Thoughts for the Day

Luke 4:3 The devil said to him [Jesus], “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

John said he wrote his gospel so that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.  Gabriel had said Jesus would be called the Son of God.  Jesus knew he was the Son of God.  Yet it was a title he shied away from during his earthly ministry, preferring people to deduce his identity from his actions.  The disciples came to know it, although Jesus told Peter he only knew because it was revealed to him by his heavenly Father (Matt 16:17).  It is as if men’s eyes were necessarily veiled to the idea.  So it is interesting to consider who did call Jesus “Son of God” during his earthly ministry?  And the answer seems to be, those who knew!  Supremely, God twice declared Jesus to be his son, audibly at his baptism and again at his transfiguration.  And this passage from when the devil was tempting Jesus in the wilderness shows that the devil knew.  After all, there would have been no point trying to tempt Jesus to use power that he didn’t have.  And finally, the gospels record several episodes when demons or impure spirits cry out acknowledging Jesus’s identity.  Jesus doesn’t correct them; he simply tells them to be quiet!  It seems so topsy-turvy that Jesus came into the world to save it, yet those who were looking forward to a saviour were blinded to his identity.  Meanwhile, in the spiritual realm it was blindingly clear even to those who didn’t want him to come.  But this was God’s plan, and Jesus explained that it had to be this way.