You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve

 

 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

 

 On Saturday, we read about the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. Jesus came from Galilee to John 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 explains that to be tempted is to be tested in fundamental areas of faith.  As in St. Mark's Gospel, here the Spirit leads, or "throws," Jesus into the wilderness after His Baptism to be tested by a struggle with the devil.  We who are baptized in Christ, it says, need not be defeated by temptations because we are also aided by the Holy Spirit.  Here the wilderness is a battleground, an image of the world.  That is, it is 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 reminds us that 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 learn to be dependent upon God (Deuteronomy 8:2-5).  In today's reading, my study Bible says, Jesus is tested with hunger for forty days, but He does not sin.  In reading the passage, let us keep in mind that all of Christ's answers to Satan are from Deuteronomy, and they are all calling for loyalty to God.  My study Bible adds that Jesus fasted in order to overcome temptation, which gives us an example of our own power and limitations in the face of temptation.  The hunger of Christ's flesh doesn't control Him.  Instead, He controls His flesh.  Christ's fast of forty days is the foundation of the Church's traditional practice of a Lenten fast before Holy Week, and also before Christmas.

 

 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."  It's important to note that the bedrock of all things is our love of God who loves us.  Here, the devil begins with a challenge of Christ's relationship to the Father.  He says, "If You are the Son of God" in order to call into question the Father's declaration at Jesus' Baptism (see Saturday's reading, above, in which the voice of the Father declares, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased").  My study Bible says that the devil wants Jesus to act independently and to detach Himself from the will of the Father.  In Christ's divine nature, He shares one will with the Father and the Holy Spirit; He can do nothing of Himself (John 5:30), apart from God the Father.  But in Christ's humanity, He has free will, and at all times must choose 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.'"  In rejecting this first temptation, Jesus is rejecting a purely worldly perspective and shows us not to pursue earthly comfort in the "food which perishes" (John 6:27).  In the poetry of the Bible, we see that Adam disregarded the divine word in order to pursue the passions of the Body (Genesis 3), and here the New Adam -- Jesus Christ -- conquers all temptation by the divine word, giving 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.  Here the devil tries a trick; as Jesus was able to defeat him through the power of Scripture in the first temptation above, now the devil tries to use Scripture to put God's power of protection to the test.  See also 2 Peter 1:19-21.  

 

 Jesus said to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.'"  Jesus responds by quoting from Deuteronomy 6:16.  My study Bible comments that trials and temptations come on their own; we should never intentionally expose ourselves to danger in order to test or 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.'"  Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.   My study Bible reminds us here 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).  Here Jesus refuses this road of earthly glory, which would lead Him away from His suffering and death for the redemption of the world.  

 

