Today’s text is about the Temptation of Jesus. Right after Jesus is baptized, he is led by the Spirit out into the wilderness. Matthew says that the purpose for Jesus to go into the wilderness was not to prepare for his ministry to begin, his reason for entering the wilderness was not to rest before his schedule got really busy with work. According to Matthew’s gospel, the reason that Jesus was led into the wilderness was in order to be tempted by the devil. Why would the spirit lead Jesus to this place? To a place of temptation by the enemy? I believe that there can be multiple right answers to this question, just like there can be multiple wrong answers. 

One answer I want to supply here is so that the express reason for sending Jesus into the wilderness was to show his power over the enemy. To show that the devil could not defeat Jesus in the battle over his own heart, and would not beat Jesus in the war over the hearts of man. Jesus would display his power beginning in this time in the desert, and each day for the next three years performing miracle after miracle, and would one day show all of his power by defeating death and hell all together. This is the Savior that we have in Christ. He showed his love for us by taking on the punishment for our sin. He showed his power by defeating death by raising again back to life. He has defeated the enemy once and for all.