The Messiah We Wanted

Jesus is fully God, and rejects Satan’s “way of doing things”… and he always has. Satan offers a quick path, the path of miracle, mystery and power. He offers the crown without the crucifixion. It is endlessly frustrating and humans individually and churches corporately have very often preferred the path of Satan. Jesus’ path is and has always been slower, the path of suffering and submission, the path of quiet wooing of humanity, the path of faith, the path of love. That is the path we are invited on, the least manipulative invitation ever: take up your cross and follow Him.

Promotion

Last year I had an intern on my team. She was a marketing project leader, turned web developer, now seeking to be a full stack developer. All year long, she worked hard and learned the things… and it was my great privilege to, at the start of the year, put her promotion in the system.

Only to have the promotion get stuck in review. My boss approved, but his boss put a hold on it. Turns out they were redoing the promotion process, so it had to wait until the new promotion process was in place, and then go through that process, and then it could be approved and then it would take affect.

I thought… this is dumb and slow. And my intern was hurt, felt like the process was being put ahead of her own good… she was just a number.

That is dumb. So I escalated. I talked to my boss, who agreed, that’s dumb, and he talked to his boss.

I talked to the head of HR. And she agreed, this is kind of dumb… but they’re going to do it anyway.

She promised to go the CEO and talk to him about it. This is an opportunity to just make the right thing happen.

Word came back. Nope. Wait for the process. So we had to do it the slow annoying way. Filed all the paperwork a slightly different way, got approvals, and her promotion was finally affective months later.

It’s so simple to me. The CEO, at least, has the power to just fix it. Why do it the slow and annoying way???

I have this question for God, often. He could just… fix stuff for me. For us. He could change the circumstances, change the world, change the human whose will is in MY way.

Why doesn’t God do more? Show himself more? Fix more problems?

God seems easy to ignore.

Like… He’s the CEO, right?

People aren’t wrong when they hold God ultimately responsible for the brokenness in our world. Because He could fix it all. Or end it all. Or just fix my problem, maybe..

Recap:

We are in the temptations. Last week we saw Jesus tempted in all the ways… and he responded as the perfect human.

The first humans, the first Adam, was tempted saying “will you be God?” The second Adam was tempted “will you be truly human?” Here we see Jesus tempted right up the old “hierarchy of needs”: food, safety, esteem and self-actualization. Jesus has the power and option to respond as fully-God at every moment. Instead, he resists temptation as fully human, responding with nothing but the Scripture available to all. Thus we have a “high priest… in every respect tempted as we are, yet without sin.” He is the master of human life, the ultimate example, the perfect (shalom) human. We follow in his footsteps not only because “He is Lord” but also because he knows how to do life in righteousness and abundance.

Matthew 4:1–11 M:BCL

1 Next Jesus was taken into the wild by the Spirit for the Test. The Devil was ready to give it. 2 Jesus prepared for the Test by fasting forty days and forty nights. That left him, of course, in a state of extreme hunger, 3 which the Devil took advantage of in the first test: “Since you are God’s Son, speak the word that will turn these stones into loaves of bread.” 4 Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: “It takes more than bread to stay alive. It takes a steady stream of words from God’s mouth.” 5 For the second test the Devil took him to the Holy City. He sat him on top of the Temple and said, 6 “Since you are God’s Son, jump.” The Devil goaded him by quoting Psalm 91: “He has placed you in the care of angels. They will catch you so that you won’t so much as stub your toe on a stone.” 7 Jesus countered with another citation from Deuteronomy: “Don’t you dare test the Lord your God.” 8 For the third test, the Devil took him to the peak of a huge mountain. He gestured expansively, pointing out all the earth’s kingdoms, how glorious they all were. 9 Then he said, “They’re yours—lock, stock, and barrel. Just go down on your knees and worship me, and they’re yours.” 10 Jesus’ refusal was curt: “Beat it, Satan!” He backed his rebuke with a third quotation from Deuteronomy: “Worship the Lord your God, and only him. Serve him with absolute single-heartedness.” 11 The Test was over. The Devil left. And in his place, angels! Angels came and took care of Jesus’ needs.

The Messiah We Want

Jesus abdicates his power and authority here as God. Yes… to be fully human.

He is in every way tempted as we are tempted, and he shows us what it means to be fully human.

