If You are the Son of God

 Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil.  And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry.  And the devil said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread."  But Jesus answered him, saying, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.'"

Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.  And the devil said to Him, "All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.  Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours."  And Jesus answered and said to him, "Get behind Me, Satan!"  For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.'"

Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here.  For it is written:

'He shall give His angels charge over you,
To keep you,'

"and,

'In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.'"

And Jesus answered and said to him, "It has been said, 'You shall not tempt the Lord your God.'"  Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.

- Luke 4:1-13

Yesterday we read that as the people were in expectation, and all reasoned in their hearts about John, whether he was the Christ or not, John answered, saying to all, "I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.  He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.  His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire."  And with many other exhortations he preached to the people.  But Herod the tetrarch, being rebuked by him concerning Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done, also added this, above all, that he shut John up in prison.  When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened.  And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, "You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased."

 Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil.  This exodus of Jesus into the wilderness is characterized by my study bible as having a dual symbolism.  It first of all fulfills the Old Testament type, in which Israel journeyed in the wilderness for forty years after its "baptism" in the Red Sea.  Second, it prefigures our own journey through the fallen world after baptism as we struggle towards the Kingdom.  We're met and faced with all of our own temptations as part of the struggle of faith.

And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry.  And the devil said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread."  But Jesus answered him, saying, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.'"  The "type" from the Old Testament continues here, with Jesus in a sense reversing Israel's falling to temptation in the wilderness.  Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 8:2-5, in which it is explained that the Israelites, who were tested forty years in the wilderness, first were allowed to go hungry and then were fed with manna to learn greater dependence upon God.  Jesus meets each temptation by the devil with quotations from Scripture.  My study bible tells us that this teaches us to become immersed in Scripture to resist and drive away temptation (see Psalm 119:11).   Jesus fasted in order to overcome temptation, which gives us an example of our own power and limitations in the face of temptation.  His hunger doesn't control Him, but He controls His impulses.  Christ's fast of forty days is the foundation of the forty-day period of Lent, traditionally a time of fasting.  We note here the devil's challenge is regarding Christ's relationship to the Father, calling into question the Father's declaration at Jesus' Baptism ("You are My beloved Son" - see yesterday's reading, above).   This is an attempt to push Jesus to act independently of the will of the Father.   In His divine nature, Christ shares this will with the Father and the Holy Spirit; He can do nothing of Himself apart from the Father (John 5:30).  However, in His humanity Christ possesses free will as do the rest of us, and He must choose to remain obedient to the divine will of the Father.  Through His action, Christ reverses the fall of Adam.  He is the new Adam who, rather than sacrificing the word to follow the passions of the body (Genesis 3), conquers temptation by the divine word.  In so doing, He gives human nature the power to conquer Satan.

Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.  And the devil said to Him, "All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.  Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours."  And Jesus answered and said to him, "Get behind Me, Satan!"  For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.'"    Here the temptation for Christ is worldly authority, power, and glory.  Note that the devil says that all this authority has been delivered to him, and he gives it to whomever he wishes.  But he commands worship in order to secure the bargain.  Jesus reverses the order that Satan desires, telling him, Get behind Me.  He quotes from Deuteronomy 6:13.  My study bible notes that the devil is the "ruler of this world" (John 12:31), "the god of this age" (2 Corinthians 4:4), as the whole world is in his sway (1 John 5:19).  There is only one way to liberate the world from the "strong man" Satan, and this will happen through Christ's saving mission serving the Father (see Mark 3:22-27).

Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here.  For it is written:  'He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you,' and, 'In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.'"  And Jesus answered and said to him, "It has been said, 'You shall not tempt the Lord your God.'"  Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.  My study bible says that, seeing that Christ had defeated him through the power of the Scriptures, Satan vainly tries to use the Scriptures (Psalm 91:11-12) to put God's power of protection to the test.  (See also 2 Peter 1:19-21).  Christ quotes His response from Deuteronomy 6:16, again referencing the time of Israel's testing.  My study bible says that trials and temptations come on their own; we should not intentionally expose ourselves to danger in order to test or prove God's protection.  To do so is to tempt the Lord.  We note that the devil departs at this stage, but only until an opportune time.

How do your temptations come to you?  Jesus' experience during His time of testing lays out for us a basic understanding of the things that will tempt us to choose between submitting our own human will to God, and pursuing what really looks good to us -- or the things it seems that the world chases after.  We might take the first temptation at face value and suspect that it's just about food, but it really isn't at all.  The temptation is first of all about the relationship that Christ has to the Father.  The devil calls into question Christ's relationship to God, taunting, "If You are the Son of God . . ."   Just as my study bible pointed out in yesterday's reading that we are all sons of God by adoption (male and female both), so that also applies here.  Are we truly the child of God?  Is God our Father?  Why then do we so often feel absolutely helpless, and worry that our prayers aren't answered properly?  These are temptations to drive us away from faith.  The next temptation in Luke's Gospel is also about power and authority, and its worldly glory.  We are all subject to the glories of the world, the great modern "kingdoms" as we look around ourselves at modern day trappings of wealth, empire, power, authority, and even worldly glory.  We can't possibly escape from it unless we unplug and move somewhere far away from a city or town.  But the question here isn't just about acquisition, it's about exchanging one God for another false god.  The devil promises Christ all of this worldly stuff of power and glory, but there's just one price:  Jesus will have to worship the devil.  And so we might find such a bargain offered us.  What do we put all our effort in life to serve?  What counts first?   "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also," Christ says (Matthew 6:21), another warning that what we put first is what we serve and worship.  This is the way the human heart functions, whether we think so or not.  It is the heart of worldly temptation to give up that prime relationship to God, the basic choice we're offered.  The final temptation here in today's reading is again a questioning of that basic relationship to God, and starts with "If You are the Son of God . . ." once again.  But this time it's to test God's love for the Son, and may enter into our lives as a question about whether or not God really does love us.  Sometimes reckless behavior is simply that, a way to test God, to see if we'll be "saved."    But it's not our job to put God to the test.   Running as a thread through each temptation is the notion that God's Kingdom asks us to enter in a particular way, and does not work through the worldly understanding of power and glory.  The most holy among us may be the most humble (and quite often is) and not the persons we tend to admire for conspicuous achievement and position.  What we want and desire may have nothing to do with what God knows is truly best for us.  It's a question of exchanging one notion of kingdom and all that goes with it (power, glory, acquisition, place, esteem, security) for another, and putting our hearts into that choice.  Ultimately, we come up against a question of whether or not we know God's love for us, for surely that must lead the way in making the choice.  Who's going to love you best?  What feeds the heart?   To answer that question honestly may ask of us a great deal of sacrifice - even of worldly honor and approval in all possible forms.  For the stories of the early martyrs, that even meant the sacrifice of family and parental approval.  Are we willing to face that temptation?  Do we understand what a test is?  Jesus goes to the wilderness and fasts.  In His temptations, He's taken to a high mountain, and even the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem.  Whether your desert is in a canyon of Wall Street, the pinnacle of the most glorious building you know, or the high mountain of dazzling possibilities and dreams, we're all going to find ourselves at some time in this same place of testing.  How will we know how to choose but through the heart and God's love?  If someone asks you for worship as the price of a great worldly reward, think about Christ's choice.  Christ will defeat Satan through a sacrificial love, and so may we be called to do as well.