Dear Church Family,

I read this and it was so insightful I wanted to share it with you all:

The Devil Left Him Until an Opportune Time

John closes his Gospel by saying that Jesus did many other things, but if all those details were included, the world itself would not be a big enough library to hold all the books.

It’s a good reminder to us that there are huge gaps in our knowledge, not only of what Jesus did but also of what he suffered. Yes, God has given us everything we *need* to know about our Lord’s life in the four Gospels, but nowhere near everything we *could have known.*

Among those “could-have-knowns” is how many times the devil tempted Jesus.

In Luke 4, at the end of the temptation account, Luke writes that the devil left Jesus “until an opportune time” (4:13). I suspect we focus so much on those 40 days in the wilderness that we almost unconsciously treat it as a “season of temptation” that Jesus just had to get through, and then he could move on.

But “opportune times” would have come quite frequently:

• when John was beheaded
• when Jesus was viciously maligned
• when his own family thought him crazy
• when Peter rebuked him for talking about getting crucified

when the crowds only wanted a “bread king”

Opportune times galore.

So, as you read through the life of Jesus, know that there is a dark and malicious shadow lurking in some of these narratives, looking for opportunities.

And, whenever those happened, thanks be to God that Jesus had a Scripture in his mind, and maybe even on his tongue, that with the sword of the Spirit, he might pierce the lie and go on living the life of obedience to his Father that, by faith, has been reckoned to us.

Have a great week!

Press On!

Mark