God? Did followers and disciples come to fall at his feet? Did angels burst out of the clouds to glorify him? No – he went into the desert to be tempted by the devil. That’s… not as simple as we’d think. But also, why does Jesus even feel tempted by the devil? Isn’t he God? Why does he even need to sit there and let the devil taunt him and mock him while he feels hungry and thirsty? Christian thinkers have always pointed to this passage to show how Jesus is not just God, but is also fully human, since he faced the same temptations as us. And because he is fully human, he can save us from our sins. He is one of us, he is our friend.
And yes and amen to that, but Christians sometimes ignore the third thing that the devil threw at Jesus here. This third thing does make our picture of Jesus more complicated, but it is a truer picture. Notice what the devil does here? He takes Jesus up to the heights and shows him all the splendours of the kingdom below. And if we know our Bibles, just like the Jewish audience that Matthew was writing to, this probably means one thing: Jesus is a King. And what did kings often do, when they walked to the heights to look down on the kingdom below?
There was grand King David, who went up to his roof to see the kingdom below – and the first thing he does is see a woman he wants, and he takes her. Or how about Great King Nebuchadnezzar, who went to the palace roof to see the kingdom below – and the first thing he does is praise his own greatness.
So what kind of king is Jesus, as he stands on the heights to look at the kingdom below? A king like David, who abuses his power and hurts people? A king like Nebuchadnezzar, who only cares about his pride and ego? No: Jesus is the one, true King, the one who kings properly, the one who knows that being a king means first being a Servant who suffers, and a Saviour. This Jesus, Matthew tells us, is the King that we’ve all been waiting for, the right King, the good King, the one King who is a man but also God, who won’t grab at power, because his mission is to finally save all people from sin and death.
Now this is not a simple idea though: because if Jesus is not just a man and a friend, but is also a King, that makes all the difference. If he is our King, what does that mean for the Christians who follow him? For their dreams and ambitions? Who do Christians look to for safety? Who tells Christians what’s right and wrong? These aren’t easy questions to answer, and Christians have always wrestled with what it means that Jesus is King. It might mean having to make painful changes in our habits and our world views. It might mean having to spot false kings in our lives — idols — that don’t deserve to sit in the place that Jesus should occupy as King. Regardless, I hope this picture of Jesus is more real, and more helpful: we don’t look to nice-guy, cuddly Jesus who will always agree with our opinions, or study Jesus whose job is to give us good marks and help us reach our goals; instead we look to the Jesus of the Bible, the Son of God, the Son of Man, the suffering servant who knows what it means to be human, to be weak, to be hurt, to be tired, to be rejected, but who is also King and Lord and Saviour.
It’s not a simple picture, but it is more truthful. And I hope it helps you as you make your way forward.
Remember, My Lord 
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