The Battle of Forever, Jesus Style.

     Jesus versus the Devil, a duel of words and strength recorded in Luke 4, is our passage this week.  Ever heard the expression of having one hand tied behind your back when you are undertaking a 'battling' task?  That kind of feels what is happening here.  Jesus is out in the wilderness for 40 days, famished from an intentional fast, before the devil goes down to the wilderness, looking for a...no, THE soul to steal.

    If you have ever seen or heard of the movie "The Last Temptation of Christ", the title is based on its contrast to these first temptations of Christ.  This post is not so much about what the temptations were so much as how Jesus won the duel. 

    In "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", there is perhaps the most spectacular magical duel in the whole series (book and movie).  Dumbledore and Voldemort go head to head...well...wand to wand in this battle of might.  For those of us with a little more history under our belts, I was living in the Philippines and they paused school and set up closed circuit television for all of us to watch "the Thrilla in Manila" between Mohammed Ali and Joe Frazier.  

    When it comes to a duel, that's what I envision.  So when Jesus goes head to head with the devil and beats him with the quoting of Scripture, I like the image of Jesus whacking the devil upside the head with a brass-bound King James version of the Bible.  But that is not how the power of Jesus is expressed.  The devil makes his offer, offers his temptation, and Jesus turns it down by drawing on the Bible's power to lay down God's Word over that of the Devil.

    Jesus versus the Devil.  Jesus looks Satan up and down, beats him every time starting with three little words, "It is written..."  There is, for us, the foundation of our own spiritual battles, our own moments when our faith and the world 'get into it'.  It is written in God's Word to us.  So it is not a matter of training up with wands and magic or working out in the gym and learning the techniques of pummeling the other guy.  

    But it is a matter of training up in what the Bible teaches us.  Training up in what God has given to us in His word.  Doing what Jesus did.  Being cool, being humble, knowing the words, living the words, laying them down when the world gets up in our faces.  

    "It is written...", spoken in the full Spirit and power of the Almighty.  There is nothing that can stand against such love.

Peace,
Pastor Peter