Let us note that the last verse in today's reading tells us that then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.   It illustrates this nature of the wilderness in which we find ourselves.  There is tremendous beauty of God, there is the defeat in the temptations of the devil, high and low, exalted and debased.  We have saints and angels with us, we have the devil and the fallen demons who tempt us.  We are in the middle of a battleground, as my study Bible puts it, and when we forget that this is where we are, we forget what we are meant to be about.  Fasting is a practice in which we meet our temptations, as does Jesus here.  For each person, the temptations will vary, but if you ask a priest listening to confession, they are so often the same old things, just varying in pattern and details of a person's particular life experience.  We should say, to begin with, that fasting in the Christian context is not about going on a diet, not about willpower, not just about self-discipline in some athletic or stoic sense.  Neither is it about morality.  Fasting is something we do with God and for God; it is a way of both showing love and commitment to God (to Christ), and at the same time struggling against our own temptations to take shortcuts, to think it doesn't matter, to think of ourselves simply as thinking machines with bodies irrelevant to faith and to love of Christ and separated from our minds and hearts.  Fasting reminds us that we are all of a whole:  body, soul, and spirit, for it involves all.  When we fast we do it to shore up and rely upon that relationship to God, to understand that our dependency upon God gives us strength to rise above the worldly exigencies that press in upon us and to meet them the way God would ask us to, not imply to be controlled by them.  Fasting in this sense helps us to say "no" to the rest of things we need to discern and reject, and to say "yes" to what we need for our true strength and growth and development.  In that sense, all the disciplines in the Church are meant to help us to grow in our own identity as human beings, to come to know what it is to be formed and shaped by Christ to become more like Him, and to meet the challenges of bearing our own crosses in the world.  Let us note first of all that it is the Holy Spirit who leads Christ up into the wilderness to face these temptations.  This is preparation for His ministry to come.  When Jesus resists temptation in today's reading, He's doing several things we can observe.  First of all, He's setting limits on the devil, on what the devil can tempt Him to do, and on the devil's presumption to ensnare Him in his power, like a slave.  He defeats the devil by saying no to the temptations presented.  And Jesus does more than that.  He sets down the rules by which He needs to live His life, and carry out His ministry in the world.  When we say no to temptation, we are doing the same.  We are setting up our own protective boundaries, a fence that lines the road we intend to follow for not just our own good but for the life of the world, in following Christ.  We have the power to resist temptation and choose the path of Christ instead.  Faith practices such as fasting help us to mark that clear delineation and to know, as my study Bible says, that we have the power to do so, exercising and developing that strength in Christ through faith.  When we go through periods of testing and temptation, when we feel sorely pressed and without resource, let us remember what we read here, that Christ is with us, and angels minister to us, and that through our faith we have the power to say no to what is not good for us, the things that lead us away from God, the phony temptations that sound good but are a snare.  Let us remember that sin easily leads to our own slavery; as anyone struggling with addiction of any kind -- including to material wealth, power, or anything else we make into an idol.  Every false consolation leads us to a degraded and weak condition, and takes away from our humanity, what we can be as human beings created in the image of God.  Let us take heart and be like Christ, and follow Him.   He puts His relationship with God the Father first; let's remember where our love belongs and the One who will teach us more of love.

 

 

 

 

 

If You are the Son 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 

 

On Saturday, we read that Jesus came from Galilee to John 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 explains that to be tempted is to be tested in fundamental areas of faith.  As we also read in Mark's Gospel, in the Greek, the text tells us that the Spirit leads, or rather literally "throws" Jesus into the wilderness after His Baptism to be tested by a struggle with the devil.  It notes that we who are baptized in Christ need not be defeated by temptations because we also are helped by the Holy Spirit.  The wilderness, it explains, 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.  In the encounters with the devil in today's reading, Jesus reverses Israel's falling to temptation in the wilderness.  My study Bible explains that 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 in order to help them learn to be dependent upon God (Deuteronomy 8:2-5).  Here, Jesus is tested with hunger for forty days.  But He does not sin.  All of His responses to Satan are from Deuteronomy, and all call for loyalty to God.  My study Bible adds that Jesus fasted in order to overcome temptation, which gives us an example of our own power and limitations in the face of temptation.  The hunger of His flesh does not control Him; rather, He controls His flesh.  Christ's fast of forty days is the foundation of the Church's historical forty-day Lenten fast before Holy Week and and before 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 the devil first challenges Jesus' relationship to the Father.  If You are the Son of God is calling into question the Father's declaration at Christ's Baptism (see Saturday's reading, above, in which it was declared, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased").  The devil wants Jesus to act independently and also to detach Himself from the will of the Father.  My study Bible notes that in His divine nature, Christ shares one will with the Father and the Holy Spirit; He can do nothing of Himself (John 5:30), apart from God the Father.  But in Christ's humanity, He possesses free will, and at all times He must choose 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.'"  In rejecting this first temptation, Jesus rejects an earthly kingdom.  According to my study Bible, it shows us not to pursue earthly comfort in the "food which perishes" (John 6:27).  Adam disregarded the divine word in order to pursue the passions of the body (Genesis 3), and here the New Adam -- Christ -- conquers all temptation by the divine word, giving human nature the power to conquer Satan.  Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 8:3.  

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.  My study Bible comments that, seeing that Christ had defeated him through the power of the Scriptures, Satan vainly tries to use the Scriptures to put God's power of protection to the test.  Here the devil quotes from Psalms 91:11, 12.  (See also 2 Peter 1:19-21.)

