Signs and Prefigurations in the Gospels
With the coming of Jesus, the relationship signs/revelation of God finds its fulfillment. Jesus is the sign of God par excellence, the “primordial” or “original” sign of God. In God’s communication with human beings, what comes first is Christ himself. He is the incarnate Word of God, he human face of God, God’s own body language. The Logos came to concrete existence in the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth. The mutual encounter of human beings and God takes place through the bodiliness (humanity) of Christ. No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. (John 1.18.)
In the Gospels, signs and symbolic meanings are almost omnipresent: not only in miraculous works, but in everyday “unspectacular” non-miraculous events which constitute a large part of Jesus’ ministry. To attempt a complete and systematic classification of signs, symbols and prefigurations in the Gospels goes far beyond the scope of our present study. Instead, we will content ourselves with a few selected texts which, I hope, will illustrate the scope and importance of “sign theology” as an interpretative principle for reading Scripture and understanding the Christian faith. In my opinion, it is second only to the Purpose of God.
The Temptations of Jesus
Luke 4.1-13 (NIV): 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. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone.’” 5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 So if you worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’” 9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written:” ‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; 11 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” 12 Jesus answered, “It says: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
The first key for understanding the account of the temptations is that Jesus is going to face this trial out of obedience to the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit, source of all revelation about God’s eternal purpose, wants the Son to go through this experience. From the very beginning, these temptations were a part of God’s plan for his Son. They are one of the conditions imposed upon the Son who is submitted to the Father’s will as he has understood it from reading Scripture.
(It is possible that the Spirit led Jesus into the desert by some kind of inner voice or direct revelation, but many passages in the Gospels seem to indicate that Jesus’ knowledge of God’s plan and timetable for him comes from his correct understanding of the Spirit’s thought as expressed in the Old Testament. Just as Israel’s temptation in the desert followed its “baptism” in the Red Sea, so does Jesus’ desert trial follow his immersion by John the Baptist.)
A number of parallels indicate that Jesus is in a sense reliving the trials that the Israelites underwent after the exodus from Egypt. Israel’s experience finds a new fulfillment in the experience of the Son of God. The difference is that where Israel succumbed to the temptations and showed itself to be unworthy of the title of son, Jesus expresses his divine sonship by his faithfulness. By his victory over Satan, he reveals himself as being, he alone, the faithful remnant, the true Israel, the only Son of God.
(1) God chose Israel as his beloved son (Exodus 4.22) and called him out of Egypt.
(2) The crossing of the Red Sea is compared by the apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 10.2) to a baptism of the people.
(3) To educate the Israelites as a father educates his son, God leads them into the desert by a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud, images which represent the Spirit of God (Isaiah 63.11, 14).
(4) The trial of Israel lasts “40” years (Deuteronomy 8.2; 9.9 with 1 Kings 19.8). The temptations of Jesus last “40” days.
(5) All three answers that Jesus gives to Satan are quoted from chapters 6 and 8 of Deuteronomy (8.3; 6.13; 6.16), which are a theological commentary on Israel wilderness wanderings.
The itinerary of the chosen people, the “son of God”, called out of Egypt across the waters of the Red Sea and bound for the promised land is thus a prophetic prefiguration of the ministry to be accomplished by the Messiah. Jesus assumes in his own person the prefigurative history of Israel and brings it to its fulfillment.
The baptism of Jesus has just inaugurated his messianic ministry, a ministry of the suffering servant who gives his life to redeem men from their sins. The Messiah will establish his glorious reign only by accepting a life of humiliation and a violent death. The three temptations of Jesus all have essentially the same point. The devil offers an alternative program which entails no humiliations, no dangers, no sufferings and especially no cross. All of Satan’s tactics are designed to persuade Jesus to not go down the road of suffering that the Father had marked out for him in the Old Testament.
The point of the first temptation is the idea that adversity (hunger and fatigue) is incompatible with the dignity of the Messiah. And yet it is God who has submitted his Son to the trial of hunger, in order to teach him obedience (Deuteronomy 8.1-5; Hebrews 5.8). Jesus refuses to nullify by a miracle God’s purpose, even if this purpose involves hardships. 4 The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat! 5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. 6 But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!” (Numbers 11:4-6.) Jesus answers: “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone.’” (Luke 4.4.)
The second temptation appeals to the prophetic promises that universal dominion over all nations would be given to the Messiah. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. (Psalm 2.8.) God promises the Messiah universal rule; Satan makes him the same promise. Which of the two is lying? Can the devil give the kingdoms to Jesus? No, God alone possesses sovereignty over the nations and does with them anything he what he wants to. “The Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes.” (Daniel 4.25.) God alone has the prerogative of giving the Messiah all power on earth and in heaven.
Having said that, God allows the devil to exercise great influence over the kingdoms of the world and even to secure political power and glory for his human lackeys (Revelation 13). But this influence is the influence of lies, deception and corruption; it is exercised through hunger for glory, violence, greed, militarism, injustice, the worship of power. Behind every political idolatry hides the twisted face of Satan.
Once again, Jesus’ answer presents a vivid contrast with Israel’s attitude. As they enter the land of Canaan, the chosen people will be tempted to worship the gods that are honored in the land and who are considered its masters. They will seek to gain their favor, they will act as if the conquest and the enjoyment of the land depended on their good graces instead of on God’s. In the same way, the Son of God is to receive authority over a pagan and idolatrous world that has fallen under the power of the dark prince. Wouldn’t it be wise for Jesus to seek to make with Satan, the prince of this world, the same compromises that the Israelites sought to make with the canaanite gods? To follow another path to kingship, the path followed by the great political leaders of the world: not accepting suffering but inflicting suffering?
For Jesus, to turn away from God’s methods and to adopt the methods of the world is idolatry. “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’” (Luke 4.8.)
Satan’s strategy in the third temptation is not for Jesus to back up his claim to messiahship by impressing the crowds of Jerusalem with a spectacular sign, but to want God to miraculously get him out of any dangerous or painful situation. Jesus knows and accepts (John 12.27-28; Matthew 26.51-54) that God has destined the Messiah to be despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering (Isaiah 53.3), in order to bear our infirmities. The Israelites, having just been freed from Egyptian slavery, were afraid that they would die of thirst in the desert and complained against God: “Is the Lord among us or not?” (Exodus 17.7.) Jesus refuses to test God by acting as if his calling and special mission should protect him against all danger that could threaten him.
This account is meant to teach us not only that Jesus is the Messiah but also in what manner he intends to accomplish his messianic mission. Two different paths open up before him: one would be easy and pleasing to his human nature; the other is the path of self-denial and suffering. To follow the first path would be to imitate Israel’s faithlessness in the desert and to put himself in Satan’s service. No, here at the beginning of his ministry, Jesus will deliberately choose the path of faithfulness to God’s purpose. The Son refuses to be the temporal political Messiah his people are dreaming of, because that, ultimately, is exactly where Satan wants to lead him. Jesus knows that he cannot adopt the popular conceptions of messiahship without betraying God’s plan. It is the Father he intends to serve, in a humble and loving obedience that will lead him all the way to the cross.
Prayer
Lord, be yourself our strength in times of trial. May the grace of humility keep us in fear of betrayal and careful watchfulness. May your grace keep us in your paths, in giving us victory over our enemies, both visible and invisible, and lead us to the goal that we wish to attain: the eternal temple of your glory. Amen.