Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God

 

 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted 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 

 

In yesterday's reading, we read that Jesus came from Galilee to John the Baptist at the Jordan to be baptized by him.  And John tried to prevent Him, saying, "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."  Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, 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. My study Bible says that to be tempted is to be tested in fundamental areas of faith.  As in Mark's Gospel (Mark 1:12), the Spirit leads, or rather "throws" (in the Greek) Jesus into the wilderness after His Baptism, to be tested by a struggle with the devil.  My study Bible comments that we who are baptized in Christ need not be defeated by temptations because we also are aided by the Holy Spirit.  The wilderness is a battleground, an image of the world, both the dwelling place of demons and a source of divine tranquility and victory.  

And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.  My study Bible comments on all of Jesus temptations that we're given a framework in which Jesus reverses Israel's falling to temptation in the wilderness.  Once again, we can't read the New Testament apart from the Old, for it is the story of salvation.  The Israelites were tested forty years in the wilderness, and proved disobedient and disloyal.  God humbled them by first letting them go hungry and then feeding them with manna to help them to learn to be dependent upon God (Deuteronomy 8:2-5).  Here, my study Bible continues, Jesus is tested with hunger for forty days, but in His response He does not sin.  All of Christ's answers to Satan are from Deuteronomy, and all call for loyalty to God.  Jesus fasted in order to overcome temptation, which gives us an example of our own power and limitations in the face of temptation.  It is essential that we note Christ's hunger of His flesh does not control Him.  Instead, He controls His flesh.  It is the same when we practice fasting in service to our faith.  Christ's fast of forty days is the foundation of the Church's historical forty-day Lenten fast (often essentially a vegan fast, or one in which we refrain from certain foods) before Holy Week, and also one before Christmas.  

 

Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."  My study Bible points out that here the devil challenges Christ's relationship to the Father.  If You are the Son of God is a challenge that calls into question the Father's declaration at the Baptism of Christ (which we read in yesterday's reading, above), "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."  The devil wants Jesus to act independently of God the Father, and to detach Himself from the will of the Father.  In His 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.  But in Christ's humanity, He possesses free will and at all times must make a choice to remain obedient to the divine 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.'"   As Jesus rejects this first temptation, my study Bible says, so He rejects an earthly kingdom, and shows us not to pursue earthly comfort in the "food which perishes" (John 6:27).   As Adam disregarded the divine word in order to pursue the passions of the body (Genesis 3), the New Adam, who is Jesus Christ, conquers all temptation by the divine word instead, which gives human nature the power to conquer Satan.

 

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, and the temple is the splendid temple as reconstructed by Herod the Great, one of the seven architectural wonders of the world at that time.  My study Bible comments that seeing that Christ had defeated him already through the power of the Scriptures, Satan vainly tries to use Scriptures to put God's power of protection to the test.  (See also 2 Peter 1:19-21 regarding the use and interpretation of Scripture.) 

 

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

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.'"  Here my study Bible comments that God's Kingdom is not one of earthly power and possessions.  In the devil's test, Jesus was being asked to choose worldly power over the Kingdom of God.  The devil is the "ruler of this world" (John 12:31), "the god of this age" (2 Corinthians 4:4), because the whole world is in his power (1 John 5:19).  But Jesus refuses the road of earthly glory, which would lead Him away from His suffering and death for the redemption of the world.

Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.   It is well to remember that we also have angels who minister to us, although we face temptations, trials, and difficulties in the world ourselves.  

My study Bible comments on today's passage that the wilderness is a battleground, an image of the world, both the dwelling place of demons and a source of divine tranquility and victory, as noted above.  Why do we have this image of the wilderness?  It is, indeed, a picture of this world, under the influence of Satan and evil, a place where we are born into a heritage of the effects of sin that has come before we're born, and into the mindset of such a world which we inherit and from which we learn.  This is the condition of all of us.  But Christ comes into the world on a particular mission for salvation.  This mission has nothing to do with some heroic feat as pictured in a physical battle where sheer might or invented weapons defeats an enemy, and moral values might be assigned to one side or another depending upon one's perspective and point of view (or who is telling the story).  This wilderness is a battleground that is also mirrored within us, for it is connected to who we are, our own place in the story of salvation.  Just as with Jesus, this wilderness battleground also reflects the battleground within us, where we need to make choices regarding our own lives and our direction in this world -- where we deal with various temptations and yet are also ministered to by angels.  In other words this "wilderness" battleground is one that is also inside of us, our state as human beings, our place in the cosmos as creatures of God within God's creation.  As Jesus has free will as a human being (as pointed out by my study Bible above), so do we.  Often, of course, our ways of thinking and the patterns set in our minds are also things we have inherited from our environment and experiences in one way and another.  But this story does not deny that.  It does illustrate, however, that in our vulnerability to all kinds of influences, we also have another influence to which we can choose to turn in life.  We have Christ who has already gone before us, and through it all.  We have His example, and most powerfully we also have the Holy Spirit to help us.  So it does not really make a difference where we start in this process of recognition of where we are, what the world is about, and where God would call us to go forward within this salvation story.  What matters is that we understand the conditions, the powers and influences at work, and our place in this scheme or plan of Creation.  Because the truth is that we as human beings are most important in this plan.  God has elevated us to this place where we see Jesus go before us, in this temptation scenario and in His responses.  Jesus shows us the way, but does not "fix" things so we have no temptations whatsoever and so that evil is completely banished from our world.  Instead, Jesus has given us the spiritual weapons and tools to make our own battle and our own stand in this wilderness, even within ourselves in fighting the influences we must deal with in our lives.  Christ has weakened the power of the devil, and given us the Holy Spirit to help and to guide through all things.  So, when we are faced with difficult struggles and choices, with things that tempt us to rage, or to despair, or when we think things are so far above our heads and out of our control that we don't know which way to turn in what seems like an impossibly dark place, we have allies to get us through.  We have weapons in a battle for hearts and souls, even when we feel we are most alone and have no allies.  Because Christ has gone there before us, He is also here with us, right in the middle of this struggle and in the difficulties in our lives.  What we have to do is decide that faith is the one thing that will get us through a battle to a place where our lives are meaningful, toward a vision of light that holds for us love and truth, the wisdom of God who loves us -- and not those things that tempt but simply enslave or trick us into something we'd rather not serve at all.  We are bound to be imperfect.  We are bound to make mistakes.  But the purpose of our place in life is not to be perfect in a worldly sense; it is to struggle midst our imperfection and what we have to deal with.  This is not a worldly story, but a true one of love and of salvation; it is not a fantasy invented for a movie or cartoon network or for a posed selfie on social media designed to leave us with a particular impression.  This is real; it is a clear look at our condition, and it gives us a clear answer about how important it is that we take this seriously, and know our places in what is really a cosmic battle with deep significance.  We each have our place in it.  From the Gospels, we know that the ones Christ has selected to carry on this battle were anything but perfect in a worldly sense; they made mistakes, they came with strikes against them, they struggled to understand their faith and to follow Christ.  But it is love, in the end, that wages this battle, a love of Christ that drives us, and our response to knowing His love for us.  For the humility that serves God, forgoes temptation for short-term worldly glory or approval for faith, is the kind of love that is willing to make sacrifices for a greater good, a deeper truth, a better place of the heart, and for the meanings and purposes that truly glorify what it means to be a human being, even when seemingly no one else is around to applaud.  The devil challenges Jesus, "If You are the Son of God . . .."   But He knows who He is.  The question is whether or not we know that we, also, are children of God, and loyal to our own place in God's salvation plan, to the Savior who is the Word of God.