Why the testing of Jesus makes trusting in God possible.
“For he who forsaking heavenly things pursues earthly, rushes as it were willfully down the self-sought precipice of a falling life.” – Ambrose of Milan AD 397
“The function of freedom is to free somebody else.” – Toni Morrison
In Luke chapter 4, Jesus is led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tested by the devil.
This has always seemed a bit off to me.
Why would a spirit that is holy lead Jesus to a place of obvious peril where he will inevitably come face to face with the possibility of sin?
Wouldn’t it make more sense for Jesus to avoid situations that could compromise his mission? Isn’t holiness at risk when confronted with temptation?
If the purpose of Jesus coming to us was to maintain our ideas of sinlessness, then maybe the Holy Spirit should have led him somewhere not having “the appearance of evil.”
In this way, God could have preserved a reputation of being “above reproach.”
But God was and has never been good about fitting into our boxes. Especially when those boxes have been built by our own sinful ideas of sin as well as our misunderstandings of the Scriptures.
Jesus didn’t come to behave.
Jesus came to be human so that we might become like him.
Jesus didn’t come to behave. Jesus came to be human so that we might become like him.
Contrary to what we might typically assume about what it means to be holy, Jesus is led to the wilderness by the Spirit because that’s the kind of place where holiness wanders on purpose.
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Jason Martin 