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| Essential 100 -- Right way round? | | Date Created: Mar 25, 2005, 07:33 AM |
55 — Friday March 25 — Matthew 3:13 - 4:17
Within these three stories, we see Jesus set in the largest possible context, with God above through the voice from heaven, with Satan below through the temptation and with the people around him through the beginning of his preaching and the call of the disciples (just outside our set reading).
I never thought about it before, but this is not the order I'd have put these stories in. Wouldn't it be much more natural to have Jesus first tempted by Satan out in the desert and then go for baptism / dedication / identification with us and affirmation by the Father? Why did God choose for it to happen in this order instead?
Is it to make clear that Jesus is approved of because of who he is rather than because of his resistance of temptation? Or perhaps to avoid any question that the Satan was able to taint Jesus to the point where he needed repentance? Is it to imply that for us as well, going through an occasion of spiritual dedication does not grant immunity from temptation? |
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