Was Jesus really tempted?
I had the amazing blessing of spending some time with some of our senior guys this early this morning before school started. We were reading together in Hebrews 2 and when we got to verse 18 an interesting discussion began. "Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted." What an interesting thought. Did Jesus really suffer when he was tempted? Take those days in the wilderness for example. When Jesus was tempted by Satan to turn rocks into bread or to throw himself off the highest point of the temple to see if the angels really would catch him, do you think he was really tempted to do those things? I mean did he want to? Did he want to make those rocks into bread? Think about the situation for a second. Was a man who had not eaten for forty days really tempted to make some hot fresh bread from a stone cold rock even though he was Jesus? Didn't Jesus get hungry? Adn when standing face to face with the one who had caused tremendous destruction to the human race that Jesus loved enough to die for, did he feel a longing to throw himself off that temple to watch the glorious display if only just to remind satan who he was talking to. I wonder who would have caught satan if he had jumped. So what do you think did Jesus want to do these things are not? Did he really suffer when he was tempted? For that matter do you believe that this was the only time that Jesus was tempted?