The last temptation

Happy Tuesday June 4, 2019

Today’s Reading Mark 15

Mark 15: 29-32

29 Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, 30 come down from the cross and save yourself!” 31 In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself!

The last temptation. I know that at any point Jesus could of taken himself off the cross that day.  But He didn’t.  He was obeying His father, and following through with the plan had set since His humble birth. As a human, Jesus was tempted many times by Satan. Look back at Matthew 4: 1-11 after He was just baptized. Jesus never gives into the temptation. He understands how we are all tempted by the world daily. Temptation from Satan was coming in in the moments when Jesus hung on the cross, still, in this last attempt from Satan, Jesus kept himself on the cross for the sins of those present then and for everyone since then. Amen!

How is Satan tempting you today? For me, is it by the way I’ve been responding to my children 1 week into summer break? Is it the times I take my wife for granite daily instead of loving her like the church? Is it in my thoughts as I judge others in their various circumstances? Is it in my workload and my selfish ambitions to attain and do more? Is it the entertainment factor from a TV or phone that keeps me mindlessly engaged in time that has no eternal impact… for anyone? The list can go on and on.  We see, feel and are tempted.  We have been tempted since Adam and Eve and have failed just like them in Genesis 3. We are broken.  Still, Jesus knows this, says in these temptations, turn to Me.  Am I doing that? Are you doing that? Through all the temptations Jesus went through, He turned to His Father. Does someone you know right now going through some circumstance where temptation is staring them in the face? Maybe its you today?

Turn to God’s words.  Turn to Him in prayer.  The world is full of worldly things that tempt us daily.  On this day in Mark 15 the temptation to take Himself off the cross was there.  Soldiers, onlookers, priests saying hurtful mocking words and acting out in violence towards Him. Telling Jesus,  Take yourself down from the cross if you are the Son of God.  The human side of me would of pulled myself down and shown them, maybe even in my moments of displaced anger I would of did something to these mockers just to set an example.  Yet,this final mockery of Jesus on the cross to abandon His sacrificial death didn’t succeed. Jesus stayed on the cross to pay for our sins. Revelation 2:10 reminds me how Satan is always putting us to the test and Jesus wants us to remain faithful.

We are wrestling with various sins and temptations? Go to battle against them, let others know.  Know that we have a Father who has already declared victory when we turn our life over to Him.

Dear Jesus this fleeting pleasure pales in comparison to the joy and satisfaction we have in you.  Today, I choose an obedience to you then this temptation put before me.  Better is one day in your courts, then thousands elsewhere. We long for this day, please remind us in our struggles of this hope, strength, grace, and love you have for us always.  Thank you for your Son Jesus to be our perfect example of how in the flesh He resisted the temptations. I pray to draw closer and closer to His presence daily.  We love you! Amen

I love this song by Matt Maher because it reminds me of how much I need Jesus every day!