Jesus entered the wilderness full of the Holy Spirit. For forty days he was tempted by the devil, and when those days were over, he was hungry. The first challenge came at the point of that hunger: if he was the Son of God, why not command a stone to become bread? Jesus answered from the word of God. Life could not be reduced to the satisfaction of an immediate need.
Then the devil showed him the kingdoms of the world and offered him their authority and glory, if Jesus would bow down and worship him. It was an offer of power without the path of obedience. Jesus refused it: worship belongs to God alone. When the devil urged him to throw himself from the temple and make a display of God's protection, Jesus again held to the word: God was not to be put to the test. The temptation ended, but Luke tells us the devil departed only for a season. The road of obedience was still before Jesus. (Luke 4:1–13)
This encounter draws my mind back to the garden. There the serpent spoke directly to Eve and called God's warning into question: they would not surely die if they ate from the forbidden tree. Eve ate, and Adam ate also. What appeared to offer knowledge and gain brought disobedience, shame, and death into their lives. The first Adam did not hold fast to the word God had given. (Genesis 3:1–7)
Paul places Adam and Christ beside one another. Through the disobedience of the one, many were made sinners; through the obedience of the other, many will be made righteous. He calls Christ the last Adam, the one who gives life. The comparison reaches beyond a single moment in the garden or the wilderness, but Luke's account lets us see its meaning in action. Where the first Adam yielded to the serpent's word, Christ met the tempter in human flesh and remained faithful to the Father. (Romans 5:18–19; 1 Corinthians 15:45–49)
The offer of the kingdoms is especially revealing. Jesus would not receive a kingdom by giving worship to Satan. He did not grasp at authority on the tempter's terms. He went forward in the Spirit to do the work for which the Father had sent him.
The Kingdom He Announced
When Jesus returned to Galilee, he came to the synagogue in Nazareth and read from Isaiah. The words spoke of good news to the poor, release for captives, sight for the blind, and liberty for the oppressed. Jesus said that this Scripture was being fulfilled in their hearing. After refusing the kingdoms offered in the wilderness, he declared the character of the kingdom he had come to proclaim. Its good news reached people in need of restoration. (Luke 4:14–21)
Those listening first wondered at his gracious words. But Jesus would not shape his mission to secure the approval of his hometown. He recalled a widow in Sidon whom Elijah had been sent to help, and Naaman the Syrian, whom Elisha had healed. God's mercy had reached beyond the people who assumed they could claim it for themselves. The crowd grew angry and drove Jesus toward the edge of the hill. He passed through their midst and went on. (Luke 4:22–30)
In Capernaum, the authority he had refused to obtain through worship of Satan became visible in a different way. He taught, commanded an unclean spirit to leave a man, healed Simon's mother-in-law, and received the sick who were brought to him. His authority was exercised among people, bringing freedom and healing. (Luke 4:31–41)
At daybreak the crowds sought him and wanted him to stay. Their need was real. Yet Jesus told them that he must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also, for that was why he had been sent. He would not allow even a welcome place to confine the work given to him. (Luke 4:42–44)
While It Is Day
Elsewhere, as he prepared to heal a man who had been blind from birth, Jesus spoke of the time appointed for his work: “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day.” He warned that night was coming, when no one could work. (John 9:4, KJV)
Those words help me hear the urgency in Luke 4. Jesus did not rush after power, nor did he linger simply because a crowd wanted him to remain. He knew why he had been sent. He gave his days to the Father's work: speaking truth, announcing good news, freeing the oppressed, and going onward to others who needed to hear.
The devil offered the kingdoms in a moment. Jesus chose the long road of obedience. That road would lead through rejection and suffering to the cross. His faithfulness in the wilderness was no isolated victory; it belonged to the whole life he gave in obedience to the Father.
There is a question for us in this, though we must keep the distinction clear. We cannot accomplish the work Christ alone came to do. We cannot repair Adam's failure by our own strength. But because Christ has opened the way to life, we can listen to his word and respond to the work before us while we have the opportunity. There may be someone to serve, mercy to extend, truth to speak, or a step of obedience we have delayed.
The first Adam listened to the serpent and reached for what God had forbidden. The last Adam listened to the Father and remained faithful when the tempter offered him the world. Then he went out to do the work for which he was sent. He proclaimed the kingdom of God while it was day, and he carried his obedience all the way to the cross. Because of him, the story that began with humanity's fall can move toward restoration and life.
Lenwood León Jack · Cornerstone 1131