The Gospel of Matthew takes us into the desert with Jesus immediately after his baptism. As soon as the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus, he was directed into the bleak landscapes of Israel surrounding the Jordan River. There he fasted for forty days. The NIV says that the Spirit led him into the wilderness. One translation said that he was driven by the Spirit into the desert.
I believe that Jesus, operating as man, had been given glimpses and impressions of his mission as Messiah but after his baptism he spent forty days fasting and seeking a much clearer picture of the Father’s purposes for the next three years. He also denied his body for forty days to break the power of the flesh so that the Spirit could rule the day every day. The entire eternal future of humanity hinged on that very thing.
After forty days of fasting, when the body begins to devour itself, the enemy happened along just as he had happened along in the Garden of Eden. Some scholars believe Satan knew exactly who Jesus was while others think he was trying to determine who this man might be. Three times Satan said. “If you are the Son of God….” Those same words could be translated or understood as, “Since you are the Son of God…” Either way, Satan was out to derail whatever mission this man or Messiah was on.
You know the story. Satan tempted Jesus to satisfy the gnawing in his stomach by turning small, desert stones into bread. He then challenged him to throw himself off the highest point of the temple mount to be protected by angels. Finally he simply offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if he would simply worship the prince of darkness.
Philip Yancey put it this way. “As I look back on the three temptations, I see that Satan proposed an enticing improvement. He tempted Jesus toward the good parts of being human without the bad: to savor the taste of bread without being subject to the fixed rules of hunger and of agriculture, to confront risk with no real danger, and to enjoy fame and power without the prospect of painful rejection – in short to wear a crown without a cross” (Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, p. 72).
It seems that at the heart of our fleshly nature is a hunger to have everything we desire without cost – the cost of waiting, suffering, or transformation. In short, we want a crown without a cross as well. In one sense, Adam and Eve fell for the same ploy. Take one bite and all wisdom will be yours along with other undreamed of pleasures. Why wait for it or work for it when it can be yours right now without breaking a sweat? It’s the dream of simply rubbing the lamp and the genie giving you what you always wanted or it’s winning Power Ball against all the odds.
Jesus came to win the hearts of men for God and to take his rightful place as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Satan offered him all that instantly and without the pain and humiliation of the cross. Why wait three years when he could have it then? Why risk failure when the goal was within reach as Satan spoke? Undoubtedly the natural man in Jesus was offering every rationale imaginable for saying, “Yes” to these offers. But it wasn’t the Father’s will or the Father’s way. Something very poisonous and perverse was imbedded in those shortcuts.
First of all, the shortcuts offered a self-sufficiency that would separate Jesus from the Father. Like seeking wisdom from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil rather than from the Father, the act in itself would separate man from the divine. In his own way, Satan was seeking to step into the role of God by offering to be the source of provision and promotion in the life of Jesus. When we want the gifts more than the giver, we will be tempted by shortcuts, but Jesus wanted the Father more than anything else.
Secondly, God always considers timing and connection with other events in the fulfillment of his promises. Shortcuts put us “out of sync” with God’s timing. When Abraham and Sarah decided to “engineer” their own version of the fulfillment of God’s promise of a child, 3,000 years of war were spawned by the enmity between Ishmael, the son born of natural means and the father of the Arab nations, and Isaac, the son born of supernatural means as the child of promise and the seed line of the Jewish nation.
Thirdly, the process of waiting, struggling and even suffering develops the character in each of us to steward the destiny God has promised. We are told that even Jesus learned obedience though his suffering. “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (Heb. 5:7-9). Waiting and struggling teach us things worth more than silver and gold.
How often are we tempted to take shortcuts in our walk with the Lord and the fulfillment of his promises in our lives? How many have sensed God’s promise for a spouse but were unwilling to wait for the unfolding of the promise. Rather, they forced a relationship toward marriage only to find that the marriage that occurred in the natural did not live up to the marriage of promise. How often have we done that in career building when positions that pushed us to compromise Christian values offered the provision and success we believed God had for us, but rather than waiting on God’s promotion we grabbed the first thing offered without seeking God’s approval? Even in the arena of sexual fulfillment most Christian singles want to experience the promise before the marriage and are unwilling to wait and to struggle for the “oneness” God promises in the marriage covenant. It always costs the marriage and our relationship with God something when we take the shortcut.
Satan always offers the crown without a cross. But the cross perfects us, draws us closer to the Father, and places us and the fulfillment of promises in God’s perfect timing. As Americans, we are not good at waiting. Though the average life span is close to 80 years, we can’t seem to wait six months or six years for the promises of God to bear fruit in our lives. We even want easy or instant spirituality. I think I’ll right a book entitled “The Spiritually Empowered Life of Amazing Intimacy with God in Five Minutes a Day or Less.” It should be a best seller because that’s what we all want – myself included. But, it doesn’t work that way.
Satan will offer to satisfy your hunger in a moment or give you overnight fame and fortune or power and influence in the world. He will even remind you of all the good things you can accomplish when the “end justifies the means”. But there will be serious strings attached and the worst is that our shortcuts will create separation between the Father and ourselves. We may end up like the prodigal who couldn’t wait for his inheritance but took the shortcut to the good-life but ended up in the pigpens. The Father never stopped loving him and his place in the house was still available when he returned, but the “shortcut” turned out to be a long and painful detour in his life. The Father’s way was so much better. Beware of shortcuts today and be blessed.
