Then Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.' "

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be temped by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread." But He answered and said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.' "

Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written:

'He shall give His angels charge over you,'

and

'In their hands they shall bear you up,

Lest you dash your foot against a stone.' "

Jesus said to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.' "

Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me." Then Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.' " Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.

- Matthew 4:1-11

On Saturday, in our previous reading, we read of Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist. John has been preparing all the people for the coming Kingdom, and the awaited Messiah. He does this by baptizing a baptism of repentance, but he has told all that the One who is coming after him "will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." When Jesus asks to be baptized, John told Him, "I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?" But Jesus asserted this was "fitting to fulfill all righteousness." As Jesus came up from the water, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be temped by the devil. We note that Jesus was led up by the Spirit to the wilderness, in order to be tempted. It is a kind of mission, and a mirror in our own struggles with faith, that where we are led to be tested in our faith, the Spirit is also with us. And when we experience such tests, we should understand that this is where faith will take us, even where it becomes perfected. We recall the answer St. Paul received in response to his prayer: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." So, he wrote: "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me" (2 Cor. 12:9). My study bible points out that the wilderness is "a battleground, a picture of the world, at once the abode of demons and a source of divine tranquility and contemplation."

And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread." But He answered and said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.' " My study bible points out that this temptation is based on the Father's declaration at Jesus' baptism, that He is the Son of God, and it is to test that sonship. He is asked to abuse the divine powers, to detach from Sonship and the will of the Father. Jesus' choice is to invest more deeply in "every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." One cannot forgo the relationship with God for the purely material. And so, in His temptation and refusal, Christ establishes that His kingdom is here for the sake of the Father's will -- that it must be allied to all that we do in life, even a foundation for all things, and we - and He - are not separated from that relationship. By adoption, we are all children of God. Hence, Jesus' great example to us all of the need we have for the kingdom, and our relatedness to Our Father, at all times. In itself, this is the victory over all temptations -- we don't live for the material life alone.

Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: 'He shall give His angels charge over you,' and 'In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.' " The holy city is Jerusalem. Once again, Jesus' divine powers are tested or tempted. Can He prove who He is? Does He need to prove God's love to Himself? This is a sly trick. My study bible writes: "Will Jesus depend on spectacular signs and self-aggrandizement, or will He humbly submit to persecution, humiliation and death according to the Father's will?" And there is a deeper message here, about how faith will come, and how it is taught. There must be an acceptance of relationship to the Father before we recognize the Son. Jesus will always emphasize this element of faith, as He does at Peter's confession ("For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven," ch. 16). His signs are never designed as spectacular proofs to unbelievers, and He will be tempted again in ironically similar fashion.

Jesus said to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.' " Are we the ones who give challenges to God, or does it work the other way around? We don't pick and choose the trials of faith for ourselves. We simply don't know ourselves well enough to do so! My study bible says, "God's Kingdom is not one of earthly spectacle and fame. Therefore we should never expose ourselves to danger just to test whether God is going to 'protect' us. To do so is to tempt the LORD."

Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me." We note carefully that all three temptations have to do with the material or "earthly" life alone, in some sense, and whether or not we place that over and above -- or even instead of -- our membership in the Kingdom, our relatedness to the Father. The power of bodily hunger (and any other physical demand or impulse), the power of the appeal to fame and the opinion of others or "worldly glory," the power of wealth and material power over others. We note that this last temptation is really an appeal to worship that which is not God, to exchange worship of the true God for worship of something else. At heart this temptation is the asking to make an exchange for faith in the true God. If you consider the appeal of possessions in the world, one must consider the powerful pull of such temptation. Expand "possessions" to include all the things we may wish we had in life, and it is quite a powerful pull indeed. What is worth the exchange? And how clever the hidden message here really is.

Then Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.' " Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him. Christ answers with the ultimate response to temptation to worship something other than God, to betray the loyalty of good faith. He cuts to the heart of the temptation of worldly power. What is more important? And yet, He will also promise His disciples, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." So much depends on what we put first. We recall Jesus' first great commandment. Somewhere between "the world" and ourselves, God has to slip in. In this sense Christ is the great intercessor not only between ourselves and the Father, but He brings with Him the Father and the Spirit as our mediators to life in this world, and to all that is in us from the world. Also, here Jesus asserts His own authority as Son, by giving a commandment Himself: "Away with you, Satan." Ironically, it is Jesus who has the power, although Satan asks Christ to worship him. Christ has come here to replace the "ruler of this world" (see John 12:31). And in this we also seek His power at work within us as mediator.

So, in understanding today's passage we see the essential nature of the temptations to our faith. It all comes down to that first great commandment, it seems to me. What is it that we put first? What comes before all else? How are you tempted in your life to leave your faith behind, or even to forsake or forgo a relationship to Our Father, possibly in the belief that you will receive something else that would be nice in its place? Let's understand the clever or sly nature of the temptations posed to Christ. All the things God knows are necessary to us - "your Father knows what you need before you ask Him" - still do not come before that relationship, but rather within that loving embrace. Temptations ask us to forget that, and to embrace a worship of something else, a form of idolatry, no matter what that "something else" might be. Let's also remember, when we struggle in our own faith, that it is the Spirit that leads Jesus to the wilderness and temptation and struggle, and that the Spirit is always with us in our own struggles. So call on the Spirit, call on "Our Father" in prayer, call upon Christ who has already been there with us. Remember the answer to St. Paul, in our own imperfection and weakness: And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.