Full and Led

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

FULL AND LED

Luke 4:1-2

4:1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

NIV

We are about to enter into the time where we will see the narrative between Jesus and Satan showing us three of the temptations placed before Jesus. Because of what was written about him in the letter to the Hebrews it gives us the impression that Jesus suffered temptations even more than a normal human so that he could help us through ours. The point is Jesus was fully God and fully man, we have to understand that he was faced with temptation every day as we are, even though we are told in this passage that he was tempted for forty days by the devil.  If the only three temptations he ever faced were what we are going to see next, he would not be fully human. We will examine this further as we get into that narrative but for now we should focus on the fact that first Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit and second he was led by the Spirit in the desert. Of course we would expect nothing less than Jesus being full of the Spirit, as they are both part of the trinity, the God head. So why are we being told he was full of the Spirit. It would seem this is to show us an example of how we should live our lives so that when we are faced with temptations we will be able to withstand them. If we are full of the Spirit we will be able to take our stand against the flaming arrows of the evil one. It is the Spirit who provides us with that shield of faith as well as the helmet of salvation, protecting our minds from those thoughts that would lead us to sinful behavior. Temptation first starts in the mind, then it motivates behavior and when that behavior is completed it becomes sin. So we need to be full of the Spirit so that we might overcome temptation. The second lesson here is that Jesus was led by the Spirit. Again, could we expect anything less? So once again this serves to show us we should also be led by the Spirit. That would not only imply, but would forthrightly shout it right out. We should be led by the Spirit. This means we do not own the right to make life decisions, that belongs to the Spirit and he will lead us. We might also learn, because Jesus ate nothing for those days, that resisting temptations is not without cost. It may very well be that we will have forgo something in our resistance of certain, if not all, temptations. We see here that Jesus ate nothing for those days, but in other accounts we are also told that after, the angels feed him. God will always provide. That is to say we cannot go about living life as if we have no temptations and do whatever suits our fancy. Being full of and led by the Spirit is totally different than living life our own way and if we most forgo something, God will provide something better. It is far better than anything we could ever live. Let us be full and led.