Feedback to Matthew 4 Sermon by RLD

From CMcG

Yancey's book The Jesus I Never Knew has a section the temptation. He

feels that Satan didn't know who Jesus was at

first. When Jesus answers with scripture he is able to size him up

better, so he answers with scripture the next time. At

the end Jesus cannot be defeated because he is God; his nature won't let

him follow Satan. God can't go against God-self. Interesting thought.

And from SRD

That is something I've never thought about, and I think I disagree. But

I've passed it on to RLD so that he can consider it. I have always

assumed the devil knew exactly who he was speaking to, hence the type of

temptations he used. It would be no good to temp me with turning stones

to bread because I cannot. However, perhaps Jesus could - even the

winds and the sea obeyed him.. I have thought that the really crafty

part of the temptation is that the devil uses our deepest desires to

tempt us with, helping people, feeding the hungry and for Jesus, having

the world really understand who he was so that he could save them.

What if we consider the exact opposite of Yancey's argument. Instead of

the devil not knowing who Jesus was, what if he knew him intimately,

even to know what would be the biggest possible temptations to him?

How would we then read the text? How would we understand Jesus

differently, or would it make a difference?

What if, we said that the devil in this case, was the shadow side, as

Jung spoke of it? What if after forty days of starvation, Jesus was

worn down and weak and had to battle his own shadow side. Isn't that

equivalent to battling the devil? For what else could the adversary

spirit draw upon that would be more powerful than our shadow side?

In thinking of the text, with the help of RLD's exegesis and sermon, I am puzzled by a question. When the devil appears and tempts Jesus by speaking scripture and confusing the purpose of the scriptures. But Jesus was not confused. Why was he not? I think that the quotations could have puzzled me and left me with no response.

On another topic, in the sermon, I like the illustration of the two ways to use scripture and be a "Biblical" church. Perhaps part of the answer is in the way that we approach scripture. But even though I approach scripture with the willingness to let god mold me, asking God to speak to me what I should hear, I think I might never be able to respond the way that Jesus did.

Jesus continues to amaze me again and again.

I liked the parallel between Jesus telling Satan to get behind him and for Peter to get behind him.