Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Temptation of Jesus

I personally think people need to be a little educated on what "being tempted" really means. Most Christians have likely heard about how Jesus was tempted to evil but ultimately rejected those temptations. But the way people talk about it to me sounds like that don't understand the concept of temptation at all. I'll try and explain.

There are a lot of people that seem to think that Jesus had absolutely no inclination towards evil. They say that there was no interest or thoughts within him about sins of any kind. But that leads to a very important question: How then was Jesus tempted at all? Asked another way: How could Jesus be tempted towards something he had no interest in?

Let's say that you you, unlike most people, despise the taste of chocolate. A friend of yours holds up a Hersey Bar and attempts to tempt you with it. It will be no surprise when you calmly shrug and turn away quite easily. There was nothing particularly hard about doing that because you simply aren't interested in chocolate.

Now, it is the common belief that Jesus likewise quite easily shrugged off evil in the same way as someone might do to chocolate if they did not like chocolate. This being because Jesus was so incredibly spotless that he had no interest in evil at all. But then both of these scenarios lead to a very important issue: There would have never been a temptation at all.

Jesus went into the wilderness to be tempted, but according to how most Christians seem to explain the story, he had not been tempted at all. So which is it? Was he tempted or not? In order to be tempted, you have to want what is offered. Otherwise you are not being tempted towards anything.

Perhaps the reason Christians get this wrong is because believing in the alternative would suggest that Jesus was actually interested in sinful things. Sex, gluttony, and other forms of debaucherous behavior could all likely be on the table. In order to be tempted at all, Jesus would be required to be into those things first. He would still reject them... as he most certainly did, and he would do so because he refused to abandon his people for his own lusts.

Most people prefer not to think of Jesus being capable of such things, but here is the problem: The story of Jesus would not actually mean anything if he hadn't. Without the ability to be properly tempted while having an inclination towards sinful behavior, Jesus would be nothing more than a simple programmed automaton of God who showed up, did his thing, and was an inspiration to nobody but God himself. I certainly would not be as impressed with the man. He would simply be doing what he was doing for no other reason but that he could do it, and there would be nothing particularity exceptional about it.

Jesus was not only the son of God; he was a man. And as a man, he bore the weight of the world upon his back. Like all men, he had to make a choice. It was not made for him. He was left here on his own to choose, and whatever choice he made would have been the righteous one. If he had chosen to give into his temptations, it would have been righteous... but the point is that he didn't.

The reason most Christians ignore this is likely because they don't want to have the same responsibility. It's so much easier to believe that Jesus resisted because that's just the way Jesus was... because there is very little weight in that argument. But the truth is that Jesus proved himself greater because he was able to overcome these temptations. And in all honesty, we should not so easily shrug off this wonderful success. We should look upon his triumph and take such burdens upon ourselves.

I personally adore what Jesus did. He is the Way, and he proved to us this way when he overcame his own sinful desires. He proved, in the end, that he was truly a man without sin, but he would have never done this if he had not been tempted... truly tempted. You can do the same as he did. Don't just pretend he is some spook that was impervious to sin. Take the same responsibility upon yourself as you follow the Way. After all, he chose what ultimately became righteousness.

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