Word 12 – Temptation

“We have a high priest who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet he did not sin. (Hebrews 4:15)

When Bible translators encounter the Greek word for “temptation” (“peirasmos”, or its verb from “peirazo”), they can choose from several different English word meanings. Instead of “temptation”, they might dall it a “trial,” or they might say someone is being “tested”.

This word appears in John 6:5-6, where Jesus asks a disciple, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” Then the text adds, “He asked this only to test (“peirzo”) him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.” Jesus was not tempting Philip to go rob  bakery, but He was probably wondering if this disciple had a clue about Jesus’s ability to feed thousands.

We see another meaning of this word in James 1:2; “Consider it pure joy…whenever you face trials of many kinds.” That’s our word for “temptation,” “peirasmo”.

So the Greek word suggests in one context a test, like a multiple-choice quiz, and in another context a trial, a hardship we might have to endure.

Then scan down the page and see another use of the word “peirasmos”: “Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed” (James 1:14). Here “prinasmos” carries a greater weight and is clearly about temptation to sin.

Lent is a season that specifically identifies with the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. For forty days, we walk a spiritual journey as Jesus did, sometime fasting as Jesus did, focusing on who we are in relation to God as Jesus did.

When the book of Matthew reports this event it uses the word “peirasmos” in the sense of “testing,” and many translations call this the “testing of Jesus.” Yet that may be a bit of an understatement.

Yes, Satan begins his interrogation of Jesus as if it’s simply a what if problem: “If you are the Son of God……….,,” Satan says. And the final question is the zinger: “All this I will give you…if you will bow down and worship me.” At this point it would seem the “testing” becomes something more – temptation.

In His final hours in Gethsemane, before His crucifixion, Jesus took His “final exam.” He prays to the Father, “If it is possibl, may this cup be taken from me” (Matthew 26:39). Within these moments and words are wrapped a swirl of theological truths-Jesus’s relationship with the Father. His purpose on earth, how His deity and humanity coexist. We do not know the fullest meaning of His prayer, yet e are left with a sense that Jesus could still fail the exam, tempted to aooyahead and to opt out of the question He was on earth to answer.

If we approach this moment with the ideaa that the conclusion was inevitable, we miss the holy drama of it, the cosmic risk that was wagered. The life of Jesus, human being and divine Son, must have been full of temptation, with opportunities right and left to stumble and doom us all. It culminates here in the Gethsman garden, and all creation holds us breath as Jesus provides His final answer: “Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

In giving up something during these forty days, we state temptation in the face. Our human longing may be a little thing compared to Jesus’s temptations on earth, but it gives us a taste of them. In this, we identify with Jesus, who, though God Hmself, was also fully human like us-and we face the fullest meaning of “peirasmos.”

N. T. Wright observes that we might very well “expect” temptations as followers of Jesus: “The first Sunday of Lent, when traditionally we reflect on Jesus’s temptations, is often a day for reflecting on our temptations as well. Anyone determine to make a fresh start, and to go forward Jesus into the unknown, is almost bound to find that testing of one sort of another increases dramatically.”

So, we will be tested, but whatever temptation we face, we know that Jesus has gone there first. The book of Hebrews assures us that Jesus “has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet he did not sin.” And also, “Because He Himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”

This is a time when we confront out struggles-and we are reassured that Jesus helps us through them.

Preparing Your Heart for Easter

Make a short list of the big temptations you face. What are those larger debates with Satan in your life? Review the account of Jesus’s temptation in the desert, and note His responses to Satan. As you consider your big temptation areas, echo Jesus’s responses in prayer as if they are yours.

Lord God, I ask that you might provide me the will to resist ________________________________