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Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted for 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,Jesus said to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.'"
lest you dash your foot against a stone.'"
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
In yesterday's reading, John the Baptist was baptizing in the Jordan. Jesus came to him from Galilee to be baptized. John protested that he would not do so: "I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?" But Jesus
answered and said to him, "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is
fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." When Jesus came up from the water, immediately 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 tempted by the devil. The language here is clear: it is the Spirit that "throws" or hurtles Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted. My study bible points out that the wilderness is a kind of battleground, a picture of the world -- "at once the abode of demons and a source of divine tranquility and contemplation." It points out also that no matter what we are called upon to confront in life, we, like Jesus, always have the Spirit with us.
And when He had fasted for 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." At the Baptism, the Father's voice proclaimed, "This is My beloved son, in whom I am well pleased." The first temptation here tests that relationship. Jesus is tested in terms of how He will use that power and that relationship. But He has told us in John's Gospel, at the farewell discourse in the Last Supper, that "all things that the Father has are mine." In this temptation in the wilderness, that is as true as elsewhere. Jesus will not use His powers except in the will of the Father.
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.'" This is the answer that proclaims how Jesus will use his own human free will. His life and ministry will evolve only "by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." My study bible points out that this temptation in the wilderness overturns the sin of Adam; Jesus resists his own personal impulse to hunger in order to serve God first, to put God's word first.
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.'" My study bible says that the holy city is Jerusalem. But the full quality of this reading must be understood in terms of spiritual battle; Jesus is in a mystical arena, and the stakes here are much higher than one man's temptations. In a sense, in this sort of battle, a spiritual arena is without boundary (therefore He can be taken into Jerusalem, on the pinnacle of the temple). Hence, in this sort of struggle, which is also the struggle of prayer, boundaries are loosened - spiritual struggle in some sense affects the whole world, and others who will experience the same. Prayer and such struggle know no boundaries; in our own strengths we give strength to others, and they do the same for us. Here, the Son's victories are for all of us, for the whole world.
Jesus said to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.'" My study bible puts Satan's temptation this way: "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?" How will He live out His ministry? It is, in a sense, a hint that perhaps the devil knows what is coming, what will be placed in the time of darkness in Jesus' way. But Jesus will not tempt the Father. He will tell Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan!" when Peter insists that He shall not suffer and be killed. Jesus will rely fully on the Father's will through all that will come to Him in His worldly ministry.
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." In some sense, I suppose we could call this the devil's trump card. He offers all the world, all "his" territory as "prince of this world," to Christ.
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. Jesus puts Satan firmly in his place. My study bible points out that this is "a command rather than a rebuke." Ultimately, each answer to every temptation is the loyalty to the Father. But the specific temptations Jesus has are things that all of us can understand in our own experiences in life. They tend to be the worldly human assumptions about what it must be to be "god-like" -- making spectacular signs merely to impress, serving one's own basic desires with power, a materialistic outlook of control and manipulation. Christ refutes all of this, in order to do it according to the wishes of the Father, whose "thoughts are not our thoughts" and whose "ways are not our ways." My study bible says, "Jesus refuses to take a road that would lead Him away from the path of suffering and death for the redemption of the world."
Let us think about our temptations in life. All of face some things similar when we are tempted to live our lives one way or another, or to seek God in finding solutions to our dilemmas, to the ways in which we proceed. Christ's temptations are for the whole world -- not simply because He is here incarnate "for the life of the world" and "for God so loved the world" but because the battles He faces are also in some sense our battles. He asks us also to take up His cross, and follow Him. The temptations to a purely materialistic life, without the spiritual dimension, are all here -- to follow our own impulses in some rather primitive sense, to use whatever power we have to indulge ourselves and our own fantasies or "ego" in the popular sense of that term, to live life as one of seeking power for control and manipulation. Or, we turn to prayer, to the mystical dimension of life, to the One whose thoughts are not our thoughts and whose ways are not our ways -- and we seek that path, that will, that Way to understanding who and what we are, and how we find our way in relation to the rest of the world. Life is a spiritual struggle, the world mirrored in this place of the wilderness. How do we make our choices? For what do we live, to Whom do we have our loyalty? In some sense, everything in the world depends upon this choice - for truth or fallacy, for the way to a better life or for the primitive and in a true spiritual sense, the uncivilized. Let us follow the One who leads us to all truth, and know the Way that is there for us, and eternal. Like Christ, we may face those temptations alone, only to find once we choose that the angels minister to us.
