Temptations of Jesus. (Part 1)

(Part 1)

Lk 4:1-4

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them, he was hungry.

The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’

After spending 40 days fasting in the Judean wilderness, which is a place that is extremely dry, hilly, and very rocky, the Devil came and tempted him. This first point of attack was on Jesus’s immediate physical need for food!  All of us need food to survive, but after spending 40 days and nights fasting, Jesus was at the limit of his human capabilities.

The Devil frames this first trial with a seemingly innocent question, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” Jesus’s physical need for food is very real and necessary; but concealed in plain sight in the question is the word “if”, meaning prove who you say you are! Also, with the use of the word ‘if’, we see within the man Jesus, an inner battle of self-doubt, just like each of us suffers concerning who we are as believers in times of trial.

How easy would it have been for Jesus to simply speak a word and turn a stone into bread, no more hunger? But had he done this, then the divine Son of God who had entered our world as Emmanuel; would be placing himself above the earthly struggles that the rest of us must endure.

We humans can’t turn stones into bread to meet our needs by speaking a word. But in his divinity, Jesus could have. But instead, Jesus rejects this idea and overcomes the temptation by answering the tempter by quoting scripture from

Deuteronomy 8:3

He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

By quoting scripture for his answer, Jesus places himself firmly within the ideas about God, from the inspired ‘word’ of God itself.

In the temptation narrative of the gospels we read that Jesus took fasting seriously, he was tempted, and he suffered self-doubt. But we also see that he overcame temptation and self-doubt by looking to the Father as revealed in scripture, and by spending time in prayer with Him.

As for us, what are we to do when tempted, for we too need food to sustain our lives?

The gospels record two incidences where Jesus fed thousands of hungry followers, and in this, Jesus demonstrates that he will provide for our needs. He also teaches us not to worry about material things, in Matt 6:26 he said

“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”

Then in addition to meeting our physical needs, Jesus tells us in John 6:35 that he will feed us spiritually,

“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty”.

If we follow Jesus’s example, fix our eyes firmly on Him, study scripture, spend time in prayer, and gather together in worship, we too can overcome the self-doubts and trials that come our way as we carry our own cross.

By doing this we stand firm in our faith and we don’t fall eventually to be made perfect in Christ when he comes to bring us home.

In the next blog, we’ll look at Jesus’s second temptation in the wilderness, until then,

Hope you have a great day, and God bless,

Trev.