Three Good Temptations

Some temptations are pretty clear. We know that pornography is bad, getting drunk or doing drugs can ruin your life, saying hateful words or being mean is unacceptable. But temptation isn’t always so clear. In fact, Satan is his trickiest when he tempts us with good things. When he uses what is right and twists it into what is wrong.

This is the kind of temptation that Jesus faced in the desert, as described in Matthew and Luke. I have often thought these stories were strange. I mean, the things Satan dangled in front of Jesus didn’t seem like they should tempt Him that much. Food? Glory? Power? These things were already under Jesus’ control.

The text can be tricky because what Satan is really asking isn’t what we see right off. When he really wants isn’t immediately visible. It’s never explicitly mentioned, but it looms in the background as soon as you’re aware of it. No, I didn’t figure it out myself, I read it in a book--a couple of books actually, that all agreed on the same point.

Satan was offering Jesus the easy out. He was offering everything that Jesus would eventually do, eventually have. Make food-not just for himself but for the hungry people of the world. Win the belief and worship of mankind. Rule the world as its rightful king. These are all part of Jesus’ plan. They are all good things, things that need to happen.

The temptation Satan offered up again and again was to jump the gun, do it early, take the easy route--avoid the cross. Yeah. Think about it.

Jesus would love to feed every hungry person on earth, make every stone into bread so that no one is in need. But then, we would miss out on the joy of helping each other, we wouldn’t learn interdependence and generosity. We’d be fat and lazy gluttons living large on Jesus’ welfare system.

Jesus wants everyone to believe in Him, to follow Him, to learn His ways and find true life. But he didn’t go jump off the temple and prove himself with a huge miracle. He sowed small seeds in people’s hearts to sprout and grow. He left sensationalism behind and abandoned clear proof for the much harder and much more rewarding faith.

Satan said, Hey, man, it doesn’t have to be so hard. There is an easy way. I’ll show you. Give bread, make them believe you, make yourself king. You don’t need to go to the cross.

Jesus said, No. I will take the way of suffering. I am not afraid of the hard path. It won’t be easy, but it will be of more profit in the end.

When we say Yes to God, we make the same choice Jesus made. We choose the hard path, the way of suffering. We can’t snap our fingers, click our heels together three times, and change the world. We build change by slow, careful work. By being with people and sharing their lives, their hardship.

How many times do you take the easy way? You write a check to this or that charity, but do you volunteer your time to do something difficult? Do you roll up your sleeves and get dirty doing the actual work? You hand out tracts and lead people on a step-by-step plan to salvation, but do you learn about their life, about their struggles? Do you make yourself available to talk a month or a year later when they have questions or struggles?

There is a book called “When Helping Hurts.” It describes how charitable efforts can actually be a bad thing. You can’t just rain down money from the sky, you can’t just send supplies or nice words of encouragement. People need to learn how to support themselves and understand their own self-worth. We need to make sure that when we help, we help people stand on their own two feet and not simply prop them up on our own. If this world is going to change we need to roll up our sleeves, like Jesus did, and get to the dirty work.

Be on the watch for "good" temptations. Ask yourself if there is anything more you could be doing, anything else you should be offering. Or, perhaps you need to give less and do more. Get involved on a personal level and learn from your mistakes. If you are doing what is easy, are you doing what is right? Anything would have been easier than the cross.

The three good temptations are a sticky, tricky business, and we’ll all probably fail to completely avoid them. But that’s why we have Jesus. He saw them for what they were and put Satan back in his place. Turn your face to Him, trust what he did, and seek the right way.