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The devil led him (Jesus) up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, \u201cI will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.\u201d Jesus answered, \u201cIt is written: \u2018Worship the Lord your God and serve him only\u2019\u201d (Luke 4:5-8).

The second temptation the devil tosses Jesus\u2019 way, hits home for many of us. Who has not dreamed, or at least day-dreamed, of a little bit more glory and honour than we currently have? Who of us hasn\u2019t found herself thinking that she deserves more responsibility? We can handle it, we tell ourselves; we are more qualified than the person currently wielding it.

Most of us have a little turf that we control, even if its only as small as our desk at work, or a bit larger, like the lives of our children or spouse. We want control, to run things our way, to have a space in life that is predictable. When we start losing control we lash out, we blame, we criticize, we force people back into compliance; we set the ship back into order, our order.

The gift of authority and splendour meets a deep heart need within all of us. God created us with it. Created in the image of God, we were given responsibility over creation and crowned with the splendour of God himself. Addressing God, Psalm 8 puts this in poetic form, you \u201ccrowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands\u2026\u201d (5,6).

We were meant to govern the cosmos according to God\u2019s design. But we thought we had found a better way. When our first parents choose the way of disobedience, we lost control over the creation; our ability to shepherd it slipped from our fingers. Jesus came to restore us to this glory and splendour, that we might re-take our rightful place over creation. Not control for our own sake, to puff up our egos, but rather, that through us, the creation gives glory to God.

In temptations of power and status, Satan offers us something that we were created and redeemed for. The heavenly choirs sing that Jesus redeems us to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and to reign on the earth (Revelation 5:10). But it is not the devils to give. And ironically, worshipping him will bring us further and further from our intended goal.

But our text is about the temptation of Jesus. God does want him to become sovereign over the world, as Gabriel had told Mary (Luke 1:32). So why not go for it in one easy stride? Because the path to kingship is humble service, not a devilish seeking after status and power.

Jesus\u2019 life is to be used for restoring others to life and strength, as his miracles demonstrate, not for cheap stunts. His status as God\u2019s son commits him, not to showy prestige, but to the strange path of humility, service and finally death. The road to kingship is through self-sacrifice, not in grasping for power.

So, Jesus responds to the devil not by attempting to argue. A lesson we do well to follow. Arguing with temptation is a way of playing with the idea until it becomes too attractive to resist. Rather, he quotes scripture with a passage recited daily by the Israelites.

The Christian discipline of fighting temptation is not about self-hatred or rejecting a good time. Our resistance to temptation is love and loyalty to the God who has already named us his beloved children in Christ. Loving God with all of our hearts, souls, mind and strength, in other words, worship, is the way to resist. Those who resist intimacy with God are most easily seduced by the glamour of power or control.

Jesus calls us to follow him in the path which leads to the true glory. In that glory lies the true happiness, the true fulfilment, which neither world, nor flesh, nor devil can begin to imitate. The problem is that this pathway is the not the fast way. And it is not the easy way. It does often feel like plodding along. And it calls us to sacrifice. Satan tries to subvert our walk with God by offering shortcuts to spirituality\u2014which are dead ends. In response, we must rely on God walking the hard road with him. Trust him, he will give us authority and splendour.