Tonight, we will continue our journey through the Gospel of Luke with a discussion of Luke 3:1-4:17. Please join us on our voyage. The only provision you will need is a Bible. You are welcome to join us anytime.
The readings this week take us through that interim period between Jesus’s Nativity and the beginning of his ministry. We will be discussing John’s Ministry, Jesus’ Baptism, Jesus’s Genealogy, and the Desert Temptations.
Jesus’s Genealogy:
The New Testament gives us two very different genealogies of Jesus – Matthew 1:1-22 and Luke 3:23-38. If you have time today, please review our discussion of Matthew’s genealogy here. Matthew’s genealogy is placed at the beginning of his gospel and gives us three sections of fourteen ancestors – section one begins with Abraham, section two with David, and section three with the Babylonian Captivity. Luke’s genealogy goes in the reverse order – beginning with Joseph (“as was supposed”) and ending with Adam, the son of God, and is placed between the baptism and the desert temptations. We do not know the purpose of Luke’s genealogy, but we can speculate.
First, Luke may trace Jesus’ ancestry back to Adam to show the universality of Jesus’s ministry. Jesus does not simply come for the descendants of Abraham only (i.e. the Jews) but for everyone, including Luke himself who is a Gentile. Second, if we assume that Luke was a companion of Paul, by placing his genealogy immediately before Jesus’ temptation, Luke may be drawing a direct comparison between Adam who failed his temptation and thus brought condemnation to all people, and Jesus who passes his test and thereby brings acquittal and life to all people. Rom. 5:18. Finally, Luke may be simply emphasizing Jesus’ humanity against those who denied it. See, 1 John 4:2.
The Desert Temptations:
Jesus’ Temptations in the Desert is also given to us in the same detail in Matthew’s Gospel with some very minor differences whereas the temptations are only mentioned in passing in Mark. Luke 4:1-13, Matt. 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13. In each of these gospels, the temptations occur immediately between Jesus’ baptism and the beginning of his ministry.
Luke writes that the same Spirit who came upon Jesus at his baptism now leads Jesus into the desert wilderness to undergo a forty-day fast and then be tempted by the devil. v.2. We do not know whether the temptations take place as a visible conversation between Jesus and the devil, or if the devil’s voice simply appears as a string of natural ideas in Jesus’ own mind. We do know, however, that Jesus has two defenses at his disposal – the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures – and that we have those as well. (An intriguing visualization of how these temptations occurred is found in Martin Scorsese’s film The Last Temptation of Christ – here).
On one level, these temptations in the wilderness are intended to invoke the temptations that Israel failed in their forty-year wanderings in the desert wilderness. Each of the Scriptures that Jesus quotes is from Deuteronomy where Moses reminds Israel of their failure in the desert and commands Israel to do better in the promised land. If you have time today, please read these quotes in their context from Deuteronomy 8:3, 6:13, and 6:16. These verses also show Jesus as the perfect fulfillment of the Law, because whereas Israel failed to abide by the terms of their covenant with God, Jesus does.
On another level, each of the three temptations is a type of temptation that all sons of Adam confront, and just as Jesus defeats the devil in overcoming these temptations, so we are called to do as well through the Scripture and the Spirit. The first temptation is for Jesus to turn stones into bread. This is a temptation towards expediency, and looking for a quick fix to a deeper and systemic problem. This is also a temptation towards self-reliance – the creation of bread in the ordinary way requires a community and not the snap of a finger.
The second temptation is to obtain earthly power. This is a temptation to see glory and authority residing in political, economic, and social power and therefore this is what we begin to worship. If only our side had the power of the state to influence culture, then we could better carry out God’s will for everyone, with or without their consent. We therefore seek out the powers of this world and not God.
The third temptation is for Jesus to throw himself off the Temple to be saved by angels. This is a temptation of self-importance and entitlement where God is merely a wish-fulfiller, similar to this scene and this scene from Bruce Almighty. It is the temptation to put ourselves at the center of the universe. As we go through the Temptations, think through how the three temptations are still with us today.
The temptations end with the statement: “When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.” v.13. The devil exits Luke’s gospel until the Passover meal where he enters Judas Iscariot. Luke 22:3. The Passion will be the last temptation that Jesus undergoes.
Dinner is at 6. The menu is German New Year’s (pork and sauerkraut). Discussion about 6:45. Compline around 8. Hope to see you here!
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation, he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it. 1 Corinthians 10:13