… throw yourself down.
Summary: The second temptation of Jesus is a doozy. Satan appeals to Jesus’ ego to see if he can find a crack in the armor of the Son of God.
Satan’s first temptation of Jesus’ flesh failed miserably. Satan had appealed to the Lord’s stomach to take over and cause Jesus to submit to it. Jesus responds by saying (in effect), “Hey, I’ve got two stomachs to feed. One is flesh and the other is spiritual and right now I am busy with the spiritual stomach.”
For his second temptation,* the devil tries a different tack. In this temptation, the devil appeals to Jesus’ ego. The ego is the part of our flesh that gets puffed up with pride. It is the part of us that likes to feel important.
“If you are the Son of God…” Satan intones. Then (the “then” is implied) “throw yourself down.”
How would this prove that Jesus was the Son of God? Well, it helps to know that the devil had taken him to Jerusalem and set him on the top of the temple. How high was the top of the temple? By some accounts, it was one hundred and fifty feet high, the equivalent of a ten-story building.
To put it another way, let’s suppose you are standing on the fifty-yard line of a football field. In the end zone, instead of a goalpost, is a brick wall two feet thick. The distance from the fifty-yard line to the brick wall is about the same as the distance from the top of the temple to the stone pavement below. If you could run as fast as the speed of gravity would pull you toward the ground, it would only take three seconds for you to get from the fifty-yard line to the end zone.
Three seconds.
At the end of three seconds, you would be moving at sixty-seven miles per hour. It would be a glorious run, but the brick wall would bring it to an end in 0.0 seconds.
Ouch!
But if you are God’s Son, there is an escape clause! The devil points out that 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.” (Matthew 4:6, also Psalm 91: 11-12)
Therefore, according to Satan’s logic, if Jesus’ ego wants to prove that he (the flesh) is really the Son of God, then … jump! Nothing bad can happen because, well, you know… you’re the Son of God.
Jesus’ flesh wants to accept the challenge and jump. Oh, Jesus’ flesh is scared of course, but think of the awesome scene when God’s angels intervene at the last minute and keep Jesus’ body from hitting the ground! So cool!
Jesus answers, not from the flesh, but from the spirit. He says, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (Matthew 4:7)
Do you see the difference? Jesus is Jesus. He is both flesh and spirit, just like you and I are. His flesh wants the same thing that our flesh wants. It wants food, and it wants recognition. The difference between Jesus and us is that Jesus’ spirit wants to be with God. More than anything else, more than food, more than recognition, more than the air he breathes, he wants to be with his Father.
Application: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. (Matthew 22:37)
Food for Thought: Why doesn’t the Greatest Commandment also say to love the Lord your God with all your flesh?
*Matthew and Luke have these last two temptations in different order. For the purposes of our meditation, we will stick with Matthew.
The sinful nature is opposed to God. So we are not called to walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit . In fact, we are to put the sinful nature to death (Colossians 3: 5).
Jesus set us free through His work on the cross and condemned sin in the flesh so that we would be free to walk in the Spirit (Romans 8: 3 – 4).
The mind of the flesh is hostile to God this if we are controlled by the flesh we cannot please God (Romans 8: 7 – 8).
We do not want sin to reign in our bodies but to present the parts of our body to Him as instruments of righteousness ( Romans 6: 12 – 14).
If we sow to please the flesh it leads to death, but sowing to please the Spirit leads to eternal life (Galatians 6: 7 – 8).
All this to say that we do not love God with our fleshly sinful nature because it is opposed to God. We are not supposed to feed it, but kill it. We live by the Spirit, not by the flesh.
Thank You Rich!
You have very clearly responded to this Question.
Ron
Well said, Rich!
You selected excellent passages to illustrate this topic.
Thank you!
Rich’s answer is a very good one! I appreciate the scripture!
Well Done!
My only additional thought to this is that the Bible only speaks favorably about our (physical) flesh in reference to being a temple for the Lord. In that regard, it is God living within us that is pleasing to Him.
Good point Chris. Malachi 2: 15 and 1 Corinthians 6: 19 – 20 come to mind.
I think the Greek word for flesh – Sarx- has a couple of different meanings. One is referring to our physical bodies. The other is referring to our sin nature. I usually use it the second way.
When God created our physical bodies it was good. Sin then corrupted both our bodies and our spirit. In fact, we died spiritually (referring to Adam and Eve). So any way you look at the flesh it is corrupted by sin. Of course, the physical body is not evil. Jesus had one. But the sinful nature is just that, but it is a spiritual problem and not just a physical one.
That is my take anyway. Just food for thought. Interesting topic. Also kind of an important topic to grapple with.
Chris,
Your point is interesting. Jesus calls his body a temple in John 2:21. In his case, it truly was a temple for the Spirit of God.