How the Kingdom Comes (Week 18, Dec 25)
Reading
Matthew 4:1–11
Silent Reflection
Remarks
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.
Matthew 4:1–2 (ESV)
If you have Exodus somewhere in the recesses of your imagination, you likely think of it when you read this sentence. Jesus’s 40 days in the wilderness are an unmistakable throwback to Israel’s 40 years, so we ought to ask: What was the point of the wilderness for the Israelites?
The wilderness was a place between places. Behind the Israelites was the sea and all of their defeated enemies. Ahead lay the promised land. But for the moment, they were there in the wilderness. It was a place of testing—specifically for God to experience just exactly what was in the hearts of His children.
For Jesus, the wilderness serves a similar purpose. It is a place between places. Behind him are the waters of baptism and the proclamation of his royal status: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Ahead of him is the beginning of his ministry and the announcement of the Kingdom of God. But here, in this liminal wilderness space, it is a place of testing. Testing of what, though?
My suspicion is that with the reader now knowing Jesus is King, but not yet having received teaching about what his Kingdom is all about, Matthew wants to start by exploring a vital question, which he does through the story of the temptation: How is this Kingdom going to come?
This is a crucial question whose answer has far reaching effects. Is it going to come right now, in an instant? Is it going to come without risk or without pain? Is it going to come by hypnotic, coercive displays of power and pizzazz? Or will it come like a mustard seed, growing slowly yet becoming large, with suffering and sacrifice and tremendous love, in ways that are confounding and sometimes hard to discern? In short, will it come in the way of the devil or in the way of God?
Turns out that a desert wilderness is the perfect setting for such a test.
“If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”
We begin with a very personal temptation in a very private setting. Jesus faces a simple problem: he’s hungry. The devil has a (fairly) simple solution: turn these rocks into bread and eat! Observant readers will notice there’s nothing really wrong with this. It wouldn’t be inherently sinful for Jesus to perform this miracle. In fact, here in a few chapters he is going to miraculously produce enough bread to feed thousands of hungry people. So why not do it now for himself? Why is this called a temptation?
Because it is the devil’s first step toward luring Jesus to do something that, had Jesus given in, would have changed the entire paradigm of his Kingdom. He is tempting Jesus to avoid suffering. After all, why should a king go hungry? The devil is also asking him to use his power to prove himself.
“If you are the Son of God…”
Just go ahead and convince us all right now of who you really are. But Jesus resists it.
Next, the scene and the temptation change from private to public. Jesus is taken to the holy city and set on the pinnacle of the temple. Notice he is at the most visible point of one of the most popular places in the busiest city in Israel.
“If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down…”
The devil then tells him how God has promised not to let him hit the ground. Here the temptation to avoid suffering and use power to prove himself becomes much more explicit. “Look! You can do this right now and you know that no harm will befall you. And what’s more, look around! If you throw yourself down from here and then levitate before coming to rest softly on the stones below, everyone here in this place of worship will bow down and worship you! Isn’t that what you want? Isn’t that what Christianity is all about? They will make you their God and King and you won’t suffer so much as a scratch.”
Imagine! A kingdom with no pain, no risk, and no suffering! Imagine! A comfortable kingdom with an invincible king! An irresistible kingdom with an irrefutable king!
Having resisted the first two tests, Jesus and the devil return to a private place, and the devil shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and their glory from the top of a high mountain. No more questioning if he is the Son of God. No more asking him to prove himself. The devil (now perhaps a little desperate?) makes the most direct offer yet. “I will give all of these kingdoms to you, and you don’t have to levitate or transmute rocks into bread. All you have to do is fall down and worship me.”
This is the climax of the temptations and also the sum of them. All of them are asking this question: How will the Kingdom come? Because here’s the thing—the Kingdom is going to come; all of these kingdoms are going to belong to Jesus one way or the other. It is certainly not wrong for Jesus to become King. But how is it going to come? Is it going to come the way of the devil? Or the way of God? What’s the difference?
Of course, there are many differences between these two kingdoms. But the foundation of them comes down to this: sacrifice, suffering, and love. If Jesus gives into the devil here, the “kingdom” comes in an instant. No risk of rejection. No death on the cross. No suffering with the outsiders. A kingdom where lawbreakers are swiftly and mercilessly dispatched. A kingdom where the rabble are kept safely away. It is a kingdom founded on power and self. He is handed a crown at the feet of the devil.
If Jesus resists, the way becomes much longer and darker. He will have to struggle through people not understanding him. He will have to endure people hating him. He will be given a crown hanging on a cross. His Kingdom, though, is an upside down one. The Kingdom of God is where, like the good Samaritan, we love our enemies; where brothers squabbling over possessions are told to generously give them away and burn their barns; where the King himself keeps company with all the wrong sorts of people. It’s winning through dying and gain through loss.
What does this mean for those of us who will be part of this Kingdom? Are we going to be snapped out of our hardships, teleported in the blink of an eye to a lifestyle of the rich and famous? Is Jesus wielding a Kingdom Infinity Gauntlet to make our problems disappear with the snap of a finger? Or are we being given a Messiah who, rather than bringing us up to a fantasy heaven, is coming down to be with us in the hell that we already live in? Are our sufferings meant to be avoided at all costs, or does he come to identify with us in them?
Silent Reflection
Response
How do you expect the Kingdom to come into the world around you?
Are we ever asking Jesus to prove himself? If you are the Son of God…
Do we ever tempt Jesus to bring the kingdom in devilish (read: easy, comfortable) ways? What does that look like?