Jesus' temptations were worse than ours

A striking thought from a sermon by The Revd Glen Scrivener, commenting on Hebrews 4:15:

His temptations were harder than ours.  They weren’t easier because He’s righteous – they were harder for Him.  He felt MORE temptation than any of us.  Think about it, if we’re tempted to lose our temper after a minute of aggravation, we call that a short fuse.  Imagine resisting that urge for 3 minutes of constant aggravation.  After 3 minutes, you feel the temptation more don’t you?  Because the more you resist, the more you feel it.  What about 3 hours of constant aggravation?  What about 3 years?  What about a life-time – and never giving in.  You see the person who resists temptation knows more about temptation than the person who caves in, don’t they?  Jesus knows more about evil than any of us.  Because He resisted it, minute by minute, hour by hour, day in, day out for the whole of His life.

Think of a forest that is flattened by a hurricane.  Every tree is blown down except one.  You might be tempted to think that the trees that were flattened really felt the storm.  They felt very little of it.  It’s the last tree standing that has felt the full force of the gale.  Christ is the last man standing.  And every hurricane of temptation beat against Him and beat against Him and beat against Him.  And He stood.