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. The language here is clear: it is the Spirit that "throws" or hurtles Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted. My study bible points out that the wilderness is a kind of battleground, a picture of the world -- "at once the abode of demons and a source of divine tranquility and contemplation." It points out also that no matter what we are called upon to confront in life, we, like Jesus, always have the Spirit with us.
And when He had fasted for 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." At the Baptism, the Father's voice proclaimed, "This is My beloved son, in whom I am well pleased." The first temptation here tests that relationship. Jesus is tested in terms of how He will use that power and that relationship. But He has told us in John's Gospel, at the farewell discourse in the Last Supper, that "all things that the Father has are mine." In this temptation in the wilderness, that is as true as elsewhere. Jesus will not use His powers except in the will of the Father.
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.'" This is the answer that proclaims how Jesus will use his own human free will. His life and ministry will evolve only "by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." My study bible points out that this temptation in the wilderness overturns the sin of Adam; Jesus resists his own personal impulse to hunger in order to serve God first, to put God's word first.
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.'" My study bible says that the holy city is Jerusalem. But the full quality of this reading must be understood in terms of spiritual battle; Jesus is in a mystical arena, and the stakes here are much higher than one man's temptations. In a sense, in this sort of battle, a spiritual arena is without boundary (therefore He can be taken into Jerusalem, on the pinnacle of the temple). Hence, in this sort of struggle, which is also the struggle of prayer, boundaries are loosened - spiritual struggle in some sense affects the whole world, and others who will experience the same. Prayer and such struggle know no boundaries; in our own strengths we give strength to others, and they do the same for us. Here, the Son's victories are for all of us, for the whole world.
Jesus said to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.'" My study bible puts Satan's temptation this way: "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?" How will He live out His ministry? It is, in a sense, a hint that perhaps the devil knows what is coming, what will be placed in the time of darkness in Jesus' way. But Jesus will not tempt the Father. He will tell Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan!" when Peter insists that He shall not suffer and be killed. Jesus will rely fully on the Father's will through all that will come to Him in His worldly ministry.
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." In some sense, I suppose we could call this the devil's trump card. He offers all the world, all "his" territory as "prince of this world," to Christ.
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. Jesus puts Satan firmly in his place. My study bible points out that this is "a command rather than a rebuke." Ultimately, each answer to every temptation is the loyalty to the Father. But the specific temptations Jesus has are things that all of us can understand in our own experiences in life. They tend to be the worldly human assumptions about what it must be to be "god-like" -- making spectacular signs merely to impress, serving one's own basic desires with power, a materialistic outlook of control and manipulation. Christ refutes all of this, in order to do it according to the wishes of the Father, whose "thoughts are not our thoughts" and whose "ways are not our ways." My study bible says, "Jesus refuses to take a road that would lead Him away from the path of suffering and death for the redemption of the world."
Let us think about our temptations in life. All of face some things similar when we are tempted to live our lives one way or another, or to seek God in finding solutions to our dilemmas, to the ways in which we proceed. Christ's temptations are for the whole world -- not simply because He is here incarnate "for the life of the world" and "for God so loved the world" but because the battles He faces are also in some sense our battles. He asks us also to take up His cross, and follow Him. The temptations to a purely materialistic life, without the spiritual dimension, are all here -- to follow our own impulses in some rather primitive sense, to use whatever power we have to indulge ourselves and our own fantasies or "ego" in the popular sense of that term, to live life as one of seeking power for control and manipulation. Or, we turn to prayer, to the mystical dimension of life, to the One whose thoughts are not our thoughts and whose ways are not our ways -- and we seek that path, that will, that Way to understanding who and what we are, and how we find our way in relation to the rest of the world. Life is a spiritual struggle, the world mirrored in this place of the wilderness. How do we make our choices? For what do we live, to Whom do we have our loyalty? In some sense, everything in the world depends upon this choice - for truth or fallacy, for the way to a better life or for the primitive and in a true spiritual sense, the uncivilized. Let us follow the One who leads us to all truth, and know the Way that is there for us, and eternal. Like Christ, we may face those temptations alone, only to find once we choose that the angels minister to us.
