Jesus' Temptations: Pride

Jesus was the unique Son of God, joined with flesh (John 3:16).  Nobody else will ever be in that position.  So he was pretty special (he still is, too!).  So as Satan tempts Jesus a third time, he tries to convince Jesus that even if he throws himself off the highest point of the Temple, the Father will protect him.  After all, Satan's thinking seems to be, how would God fulfill his plan for us without Jesus, who is the plan in flesh? 

Jesus turns Satan down, cold.  “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’ ”  What's that about, not getting on God's nerves or something?  No, it's about recognizing our place and not thinking too highly of ourselves.  Jesus is quoting Deut. 6:16, where Moses warns the Israelites not to try stretching the limits of God's patience and mercy.  God's patience is infinite -- after all, he controls time and everything else -- but when the Israelites insisted on continuing to do what would harm them, and treated God's generosity with contempt, it was against their own best interests to let them continue. So he stopped them.  

What did Jesus have in mind in quoting this scripture?  Somewhat the same idea:  "God is loving and generous, but don't get your pride inflated about it."  When we test the limits of God's generosity, what we're saying is that we are so important that God can't get along without us.  Not a very good notion.  Not even for the unique Son of God.  Absolutely not for us! 

Jesus recognized his own limitations and his complete dependence on God.  In short, Jesus was humble, not proud. That is our example, which we should follow a lot more often than we do. (Side note:  it's a good thing Jesus did this perfectly too, because we never will!)  So what kind of trouble do we get ourselves into by being proud?  By over-estimating our own importance, pride creates other negative reactions, like: 

• Anger ("don't you realize I'm more important than you?")
• Hurt feelings and unforgiveness ("how dare this person treat me like that!") 
• Discontent ("that didn't turn out the way I deserve")
• Impatience ("hurry up, you're wasting MY time!")

By going willingly to the cross, Jesus showed his humility once more.  He absorbed the shame, the curse, the weight of all our sin; and he even forgave those who put him there (Luke 23:34).  We would all do well to ask God to show us our pride.  Then, when we see it, not to 'swallow our pride,' but to regurgitate it and leave it behind, as we follow Jesus.