By Prem Lee.
Matt 4:1-11
I have my own interpretation of the temptations of Jesus, which I feel give critical perspectives on mission strategy.
The sequence of events is as follows – The baptism of Jesus followed by the 40 days in the wilderness at the end of which are the temptations and on His return, Jesus launches His ministry.
As an engineer, I ask the question if I had been commissioned to do something at my baptism, what is the first thing I would do? I would draw up a strategic plan to implement what I need to do. So, to me, Jesus went into the wilderness to strategize His ministry.
While thinking about the ministry which He has to do, several possible approaches are examined and rejected.
First was to give people material benefits so that they would come. Jesus tells Satan that man will not live by material things but by the word of God which needs to be central to the ministry.
The second strategy is to do miracles and draw crowds. Jesus rejects this as a test of God. Throughout His ministry, when he did a miracle He told the people not to tell anyone, as He did not want people to come for miracles. He wanted people to come for the teaching. When He saw people with physical or other needs, He met them by miracles or other means because of His love for them. But His ministry was the word of God.
The Last temptation was to follow the value systems of Satan by worshipping him and he would fill the church. Be deceptive, pay bribes, do illegal things as long as it progresses the kingdom of God. This approach was rejected by Jesus completely.
In the first two temptations, Jesus was being tempted not by things which are evil, but which are a diversion of His ministry. But Jesus did miracles and met the needs of people.
We need to do the same today, keeping in mind that while we deal all the problems of mankind, their primary need is the word of God.
Nice