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 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.  And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry.   My study bible comments that the exodus of Jesus into the wilderness after His Baptism has a dual symbolism.  First, it fulfills the Old Testament type in which Israel journeyed in the wilderness for forty years after its own "baptism" in the Red Sea.  Second, It is a prefiguration of our own journey through the fallen world, with all its temptations for us, after our own baptism, as we struggle towards the Kingdom.  The forty day Christian fast in the period of Lent (and also a traditional fast before Christmas) is modeled after this period in Christ's life.  To be tempted, my study bible reminds us, is to be tested in fundamental areas of faith.  Note that Jesus is led by the Spirit for this to take place.  We faithful are also aided by the Holy Spirit in our own struggles with temptation.  My study bible calls the wilderness a battleground and an image of the world, which is both the dwelling place of demons and a source of  divine tranquility and victory.  Jesus' fast is a kind of reversal of the failure of the Israelites to obey God during the long sojourn with Moses.   All of Christ's answers in today's text are from Deuteronomy, and all call for loyalty to God.  Fasting is a way to overcome temptation as we learn our own power and limitations in the face of temptation.  It's not our hunger that controls us.

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.'"   Let us note that the devil's challenge to Christ is a challenge to Christ's relationship to the Father.  If You are the Son of God is a questioning of the Father's declaration at Jesus' Baptism ("You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased"; see above).  Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 8:3.  The devil wants Jesus to act independently, and to detach Himself from the will of the Father.  In Christ's divine nature, my study bible says, He shares one will with the Father and the Holy Spirit; He can do nothing of Himself (John 5:30), apart from the Father.  In His humanity, Jesus possesses free will, and at all times must make a choice to remain obedient to the divine will of the Father.  Let us note that Adam disregarded the divine command in order to pursue the passions of the body (Genesis 3), but Christ the New Adam conquers temptation by the divine word, giving 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.'" Jesus is tempted by all the kingdoms of the world, worldly authority, and worldly glory.   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, as the devil declares here (1 John 5:19).  Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6:13, affirming that His loyalty is to the Kingdom of God, and that He will go to His sacrificial suffering and death for the salvation of the world.

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.'"   As Jesus has already twice defeated Satan's temptations by the power of Scripture, the devil tries to use Scripture to put God's power of protection to the test.  (See also 2 Peter 1:19-21.)  Jesus replies by quoting from Deuteronomy 6:16.  My study bible makes an important comment for all of us here. It tells us that trials and temptations come on their own.  We should never intentionally expose ourselves to danger in order to test or to prove God's protection.  To do so is to tempt the LORD.

Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.   Regarding an opportune time, see Luke 22:40-46, 23:35; Matthew 16:21-23.

What is temptation?  If we look at Jesus' temptations by the devil, we must first notice a pattern that involves loyalty to God, and specifically loyalty to Christ's relationship to God.  Each refutation by Jesus is couched in a quotation from Deuteronomy, the time of Israel's wandering toward the Promised Land, following Moses.  We also need to view these quotations from Deuteronomy, refutations of the temptations by the devil, in light of what the Father's voice has revealed at Christ's Baptism:  "You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased."  In other words, the temptations of the devil serve as an attempt to influence Jesus to deny what was said by the voice of the Father.  They are attempt to cast doubt and suspicion on that relationship, and to break it apart, to defy it.  The devil first tempts Christ through His hunger -- but in a way that asks Christ to use His power as Son in order to provide Himself with bread.  Second, He is tempted through the acquisition of worldly authority and glory, as offered in exchange for substituting the devil for God the Father.  Finally, Jesus is meant to be persuaded by misuse of Scripture in an attempt to test God, and prove the Father would save Christ if He threw Himself down from the temple, to force the Father to "prove" His love.  Christ refutes this final temptation with a quotation from Scripture condemning the idea of tempting God to begin with.  What "saves" and preserves Christ for the fulfillment of His mission of salvation in the world is the steadfast defense and protection of His relationship to God the Father.  For it is this very relationship which not only gives to Christ the fullness of His identity as Savior, it is this relationship to which Christ will repeatedly refer in all that He does.  As we have recently read through John's Gospel, we have only to refer back to the repeated times that Jesus' consistent defense of Himself, especially when in conflict and dialogue with the religious leaders, was to consistently refer back to His relationship to God the Father.  This is the central and constant theme that gives Christ both mission and identity.  Here in Luke's Gospel, we have returned to this consistent presence of the relationship among the Persons of the Trinity, with an emphasis on the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of Christ.  It is the Spirit who descended in the form of a dove at Christ's Baptism, the Spirit who led Christ into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, just as the LORD went before the Israelites by day and by night in the wilderness as they went toward the Promised Land (Exodus 13:20-21).  While we are to understand the uniqueness of the identity of Jesus Christ, we are also to understand the events of His life and their bearing on our own lives as faithful, as adopted "sons" (for we are all "sons" as we are al heirs, regardless of gender).  Our first understanding in temptation is to consider that, one way or another, it is our basic relationship to God that will be tested and tried.  How did we come to faith?  How do we understand our own relationship to God?  What is the depth of our prayer life like?  It is really what is essentially and at its deepest level a mystical reality that is under attack in temptation.   Especially important is to consider how that basic relationship of faith creates an identity within us.  How do we think of ourselves as children of God?  What does this loving relationship teach us about ourselves?  Is there something our hearts long to be loyal to within the context of that relationship?  Is it, in fact, our love of God itself that is being tested and tempted?  These are all things to consider.  Sometimes it will be quite true that it is our love of God itself that becomes controversial and separates us from others.  Like Christ, our love of God may seem strange to others, somehow setting us apart, offering to us an identity that calls us to places that separate us from others -- at times, even friends and family.  At this time, many are under great stress from various causes the world shares:  a covid epidemic, people staying home -- working from home or not, retaining a job or possibly depending upon financial assistance, and midst an economic downturn which we hope will reverse itself.  It's a time of uncertainties and of pressures, and also of fears.  It is a time in which we are likely to find ourselves tested in one way and another.  But when this happens, we should consider the temptations of Jesus, and discern how and why our own tests seek specifically to challenge our faith.  There should be all kinds of ways in which pressures test us with ostensibly different appearances, but it is good to learn to discern what challenges our relationship to God.  Do our pressures ask us, similarly to the devil's temptation to Christ, why we must deal with hardship when others do not?  Do they push us to ask why God would not favor us more?  Are we tempted to challenge God's love by giving up and giving in, and seeing if we will be saved?  Do we face a challenge in the sense that life would be easier or simpler if we did not think of ourselves as Christians and loyal to our faith?  There are many forms of tests and temptations, but above all, we will be tempted to challenge God's love for us.  In prayer, we may find, that the steady return to God's love places us solidly on a rock in which we understand the safety in our hearts of a certainty as to who we are.  It is this place that can steer us through difficulties and uncertainties, in a way that enables us to know ourselves and put faith in the path we know is good.  Let us remember that temptations and tests are simply a part of life in this world, and that we need to shore up the strength of that place in which we know that we are, first of all, loved by God.  It is there where we truly remember  who we are.