Spirit-led into the wilderness

A little-noticed truth is found in Matthew 4:1:

1Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.

What follows, of course is the account of Jesus successfully fending off the efforts of Satan to tempt him into sin, thus destroying God's plan of salvation. Many sermons and commentaries have focused on the nature of the temptations, the ability of Satan to use scripture as a weapon, and Jesus' resultant understanding of our humanity. A core revelation can be discovered in verse one, however: The Holy Spirit led Jesus into this confrontation. This truth has much to offer us as followers of Christ.

Often, we are perplexed when trials and tribulations enter our lives. More often, we assume that these trials are only negatives and must be the product of Satan. While Satan may be the author of the trial or temptation, this passage, along with the story of Job and countless other biblical examples, shows us that the Spirit often leads us toward these spiritual battles.

These times in our lives are often painful, causing us to cry out "Why" to God. All too often we don't really stick around for the answer. We breathe a sigh of relief when the crisis has passed, and resume our everyday business, ignorant of the lessons just put before us. In this brief passage, we can plainly see that God does put tumult in our lives, and He does so for very good reasons.

Where would Jesus have been without doing battle with Satan? Where would we be? Could we really sing "Jesus knows all about our troubles" without this spirit-led confrontation? No, Jesus, led by the spirit, endured Satan's blows in order to prepare Him to serve us as our savior. Of course, this was just a precursor to the final battle, in which Jesus gained final victory over death.

If the Spirit was willing to send Jesus into harm's way, should we as disciples of Christ expect any different? Of course not. We are often missing some important qualities that would enable our experiences to be as successful as Jesus'.

First, Jesus was prepared. When Satan launched his attacks on Jesus, Jesus was armed with spiritual armor, most importantly, the sword of the word of God. When Satan thrust at a perceived weak point, Jesus parried with truth from God's scriptures.

Second, Jesus was willing to endure. Despite being extremely hungry, he resisted the temptation to feed his own needs. He was willing to endure the short-term pain to win the battle against temptation.

Finally, Jesus was able to learn from His ordeal and pass on His wisdom to His disciples, and ultimately to all of us. This not a moment witnessed by the writers of the Gospels. It was no doubt passed on to them by Jesus' own testimony. How often are we unable or unwilling to share our struggles with others, when the knowledge of our battles could help someone else going through the same thing?

Lord, grant us the focus to study your word, give us the strength to endure our moments of persecution, and allow us to be courageous enough to share those moments with others so that our victories need not be just our own.