Its prominence in the Gospels
1. It is recorded in each of the three synoptic Gospels.
2. It is not recorded in the Gospel of John for a very good reason. John presents the Lord Jesus as the unique, eternal Son of God and we read in James 1.13 that "God cannot be tempted with evil". John is the only one who records the words of the Lord Jesus, "the prince of this world (i.e. Satan) cometh, and hath nothing in me" (Jn 14.30). There was nothing in Christ that would respond favourably to anything of Satan.
3. The late William Rodgers of Omaha, Northern Ireland pointed out that there is a remarkable threefold parallel between John 6 and the temptation in Matthew 4.
a) He who would not turn the stones into bread to satisfy His own need, in John 6 miraculously multiplied five loaves and two fishes to feed 5,000 men besides women and children, with twelve baskets of fragments left over.
b) The One who would not defy the law of gravity in Matthew 4 to make a magnificent, spectacular, sensational and startling display of His Messiahship by falling down from a pinnacle of the temple, defied the laws of gravity in John 6 to walk on the sea to come to His disciples' aid and comfort in a storm.
c). He who would not accept the kingdoms of the world without the cross in Matthew 4 would not allow the multitudes to come and take Him by force to make Him a king in John 6.
Reasons for the prominence
Lessons we can learn from His temptation
Each of the first three gospel writers has a different reason for recording the temptation.
Matthew presents Christ as the King of the Jews and every chapter contributes to his purpose. The first eleven verses of Matthew 4 record the temptation and help to show His competence to reign universally. The record clearly shows that He was completely in the fear of God, even as Isaiah prophesied of the Messiah (Is 11.1-5). He brought God into each of the temptations. This in turn shows His fitness to reign. One must be in the fear of God to rule or judge God's people properly. Moses' father-in-law, in recommending the kind of men to help Moses in judging God's people, tells him to "provide…able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness" (Ex 18.21). We still need those kinds of men today in the local churches. David, near the end of his life (after ruling men most of that life) told us what the God of Israel said to him: "He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God" (2 Sam 23.3).
Three verses of the words of good king Jehoshaphat show the necessity of the fear of God and should be a help to overseers who sometimes have difficult decisions to make.
First, with regard to those who were to judge in the fenced cities of Judah: "Take heed what ye do: for ye judge not for man, but for the Lord, who is with you in the judgment" (2 Chr 19.6). The more that overseers realise this, the more they can count on God to help them make right decisions.
"Wherefore now let the fear of God be upon you; take heed and do it: for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts" (2 Chr 19.7).
To those who were to judge in Jerusalem, he charged them: "Thus shall ye do in the fear of the Lord, faithfully, and with a perfect heart" (2 Chr 19.9). Faithfulness in judging or ruling and the fear of God go together. That is also taught in Nehemiah where we read the only verse about Hananiah - "he was a faithful man, and feared God above many" (Neh 7.2). He is also the only person of whom we read that "he feared God above many".
There have been good leaders in the world and many in the assemblies who have ruled in the fear of God, but there has never been anyone else on earth that lived so completely in the fear of God as did the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore there is none as competent as He to reign universally. Ezekiel tells us that God says, "I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it…until he come, whose right it is; and I will give it him" (Ezek 21.27). His right it is to reign.
Mark presents Christ as the perfect servant. He only uses two verses to record the temptation (Mk 1.12-13) but that is enough to accomplish his purpose. One reason that it is so brief may be that while a servant must be tested, it is of a private nature. (Many an overseer or worker can testify that it has been so in their experience.) Perhaps the most important reason for these two verses is to show that Satan is determined to stop all genuine service for God. Since that is true, how essential it is that we pray for one another for we all have something to do for God!
Even though Mark has only two verses he records three details not found in Matthew or Luke. Only Mark tells us that the temptation was immediately after the words from heaven at His baptism, "Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased" (1.11, RV). Even though the Father knew His Son was going to be tempted of Satan He did not hesitate to say these words for He knew that His Son was impeccable and could never yield to any temptation. Another of Mark's unique details is the word "driveth" - "the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness" (1.12). Christ was perfectly submissive to all the leadings of the Holy Spirit. There is another detail by Mark alone that He "was with the wild beasts" (1.13). The wild beasts were in submission to the Perfect Servant and the Second Man, as they were to Adam before Adam's fall into sin.
Luke in 4.1-13 portrays Christ as the perfect man - perfectly human and humanly perfect, as God would have each one of His own to be. In doing so, Luke emphasises the need of the Holy Spirit. All four Gospel writers tell us the Spirit descended as a dove upon the Lord Jesus at His baptism, but only Luke tells us, "And Jesus being full of the Holy Spirit returned from Jordan" (4.1). He was characteristically filled or controlled by the Spirit. But obviously, being "full of the Spirit" does not make one immune from temptation! Each of the four writers tells us that He was led or driven by the Spirit, but only Luke tells us that He was led of the Spirit all the forty days in the wilderness - "…was led by the Spirit in the wilderness during forty days (4.1-2, RV). Also Luke alone records that "Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee" (4.14). This may suggest that the fullness of the Spirit becomes the power of the Spirit when, by His grace, we have gone through temptation in the fear of God.
Luke reverses the order of the second and third temptations. It is clear that Matthew gives the chronological order for he uses the adverbs of time - often "then" and also "when" and "again". This writer would suggest two reasons why Luke puts the second temptation last. The chronological third (as in Matthew) was a desperate blunt and daring final attempt, but the most subtle was the second, thus emphasizing the moral triumph of the Saviour. Another reason could be the order used in 1 John 2.16 - "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world". That order is the order in which Eve fell in Genesis 3.6: "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food (the lust of the flesh), and that it was pleasant to the eyes (the lust of the eyes), and a tree to be desired to make one wise (the pride of life), she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat". The Lord Jesus had no lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, or pride of life, but the temptation came as close as possible to these three things. The solicitation to evil was real on the part of the devil, but there was no favourable response on the part of Christ.
To be continued.