Jesus said, to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.'"  Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6:16.  My study Bible comments here that trials and temptations come on their own, and we should never intentionally expose ourselves to danger in order to test or to prove God's protection.  To do so is to tempt [or "test"] 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.'"  Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.   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," my study Bible says (after John 12:31), "the god of this age" (2 Corinthians 4:4), because 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 suffering and death for the redemption of the world.  We may note also that Jesus' response is to issue a command, showing His authority, "Away with you, Satan!"  Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6:13; 10:20.

If we look closely at Christ's temptations, we see the things that we might expect someone would like to make a possible ministry look like.  First the devil wants to shake and challenge Christ's claim to be the Son of God.  Now we know that in His earthly ministry, He is very careful not to openly declare Himself for a great period of the ministry.  Rather, in following the Father's will, Christ reveals Himself first the way He is meant to, long before this messianic secret is revealed to His disciples -- and even then He says to tell no one.  So this test is really a challenge to act independently, and not depend upon God the Father for the direction of His ministry and particularly the revelation of the truth of His divine identity.  He's not to go out and clobber the world with showy uses of power, abuses of His authority, or flamboyant declarations about Himself.  Moreover, He could make life very easy for Himself by the sort of use of power He's tempted to do here.  But Jesus comes not just as one of us, but as one of the poorest among us.  He will declare, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head" (Matthew 8:20).  In His itinerant ministry He will depend upon what His followers can bring (Luke 8:1-3).  In their first apostolic mission, He will direct His apostles to take very little with them, even though He will share with them His power over unclean spirits (see Mark 6:7-9).  The next temptation is again to give a great show, to convince everyone that He is who He is by a spectacular proof.  And once again, we know that Christ's ministry will unfold in quite another way, that He will present Himself as a Man from among common people, not one of authority and not one who seeks to prove to others who He is by any means, except to follow God the Father's will in His unfolding ministry to the world.  Indeed, even on the Cross, He will still be challenged by the religious leadership to "prove" who He is by saving Himself in some great show of divine power (see this reading).   Finally there is the temptation to grab a whole kingdom for Himself or even for His mission, but the kingdom of God which Christ preaches will have to be established in an entirely different way, one that includes the voluntary participation of human beings, their hearts and minds not being made slaves but rather those who love Christ.  As Jesus will say, "For many are called, but few are chosen" (Matthew 22:14).  The temptations of the devil, if we look closely, may also be temptations that we all face in our own lives.  How often might we say to ourselves that we lack the capability to magnificently create shortcuts to fulfill our desires?  Or that we should be able to prove to all how worthy we are in some way?  Perhaps our social media use is over-preoccupied with the desire to impress -- for this is what social media naturally inclines itself to.  Do we think we'll be more happy if only we have more -- money, material power, clout, property?  But Jesus responds with only one thing needed:   a reliance on God, and all things come from that.  This is the story of Israel in the wilderness, and it is the story of Christ in the wilderness as well.  We are all faced with such worldly temptations, but let us consider His example that came first for all of us.  What we need to do in our lives is given by God, and so is whatever we truly need to fulfill that purpose.  Let us consider what it means to do so, as He did.   For Christ, the devil's temptation is based on the challenge, "If You are the Son of God."  What is your challenge or vulnerability?  We each must face this struggle and this choice for where He leads us to go as well.  We do not have to prove to anyone that we are God's beloved children; we need only to seek God who loves us instead.

 

 

 

 

It is written, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word 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 

 

In yesterday's reading, the Gospel tells us 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 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 . . .   Luke opens chapter 4 with the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness.  The lectionary has skipped over the genealogy of Jesus, given in Luke 3:23-38, in which we're told that Jesus began His ministry "at about thirty years of age."  This account of Christ's time in the wilderness, therefore, happens at the beginning of ministry.  Note that it is the Spirit who led Christ into the wilderness.  My study Bible comments that this exodus of Jesus into the wilderness following 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 "baptism" in the Red Sea (Exodus 14); and second, it prefigures out own journey through the fallen world after baptism as we struggle towards the Kingdom ourselves.  

