We’re looking today at a classic story about Jesus being tempted by the devil in the desert. The devil is the voice of temptation that many Christians believe is a voice that comes from within each of us.
The comedian Flip Wilson built a character around that truth. He’d dress in drag as “Geraldine” and whenever she got into trouble she’d yell out “The devil made made do it!” Hysterical but also profoundly true. Like the INXS song “Devil Inside”: Michael Hutchence sang “Here comes the man with the look in his eye. Fed on nothing but full of pride.”
Do you ever hear that voice? Tempting you away from what you know you should be doing and toward a place you know you shouldn’t be near? Of course you do. It’s human to be tempted.
As we know now, Jesus resisted that voice and lived the life God had called him into. In the same story he shows us how we can too. That’s not just useful information. It’s life saving.