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

 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 the Baptist, whether he was the Christ or not, John answered, saying to all, "I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I 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.  My study bible cites the dual symbolism of Jesus' exodus into the wilderness after His Baptism.  First, it fulfills the Old Testament type, in which Israel traveled in the wilderness for forty years after its own "baptism" in the Red Sea.  Second, it prefigures our own journey through the fallen world after baptism, as we struggle toward the kingdom of God.

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.'"   Each time Jesus rebukes the devil, it's done with the truth and power of the Scripture.  My study bible says that this teaches the faithful to become immersed in Scripture, so that we may resist and drive away each temptation (see Psalm 119:11).  Note that the temptations of Christ begin with If you are the Son of God . . ..   The challenge to faith and to identity is within the relationship of Christ to God the Father, and this temptation explicitly calls into question the declaration of the voice of the Father at Christ's Baptism (see yesterday's reading, above).  My study bible writes that the devil wants Jesus to act independently and to detach Himself from the will of God the Father.  In His divine nature, Christ shares one will with the Father and the Holy Spirit; He can do nothing of Himself (John 5:30), separate from the Father.  But in His humanity, Jesus possesses free will and at all times He must choose to remain obedient to the divine will of the Father, sharing with us this human nature.  In His fast, Jesus is doing just that:  explicitly making choices in the face of temptation, giving us an example of our own power and limitation with our own struggles with temptation.   In rejecting this first temptation, Jesus rejects the pull of the worldly comforts of life (in the "food which perishes," John 6:27), in order to put first the kingdom of God in the way in which He must. 

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.'"  We observe the power of the devil, who showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.  This is a temptation to a worldly kingdom and power, over the kingdom of God.  My study bible says 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 power (1 John 5:19).  It notes that Jesus refuses the road of earthly glory, which would lead Him away from His mission -- and His suffering and death which are for the redemption of the world.  Note the authority with which Christ speaks:  Get behind Me, Satan!

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."  This is a temptation to God, to prove care and faithfulness.  My study bible says that trials and temptations come on their own; we shouldn't ever intentionally expose ourselves to danger in order to prove God's protection.  To do so is to tempt the LORD.  Note that Jesus does not bother to argue or reason with the devil, merely to assert the authoritative command not to tempt the Lord.   Satan here tries to use Scriptures (as do the Pharisees in John 7:52), but without himself understanding their truth or power.  My study bible says that knowing and quoting Scripture without true understanding is worthless at best, and ultimately condemnable.  Without a real understanding (particularly through the perspective of the collective experience and wisdom of the Holy Tradition of the Church and the Holy Spirit at work through it), the Scriptures are robbed of their authority (see also 2 Peter 1:19-21). 

 Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.  Temptation will repeatedly show itself throughout the ministry of Christ (see 22:40-46, 23:35; Matthew 6:21-23).

What is temptation really all about?  In the Psalm that is known as a chief prayer of repentance, the psalmist confesses to God, saying, "Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight—that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge" (Psalm 51:4).  Temptation is primarily an invitation to walk outside of the path of God, away from that narrow gate which Jesus describes in Matthew 7:13-14.  While we are assured of God's love, remembering God and keeping ourselves within that communion of faith is a difficult journey in a world that offers so many ways not to do so.  Temptation is just that:  the "oh-so-much-better" ideas, the shortcuts, the ones that seem to make so much more sense, that everybody else would seem to find pleasing, the million-and-one ways in which we forget about God and just take the route that seems to present itself in the way that is the most pleasing.  What Jesus emphasizes against temptation is not about worrying what everyone else will think, or how others will view Him, or even how He will impress anyone with His feats alone here in the wilderness.  He simply returns again and again to His relationship with God the Father.  And so it is with us:  primarily, temptation is all about asking us to forget about God.  Whatever form it comes in, we can be sure that it is designed to do that.  In John's Gospel, at the Last Supper, Jesus told the disciples that "the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service" (see this reading).  As the Gospels fully attest in the story of Christ and His own persecution, the notion of service to God can be used even as a way to draw us away from God.  How is this possible?  Jesus offers us a way within a communion, in a Kingdom, in a particular sense of how we understand what God wants of us.  This "straight and narrow" way involves the heart, the whole of us, a desire to know what God wants of us, and a willingness to go through difficulties should we be called there.  In the great paradox of our faith,  Christ has gone that extraordinarily difficult route as one of us, going to the Cross in His loyalty to God and His love for us.  In His Ascension, the Church through its tradition has understood that His humanity ascended with Him, glorifying human beings, making us capable of being like Him.  The adoration of the angels, found in so many testimonies of saints and theologians, hymnologists and faithful in the Spirit, teaches us something extraordinary:  that His wounds in sacrifice for love of God and of human beings made Him extraordinarily beautiful.  In the eyes of the Spirit and the holiness of our faith, then, the resistance to temptation that would draw us away from this love in itself constitutes an act of beauty, just as Jesus repeatedly refers His time of Crucifixion as that which "glorifies" (John 12:27-33).  In today's reading, Jesus offers us a way through temptation.  He repeatedly asserts the relationship between Himself and the Father.  He "remembers God."  As we walk through life we will find a thousand "good reasons" why we should forget about such a struggle, and the difficulties or sacrifices we may make to do the same.  But our beauty is within this love, our truth remains there, our identity secure in that place of love which knows us best.  Let us find the way to be like Him, and come to know this faith and path for ourselves and in our own lives, even if our temptations are nothing at all like His.  Let us remember that it is the Holy Spirit at work in Jesus' time in the wilderness, and seek to find this Helper for ourselves, and rely on His word in our hearts.  Our faith is not simply written in stone, but a living realization ongoing in our lives.