. . . 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 remarks that to be tempted is to be tested in fundamental areas of faith.  Christ is tested by a struggle with the devil.  Just as it is the Spirit who leads Christ to this place of testing, we who are baptized in Christ need not be defeated by temptations as we also have the Holy Spirit to help.  My study Bible says that the wilderness is a battleground, an image of the world, both the dwelling place of demons and also a source of divine tranquility and victory.  Christ fasted in order to overcome temptation.  My study Bible says that this gives us an example of our own power and limitations in the face of temptation.  The hunger of His flesh doesn't control Him -- instead, He controls His flesh.  His fast of forty days is the foundation of the Church's forty-day Lenten fast before Holy Week, and a lesser known but also traditional fast before Christmas. 

And the devil said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread."  Here is the fundamental area of testing for Christ:  the devil begins his challenge with, "If You are the Son of God."  It calls into question the Father's declaration at Christ's Baptism (see yesterday's reading, above).  Everything about Christ's ministry, His signs, His preaching, His word, His authority, His identity, is bound up in His relationship to the Father.  This was particularly emphasized in the readings in John's Gospel, which was our more recent material in the lectionary.  My study Bible comments that in His divine nature, Christ 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 has free will and at all times must make the choice to remain obedient to the divine will of the Father. 

But Jesus answered him, saying, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.'" Jesus rebukes the devil with the truth and power of Scripture, each time He's tempted.  My study Bible comments that it teaches us, the faithful, to become immersed in Scripture in order to resist and drive away every temptation (see Psalm 119:11).  Here Christ rejects an earthly kingdom, showing us not to pursue earthly comfort in the "food which perishes" (John 6:27).  My study Bible comments that while Adam disregarded the divine word in order to pursue the passions of the body (Genesis 3), the New Adam -- Christ -- conquers all temptation by the divine word, giving human nature the power to conquer Satan.  Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 8:3.  My study Bible reminds us that the Israelites were tempted for forty years in the wilderness and proved disobedient and disloyal.  God humbled them first by letting them go hungry and then feeding them with manna to help them learn to be dependent upon Him (Deuteronomy 8:2-5).  Here Jesus is tested with hunger for forty days, but does not sin.  Each rebuke from Christ to the devil comes from the book of Deuteronomy.

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 devil seeks to tempt Christ away from the authority given in His relationship to the Father with the devil's worldly authority and glory.  The devil is called "the ruler of this world" (John 12:31), and the "god of this age" (2 Corinthians 4:4), as the whole world is in his power (1 John 5:19).  He seeks to turn Christ away from the Father and toward himself.  Each time Christ is tempted, He rebukes the devil with Scripture.  This is the same phrase He will use to rebuke Peter when He is tempted not to go to His Passion (and therefore the glory given by the Father; see John 12:16, 23, 28).   My study Bible comments that Christ refuses the road of earthly glory, which would lead Him away from His suffering and death for the redemption of the world.  Here Christ quotes from Deuteronomy 6:13.

  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.'"  Here the devil tries to win Christ over by quoting Scripture himself (Psalm 91:11-12).  In so doing, he tries vainly to use the Scriptures in order to put God's power of protection to the test (see also 2 Peter 1:19-21).  My study Bible comments that trials and temptations will come on their own.  We should never intentionally expose ourselves to danger in order to test or prove God's protection.  To do so is to tempt the LORD.  Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6:16.

