THE TEMPTATION OF JESUS
The nearly impossible odds
Once he arrived on Earth, Christ did not fully know what his mission would require.
Over time, he began to sense what lay ahead. He had a vague idea—just like any of us might have a vague idea—of the task he had signed up for.
Like any human being, he did not know how it would end.
He wasn’t supposed to know this.
That was the whole point.
Then, after a certain time, the angels who had been near him throughout his life had to withdraw.
This underscores the point that while the teachings he brought were important and magnificent, they weren’t the main event.
They were a secondary gift.
It seems impossible that anyone could do it. But Jesus Christ did.
The suffering of Christ
It’s like that with God’s world.
When something good happens that is in alignment with God’s will, more than one good thing can come of it.
Many factors will often play a role.
This is something the divine knows how to do very well. In fact, great amounts of effort go into such things from the other side.
This is true in all our lives.
Bringing his teachings, then, was not the full reason that Jesus came.
Beautiful as those teachings are, they weren’t new. Others had come before him saying much the same things.
He had adjusted them for the times in which he was living, since humankind is forever evolving in its development.
But that’s all he really did on that score.
The big reason was this task to resist the temptations of Lucifer.
Christ had to stand on his own during those crucial times.
And Lucifer did his very best, making the greatest effort imaginable, to cause Christ to fall.
Clearly, Lucifer is by no means stupid, even if he lacks wisdom and insight.
Nor is he without enormously great resources in his own dark powers.
So there is Christ, experiencing nothing but suffering—both physical and psychological—on top of humiliation that we can only imagine.
The physical suffering was bad, but these others were far worse.
At the same time, he was getting hit with every temptation the world of darkness could think of to throw at him.
Of course, Christ, being Christ, was what we’d call psychic to the maximum degree.
His skills as a medium, in every respect, were developed beyond what anyone else has been able to do before him or since.
When God’s world was tucked up close to him, this was a major advantage.
But when he was cut off from them, it became twice as hard.
Because then, the only manifestations coming through his psychic channels came from Lucifer’s realm.
Through his clairvoyance, Christ first came into contact with beings from Lucifer’s highest ranks.
Later, it would be Lucifer himself.
With his highly advanced skills, Lucifer was able to present himself as this incredibly beautiful being.
In this form, he promised to bring Jesus all the worldly advantages he could ever hope for, if only he would give in.
Then, Lucifer assured him, Jesus would be instantly released from all his sufferings.
All he had to do was give up his allegiance to God.
In Jesus’ worst moments, Lucifer would taunt him, saying,
“Where is your God of love and justice now?
“If he really existed, do you think he’d let you suffer like this? You, his beloved son?
“If your God can’t offer you any more than this, wouldn’t you be better off with me?
“Look at what I can offer you.
“Your God, he can only offer you intense suffering and hardship in every way possible.”
It was inevitable that Jesus would experience doubt.
Passing the ultimate test
Let’s give some deep thought to all of this.
If Jesus had known the whole situation, including what his greater task was, it wouldn’t have been half so hard. But again, that was exactly the point.
It was inevitable that Jesus would experience doubt.
He would doubt his true identity.
And he would doubt there being anything wise to going through all of this.
That there was any good purpose to all he was going through, much of which he couldn’t understand at the time.
He also had doubts about everything he had learned in the previous years.
He often wondered if he wasn’t under some kind of illusion.
Was all his previous knowledge just the product of his imagination?
In those moments of deep doubt, guess who would be right there at his side.
Lucifer.
Jesus Christ did not have an easy time of it—by any measure.
It’s not hard to see what a challenge it had to have been for him.
He was a human being, separated from absolute truth by the veil of matter.
Yet he had to remain faithful to God and not give in to those temptations, which were amplified by the hardships he endured.
If conditions were not such that even Christ might have doubted at times, his task wouldn’t have been so incredible.
To make all this happen, the obstacles put in his path had to be that much bigger than for the average person.
Material substance is a barrier, a curtain, that everyone has to grope to open.
Jesus Christ had to do that too, but under far more extreme conditions.
Even these explanations barely touch what he had to endure.
Even these explanations barely touch what he had to endure.
What Christ accomplished
We cannot begin to comprehend what it meant that one could remain on the right path under those circumstances.
All the while, not fully understanding what was going on.
Then to have the humility, despite all the passing doubts, to put God first.
And to do so even above his own suffering and lack of understanding.
That really was the task.
It seems absolutely impossible that anyone could do it.
But Jesus Christ did.
This accomplished two things.
First, it fulfilled the conditions whereby the world of darkness could never again deny God’s laws, claiming them to be unjust.
Second, Jesus set an example for all of us to follow.
So when we find ourselves suffering and we don’t understand why, we can think of Jesus within this setting of the true story of salvation.
Think of his suffering as something very real.
This is not some imaginary legend or myth.
It happened this way, with Jesus enduring difficulties as real as our own, only far worse.
If we see Christ’s suffering in this light, it becomes easier for us to follow his example.
To walk in humility and let God lead the way.
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