But we also must remember this is God choosing to go this route. He is choosing to not use His power in this way… not only at Satan’s temptation, but at every moment of history before and since.

Satan tempts Jesus to use the power of miracle, mystery and authority.

All of these are miracle, supernatural demonstration. Casting himself off the temple, in front of all those religious believers, caught up by angels… what a use of the power of mystery. They wouldn’t be able to explain that away… it has to be mystery and miracle… so it has to be God.

How easy for Jesus to show his credentials!!!

And finally, to leverage his authority over the world. Again, this is a shortcut to the crown. The crown without the cross. Jesus doesn’t says the devil doesn’t have the authority to offer this, only that worship is to God alone.

But… it’s a funny thing. He doesn’t take away the devil’s authority here, either. He doesn’t yet remove Satan’s authority over the world and take it as his own. Even in defeating Satan and death in the cross and resurrection… He still holds back from taking the authority over all the kingdoms of the earth.

Why? Why doesn’t he step in now and fix this?

Satan tempts Jesus to be the “Messiah we want.” One who will fix everything with a wave of his hand.

I have to admit, that’s what I often want. I want my freedom, of course, but I wouldn’t mind everyone else having their freedom cut a bit shorter.

Or God to show Himself a bit more. He does sometimes, in more or less subtle ways. But where He draws that line… it isn’t where I draw that line. I have friends I want Him to show Himself to like to Paul on the road to Damascus.

Jesus resists. Jesus refuses. God refuses. Not just here, this is a watershed moment… but God refuses to just step in and “snap” fix it all at every moment before this. And at every moment since this up to this moment now.

God takes a WAY slower and more frustrating route. Instead of miracle, mystery and power…

Jesus is going to be endlessly frustrating in this regard.

Sure, he’ll do a miracle… but then “shhhh… don’t tell anyone.”

Or a whole host of miracles… and then a hard truth that drives them all away.

And again and again, he will refuse to do miracles on command. To do magical demonstrations before crowds to build his platform.

Temptations and the Church

How many times has the church failed this?

The early church didn’t have this struggle, so much. The way of the cross was automatic… because people were literally putting them on crosses. Persecution and martyrdom. They didn’t have power to tempt them. And the church grew and flourished in the name of Jesus… by the Way of the Cross.

That’s what they called themselves. The Followers of the Way.

Emperor Constantine

In 325 AD Christianity had becomes such a power in the Roman Empire… all of a sudden the Emperor found it expedient to become Christian. That’s the cynical view of his “conversion” at least. And he started passing laws, it had been previously made illegal to worship on Saturday as a way to persecute the Jews… now it was made mandatory to worship on Sunday. And those two reasons are historically how Sunday worship became the primary day of worship in Christianity.

But just as Christianity was persecuted by the state before, now Christians had the power to run around and persecute any and all other faiths. And for the next several hundred years that’s what they did.

Crusades

From 1095-1291 you have the Crusades. Religious wars with the Muslims to secure the holy land and other holy sites for Jesus. We will fight for God… or bring the love of Jesus by the sword!!! Arguably it’s really about trade routes and economic and political power… but the Pope will forgive your sins if you swing a sword for Jesus. It is the power of Miracle, Mystery and Authority… it’s the path of Satan.

Spanish Inquisition

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.

From 1478 to 1834… nearly 400 years the Spanish Inquisition lasted. Seeking out heresy by arrest and sometimes torture. Really it was a tool of consolidating power in the monarchy… but this is what happens when religion and political power get all twisted up. It is manipulation and power and authority in the name of Jesus. It is the path of Satan.

Calvin’s Geneva

Lest we think “Catholic bad” and “Protestant good”… this was true in Calvin’s Geneva. Prayer and church attendance were mandatory. Morning and evening service on Sunday, and someone from your household better be at daily morning services or… straight to jail. Religious police could come and search your home. One guy wasn’t quite fully Trinitarian… so they roasted him, specifically on green wood, so it would burn slowly and prolong his agony.

That is power and authority. That isn’t the way of Jesus, the way of the cross.

When the church gets power… this is a temptation every time.

When you and I get power… this is a temptation every time.

Let’s stop picking on Christians… this is just a truth about humanity.

Communist Russia

Philip Yancey writes in “The Jesus I Never Knew” of his time in Russia after the Berlin Wall came down and it was clear that the great Marxist experiment of Communism had absolutely failed.