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

What does temptation mean to you?  For some people, life is about sticking to their goals, like staying on a diet, for example.  For others, goal-setting becomes something more than a simple desire to have a particular job or a particular appearance to the rest of the world.  Sobriety, for example, is a long-term goal for those who struggle with addiction of all kinds.   To truly struggle with the difficulties that life can put before us becomes a kind of reckoning that addiction-related behavior covers up.  It dulls the pain to some extent, but then creates huge problems of its own.  To try to hide from this struggle often brings more pain and intolerable circumstances.  Ask those who've gone from the frying pain of trauma or difficulty into the fire of addiction and a life that is out of control.  It seems that avoiding the conflict that asks us to separate ourselves from the evil we know only gets us further into problems, for the thing we avoid is still there under the surface, and still remains for us to confront.  Christ's temptation in the wilderness is an example to us all in the sense that it teaches us to face our temptations and make the tough choices.  It teaches us to make the sacrifices in the light of the real end goal, which is the kingdom of God.  Our true stumbling block lies right there:  in the choice to make between serving God and serving something that might sound good but is in truth deceptive in its seductive appeal to our worldly senses.  Let's take a look at the temptations that confront Jesus.  As one who is clearly capable of great leadership, great authority, and the use of power, He's tempted by the devil first of all to use His power to make Himself food, as He's been fasting in preparation for His ministry.  Jesus counters with the understanding that it is only the commands of God that are worth following, and if His commitment to this fast is really His commitment to following the Father's will -- especially for His ministry which is just at its inception -- then His hunger has to come second.  He won't use His power for a lesser or a contradictory goal, even if it sounds good or somehow appropriate.  The next temptation is about authority.  Jesus' authority is not worldly, but is from God the Father for what He is to do in His life.  But the devil's sense of authority is worldly:  if Jesus would only switch His allegiance, love, loyalty, and worship to him (as opposed to God the Father), then Jesus could have all the compelling, dictating, authoritative worldly power He wanted.  We have to think in this context of the worldly power of Caesar, who ruled absolutely and which included worship by his subjects.  But Jesus wields an authority that comes from God, not this worldly sense of the ability to force or to compel.  God's authority must work differently, and it calls people to their own response of loyalty, love, worship, that must be freely given.  Jesus' rejection of the devil's promise of easy ways to find followers and subjects becomes an assertion of the right to worship and the need to serve God alone, nothing less.  Finally the devil offers a temptation to test the power of God, and God's protection and loyalty to Christ Himself.  We know that the Cross will come to Christ, and the way the Father will desire for Him to come to His glory.  But Jesus affirms absolutely His choice of allegiance to the Father.  One should not tempt or test the Lord; there is only communion and relationship -- and that means trust.  For faith, above all in Christ's example, means trust:  Trust to the Father, trust to the Holy Spirit, trust in choosing His disciples and evolving His ministry, trust even in drinking the cup of Crucifixion (John 18:11).  In the end, Jesus remains loyal, facing and meeting every temptation with an affirmation of His first priority, which is to God the Father.  Although none of us has Christ's role as Savior, He sets the example nonetheless for each of us.  For while He will make sacrifices for these choices, so He calls upon us each to take up our own crosses.  He does not promise a simple life full of worldly benefits, but one in which our choices matter -- and in which we are to understand that the hard choices are there to help us grow in His light, to become stronger human beings, to understand that sacrifice will not kill us, but will instead bring us something better for us than the temptation we refuse.  He asks us to feed our souls with the good bread that sustains more deeply than temporal nourishment, and all else will be added (Matthew 6:33).  In modern psychology, it is understood that the avoidance of such choices -- especially through addiction to substances such as alcohol or drugs -- actually becomes an avoidance of growth and maturity.  What we don't seek to cope with in a healthy way, which may always involve a sacrifice of one kind or another, becomes our loss.  We miss out on what is actually better for us.  I would suggest that faith is the best way of coping, of finding compassion for our pain, One who listens and hears prayers, and the support one finds through a great cloud of witnesses.  Like Christ, we may seem to be alone at times by worldly standards, but the truth is that we are never alone (John 16:32).  Some people believe, falsely, that faith can be a crutch or a drug of some sort.  But faith becomes strength.  The truth is that the faith of Christ asks us to face the world and see it as it truly is, to make our choices, and to find the best way to grow and to cope, even in an imperfect world full of temptations and tests.  Let us learn from Him and follow His example.  Don't be fooled by false promises; Christ is the real deal.   For He is here for the life of the world (John 6:33)

 

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.