Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” 5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ ” 7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” 10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’ ” (Mat 4:1-10 NIV)

In some traditions the temptation of Christ is taught the first Sunday of Lent. It’s appropriate for us to begin there as well since we too are taking a forty day journey, (although we are a little late to the party). Our journey begins in the desert as well – the place where on Ash Wednesday we were marked with the dust of our mortality and the ashes of our depravity. And in our deserts we too face temptation.

I want to share some thoughts I have about temptation and how to faithfully deal with it, but I wanted to first start with the story of Christ’s temptation. What does his temptation teach us about our own? I’m taking a different approach here than I have in prior posts, by looking at one of the temptation passages and seeing what we can glean from it, through observation and interpretation of the text. Stay with me, friends!

In the text, you can see phrases that I’ve put in bold text, others in colored text, some italicized and some underlined. I think you get the point. I will tell you why I’ve done those particular markings.  I have also chosen the Matthew passage, but there are two other accounts, in Luke and in Mark (I love Mark’s. It’s like 2 sentences!) I might refer to them as we go deeper into the text. The first thing we observe in this passage is not even included here! It’s found just prior to this text in all 3 accounts. It’s Christ’s baptism by John the Baptist. From Matthew’s account we read,

16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Matthew 3:16-17 (ESV)

This is extremely significant because all three of the accounts mention that the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness (verse one in the Matthew account). I love Luke’s account because he adds, “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan…” This is the same Luke who wrote Acts where he records in chapter 2 – “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Act 2:4 ESV). I love Mark’s version too because he stresses the incredible significance of what is happening! From the ESV – “The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness!” (Mar. 1:12)

In Matthew’s account we are told that Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. I don’t think I had ever noticed that before. Think on that for a while.

Twice, Satan appeals to Christ’s divine identity and his authority. In the first temptation he is attempting to take advantage of Christ’s hunger – by telling him to turn stones into bread. (A side note here, I find it almost humorous that Matthew says – after 40 days of fasting, he was hungry!) I am ashamed to admit I struggle with hours, not days… In the second temptation he is trying to get Jesus to use his divine authority to command the angels.

I’ve highlighted in red the three times “it is written” is used. Once, by Satan himself, and the others by Christ. After each of these temptations Jesus uses Scripture to refute both Satan and the temptation itself. And the sentences that have been put in bold print are Jesus’ responses (Scripture).

In the first temptation Satan tells Jesus to turn stones into bread. Jesus was hungry and that can be a powerful weapon in the wrong hands. Jesus’ response to him reveals that there is not only a temptation here but a test. Let me chase a rabbit here. We know from Scripture that God never tempts us – but He often tests us.

“The same Greek word can be translated “temptation” and “test.” They are a world apart and context determines which translation to use. Satan is the one who tempts us to sin. God is the one who tests us to righteousness. Satan wants to destroy us. He wants to weaken our faith. He wants us to spiritually fail. On the other hand, our Lord is forever testing us. His goal though tests, often in the form of trials, is to make us spiritually stronger, refine our character and increase our faith.” (Randy Smith)

The first temptation was an appeal to a natural part of being human. The test though, is revealed in the passage Jesus chose to quote from:

“The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

(Deuteronomy 8:1-3, ESV)

Satan was attempting to get Jesus to use his power to ease his hunger, but the real test was a test in humility. And that was Jesus’ response to Satan.

The second temptation was a temptation to misuse authority. Satan tells Jesus, “throw yourself down…  and then command the angels to catch you.” The text that Satan chooses to quote from is found in Psalm 91:12., a beautiful psalm that ironically writes that “those who make the Lord their refuge… will trample the great lion and the serpent” (!) Jesus responds with another Scripture: Deu. 6:16 – “You shall not put the LORD your God to the test…  (ESV)

I think the test here is one of trust. Will Jesus trust the Father? Looking at Psalm 91:9-10, it reads 9 If you say, “The LORD is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling, 10 no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent.

With the third temptation Satan tries to have Jesus use his divine right to rule over all the kingdoms of the earth. “Again, the devil took him to a high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor” (Mat. 4:8). Satan not only is tempting him to take the kingdoms, but to assume their splendor as well. This temptation centers on the possibility of glory. In 1 John 2:16 (which we will talk about in the next post) John speaks to three temptations, which he calls the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life. I believe there is a correlation between this temptation and the “desires of the eyes.” Satan shows Jesus all the kingdoms in the world and offers them to him. The condition here is of course, that Jesus must worship him. I think Satan must have been getting tired of Jesus making it through these temptations, because this one is really lame. Why take what is already yours?  

The Scripture Jesus speaks from is 1 Samuel 7:3-4, 3 So Samuel said to all the Israelites, “If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.”  4 So the Israelites put away their Baals and Ashtoreths and served the LORD only. (NIV)

The test is idolatry and Jesus says to Satan – “For it is written: Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.” (Mat. 4:10)

There are lessons to be learned here in how Jesus dealt with temptations and with tests, lessons for our own struggles. I pray that as God has revealed Himself in His word we might have hearts eager to respond. I’ll leave you with a quote.

“His fast of forty days makes this a holy season of self-denial. By rejecting the devil’s temptations, he has taught us to rid ourselves of the hidden corruption of evil, and so to share his paschal meal in purity of heart, until we come to its fulfillment in the promised land of heaven.”

(https://www.marquette.edu/faith/reflections-lent-1.php)

We will make the shift from looking at Christ’s temptations to dealing with our own! May God give us courage!