“How do you compel folks to be good?” -Editors of Pravda.

The official newspaper of the communist party. We tried raising money for the children of Chernobyl… but the average Russian spends their money on food and liquor. “How do you compel folks to be good?”

You can’t. It doesn’t work that way. It never has.

And God knew it from the beginning. He worked slowly, over generations. With a man here, a family there, a remnant. Teaching them love and faith, teaching them justice and righteousness… sowing and showing his love over thousands of years.

How slow is the work of God? How patient?

Not always without judgment… judgment and justice is part of it. The rod of discipline...

But never the absolute power of God snapping his fingers and setting everything right.

And we may not understand why God has structured it this way...

but we have guesses.

A Different Kind of Power

Could it be that “love” requires abdication at some level? Love cannot be mandated. It cannot be forced. It requires “faith” and “trust.” It requires freedom.

That is the way that humans experience love. When someone manipulates or forces someone into a relationship… we don’t call that “love,” we call that abuse. It’s predatory.

God has command over the hosts of heaven… he can create beings who respond to his every order and desire. He can make the rocks cry out in worship.

Somehow… he has created humans who can choose Him… and so they appear to have the power to NOT choose him… and all the hurt and harm that comes with that.

Even yet, God could change it all with the snap of his fingers.

He can use miracles to dazzle every human eye.

He can use mystery to attract and manipulate the imagination and psyche.

He can ultimately use his authority to command respect and obedience.

But he refuses all of it.

Is there miracle? Yes… but miracles are always rare and partial, even in the rest of Jesus’ ministry. Even in the seasons when Jesus is healing everyone who comes… it’s just those who come. He could snap his fingers, appear before every sick person in the Universe, heal them with a Word and the gospel message… but He doesn’t.

They mystery of “how He does that...” Most miracles, even the ones we recognize, are often explained away. God leaves room for it. Explain away the mystery… Why does he do that? He could give irrefutable mystery, happenings with absolutely no explanation… and He could do it everyday, to every person.

Everyday, every human being in the world wakes up with a card on their nose, addressed to them, answering the deepest questions in their heart, signed “Love, Jesus.” God doesn’t do that.

And the day will come when Jesus exercises His authority as the Son of God, as the King of Kings. When all the nations of the world will bow down. He didn’t need to take Satan’s offer to have that, by the way. Satan overplayed his hand, God was never going to bow down in worship.

But He also didn’t take the throne. He didn’t take the authority away from Satan. He left Satan to play another day, to have authority over mankind and all the nations of the earth another day.

Why? That’s awful!!! It is! I don’t like it.

Jesus, God himself incarnate among us, chose a different path. The way of the cross. He didn’t try to convert the world in his lifetime, he chose twelve disciples… and saved the world through humiliation, through sacrifice on a cross.

And he told his disciples… “this is how you should do it.”

The least manipulative invitation of all time.

Matthew 16:24–26 ESV

24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

Not only does God refuse the way of power, the way of “miracle, mystery and authority...” He invites us to the same path.

The path of sacrifice. Of submission. Of suffering.

The path that refuses power again and again. The church has failed this a thousand times. Every inquisition, every crusade, every state-mandated expression of worship… this is the path of Satan.

So we, in the footsteps of Jesus, in the footsteps of God, reject the path of power, of authority… and pick up the path of love. The path of the cross.

The slow and persuasive road of faith.

It’s harder. Full stop. It’s harder. It takes longer. It doesn’t have shortcuts. It means our loved ones may reject Jesus for years… or forever. It means sin and darkness remain in our world for another day. Another hour.

But this is the love of God, that while we were yet sinners, he died for us. And told us to follow him in suffering and sacrifice like his.

One day He will come and glory and all “chances” are over. We long for that day… and we labor with great urgency knowing that day is coming.

Take up your cross. A cross of boldness. A cross of suffering. A cross of hardship: socially, mentally, spiritually, physically… it isn’t going to be easy. But it is going to be glorious.

It is the grace of God, that he tarries a moment that another sinner might seek His face.

But the day is coming when Jesus picks up his mantle in full. When the miraculous in undeniable and He comes in all power and authority.

We long for the day… we pray for it… it will be a day of great sorrow and great joy.

Matthew 16:27 ESV

27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.