So who tempted whom?

            One of the most famous elements of the Gospels, about the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, is the tale of His temptation in the wilderness, immediately following His baptism by John The Baptist. Jesus immediately headed out into the wilderness, as described by Dr. Luke in the fourth chapter of his gospel, verses one through thirteen:

1And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 2for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. 3The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 4And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” 5And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8And Jesus answered him, “It is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’”

             9And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ 11and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”

            12And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 13And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.

            So, score one for the Good Guys, obviously. The devil tested Christ, and He resisted temptation, and the devil was thwarted and went away. But why is that important? For that matter, why even include it in the Gospels?

            The writer of the letter to the Hebrews knew. (Whomever he or she was.)

            4:15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 

            Christ is our High Priest, and as such, He can empathize with our sins because He too has been tempted by sin. True, He cannot actually BE tempted, lacking a sin nature, but He felt the pressure of the temptation and thus knows what it’s like when we suffer the same pressure.

            Now, here’s my argument: Who was the one who really suffered temptation?

            There’s an expression I only recently became aware of, HALT, that describes the four conditions that prevent our making reasonable decisions (in other words, conditions that pressure us to give in to temptation), and as such are conditions under which we should NOT make important decisions.

            HALT is an acronym for Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired. When we feel hungry, angry, lonely, or tired – the bottom floor of Mazlow’s Hierarchy, if that’s something you’re familiar with: our basic necessity level – we are in a mindset to cure THOSE problems alone, not anything at a higher level of thought. If you’re exhausted, deciding between insurance companies is not a very high priority to you. If you’re furious about work, you don’t really care whether your girlfriend stays or goes. If you’re starving, you don’t care if your younger brother takes your birthright privileges, like Esau in Genesis 25. Priorities.

            So, right after Jesus was baptized, probably at the height of His human powers, He put Himself in the most visibly vulnerable position He could manage. He was hungry – He hadn’t eaten in forty days! He was lonely – He hadn’t seen another person since His baptism. He was tired – He’d been hiking in the wilderness all that time (without food!). Three out of the four – Jesus only got angry in a calculated manner.

            Jesus looked as vulnerable as He could possibly get.

            How could the devil resist? Answer – he couldn’t.

            So, who tempted whom? Jesus knew that without a sin nature, nothing the devil tried on Him would be effective, no matter what His condition was. But He wanted that victory over the devil on the record, too. So He tempted Lucifer into attempting to tempt Him, and succeeded. Now, Christ had that detail on His record (for writers like that of Hebrews to note), and the defeat of the devil to reassure His people.

            Of course Jesus can resist temptation.

But apparently, the devil cannot.