Temptation by Abraham Hunter

I’ve been told that great art flows from great pain. I entered my studio one gloomy day and had been really getting in the mud battling a problem I wish I could say I’ve conquered... anxiety. A scripture I read in Hebrews came to my mind, which says Christ was tempted in all points like we are, yet without sin. It warmed my heart that everything I was facing, Christ already went through and overcame. His time in the wilderness quickly became my next painting! 

I don’t have room to write the whole story but it’s in Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13. Jesus was tempted with hunger and illness from 40 days of fasting. He was tempted with doubts of if he was truly the Son of God. Tested on His knowledge of the scripture and tempted with every conceivable thing of wealth and glory on earth if He only bowed to Satan. In this painting, we see Christ high in the desert, with the stones in front of him tempting him to turn them into bread. We see the temple that was built in Jerusalem and all the kingdoms of the world behind him in the valley. In the dark tangled clouds of confusion, you can see the author of confusion himself, Satan, in the form of a dark cloud seeming to pass through Jesus’ mind, where so many of our hardest fought battles take place. But Jesus is the hero of the story and the inspiration for us all when we are in our wildernesses. Jesus just simply turns away from everything around him and looks up to the light of heaven. 

When I apply this painting to myself, I see the stones as my temptations in life, biggest to smallest. The temple reminds me that man-made religion and religious law without the Spirit and a relationship with Christ is perhaps one of the most overlooked temptations to ensnare one’s life. And when I look at the riches and glory of the kingdoms of the earth, I am reminded that He is my provider and not by the power of my own hand do I prosper.