Satan knew this holy structure was the center of religious life for Israel’s people. It was the edifice to which the promised Messiah must come. Many were even at that moment coming and going from their worship, many who through their traditions and disbelief would never accept Jesus as their Redeemer. The temptation to Jesus could be paraphrased this way: “Why not cast yourself down in a dramatic way and then when the angels bear you up, as the scriptures say they must, legions will follow you and believe? They need you. You need them—to save their souls. These are covenant people. How better to help them see than to cast yourself off this holy temple unharmed and unafraid. The Messiah has indeed come.”
The temptation here is even more subtle than the first. It is a temptation of the spirit, of a private hunger more real than the need for bread. Would God save him? Would he? Is Jesus to have divine companionship in this awesome ministry he now begins? He knows that among the children of men only suffering, denunciation, betrayal, and rejection lie ahead. But what about heaven? How alone does a Messiah have to be? Perhaps before venturing forth he ought to get final reassurance. And shouldn’t Satan be silenced with his insidious “If—If—If”? Why not get spiritual confirmation, obtain a loyal congregation, and answer this Imp who heckles—all with one appeal to God’s power? Right now. The easy way. Off the temple spire.
But Jesus refuses the temptation of the spirit. Denial and restraint are also part of divine preparation. He will gain followers and he will receive reassurance. But not this way. Neither the converts nor the comfort he will so richly deserve has been earned yet. His ministry has hardly begun. The rewards will come by and by. But even the Son of God must wait. The Redeemer who would never bestow cheap grace on others was not likely to ask for any himself.
And so I ask you to be patient in things of the Spirit. Perhaps your life has been different from mine, but I doubt it. I have had to struggle to know my standing before God. As a teenager I found it hard to pray and harder to fast. My mission was not easy. I struggled as a student only to find that I had to struggle afterwards, too. In this present assignment I have wept and ached for guidance. It seems no worthy accomplishment has ever come easily for me, but I’m living long enough to be grateful for that.
It is ordained that we come to know our worth as a child of god without something as dramatic as a leap from the pinnacle of the temple. All but a prophetic few must go about God’s work in very quiet, very unspectacular ways. And as you labor to know him, and to know that he knows you; as you invest your time—and inconvenience—in quiet, unassuming service, you will indeed find that “his angels [have] charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up.” (Matt. 4:6.) It may not come quickly. It probably won’t come quickly, but there is purpose in the time it takes. Cherish your spiritual burdens because God will converse with you through them and will use you to do his work if you carry them well.
Jeffrey R. Holland, then-President of BYU
"The Inconvenient Messiah", Ensign, Feb. 1984, 68
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