Luke 4:1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” 4 Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’”
Luke 4:5 Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And the devil said to him, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 Jesus answered him, “It is written,
‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’”
Luke 4:9 Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for it is written,
‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’
11 and
‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”
12 Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 13 When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.
Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods are standing at the throne of heaven God looks at them and says, “Before granting you a place at my side, I must ask you what you believe.” God asks Arnie first: “What do you believe?” Arnie thinks long and hard, then he looks God in the eye, and says, “I believe in hard work, and in staying true to family and friends. I believe in giving. I was lucky, but I always tried to do right by my fans.” God can’t help but see the essential goodness of Palmer, and offers him a seat to his left. Then God turns to Nicklaus and says, “What do you believe?” Jack says, “I believe passion, discipline, courage and honor are the fundamentals of life. Like Arnold, I believe in hard work. I, too, have been lucky, but win or lose, I’ve always tried to be a true sportsman, both on and off the playing fields.” God is greatly moved by Jack’s thoughtful eloquence, and he offers him a seat to his right. Finally, God turns to Woods: “And you, Tiger, what do you believe?” Tiger replies, “I believe you’re in my seat.” We laugh at least in part because we know—no matter what Tiger says—he is so far from really being God, but Jesus had a pretty terrible habit that used to get him in all kinds of trouble: Jesus thought He was God.
If you read the Gospels—pick one, they’re all good!—Jesus thinks He’s God by what He does and what He says. Things that only God does, Jesus does. He forgives sins. He changes centuries-old laws so people’s hearts could be changed. He teaches with authority. When Jesus prays, the world shifts—praying is the only thing Jesus’ disciples ever asked Jesus to teach them was how to pray. Jesus freed people from their physical and psychological bondage. And Jesus said He was God, that He existed before Abraham, that to see Him was too see God, and that He and the Father are one. What’s interesting is that Jesus had a different take on what it meant to be God.
It all starts with Jesus getting baptized and going into the wilderness to be tempted. As Leonard Sweet puts it in The Bad Habits of Jesus, “In the wilderness, Jesus knows he is the Messiah. The only question is what kind of Messiah he will be. Will he be the world’s kind of Messiah or the Kingdom’s kind of Messiah?” Watch the temptations unfold. Satan invites famished Jesus to make stones into bread, to feed himself, instead of trusting God to provide. If Jesus is God, He didn’t come to serve Himself. Then Satan lays before Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, and tries to make a deal—worship me and it’s yours—to see if Jesus would let anyone, anything come between Him and God. If Jesus is God, He didn’t come to be powerful as the world understands it. Then Satan puts Jesus on the highest point of the Temple, above the thousands of people who had come to worship God, and tells Jesus it’s time to do something spectacular—to trade on His special relationship with God, and make that viral YouTube moment that will prove to everyone He’s God. If Jesus is God, will He build a following with a stunt or with grace given to one life at a time? If Jesus is God, then Jesus came to show us how different God is from what the world expects.
Jill Briscoe tells of a visit to a funeral home with a grieving widow, standing by the open casket. Out of the corner of her eye, Jill sees a member of her church coming toward them and thinks, Here comes trouble. The woman approaching the casket believes Christians should never be sad or weep; they should always be upbeat and happy. Predictably, the dear lady comes up and starts to comfort the grieving widow with words about thinking positively and lifting the chin. The widow looks at her and says, “Well, if we are not supposed to cry, how come Jesus wept?” Whereupon Jill, with her wonderful British, says, “Well obviously, honey, Jesus wasn’t a very good Christian.”
Sweet goes on to say, “Jesus was not a very good Christian if by “good Christian” we mean someone who is respectable, presentable, well-mannered, well meaning, and well wishing. Jesus was not a very good Christian if by “good Christian” we mean someone who moves in gospel goose step at authority’s command. Jesus was not a very good Christian if by “good Christian” we mean the business of getting more things, if the gospel is “good news” about increasing our living standards more than our loving standards. Jesus was not a very good Christian if by “good Christian” we mean the sort of person who is always snooping around to see if people are enjoying themselves and then trying to stop it. … Jesus was not a very good Christian if by “good Christian” we mean someone who tries to save the standing order rather than creating an alternative order of reality within every standing order. Jesus was not a very good Christian if by “good Christian” we mean always being a “winner.” For Jesus, you can be a “winner” without someone else losing or without having all your demands met. Jesus was not a very good Christian if by “good Christian” we mean a gravy train for the professionals. Jesus was not a very good Christian if by “good Christian” we mean someone who has the right friends and keeps the right kind of company. Jesus hung not with the “in” crowd but with the sinners … And at Calvary, he literally hung with the sinners in dying as he hung with them in living. Jesus was not a very good Christian if by “good Christian” we mean someone who has a problem with sin. Sin is not a problem for Jesus. The problem is getting sinners to see they are sinners, confess their separation from God, and accept God’s invitation. … Jesus was not a very good Christian if by “good Christian” we mean someone who would like to be labeled “Christian” or “good.” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered the rich man. “Only God is truly good.”
Jesus was not a very good Christian, but He was an awesome Christ. Though He was God, He didn’t ask for the throne. As Paul puts it, “He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the very nature of a servant…” Though He was God, Jesus “humbled Himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!” With absolute power at His command, Jesus walked with people, laughed with sinners, spit, and healed, was angry, and loved and wept. In the end, Jesus wasn’t in it for Himself; Jesus was in it for God, and so for us. John wrote, “We love because He first loved us.” And Sweet continues, “In other words, the greatest love story ever told, the love story that stops clocks and starts hearts, is a love story that began in heaven and brought heaven’s best to us, to begin heaven in us, to spread heaven among us, to prepare us for heaven as heaven prepares for us. Heaven has a name: Jesus Christ.” And that’s a great cause for Thanksgiving.