The Reverently Irreverent Bible Commentary Series: Matthew Chapter 4
- Ben Askins
- Apr 23
- 4 min read
The Reverently Irreverent Anti-Scholarly Bible Commentary Series
Let’s take that soft, sanitized Christian nonsense and strangle it with its own rosary beads. You want Matthew Chapter Four through the eyes of a man who’s not trying to be saved or worshiped—but emptied?
This isn’t the gospel of your potluck, your community group or your political protests.
This is the gospel of the one who walks into the desert not to win, but to disappear.
Matthew Chapter 4
The Desert Doesn’t Care About Your Destiny
(The Anti-Hero’s Gospel According to Saint Doc)
Verse 1
“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”
Oh cool.
The Spirit just yeeted God into the badlands with the express purpose of feeding him to the wolf.
Let that sink in.
This isn’t Satan hijacking the mission.
This is divine intent: strip him down, throw him out, see what’s left.
This is not a test of strength.
It’s a ritual disemboweling from the inside out.
Verse 2
“After forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.”
No shit.
He wasn’t just hungry.
He was deconstructed.
No crowd.
No miracle juice.
No divine Bluetooth connection.
Just wind, dust, the rumble of his empty stomach and the faintest echo of his own empty identity groaning into the void.
And right when he hits absolute zero—
The devil shows up.
Verse 3
“If you are the Son of God, turn these stones into bread.”
Translation:
“Make it matter. Prove you’re special. Fix your pain.”
This is always the first temptation:
Take your emptiness and fill it with performance.
Perform for God.
Perform for man.
Perform for the last gasp of your ego that’s not dead yet.
But Jesus doesn’t say, “I don’t need to.”
He says:
“I don’t eat from that table anymore.”
Verses 5–6
Satan takes him to the top of the temple.
“Jump. The angels will catch you. Scripture says so.”
This is the celebrity martyr complex.
Turn your suffering into spectacle.
Make your pain your brand.
Alchemize your trauma.
Use God as your PR team.
"Share your testimony."
Be a superhero.
Jesus shrugs it off.
“I don’t test the Source.”
Translation:
“I don’t need to jump. I'm already at the bottom.”
Verses 8–9
The devil’s final offer:
“Worship me and I’ll give you the world.”
Now we’re talking.
Forget bread. Forget temples.
Here’s the Big Lie:
“If you just bow a little…
You can save everyone.
You can be The One.
You can make all the suffering worth it.”
And Jesus finally snaps:
“Get the fuck outta my face.”
Because that’s it, right?
That’s The Lie That Makes Heroes.
The lie that gets young men and women to go to war.
Fight our shadow overseas.
The lie that leaves partners at home to raise children alone.
For freedom.
The lie that you can be Somebody, if you'll just sign on the dotted line.
Raise your right hand and swear to God.
And it’s the lie he came to kill once and for all.
Verse 10
“Worship God. Serve only Him.”
But not the God in temples.
Not the God in crowns, waving flags.
Not the God who rewards the good children and punishes bad ones.
He’s talking about the God behind God.
The no-name.
The no-thing.
The un-sparked flamethrower at the center of the void.
Verse 11
The devil leaves. Angels show up.
Not to celebrate.
To clean up the wreckage.
Because that’s what it is:
A cosmic detonation of identity.
Jesus walks out of the desert not as a man with a mission,
but as an apocalypse under a thin layer of flesh.
Verses 12–17
John the Baptist gets arrested. Jesus hears the news.
Does he grieve?
Does he retaliate?
Nope.
He relocates. Starts preaching.
Same words as John:
“Repent. The kingdom is here.”
Same fire, different light. Different tone.
John said it like a warning.
Jesus says it like he already poured the gas and dropped the match.
Verses 18–22
He sees fishermen. Says, “Follow me.”
No resumes. No interviews.
No contracts. No 401k.
Just:
“Drop everything and walk toward the fire.”
And they do.
Because real truth doesn’t convince.
It simply is.
Verses 23–25
He heals. He teaches. The crowds come.
But don’t be fooled.
He’s not building a movement.
He’s luring the illusion closer so he can slit its throat.
He’s not saving them.
He’s unraveling them.
Separating the Somebodies from the Nobodies.
Final Transmission: The Anti-Hero’s Truth
You will never be enough.
And that’s the point.
The desert doesn’t care about your destiny.
It exists to burn off the part of you that needs one.
Jesus didn’t “resist temptation.”
He died to the part of him that could be tempted.
He didn’t beat the devil.
He outgrew the need for one.
This is not a hero’s journey.
It’s a zero’s unveiling.
The wilderness is waiting.
The devil has your favorite flavor loaded up.
The only question is:
Will you endure enough to disappear?
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